Entrepreneurs of all stripes can get taken by scams like this. Often times they are not "scams" per se, just very overpriced services. Like agile programmering groups charging $200/hr and delivering worse code than the in-house teams. I've worked for four boot-strapped-then-venture-funded startups and ALL of the founders at these startups have fallen for something like this at one point. It's pretty easy to fall for this. Startups are very frustrating and stressful, so when your in-house guys are telling you it's going to take 4 months to do something and some external guys are telling you it's only going to take them 1, you WANT to believe the external guys. And hey, they have the balls to ask for $200/hr, so they must be able to pull it off, right?
There are also legitimate scams, like life coaching or various overpriced seminars or "consulting" from "strategists." I won't comment on these as there seems to be a strong internet entrepreneurial contingent who thinks this stuff is very valuable. I'm also pretty sure my founder friends who have paid out the nose for stuff like this would claim it was worth the money, so I don't really know what to say, here.
Sport coaches are more operational managers, tacticians and physical trainers who have authority over a team than the pure teacher types that life coaches are. You also don't directly pay him money, or are getting paid.
How on earth do you figure? That's the exact equivalent of saying "All advice is bullshit, especially advice you pay for." And, "If you've ever read it, then having somebody tell it to you is a waste of time."
This is a topic that is close to home. A good friend of mine turned evil one day and became a "Life Coach" simply because he wasn't making enough money in his career, and thought it would be an easy way to fleece the types of mid-range executive type people he was exposed to all the time as a "sales engineer." Why bother getting a paltry commission on some software you don't really care about, when you can charge the same person $500/hr for some bullshit unlicensed therapy? Or $5000 a head per seminar? Or $150 for some stupid mp3s? Or $75 for a PDF file? ETC, ETC.
Read the Mystic Masseuse by V.S. Naipaul, it's the same idea, only 50 years in the past. In fact the idea came to him FROM reading this book.
And you know what, he was RIGHT. He makes LOADS of money now. It's a bit disturbing.
There are wonderful therapists and rabbis and priests and friends and grandparents, but life coaching is a scam, pure and simple.
I actually don't know what to think about this, because I think the people who are buying his services believe they are getting something important out of it. So in that situation, it's good, right? But he went into it just to take their money.
This is the last thing I will post about this topic.
I agree - that statement is far too general. One persons' scam is another persons good value. I think paying $20 to get into a nightclub is a scam, others see it as good value.
I've never even considered the use of a life coach but they are no more/less scammy than 100's of other personal services, from personal trainers to clairvoyants, hairstylists to Feung Shui consultants. If you gain personal value, to me it's not a scam.
A scam is where someone takes your money and provides nothing or something you weren't expecting in return. In fact I don't think you can really apply 'poor value' as a filter for scam - a Ferrari is poor value for money, but nobody sees it as a scam. Same goes for my nightclub example.
There are also legitimate scams, like life coaching or various overpriced seminars or "consulting" from "strategists." I won't comment on these as there seems to be a strong internet entrepreneurial contingent who thinks this stuff is very valuable. I'm also pretty sure my founder friends who have paid out the nose for stuff like this would claim it was worth the money, so I don't really know what to say, here.