Coaching from Abundance

People often coach precisely in the fields where they are most unsuccessful. Single marriage coaches, business coaches whose only business is their coaching business, academic writing specialists who don’t publish academically. These people go into coaching precisely because they feel a lack in their chosen field. They use clients as a bandaid to put over the suppurating sore of their deficiency.

It’s not true that people who are successful in their field don’t coach. It’s normal to want to share your skill and help others. There are absolutely business coaches who have sold multimillion businesses, for example.

Choose a coach who does it out of abundance and not out of lack is my advice.

7 thoughts on “Coaching from Abundance

  1. The most popular how-to book about screenwriting is by Syd Field, a guy who never sold a screenplay. For decades it’s been the standard textbook at hundreds of colleges.

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    1. One exception to my point is coaching in fiction writing. Even extremely famous, bestselling authors can’t offer a single crumb of value in their workshops. It’s a complete waste of time.

      Screenwriting I know nothing about, so I won’t venture an opinion.

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      1. Out of curiosity, I attended 3 workshops by different mega famous writers. I’m not planning to write fiction. It was simply for informational purposes. All 3 were terrible. The authors dripped in the most insane smugness. They tried to sell their individual story as a recipe that can be mass produced. The word “cringe” doesn’t begin to describe.

        All three authors are very talented but that talent lives in the bodies of very mediocre human beings. Which is most often the case.

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  2. “coach precisely in the fields where they are most unsuccessful”

    I’d say it depends. Doing X and being able to tell others how to do X or improve from being okay to great at X are often, not always, but fairly often separate skills.

    A number of very successful coaches did not have stellar athletic careers and some great players couldn’t cut it as coaches.

    I can see how the same principle applies less to academia but….

    https://www.thesportster.com/entertainment/top-15-horrible-athletes-who-made-great-coaches/

    https://bleacherreport.com/articles/520877-magic-johnson-wayne-gretzky-and-13-great-players-who-couldnt-coach

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    1. A sports coach is more like an academic administrator. He needs to bring the team together and make it function. His individual success isn’t that important. Making a coherent team that functions together is a talent I don’t possess and no amount of publications will bring me closer to having it.

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