I heard an interesting debate today where a person who owned a private school was essentially telling everyone in his industry that consists of mostly entrepreneurs that if they don’t consistently go to like workshops or classes, like the one he offers, then there is no way they will succeed. The example he used was like any other profession such as a doctor where you study for years and continue to do so. Otherwise no one will take you seriously.
This spurred a lot of debate as some were saying if you can’t invest a few hundred dollars in yourself then you don’t deserve success whereas of course the other side of the coin was that they were saying that because it is their goal to convince you to spend money with them. This was one of those situations too where a lot of people didn’t make that much money as it is and so for them it can be one of those debates where it’s like spend $200 on a class/workshop or use that to feed yourself for the month.
One thing I have always been told and seen is that when it comes to being self employed or an entrepreneur there is no real one path for everyone. For example, for everyone who spent say thousands of dollars in books and classes to succeed there are probably just as many stories of people who simply put in the sweat labor each day and achieved the same results.
This is usually more debatable with professions that deal with a trades skill. For example, imagine a photographer who is getting no business and then a school saying the key to being successful is to constantly go to school and eventually they will succeed. Like there you could argue it’s not the technical skills the person needs but rather marketing strategies. It’ s completely different if the person didn’t know the terminology or basics on how to use the camera in general of course.
From what I have observed personally, if a person is trying to make you feel like there is no way you can succeed unless you buy a whole bunch of books or classes from them then it’s kind of obvious what their real intent is. This may be more true for a nine to five setting, but being self employed is a whole different ballgame I think.