Open Mike II: The Weirdest Book Review I'll Ever Write

Do you need to be, um, a little richer?

Years ago, my friend-I've-never-met Eolake Stobblehouse (of "Joyful Nudes" fame, or infamy, depending on your perspective) sent me a present. It was a book by a fellow called Stuart Wilde titled The Trick to Money Is Having Some!

Right, the exclamation point is part of the title.

Cringe.

It's a personal-financial self-help book that outlines an inspirational, semi-spiritual approach to encouraging the Universe to pour a little more money into your outstretched, cupped hands. My first response was to react with my usual analytical rationalist-materialist scepticism, and reject the whole idea, swiftly: not my cup of tea, not going to read this, thank you anyway.

Because it's easy to see the book as being a bit...obtuse; addled; New Agey...not entirely logical, is what I'm trying to say. Goofy, if I were to put it bluntly. I mean, it's right there in the title: the trick to money is having some? To which I probably actually said out loud, "Um, what?"

But Eolake told me that ever since he read the book, he's been getting richer and richer.

So I thought well, what the hell, I need money, and why should I think I'm so smart? If I were smart, I wouldn't be worrying about money all the time. Maybe I should be more open to the idea that other people might know things I don't, and that their opinion is as valid as mine. What did I have to lose? A few hours' reading time.

So I read the book. The whole thing.

...And it instantly had an effect on my bank account. Because, specifically following the book's advice, I gritted my teeth and stuck what I thought were some ridiculously, absurdly high prices on some services I'd been offering. And almost instantaneously, those services started selling for those ridiculously high prices. Customers materialized out of nowhere. And commenced mailing me checks.

It was like money appeared out of air.

And you know what? I swear this is literally true: I have been getting richer and richer ever since. Ever since the day I finished that darned book. The money started to flow right at that point and it hasn't ever stopped. Hell, I should probably read it again.

No promises, but here's that link again, just in case. And here's the U.K. link.

Expert services
I thought of this recently because I tried to buy a service from a certain electronics expert who happens to live in Montana, and he said no, sorry, I'm no longer adding people to my job queue, because I've got a four-year waiting list.

To which I responded, mouth hanging open: Four years?!? Dude, you gotta raise your prices!

To which he responded: I can't raise my prices! I'll never get any work!

Pause.

There's a lot of money in the world, but that guy doesn't think he should have some. He ought to read Eolake's goofy book, is all I can say.

Mike
(Thanks to Eolake. And by the way, here's Eolake's blog.)

"Open Mike" is a series of off-topic posts that appear on TOP on Sundays.

UPDATE the following day: Twenty-nine people ordered that book yesterday, to whom I say: a) sorry, as I have never been less confident of any book recommendation I've made; and b) I sincerely wish increased prosperity to all 29 of you. May mo' money indeed flow your way. You deserve it! —Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Cliff: "Sounds like an interesting read; I shall read it with an appropriate level of scepticism. Increasing prices for services has certainly worked for me in my profession as a financial broker. I had previously balked at increasing broker fees, worried that I would lose business, but when I made the plunge to increase my fees, illogically I have more clients, greater income per client, and the biggest surprise is the increased quality of clients. I've found that the clients who are willing to pay, appreciate your services and time, and this has increased the enjoyment of my work."

Steve Caddy: "About three or four years ago, I decided to stop waiting to get myself one of those little Leica rangefinders and see what the mystique was all about. Your 'Leica as a Teacher' article might have been a factor, Mike.

"I'd seen people making and giving away PDF templates for pinhole cameras that could be dressed up as various things and suddenly had the quite humorous (to me) idea of making a pinhole Leica M.

"The more I thought about it, the more perfect it seemed. I could make it almost exactly to scale. The box would be very simple to print because of the shape of the M, and Leica's typically German habit of showing the product flat-on from each angle made the artwork easy to, uhh...'come up with.' Their perchant for playing up the simplicity of the system (and charging for it) was perfect for extending from: the pinhole version would eschew not only batteries and light meters, but the shutter itself, and cost far more than the average pinhole camera of similar function.

"So, what to charge for a piece of die-cut card and a paper clip? It had to be enough to make it a sure bet, and if things went well I wasn't sure how long I'd have before Leica cottoned on and asked me to, y'know, cease and disist. Ten dollars seemed borderline reasonable, so I set the price at $19.99 figuring I could revise it down later.

"It didn't take long before people ran with the idea—mostly via Twitter, and then later on Wired and other blogs. The price was always contentious (who would pay $20 for a piece of card when you can make your own so easily?), but some people genuinely loved it. I had several repeat customers, mostly collectors who would buy one for themselves and others as novelty gifts for friends. Twenty dollars of personally apt novelty value is comparatively cheap. One lady ordered 200 units (at half price) for conference-show bag-fillers. Quite a few people emailed to accuse me of ripping people off at that price, and out of several hundred 'cameras' sold, I think only two or three people asked for refunds—which I was happy to give.

"In the end I lasted nearly six months before I got the inevitable C&D letter. I complied and replied to LCAG's legal representative admitting guilt and offering that I was, at least, infringing on their logo (with a minor tweak: I'd marketed the box as being 'Likea Camera') to fund the purchase of their product. They never replied, but I did manage enough revenue to buy a used M6 and 35mm Summicron.

"But the point is that value is relative. You just have to know who your work is valuable to (in my case, people who got the joke and want to pass it on, not people who wanted a pinhole camera)."

Phil Maus: "Well Mike I have to agree with you on the goofy book about money. In fact, I just bought my copy through your link and sure enough, you just got a little richer!"

Dave Fultz: "Bought the book. Read it. A rather bizarre mix of Taoism, Zen, Hinduism, and EST, with a massive dose of Norman Vincent Peale thrown in. Some of his suggestions I find disturbing if not unethical for their manipulation of others. But, there is no doubt that he does encourage you to rethink how you're viewing the business of making money, and he does, with humor, encourage you to be more forthright in your view of your work's worth to others. Fun...and cheap enough to have been a good buy. (And, of course, delighted to hear that it had good effects for Mike, Eolake, and others.)"

Ailsa: "Years ago, someone from Kodak told me the story of a wedding and portrait photographer who decided he didn't want to shoot weddings any more, so he doubled his prices. (This was the mid-1990s, and I think the increase meant his cheapest wedding package increased to £1,500). Within weeks, he was booked for the year. The next year, he doubled them again—and the same thing happened. He ended up trapped in an eternal circle of making money at something he didn't want to do!"

Comments

[Kurt Shoens]

I haven't read this book but I ordered it instantly because my first reaction was exactly like yours, and yet you ended up finding it valuable.

I'm convinced that a fraction of the population understands money in a non-emotional way and does far better than the rest of us who have ... issues with it. I'm hoping to switch sides.

[Steve]

Mike, I would agree with Eolake's fundamental approach. Since brevity is the soul of wit, I will put it this way: "There's a sucker born every minute". Modern consumers will pay anything they're asked to for anything they're told they should have. A friend of mine who is building a photography business was agonizing over what to charge. I suggested choosing an appropriate amount for any given service-- then, double it. It worked.

[Sam Murphy]

You forgot to add the "SA*", right?

[Roger]

Yeah, it seems to work that way. I worked at a place where everyone had to pay for the computer support we provided. Because we were in-house we charged something like 20 bucks an hour. And we had more business than we had staff. So, to try and reduce the load, rather than increase staff, we tripled our rates. And we got more business! We raised them again thinking that would get the work aligned with available staff. Nope, more business. It's one of those "go figure" things.

[Stephen Gilbert]

From Amazon: "one woman claims she won $1.7 million in the lottery using the techniques presented within these pages."

I wonder: do I have to finish the entire book before buying my winning ticket?

[Anthony.]

I wish it was that easy. In the absence of competition you can easily set your price higher and higher until the market pushes back. You can even do some analysis and figure out an optimum price but that takes real effort and fooling around with prices can alienate customers.

With competition people have the option of shopping around. In my case I have competitors with an obviously inferior service and with a much lower price. So what can I do, offer an inferior service as well and play the me-too game, or find a way to effectively sell a premium service and demonstrate to the customer why it is worth the money.

Some customers still won't get it and will go for the inferior product again and again (and get burned whether they realize it or not). The customers that do get it are the ones that I want to cultivate and hang on to.

[Marino]

Read you. Bought it. Hope for it.

[J]

Sometimes the obvious escapes us.
I've given away over 3 dozen copies of Al Ries and Jack Trout's "The Twenty Two Immutable Laws of Marketing" to some of the clueless marketing types I've met.
I always tell people to pay particular attention to Law 4, The Law of Perception (Reality is nothing, perception is everything) and Law 20, The Law of Hype. (Real revolutions don't get announced at a press conference timed for the evening news, but instead sneaks in in the middle of the night and takes over.)

[Andrea]

You "almost" had me. For an instant. Then I went to the Amazon link and started to read the example pages. The "pearl of wisdom" that bothered me most was that "poor people is not spiritual",in fact all the speaking about the positive essence of Money and not having it as not being in tune with the universe is the most appalling praise of Capitalism and Consumerism. Perhaps the book get better (I doubt it), but in this case these few pages are the baddest form of publicity that I have ever read...

[Manuel]

Mike, did you forget the "SA" warning?

[David Cope]

There is a documentary I saw on NetFlix "The Secret". Once I got past the production values - a bit ickey for my tastes, there was some really interesting stuff being explored - "the law of attraction" which seems to be the theme of your money book.

[Ricardo]

I would love to hear what you think a year after ;-)

I have read many of these books before. I think there's a real pragmatic set of things that works but the more new agey aspect ends up being more materially based than the theory would suggest. A easy example: be more positive and you will attract more positive.

Sure, if you are more positive many people may like hanging around you which gives you contacts etc. nothing metaphysical about it.

On the price of services- A possible non agey reason - if you price something too low (for its market) people may think its not very good,etc. There's indeed a balance. Price über high (think Leica s2 ;-)) and see how many clients you get.

Either way, its good to reevaluate what you are selling and price to what you deserve. In the end, whatever works, just don't join a cult ;-)

[John Brewton]

If you think Stuart Wilde's "The Trick to Money is Having Some!" is weird you should not read his other books. A self-styled guru of the New Age he wrote many little books (more like glorified pamphlets). I "discovered" him in Taos. They all ended in the trash.

[Eric Perlberg]

I'm glad to hear some money is flowing your way, your blog is the best part of my morning's read. I took a look at Eolake Stobblehouse's blog and found this touching story about the power of photography:
http://eolake.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/bring-ghosts-with-you-on-photo-walks.html#links.

[Dana]

.........Indeed Mike. Years ago a lady friend of mine said, " You want
more money? Make more money ". It did not take me long to figure out what she meant. I raised my prices and WAHLA....more money
for the same thing I did the week before. Of course I then worried
the clients would find someone else who was not yet using the
instant riches method.

[Cateto/Jose]

Mike, after reading this post, I got the book (despite having a very bad feeling about it). And started reading it, and I feel the same as you: this smells goofy as hell. But I will continue reading, ONLY because it has been advised by someone like you.

Hopefully it will be worth the time, but still I don't get where it is going, and honestly I'm tempted to not believe a single word.

But hey, will read in full, and we will see.

[John Robison]

Well hey!
May be you will be able to buy that perfect house you wrote about a few weeks ago.

[Bahi]

I've just downloaded the book as a Kindle thing and haven't begun to read it yet. Two things that strike me.

1. There's a lot of good, simple truth in this piece.
2. Some people will get angry and defensive about it.

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

Wow. Cue the sceptics: "Mike has finally flipped his lid," etc.
(Oh, congrats on saying this publicly.)

But many years ago, when the only big numbers I knew appeared in red, I stumbled over that book in a dime bin outside a used-book store. And while it took a while to turn my mess around, when it did, it was big.
(Warning: many people, including me, think that this is the only book of Wilde's which is not just *too* Wilde.)

It's amazing so *many* people suffer from that syndrome: too much work, but they can't get themselves to raise their prices! It is self-sabotage.

[Paul]

Wow... I'm sure the comments for this post will be ALL over the place.

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

Mike, I am very happy that my gift had such a good effect.

Oh, I almost forgot: I used the title of the book as title for one of my most successful articles ever.

It's a mix of the "goofy" with the highly practical. :-)

[Gato]

OK, I bought the book, in part because what you say about higher prices is something I have been thinking about lately.

In return you have to answer a question for me: How the heck to you pronounce Eolake Stobblehouse? This has been bothering me for years since I first discovered his site -- I think even before TOP existed.

[Jack]

Leica has read this book

[Steven ralser]

So are you going to let us know how much richer you are now, through sales of this book? - well at least how many copies sold through the link?

Steve

[John Krumm]

Well, I bought it, and I'm about 11 percent through on my Kindle. Not sure I will be able to finish, as it is likely the worst book I have ever read, written by someone who sounds like a cross between Ayn Rand, Rush Limbaugh and Mr. Rogers. Not only does he write off the poor as apathetic and lazy, he says that those who died in WW2 were "souls who had metaphysically finished their current evolution on the earth plane. The rest who died were those who, not being particularly strong, or who being particularly thick when it came to reading circumstances, got sucked into the national karma and were overwhelmed by events."

This is gross individualism at its lowest form.

[Yes, it's loads of "cant and nonsense" in Dr. Johnson's apt phrase. But the damn thing worked, was my point. --Mike]

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

Gato, "Eolake Stobblehouse" is simply pronounced in English. If you let a computer read it aloud, it's pretty close (A new Mac actually does it nigh perfect).
Accent on E. Short O-sound. "Lake" like Lake Michigan.

Stobble like stubble, house like haus.

It's not my given name, it's an affectation. A friend, a musician, has a pseudonym, and I discovered many of his friends and colleagues call him by that, and I thought that was kewl, so I got myself one.

http://stobblehouse.com/text/interview.html

[John Krumm]

Okay, Okay... I'll give it another 10 or 20 percent, but I better start finding lost purses or at least more loose change around the house. :)

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

His later books sadly do away with the workable bits, and just talk about things like UFOs not being vehicles, but spirits, which are "located just behind you and to the left"... very far out.
But this is an early book from when he was still a highly successful businessman.

[George]

Mike- now, when are you going to start advocating the sale of snake oil or the Brooklyn Bridge? I do know some people who can get you in on the ground floor.

[Hugh Smith]

Actually, I read a similar book a number of years ago called "How To Solve All Your Money Problems Forever" by Victor Boc. It's simple, straightforward and the author lives his formula.

[Shaun O'Boyle]

"it is likely the worst book I have ever read, written by someone who sounds like a cross between Ayn Rand, Rush Limbaugh and Mr. Rogers."
Ha! I'll second that, difficult not tossing the kindle across the room at times. But I'm sticking it out to see what the usable parts are about - nothing so far.

[Arg]

That book is WAAAAYYYY too cheap for me to buy it.

[Dean Johnston]

Coming in late as usual.

And for (kinda) the flip-side, street photographer Eric Kim, at times featured on DPReview, has this to say in a blog piece called "5 Lessons for Living in Street Photography (and Life)"

http://tinyurl.com/oeyau89

Not saying I buy into either one, just sayin'...

Take care.