Killing Sacred Cows Blog

Our last blog post introduced a recent book review by Helen Huntley, the personal finance editor of the St. Petersburg Times.

This is the first response of a series.

 

Deception Vs. Value Creation

Helen begins her review by writing, “I don't ordinarily do book reviews, but I often read portions of the books that publishers send me. Sadly, quite a few of them are little more than thinly-veiled sales pitches for the author's business. One of the worst of these promotional books just came across my desk, Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying your Prosperity by Garrett B. Gunderson.”

She makes the implicit—and valuable—point that there are often very negative aspects of salesmanship which cause people to take faulty action and spend unnecessary money. There are many unscrupulous individuals that use deception to prey on naivety in order to make money.

We join with Helen in condemning this insidious practice.

Page 120 of Killing Sacred Cows has a long section on why deception is so destructive, including the following excerpt:

“[Money is the receipt that says that we have either created value for another person, deceived them into thinking we have, or coerced them into giving it to us anyway. Of course, deception and coercion destroy human life value, our own and that of the people whom we deceive or coerce…Deception and coercion are the opposite of freedom and lead to poverty, misery, and dishonesty.”

As we write in the book, the only moral way to make money is to create value for others, to give them a reason why they should value what you provide for them more than the money they give you (see pages 120-129). On page 39 we write, “…in a world of cause and effect, value creation is a cause, and money is an effect…Money is never manifested and exchanged until value is created, and thus is an expression of value creation.” We also give our definition of value, which is, “anything of worth or service that, when provided to another, creates joy for both parties.”

To be clear, the promotion of Garrett’s products and services throughout Killing Sacred Cows, such as the Producer Power Hour and the Freedom FastTrack, was never intended to be “thinly-veiled”—it is deliberate, calculated, and very transparent. For most non-fiction authors, the entire point of publishing a book is to establish their credibility in their particular niche and to market their businesses.

For example, Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen promote the Enlightened Wealth Institute through The One Minute Millionaire. Stephen Covey promotes Franklin Covey through The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and others. T. Harv Eker promotes Peak Potentials Training through Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Robert Kiyosaki promotes a wide array of products through his books. Michael Gerber promotes his entrepreneurial institute through The E-Myth. Seth Godin uses all of his books to promote his businesses such as Squidoo. Ken Blanchard promotes his consultation business through his books. Steven K. Scott promotes his mentoring programs through his book The Richest Man Who Ever Lived and others.

All of these authors are doing amazing, uplifting, and inspiring things in the world. They have much to offer beyond their books, and their books are an excellent way to market their value to society. With as much good as they are doing, it would be irresponsible of them to not market their products and services through their books.

If Garrett or any of the authors mentioned above are using their books to deceive people in order to make money, that would be worthy of a scathing review indeed. However, hundreds of testimonials from ecstatic clients attest to the fact that Garrett is creating value for others, not deceiving.

We warmly and openly invite anyone reading this to take advantage of the fabulous programs that Garrett has created to help you implement the principles you are learning in Killing Sacred Cows. No deception or coercion—we simply invite you to make the personal choice of whether or not they create value in your life.

An excellent place to start is with the Producer Power Hour Membership. In fact, we encourage you to click here to take advantage of our offer to receive one month of the membership for free. If you find that the membership does not create value for you, simply cancel your membership at any time.

Every person and business wants to and should profit from their efforts. In the absence of deception or coercion, profit is evidence of value creation—it is the hallmark of every successful and worthwhile individual and business. Furthermore, not only should every individual or company that creates value in the economy want to profit, but they also have a moral obligation to market their products and services as effectively as possible in order to reach and serve as many people as they can.

There's nothing "sad" about using a book as a sales pitch for one's business, provided that the business creates value rather than deceives or coerces. If a person is creating value for others--helping them to achieve more, be more, become more wealthy and fulfilled--then not only is it smart to use a book to promote their business, but it is also their duty to do everything in their power to reach as many people as possible. In this case it would be sad if an author created value for people in a book then did not provide further resources for readers to continue their education and tools for practical implementation.

Mrs. Huntley is right on the money if an author has deceitful intentions or if they are not creating value for others. Deceitful sales pitches are the worst kind, and many legitimate individuals, companies, products, and services are negatively impacted by those who perpetrate them, and we thank Mrs. Huntley for raising this valid point.

| Book Review | Response #2 |

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