Hustlers vs Entrepreneurs
Fake Gurus vs Forbes Billionaires.
Tai Lopez, Dan Lok, Grant Cardone, Robert Kiyosaki, Gary Vee vs. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg.
Who’s legit? Who’s not?
Who should you listen to? 🤨
Well, I guess you already know the answer.
But maybe it isn’t so simple!
Tai Lopez, Dan Lok, Grant Cardone, Robert Kiyosaki, Gary Vee and countless other flamboyant speakers have all been labeled as “fake gurus”, “contrepreneurs” and every other words and slangs synonymous with snake oil salesman. In other words, scammers selling “ineffective or fraudulent products”.
How information products i.e. education can be ineffective or fraudulent?
Can information products be damaging to your health?
Can anybody be forced to buy an information product?
Is influence a bad and evil thing?
Should advertising be banned?
Should good salesmanship and marketing be illegal?
Et voilà! Here we have the source of all the dislike for all the benevolant “fake gurus” and “contrepreneurs” that want to exchange their “knowledge” for our hard earned money.
Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.
Maybe true in some way.
Thinking about it, it might be true in many ways.
But, does it mean that those who can’t, can’t be good at teaching?
In reality, those who can’t and never will, are often the very best to teach.
Why should it be different for motivational speakers, sales trainers, financial coaches?
If someone is able to sell you a $997 online course, is it possible that this person can teach you a thing or two about sales, marketing and business?
After all, are certified financial advisors and stock sellers brokers that good for making you money?
I think that you already know the logical answers to all the above questions.
So why so much hate about “fake gurus” and “contrepreneurs”?
Because consenting adults choose to pay an hefty price to get educated? Hoping it will change their life for the best. Is the school system more effective and less expensive?
Because information products are high-margins? False, since our five “contrepreneurs” spend millions upon millions of dollars in advertising.
Now I understand! It’s because they sell a dream.
They create an attractive story to sell their products. The Secret to wealth and success. It can be perceived as shameless deception or good advertising. You be the judge.
Which one is the worse: the pipe dream of being rich and famous or promises of eternal life? ✝
What would be a life without hope and dreams, even unrealistic ones? A life ain’t worth living.
BAD PLAYER = BAD COACH?
Professional sport is the best analogy we have to measure success. Since you can’t fake success in sports, you can’t lie about your performance. You can’t fake it until you make it in sports. Your performance is all that matter in pro sports. Lies, exagerrations and false advertising won’t save your ass on the court, field or ring. Your performances speak for themselves.
Sports can teach us two things.
- FOCUS. When did you see an high-level professional athlete excelling at two sports, even playing two sports simultaneously? Even excelling at two sports in your entire lifespan is an exceptional feat, unless your name is Bo Jackson. Does anyone remember the baseball career of Michael Jordan?
- The greatest players rarely become great coaches e.g. Wayne Gretzky and Diego Maradona. But bad players, even non-players, can be great coaches.
Richard Williams wasn’t a tennis player.
Ray Arcel, one of the greatest boxing trainers who ever lived, never boxed.
NFL coach Todd Haley never played football beyond youth level.
Does it make Richard Williams, Ray Arcel and Todd Haley “fake gurus”?
Fake gurus vs Forbes Billionaires
Let’s examine the contenders.
First, the hustlers, “fake gurus”, “contrepreneurs”
From shady to legit, not in order of inflated claimed net worth.
- Tai Lopez $10 Million
- Dan Lok $80 Million
- Grant Cardone $600 Million
- Robert Kiyosaki $100 Million
- Gary Vaynerchuk $200 Million
But nobody know for sure how much they are really worth. Since it’s in their interest to pretend to be the richest they possibly can. But one thing for sure, they are all multi-millionaires!? Maybe not! Mass marketing is very expensive… Maybe Cardone and Kiyosaki are in the red? Hyper-leveraged real estate deals often turn to nightmare!? Who knows…
But we can all agree on the facts that:
All 5 are incredible marketers and salesmen!
All 5 mastered the Art of The Personal Brand!!
Millions of Dollars in Ad Spend Monthly!!!
Here are the Big Boys that nobody will ever question the legitimacy.
The Forbes 400 Billionaire Entrepreneurs
In order of Richest to filthy rich (Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires ranking of 2022-09-23)
- Elon Musk $254.6 Billion, age 51. Tesla, Space X
- Jeff Bezos $137.2 Billion, age 58. Amazon
- Bill Gates $102.5 Billion, age 66. Microsoft
- Warren Buffett $93.6 Billion, age 92. Bershire Hathaway
- Mark Zuckerberg $50.8 Billion, age 38. Facebook/Meta
All 5 impacted humanity to a certain extent
The making of an Entrepreneur
Hacker, Hustler and Designer. The word designer is much more meaningful than hipster.
Forbes Billionaires are and need to be all 3 in order to succeed at scale.
They need to make sure that their products and/or services work, serve the user, and make money.
Fake gurus, contrepreneurs are Hustlers, period.
They only care about the money and ignore the other two.
And the best way to accomplish this feat is by selling information products and motivation.
Who are the Forbes 400 Billionaires?
- Many Forbes Billionaires FOCUS on only ONE business e.g. Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates.
- Many Forbes Billionaires are serial/portfolio entrepreneurs. At least after etablishing a solid foundation at the beginning e.g, Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, Sir Richard Branson.
- 70% of Forbes Billionaires are self-made e.g. George Soros.
- 30% of Forbes Billionaires inherited e.g. The Walton Family.
- Some Forbes Billionaires got rich from divorce e.g. MacKenzie Scott fka MacKenzie Bezos.
- Only 5% of Forbes Billionaires are real estate tycoons e.g. Sam Zell.
- A handful of Forbes Billionaires are entertainers e.g. Rihanna, JAY-Z, Kanye West.
- A third of Forbes Billionaires are Jewish.
- Some Forbes Billionaires wrote books about their business odyssey e.g. Phil Knight, Ray Dalio.
- Some Forbes Billionaires are motivational speakers e.g. Jeff Bezos.
- A few Forbes Billionaires build a brand around themselves e.g. Oprah Winfrey Network.
- Very few Forbes Billionaires brag about their wealth.
- None of the Forbes Billionaires are selling online courses, webinars and Mastermind memberships. Maybe one did…
Half Forbes Billionaire, Half Fake Guru
But there is an exception to every rule…
Billionaires, at least one, can be pure hustlers too.
One Forbes Billionaire broke all the rules.
Bastardized by fellow Billionaires.
Emulated by fellow contrepreneurs.
He never focused on one business.
He is a relentless serial entrepreneur and showman.
He inherited dozens of millions and was handed a well-connected family business.
He married 3 times and divorced twice.
He is a real estate tycoon first.
He is a natural born entertainer.
He isn’t Jewish.
He “wrote” several ‘how to get rich’ books. He even added his name to co-wrote a ‘get rich’ book with a notable “fake guru” mentioned above. With none other than “Mr. Rich Dad Poor Dad” Robert Kiyosaki.
He gave countless speeches. Too many, some might say.
He built his entire brand around himself stamping his name on everything he can.
He is a braggadocious, show-off, narcissistic huckster. Exaggerating his wealth and accomplishments while minimizing his failures.
He had an MLM Network to his name.
He created his own training program University aka Wealth Institute aka Entrepreneur Initiative.
He was on the receiving end of thousands of lawsuits.
He is addicted to the limelight.
He accidentally turned a publicity stunt into presidency.
He made his first appearance on the Forbes 400 list in 1982.
In between, 4 of his LLC businesses filed for bankruptcy. But he never filed for personal bankruptcy. 🤩
What? He was dropped off the Forbes 400 list in 2021. He must feel like 😭
Anyway…
He is the most notorious of them all…
The one to trump them all…
I give you
The Hustler’s Hustler
He also licensed sold real estate, a board game, wrist watches, ties, water and everything under the sun, even steaks for god sake.
Go to sleep Kylie Jenner. TRUMP is the personal brand beyond all personal brands.
I didn’t realized how big Donald J. Trump was in 1989. he was #26 on the 400 Forbes 400 list with a (probably inflated) net worth of $1.7 Billion at the age of only 43 years old. Which would be the equivalent of $49.2 Billion in 2022, according to the 26th position on the 2022 Forbes 400 List.
On the Forbes list since 1982 (age 36) but fell off the cliff in 1990 thanks to his overleveraged real estate deals that failed. By his own estimation, his net worth was -$900 Million. He was off the list for 6 years, only to return in 1996.
Donald TRUMP Legit Billionaire / Hustler’s Hustler / 45th President Of The United States
And he never cared one bit about the end customer nor electors.
FAME, MONEY & POWER, in this order, is all he cares about.
Nobody will ever trump that!
Two questions remain.
- Is being billionaire give you the credential to be a good and well-intentioned financial coach?
- Does a lack or absence of financial success means that someone can’t be a good and well-intentioned financial coach?
To answer the first question, I must admit that Trump is a real-life rich cartoon villain like no one could ever imagine. Despite his fame and fortune, he is probably the very worst mentor you can get. He only did it to enhance his ego, his brand and his wallet with total indifference to his “disciples”. Billionaires can be fake gurus too. And The Donald is by all mean a Forbes Billionaire fake guru. It was just one of many side-hustles for him. Just like his United States Presidential Campaign was a side-hustle, but this one turned into a full-time gig. Yes, despite his flagrant dishonesty, I can’t help it but I admire him.
For the second question, well? I guess that a dedicated and well-intentioned lifelong student of the game – despite lacking the essential ingredients to succeed financially himself – can be a good asset to have on your side in your quest to financial freedom. At least, its make sense!
But there are worst scams that are glorified by society.
College and religion. 🤨
I choose the “fake gurus” everyday of the week. At least they offer value in the form of information, motivation and entertainment. Much more than any teacher I ever had and imaginary friend I never had.
Health & Wealth
PYGOD
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Sources and related links:
YouTube videos
Fake Gurus: Where is the Line?
10 Surprising Things About My Richest Friends
Hustlers versus true entrepreneurs. Tai Lopez vs Gary Vaynerchuck vs Grant Cardone
Grant Cardone’s Crazy Billionaire Advice
The Simple Social Media Celebrity Playbook
Exposing “Fake YouTube Gurus” and the business of Selling Courses – Graham Stephan
https://retireinprogress.com/fake-gurus-and-contrepreneurs/
https://www.willpatrick.co.uk/articles/a-plague-of-gurus-how-the-internet-was-flooded-with-fake-success
https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-millionaires-and-non-millionaires-measure-their-wealth-in-future-lamborghinis
https://www.vox.com/2015/8/19/9176285/donald-trump-board-game
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/29/the-myth-and-the-reality-of-donald-trumps-business-empire/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/23/the-trump-network-sought-to-make-people-rich-but-left-behind-disappointment/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_things_named_after_Donald_Trump
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2021/10/05/donald-trump-falls-off-the-forbes-400-for-first-time-in-25-years/?sh=79fab4d9f62b
https://apnews.com/article/78e27c5e1e03b1a91f23d64735a6c65c
https://www.gawker.com/donald-trumps-grossly-exaggerated-net-worth-a-timeline-1711718182
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-billionaires-become-billionaires-2017-6
https://blog.adioma.com/serial-entrepreneurs-how-to-pursue-multiple-opportunities-infographic/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/portfolio-entrepreneurs-part-2-theory-tom-savage/
https://arongala.com/is-richard-williams-the-greatest-tennis-coach-of-all-time/
https://www.elitedaily.com/sports/amazing-athletes-flop-coaches/1339816
https://skipwalter.net/2013/09/09/advice-to-a-wannabe-entrepreneur/
https://www.peterjthomson.com/2013/03/london-and-new-york-startup-scene/
