There was a classic moment in the latest Season (3) of the outstanding Netflix show, ‘Cobra Kai’. (Don’t worry – no spoilers in this email!)
The protagonist Jonny Lawrence (the bad kid from the original Karate Kid movie), goes to visit his ex in rehab and she mentions advice that her “life coach” gave her. Jonny, who is not a fan of anything that came into existence after his teenage years, from technology to new, peculiar professions, instinctively said:
“Life Coach? You might as well just burn your money.”
And that, my dear friends, is why I NEVER introduce myself as a life coach, no matter what stage I’m speaking on or what the context.
And, that’s also why a friend of mine (who happens to be a successful film producer) goes out of his way to ALWAYS introduce me to new people like this:
“This is my friend Mamoon. He’s a life coach.”
He knows this will leave me in a very awkward, kind of embarrassing position where I have to try to fill in the gaps and explain and justify what I do for a living.
Life coaching is either a completely useless way to waste money, or it’s the best possible investment of your money. It depends heavily on the coach, their understanding of how the mind works, and how important your goals are to you.
If you’re headed for divorce, or struggling to find a spouse, or want to lose weight, or want to build a profitable business, the right coach can save you years of time, energy and effort and potentially save you a fortune on all the things that don’t work.
The wrong coach will be one of those things that costs a fortune, then doesn’t work.
Jonny Lawrence didn’t have a life-coach, but he had a ‘sensei’, (who was, unfortunately, an evil bad guy). Daniel-San had an awesome sensei, who guided him (and all of us who watched the movies) through life: Mr. Miyagi.
Now I’m no Mr. Miyagi, but I know a thing or two about how the mind works and how you can achieve your most important goals faster than you might have thought was possible.
