Personal development - also commonly called self-improvement - is a booming industry! And Internet-based personal development - also commonly called e-learning - is now becoming increasingly popular.
According to market research and statistics, it is a 64 billion dollar industry worldwide. In the US alone, an estimated 9.6 billion dollars is invested in personal development in 2005 in the form of:
- books
- motivational speakers
- personal coaching
- weight loss programs
- audio tapes
- stress management programs
It is also projected that this industry will grow at the rate of 11.4 percent yearly and reach 13.9 billion dollars in 2010.
People are now turning to gurus for help in various areas as above. For example, Robert Kiyosaki's 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' had been on the New York Times bestseller list for several years in a row and sold 20 million copies!
Likewise, Stephen R. Covey's 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' sold more than 15 million copies in 38 languages around the world!
In a similar manner, many people are spending thousands of dollars attending personal development seminars every year conducted by well-known industry gurus like Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, T. Harv Eker and others.
Along with this mega trend, Internet-based personal development websites, typically membership sites, are becoming more popular as people can learn through audio and visual programs from the comfort of their homes. One well-known example is Success University, which became the No. 1 personal development website on the Internet, within months of launching three years ago.
Essentially, people are beginning to realize that a life time is too short for one to learn from their mistakes and it is actually smarter and faster to learn from successful people who have done what you want to achieve through reading their books, listening to their tapes and watching their DVDs, attending their live seminars or even engaging them as coaches or mentors.
