Sooo... what do we all think of em? :unsure:
Personally I dont like them much and a lot of them just drive me up the wall...
I'm doubtless generalizing here, but most of the ones I've read all ultimately crib from the same source: Napoleon Hill. Most famous for
Think and Grow Rich, he also wrote a less well known (and far longer) work on
The Law of Success. I would submit that Robbins, Maltz, Covey, probably Chopra, Og Mandino, Zig Ziglar, across the board take his work and change it around slightly, make up a few new buzzwords. Thus psycho-cybernetics becomes neuro-associative conditioning, etc.
Two big complaints: first they all over-promise and under-deliver, second in a weird way these people don't wind up being as successful as they advertise. Tony Robbins gets divorced, which I'd normally not say anything about, except that he goes on and on and on in his book
Awaken the Giant Within how wonderful his marriage is, thanks to the secrets that he knows that he'll also teach you. Steven Covey buys a publicly trade company and does such a horrible job running it he is removed from day to day operations and is made into nothing but a figurehead. (They can't fire him, since his name is part of the company name.)
Actually, I have a third complaint: A lot of the authors of these things use them basically as advertising platforms to push seminars, or other books and CDs.