Success Lies
May 1, 2006
Dear Friends
Do you ever read books or listen to tapes/CDs about success and life improvement? They have zippy little titles like The Millionaire’s Secrets or The Love Life You Deserve or The Hollywood Diet. All of them purport to tell you how you can achieve success in their given area of expertise if you will only follow their program. Some of these tomes offer genuinely good advice. Eat healthier. Have a positive attitude. Get yourself out of debt. Some offer amazingly bad advice by coaching the reader to seek out happiness by pursuit of wealth, youth and so on.
Most of these books have to walk a fine line. This is the key, by the way, to understanding this genre. They have to tell you that something is wrong with you (i.e. make you feel bad about yourself) in order to “fix†you (make you feel good about yourself). The more you think you need fixing, the more stuff they can sell you. You are not wealthy enough. You are not slim enough. You are not smart enough. You are not a good enough parent. IF you follow their program, however, you can be all of that and more. Some of these books (and some of the biggest sellers!) come in the form of religious books like Your Best Life Now, The Purpose Driven Life and The Prayer of Jabez. Like their secular counterparts, they offer similar pitfalls.
Although I obviously haven’t read all of the self-help books, I have read enough of them to offer that few really get down to what true success is really all about. They are well-written, filled with clever anecdotes of people who have achieved of what you can only hope to achieve. Each new book or program is the latest and greatest in success and self-help. Somehow we end up buying into each one, getting pumped up and let down over and over again. They are filled with some good stuff, some bad stuff but seldom the whole truth.
Now if I sound a bit cynical about all this, it is because I believe the Bible has the answers for true success. If it is going to be solidly good advice, it had better be sound scripturally. As Isaiah tells us, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.†(8:20) In other words, since the Bible is unerring and true, all of these books and programs must comply with its principles. If they don’t, they are not being truthful and are therefore NOT HELPFUL.
Far too many people have bought into the false definitions of success created for the enrichment of those in the success industry. Let me offer you the Bible’s definition of success. “Godliness with contentment†(1 Tim. 6:6) is the scriptural definition of success. How many success books and tapes tell you that when you combine Godly living with a satisfaction with your current estate you are successful? Not many.
We believe that the success industry for the most part is built upon a series of clever lies. Lord willing, in the next few weeks, we will expose those lies. Our goal is to offer you the true means of success which God has given us in the Bible while at the same time giving you the tools to spot the frauds.
Have a great week!
P.S. Many requests have been made to print the TFTW in book form. Since this has been a community effort, I would like to make this book a community effort as well. If there is any particular TFTW that has touched you or that you would like to write a preface for, please contact Kyle Tucker. We will include some of these comments in the book, Lord willing.
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