Inspirational writers are taking advantage of you

You’ve no doubt noticed the hundreds of books, blogs, and articles written to help you achieve your dreams. Free webinars that push you to go out there. Even entire sections of libraries dedicated to getting you to fundamentally change who you are. While there are people out there who truly do want to inspire and help people who find themselves stuck, I hate to say that there are just as many who don’t.

I recently got sucked into a webinar that promised to help me increase my audience. The information that was given to me looked promising. The speaker had impressive stats and a list of promises of what he would talk about. However, it turned out to be nothing but an hour-long commercial where he told us all how successful he was and how much it would cost for him to pass on his knowledge.

This wasn’t the first time.

Let’s be honest. Our world isn’t simple. There is more competition than ever and it can feel impossible to stand out. Now, people are creating a market off of selling people their own success. Here’s the thing—

Their success isn’t your success.

There isn’t a set way to succeed that someone can teach you. Everyone is going to have to find their own path. Still, people out there will try to tell you that they have the answers. That they’ve discovered the magic formula that will mean success. Maybe they’re not intentionally lying but they are ignoring the fact that no two people follow the same path, and they are profiting off someone’s desire to succeed.

I don’t mean to admonish every writer out there who likes to inspire. That would be hypocritical of me given that I usually write about writing. But, there is a key difference between writers who inspire and inspirational-writers.

Writers who inspire — personal heroes of mine — will never tell you what you need to do, only what they’ve done. They don’t want to give you the answers, they simply want to show you what you can be after you find the answers yourself. Inspirational-writers, on the other hand, tell you that they know what you need to do. They can’t just tell you what that is though. After all, this information could make you rich. What is a small investment against the thousands of dollars you would make every week? Which raises the question, if they have already made it, why do they need to charge anything?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen plenty of successful writers offer courses and chances to learn from them. Neil Gaiman’s Master Class comes to mind. However, I’ve never found a class like this that promises you the keys to intangible success. Rather, courses like that promise a chance to develop your skills. What you do with them is up to you.

Inspirational-writers’ entire market is based around them selling their success, which may or may not work for you. I know, that many of you have taken these courses and had positive results. I’m sure I’ll hear of them in the comments. But answer me this, did these classes turn you into an overnight success, or did they just give you the motivation to push yourself? That motivation, that isn’t something you need to pay for. It is something that you can attain on your own. All you need is to figure out what you want.

There are so many sources of inspiration out there. Writers, directors, musicians, and artists can all still inspire you without having to sell it to you. Their lives and stories, which are all pretty much available for free thanks to the internet, can help you determine what you really want to work towards. Let that inspire you. It will push you further than anything you can pay for.

Cooper Smith