Boiler Room Guru’s Humor Dept.:

Last week I saw a scraggly looking guy with a sign standing by the highway entrance; it read "I will Guru for food!"

Poetry Dept.: Gurus, Gurus Everywhere,
Selling books and tapes without a care.
Some are qualified, some are not,
Many don’t even give a squat!

Bad poetry and humor aside there seems to be a trend afoot among the real estate and personal achievement gurus. They call it personal training or coaching. There is a basic problem, many gurus who lend their names to these programs, don’t teach them! Instead, they use mass market organizations or boiler rooms to solicit, sell and train the uninformed consumer.

Rules to follow when choosing a teacher:

1. Don't give your money to any program unless you can speak directly with your trainer. Beware of the phony boiler rooms that call your number unsolicited.

2. Beware of programs that use high profile Guru Names, but won’t let you speak directly with the Guru.

3. Ask for references and speak with past and present students, if they won’t give names, walk away.

4. See if you have a meeting of the minds and the wallet.

5. Make sure your instructor isn't driving a used Pinto or Yugo.

6. Your teacher should practice what he preaches, what’s the last deal he did?

7. Realize that expensive books and tapes are not enough.

8. Only work with a teacher who is successful in his or her own right, who you can speak directly with when needed and who returns all calls. If you can’t reach him before the training, what makes you think it will be different once you’ve given him your hard earned money!