{"id":145019,"date":"2021-06-28T12:19:11","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T01:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=145019"},"modified":"2021-06-28T12:21:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T01:21:02","slug":"ian-whitworth-behind-the-scenes-of-the-success-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2021\/06\/28\/ian-whitworth-behind-the-scenes-of-the-success-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian Whitworth: Behind the scenes of the success industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Ian<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ian Whitworth is a Sydney entrepreneur who is testament to the fact that any fool can do it. Failed vet student, amusement ride operator, audiovisual technician, he had to start his own advertising agency so he could give himself the creative director job he yearned for. It won some awards, though, and helped him start audiovisual business Scene Change, partly to test marketing ideas that his corporate clients felt were too weird. It worked, becoming a successful national firm in the event industry, a sector smashed worse than most by COVID-19. Ian’s blog, ‘Motivation For Sceptics’, provides an honest and darkly amusing window into the reality of entrepreneur life. His writing also appears in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Smart Company. Undisruptable: Timeless business truths for thriving in a world of non-stop change<\/a><\/strong> is his first book.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Ian Whitworth is on the blog to give us an insider\u2019s guide to the motivation industry, and why you shouldn’t believe everything you hear at a success seminar. Read on …<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
\"Ian<\/a>

Ian Whitworth<\/p><\/div>\n

*Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ blasts from huge speakers*<\/p>\n

WOOOOO! DO YOU WANT THE SECRETS OF BUSINESS SUCCESS?<\/p>\n

DO YOU WANT IT MORE THAN ANYTHING?<\/p>\n

Sure you do. Before I started my own businesses, I worked behind the scenes in the success industry. I was a corporate roadie, running sound, lights and video for every motivator, futurist, and success hustler in the country. I watched them all, over and over, and took notes. It helped pass the time.<\/p>\n

Like the diet industry, the success industry preys on people looking for a \u2018hack\u2019 to bypass the need for effort and persistence. Sorry, there is no shortcut. Success takes a ton of work. But the good news is: it\u2019s not so complex.<\/p>\n\n\n

Your Mum Told You Already<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Motivator advice is mostly correct. It\u2019s stuff your parents already told you, but you weren\u2019t listening. Persist. Meet your deadlines. Listen to people. Smile. Tidy up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your Mum\u2019s advice is free, and thus has no value. But you\u2019ll pay $1299 to hear the same information padded out into an all-day session in a convention centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To fill out the day, motivators add a ton of showbiz shtick, much of it pioneered by history\u2019s most successful dictators. Say what you like about dictators, but they knew how to juice up a crowd. It’s a really time-consuming way to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please Don’t Touch My Shoulders<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There will be embarrassing interactions with those around you. Half an hour into the speech you hear the dread words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFeel\u2019s like the room\u2019s a little low on energy right now. Let\u2019s get some music on! Make some noooiiiiiise! Now I want you all to stand up, turn to the right, and massage the shoulders of the person to your right. YEAAAAAH! How good does that feel? Keep it up! Can you feel the energy? Now, turn around and massage the person to your left!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please. I did not give up half my day to touch the shoulders of some random sales guy, and I especially don\u2019t want to turn around and feel his creepy sausage fingers on me. That is the opposite of relaxation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A basic adult skill is the ability to think and absorb information while quietly sitting still. Why do you think they teach it at school? If people could negotiate treaties to end world wars from the seated position, you can learn the basics of business without getting pawed by strangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not where you find grown-up business people. It\u2019s all emotional colour and movement designed to fire up sales reps whose job is to run toward the machine guns without questioning the point of their mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Talk, No Track Record<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Motivators talk it up, but most of them haven\u2019t actually hands-on built a successful business other than speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or they had one long ago, but then keynoting became their business and they lost touch with the current world. And if you can score eight grand for a 45-minute routine, that\u2019s a lot less work than real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a ton of pseudo-science. Like the old trope that communication is 55% visual, 38% auditory, and only 7% the words you say. This comes from Anthony Robbins\u2019 95%-wrong, out-of-context interpretation of a paper by UCLA Professor Albert Mehrabian back in the 80s. (Here’s a quick summary of where it all went wrong).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because everyone else mines Robbins\u2019 gear for their own material, it\u2019s been propagated by thousands of motivators and how-to-present bloggers, and is now accepted as gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Like the diet industry, the success industry preys on people looking for a \u2018hack\u2019 to bypass the need for effort and persistence.’<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So people think the words don’t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They matter a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Futurists take the least-value prize in the keynote world. They just trawl Wired<\/em> for plausible-sounding stuff that can’t be disproved in the present. They deliver these factoids like gospel, with the jazz-hand flourishes, shiny jackets and nouveau-mullet hairstyles of off-Strip Vegas magicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are so full of bullshit. You pay them ten grand, and they show you the same video of drone pizza deliveries we\u2019ve been showing since 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I had my way, futurists\u2019 speaking fees would be paid into a trust, with the funds released after ten years if a single one of their flaky predictions actually comes true. If not, the cash goes to charity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So You Want To Be A Thought Leader<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Then there are the books. They all have one. I don\u2019t want to put you off reading, it\u2019s the most essential habit if you\u2019re to get anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But your time is precious. You can waste a ton of time reading books that turn out to be written by ex-real estate sales grifters trying to hustle a spot on the speaking circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to know where heaps of business books come from? There are lots of expensive \u2018So You Want To Be A Thought Leader\u2019 academies where you go to learn how to be the next Gary Vaynerchuk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They take you away for a weekend retreat, and they guarantee you\u2019ll come home with the first draft of your new book. Even if you\u2019ve never written before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That \u2026 doesn\u2019t sound like a very good book. To borrow a line attributed to Truman Capote: that\u2019s not writing, that\u2019s typing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even worse, there are white-label publishers now that have a bunch of pre-written books on self-improvement topics. You just pick a title on real estate investment, parenting or yoga, add your own name on the cover, and bingo! You\u2019re an author. Because \u201cyour book is your business card\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ask yourself: does the author really have a strong public track record in that thing they\u2019re writing about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If not: bin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tip: Read Outside Your Direct Topic<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Every industry has its own orthodoxies that feed off everyone writing and republishing the same articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though those ideas are mostly right, you won\u2019t get breakthrough inspiration unless you go off-topic and find ideas to steal from elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you only read sales books, you\u2019ll never develop a broader sense of the human condition. So your career will top out at a functional, journeywoman level, rather than getting to the levels that only wisdom can unlock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find Better Role Models<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The world is jumping with people of breathtaking achievement, most of them outside of business. Listen to them speak and read their stories instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve had more inspiration from David Attenborough for my work life than all the corporate motivators I\u2019ve heard combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So do you want to know how to be successful without spending days locked up in auditoriums?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve written all you need to know in 64 words in my book, Undisruptable<\/em>. You\u2019ll have to buy it to find out, and I feel a bit of a clickbait hustler making you do that that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if I revealed it here, the nice people at Penguin Random House would put me in a weighted bag and drop me off a bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus it’s not really the point of the book, which a hands-on guide to taking back control of your life. By escaping that crusty job and setting up your own business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wow, just what the world needs! A new business book to add to the millions already published!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proofreader who worked the book said it was the first time in her long career she\u2019s actually enjoyed reading a business book. She said:
“This old socialist was chortling out loud all the way through,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Undisruptable <\/em>can convert a socialist proofreader to the joys of business, think what it could do for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK, take it away Eminem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Undisruptable<\/a> <\/em>by Ian Whitworth (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This book is part of our Books for Excellence collection.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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