Why I don't like Motivational Speakers/Gurus

 

I’m not a hater. I need to preface that. These people are successful, and they positively impact peoples lives. I cannot deny that. I will not deny that. I will also not deny that, for some, probably for most, motivational speakers are helpful, and I am not the type of person that will kick the crutch from under someone someone who is attempting to walk, unless the crutch is really really bad for them. With that being said, I will explain why I don’t like them, and why I think it’s pretty much all a scam. 

First, Eric Thomas and Eddie Pinaro.

Eric Thomas was a high school drop out who was homeless for two years. He met a pastor, who convinced him to go back to school. He found his wife, went back to school, went to college and earned a PHD in education administration. He also started some programs to help underprivileged youth.

Eddie Pinaro, another famous motivational speaker, was a D1 athlete and a musician, who discovered he could put a symphony in the background while he talked.

In summary, we have a professional student and someone that speaks with symphonies in the background. 

Now, I know that might sound arrogant, but I don’t think it is. They are successful, way more successful than I’ll ever be, and I’m sure a fan of theirs will tell me the reason I’m not successful is because I’m not listening to them.

Nah.

I'm fine. Just because I'm not as successful as them doesn't mean my life is bad. Quite the contrary.

The point of this post is to explain why motivational speakers/gurus don't work for me, and the reason they don't is because the speakers/gurus haven't accomplished anything. 

Eric Thomas has a PHD. A PHD is not an accomplishment to me. I know, I know, I don’t have one, but it’s a PHD in education. In my opinion, that’s a pretty useless PHD. Lebron James built an entire school without a PHD in education and I am 100% certain you don’t need a PHD in education to teach, much less be a principle. Eric Thomas just went to school for 30 years...and he was homeless!

Being homeless is almost the easiest thing you can do. You literally just do nothing.

He went from being homeless to attending college. Plenty of American's have went to college.

Then he got a job...something 85% of American’s have.

These aren’t accomplishments to me.

Eddie Pinaro is even worse. He just went to college.

Yet these people are giving advice on life. Regular dudes. It's just strange to me.

So, who is, in my opinion, qualified to give motivational advice? People that have actually accomplished something. Astronauts, world champions, successful business owners, people that have actually competed, struggled and won, and not  “competing against yourself,” (the real opponent is you!) but against an actual, resisting, person. That’s hard. Struggling and succeeding against a system. That’s tough. People that make it through seal training, that’s hard. Andre Ward, the last male boxer to win an Olympic gold, who hasn’t lost a fight since he was 14, who got inducted into the hall of fame in like 2021, is someone that should be out here giving motivational speeches. Someone that actually accomplished something.

“That's Sportsball!”

Sportsball is extremely difficult, a lot harder than…being homeless or being a professional student for 30 years. Maybe the problem is the people that should be giving motivational speeches aren’t very good at it, as, perhaps it takes some skill. 

Either way, my problem is, when I’m listening to them talk, I’m like, hey, what have you done? Oh, nothing? Why should I listen to you?

And don't get me started on all the Twitter gurus out here giving advice.