CHAPTER 1

What’s Wrong with This Picture?

It’s estimated that Americans spend $11 billion (that’s a b—billion) a year on self-help products—everything from books to DVDs to diet pills—while American companies spend over $400 billion a year on professional development programs for their employees. Personally, I think those are very low estimates; especially when you consider all the weight-loss programs, exercise equipment, business books, and everything else you could put in the category of self-help.

(Yes, I know there are a lot of other, fancier terms for this: personal growth, self-improvement, professional development, etc. But for now, let’s just agree to call it self-help, OK?)

Actually, I call most of this information SHELF-help

Get The Secret Code of Success now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.