Concept Advisory Services

• An Interesting Encounter

  Posted: April 3, 2008, 9:18 pm by CRB

  On Monday evening, I shared a lift in downtown Nairobi with a man who gave me his card. Apparently, he works as a success lecturer at Success University. If you are wondering whether the university is real, just visit Norwich Union 5th floor. I know it because the man invited me for a session at his office/university having said it ‘would change my life’ forever. My schedule on Tuesday was a busy one and so we planned for 6.30pm yesterday.

  I kept my promise and at 6.30 Pm, I was promptly at the door. I was ushered into a modest furnished office where the host warmly welcomed me for having made it. In one of the room, some sort of lecture was going on. It is just some two rooms and it does not require you to be extra keen to hear what is going on in the other room. My host requested that I wait for our presentation as they were just finalizing with an earlier group. I was not alone in the waiting area and immediately struck a conversation with some fellows invited.

  The surprising thing was that it was a mixed crowd in terms of age and from our conversation majority were professionals or business people. I had expected to find the usual desperate Nairobi crowd who are always on the look out for an interesting event to attend.

  Eventually the group before us finalized and we got in.

  Success University has its origin in the United States and has a presence in over 70 countries. Kenya is just among the many countries. The concept behind it is simple or so I got. The owners or lecturers have teemed up with notable personal development experts or gurus and have compiled their material into one package. The gurus include Zig Ziglar, Antony Robbins among many. For registration you pay the equivalent of 170$ (k’sh 11,000) and you can enroll for monthly classes at a monthly charge of 40$ (k’sh 2,600) which is optional. With the registration fee, you get a couple of CD’s on topics of interest including personal finance, marketing, sales, love, relationship, and entrepreneurship.

  As a learner you can also make some money. For every student you introduce you get 60% commission on the joining fee. The more people you introduce the higher you move in rank and the higher you earn in commission. Looking around the room I could figure out that many were not there to make some money but to learn on how they can improve on some areas of their life. Personal development is a multi million-dollar industry and I was not surprised that many had attended. Look around you and you will not miss an advert promising you how you can improve your finances, love life or career if only you followed some steps. The best sellers in our bookshops are not the fictional work or educational material but books dealing with personal development.

  I can smell a prymind scheme a mile away and this was not. They call it multi level marketing and even though the ones I know deal with real products this one is service based. The only similarity is the aspect of recruiting where you have to enroll new student for you to make an income. And if you ask me this is normal sales task. Because there is a real value in form of the inspirational books and motivational talk, it is not a hot promise.

  Its not that I have joined, what I am giving is my observation and understanding. The lecturers did give a presentation on personal success that I found very informative. They touched on personal finance, motivation,  and success in inter personal relationships among other topics. Considering we are not taught how to lead balanced lives through formal schooling, this is one meaningful talk I have attended this year. I would encourage you to attend. After all knowledge is power.

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes