By JENNIFER MUCHIRI
One of the categories of books flying off the shelves in bookstores, especially in Nairobi, is the so-called motivational or self-help category. These are the books that tell, and sell, stories of success.
But,women, you will never meet a tall, dark and handsome six-pack guy in a book titled How to Meet Mr Right in 30 Days. There, I said it! Let the missiles start flying.
The reason these ‘success’ books are so popular is that we have lost the capacity to motivate ourselves and have ended up relying on motivational books, where we seek inspiration from people who live in totally different worlds from ours.
Reading these books is like drug addiction in that they replace our reality — which we cannot grasp — with an illusion of achievement. We cannot face the reality that is our world so we re-project this reality by reading such books. How to be a millionaire at 30; How to be your own boss; How to unlock your potential; How to meet Mr Right … All these titles are really substitutes for personal initiative.
In the past, before these ‘how to’ books, people achieved more than they do today because they projected their capabilities realistically. There were fewer divorces, less child abuse, negligible drug abuse, and manageable other social ills.
Unfortunately, the capacity of people to live within a controllable world is gone, so they need somebody else to tell them how to lead their lives in a world that does not exist. The success story sold in these books is non-existent because it is created in a similarly non-existent world.
These books are dangerous; they destroy the mind by offering illusions of non-existent and quick success. It is better to read fiction because we know too well that the world created therein only exists on the pages on that book. Unfortunately, we read motivational books as if they are reality, and when we prepare our hearts, bodies and minds to attain the success they retail but fail to reach the promised land, we become desperate.
The people who read these books consider themselves ‘book lovers’ and ‘well read’ but they will never read a novel, a history book or even an autobiography.
We are so obsessed with crass materialism that we do not think twice about paying huge amounts of money, not only to buy these books, but also to attend a two-hour motivational talk in a five star hotel.
Since when did being a teacher, doctor, pastor, radio presenter or driver become the qualification to ‘motivate’ others about careers? The only people who succeed — that is to say, make money — from motivational books are the writers.
Wouldn’t it be more helpful for a young Kenyan man or woman from Kinangop to read a book on chicken or pig farming than a book on how to be a millionaire by the age of 30? Would it not be more beneficial for a girl in Migori to read a book on cake recipes that might help her start a cake-selling business than one on how to buy her dream home?
How many young women are stuck in unfulfilling lives because they are waiting for the man of their dreams, as described in Wait patiently: Your prince is coming, where the prince is a euphemism for a wealthy man who will serve her breakfast in bed, buy her the blue car she has always desired, take her on holidays in Spain, and provide her with unrestricted access to his credit card. Reading the Bible, the Quran, a novel or an autobiography is better because such books teach us how to live realistically.
Many people, perhaps, read motivational books because they have no idea why reading fiction, history or science and innovation books would serve them better. Why, for instance, wouldn’t an aspiring reader read history books on Napoleon, Kenyatta or Nkrumah instead of reading some nondescript ‘self-help’ book on the habits of effective leadership?
If there is any ‘how to’ book that needs to be on the shelves of bookstores and libraries, it is the yet-to-be-written How to live in the real world!
Dr Muchiri teaches Literature at the University of Nairobi.
