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Hey John,
What a great post.
You know, I think one of my great fortunes in life is I had not one really good teacher (like yours at the community college) I can actually pinpoint three or four or maybe even five, between kindergarten and college graduation. In particular there was this one English professor who was widely regarded as THE best prof at the University of Nebraska, period. I took “English Authors before 1800” from him and *every* single class was mind-blowing. Like, dang, these old writers really knew how the world works.
So here I am thoroughly enjoying an English class, thoroughly enjoying writing papers for this prof, meanwhile I’m fighting with every ounce of strength just to barely make it in an Electrical Engineering program, which was a bitch. I was wondering why I just didn’t take the easy route and be an English major.
My gut kept telling me that would be a cop-out.
One day this prof pulled me aside and said “Perry I’d like you to come to my office, I’d like to talk to you sometime” and so I stopped by one day. We had a LONG conversation. He barely knew me but he was picking up on all kinds of things I’d never seen before, just from reading my papers. He wanted to know why I was studying engineering if people were so much more interesting than things, and he saw that I understood people. I told him why – there were very definite reasons for slogging through engineering school, some abilities I just needed to develop.
He said, “Your gift is you understand people AND things. That’s rare.”
He said that I would do very well. (Making $7 an hour working in a warehouse and struggling to get B’s and C’s in my engineering classes, such a possibility seemed remote to me at best.) He said I might be very successful at technical sales (I’d never heard the term at age 20, before that day). But then he said… “But then again, maybe…. you might be the president of the company.”
Can’t tell you what an affirming conversation that was. Its cumulative value over the last 18 years has been incalculable.
Living in the guru world and all the competition for the buck it’s real easy to forget that when you’re in a position of influence you have great power to affect people in just that sort of way. You can really make a gigantic difference in someone’s life.
And… thanks for being one of the more recent mentors. Your help has made its own significant contribution in the story of my life. Thanks.
Take care,
Perry
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John
Thanks for the post. This is spot on. Questioning one’s belief system can produce only 2 outcomes. The first is making you realize what you hold as a belief is false and you can change it. The second is realize what you believe is true and gives you another pillar to support your beliefs.
Any guru, teacher, or what ever you want to call them will cause you to one of the two conclusions. So bring on the teachers to shake us up
John
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I believe you said it best with these words…
“The “magic” in learning comes not from any secret way to master something without effort. That doesn’t exist.”
It’s about time someone have the gut to tell the truth – that anything you want in life never just falls into your lap. There is no created step-by-step system that will give people exactly what they want no matter how great the packaging and sales pitches are.
Everything exists because someone took up the challenge to create it or improve upon it…unfortunately it seems most people prefer wondering around searching for the quick, easy, effortless way to build a great life.
As a teacher myself, it is sad that some (not all – some are truly genuine) gurus play on this human flaw to get there greedy hands on some people’s money while not offering anything of real value and substance to help them change their lives for the better.
Teaching to me encompasses sharing 2 types of knowledge to help people improve the quality of their lives…
1. Knowledge that comes from books, other people, other teachers etc…or head knowledge
2. Knowledge that comes from personal experience and the school of hard knocks.
Too many times it seems that some of the so called gurus today possess very little of either forms of knowledge but are simply just good marketeers.
Thanks for taking the time John to remind us teachers what the lost art of real teaching is truly about.
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John, another solid post. Although I have been learning copywriting for coming up on a year now, I still consider myself a newbie.
After months of receiving tons of guru-mail, I turned on the spam filters and decided to get to work.
I have been conducting my own immersion in the world of Schwab, Caples, Hopkins, Halbert (RIP) and others.
At the end of the day, like any other skill, it takes work and practice.
Sometimes you need to simply turn on your own inner-teacher and get going.
Thanks for keeping us on track!
Bernie
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John,
Great post.
As a student I can point to 0, count them 0, teachers that have made a difference in my life.
Half way through college I started thinking, “Hell, I can do a better job than this!” So I changed my major from Journalism to English Ed, and the state granted me the privilage to teach (in the public schools). I didn’t start teaching in the public schools right away but that’s a different story.
John, this is a great article because it talks about how important (and rare) good/passionate/knowledgeable, teachers are.
Now, as a teacher, I’d like to offer the flip side to your premise.
Good students are just as rare.
Good students are hungry because they too have a passion, yet sometimes that passion takes years to awaken. I liked how you alluded to this in your post.
Teachers today are truely hungry for students that want to learn. The mediocre are frustrated by this search. The good ones are patient, but when they sense potential, they pounce on it with every tool they have.
The bitch about it is that sometimes it takes 12 years before what you say starts to sink in!
Great teaching is like throwing seeds to the wind. You just keep tossing it out there hoping some will one day take root.
Chris
Reply […] John Carlton writes in his blog: I found ONE teacher who actually taught me something as a young man coming out of the public school … […]
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I believe that both John and Chris have good points here. I think that somewhere in our past — as students or as teachers — someone has let us down. Maybe it wasn’t in a huge thing, but they performed adequately when we expected them to overperform.
Are there unmotivated teachers? Sure there are. I wish they would get out of the teaching profession entirely. The same with unmotivated students. But when you get rid of the worst one, there will be another to take their place.
The inverse is true as well.
I had a student move away this year who was great. When he left, another young man took his place as a great student. He had been average, but the void was left, and he stepped up. His motivation came as a sense of duty. Before he didn’t have to perform as well, but when the need arose, he was there to fill it.
The challenge is to find those teachers and students who are motivated for no other reason than simply because they love what they do.
Therein, we find true greatness!
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John, I just found your site informative. The type of education we have these days, compare to the old school, is commercialized. Finding one good education through experience and education from a mentor is just one good fortune, enough to sustain our learning process for a lifetime.I say kudos to your teacher who created one of the best changes in your life. Many among us are still looking forward to meet such guru and believe me (and am sure you’d agree with what’s happening in our society these days) that not everybody is lucky to find one. Well, thank you for this post for it reached a wide array of bloggers like me.
Reply […] alterted me, and the other subscribers to his materials, to a blog by marketer John Carlton (http://www.john-carlton.com/2007/06/10/the-guru-glut/#more-181) which dealt with the methods we use to learn so it interested me both as a learner and as a […]
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John:
Got the link to your post from Perry’s email newsletter. Your post here is spot on. People have a responsibility to pick their “gurus” properly. I never cease to be amazed that people throw down thousands of dollars on the latest, greatest get rich quick program without truly evaluating the motive of the person behind it.
I have long seen this phenomenon in the Internet marketing niche, but I hadn’t really starting paying attention to it in my own industry (real estate) until very recently. It wasn’t until I threw my own hat into the mentoring arena that I even started to become aware of a lot of the “gurus” out there. I continue to come across new people that I’ve never heard of before and am blown away by the audacity of their offerings and their smugness at the very thought of their teachings being put under public scrutiny.
-Jassen
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Been spinning my wheels about stepping out as the latest teacher/guru, well you cleared up my confusion. Doesn’t matter if you have the greatest/best/newest. First be sure you have the skills in place and ready to draw from.
Getting there, soon. But I want to be that one, the teacher you remember.
Thanks
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Hi John:
We agree with you, this is exactly why we set up a site http://mysuccessgateway.com to manage the “gurus” and provide feedback in a ranking type engine. If we get too much negative feedback we just will delete them. Kind of like a consumer reports or an Amazon top 500. Hey, we can all learn form each other, but as time is the ultimate commodity and money is something we want to invest wisely we want to make sure that the people looking for the guru’s are finding the right guru. give me a call or drop me an e-mail and we’ll do a podcast if you like. — jim
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Hi John!
You’ve a special way of hitting the
nail on the head.
I’ve just finished making a post
on a forum when I was directed to this
insightful piece by Perry Marshall.
Thank you for taking us down the memory
lane to discover how you were transformed
from a raw diamond to the one that is
shinning ever so brilliantly now.
Dr. Sunny Obazu-Ojeagbase
Owner/CEO
http://www.nigerianebookstore.com
[…] -The Guru Glut: John Carlton rants aboutTeachers, Guides, Wise Men and Sherpas:http://www.john-carlton.com/2007/06/10/the-guru-glut […]
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Killer comments John (like I’m surprised). You are just amazing with words — and I can’t thank you enough for your stunning example in my life. I hold you in awe.
Warmly,
Brian
Good post here man, this is what I call “expert fever.” Someone makes a few bucks working for themselves and they’re suddenly a marketing and business building expert. Kind of funny
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