The World Turtle

“An infinite regress is what happens when the truth of a proposition depends on the truth of another proposition, which in turn depends on the truth of another proposition, and so on forever.”

Our 10th grade math teacher turned from the chalkboard to discover a roomful of puzzled teenagers. He took a different approach and told us this story:

Many years ago a student asked his teacher, “What holds up the world?”

The teacher replied, “A turtle, of course.”

And the student asked, “But then, what holds up the turtle?”

“Another turtle,” the teacher answered.

“But then,” the student continued, “what holds up that turtle?”

“Another turtle, clearly.”

“But what holds up-”

“Look kid,” the teacher interrupted. “It’s turtles all the way down.”

What troubles us about an infinite regress is the lack of a solid foundation on which to build the rest of our understanding. Lately I’ve noticed a similar trend among information workers.

Beware Successful Turtles

My entire Facebook feed is full of ads for coaches selling training and online courses. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, of course. Coaches are a valuable component of success for many top performers across varied industries.

If you’re starting a business but struggle with staying on top of tasks, it’s not a bad idea to have an accountability coach. If you’re a professional athlete, you undoubtedly have many performance coaches each for different aspects of the game. If you’re an executive at a large corporation who wrestles with both commanding respect and being a nurturing presence, an EQ coach may be an asset.

Many coaches and other information workers produce tangible and measurable results.

And then there are the coaches in these ads. You know the ones. Coaches who coach coaches to coach coaches.

Wait, what?

Yes. There seems to be an entire industry of coaches who specialize in helping coaches, who also coach coaches, to get more coaching clients, where they’ll teach those coaches to get more coaching clients…

It’s coaches all the way down.

Before you buy into one of these programs, take a closer look. Many courses on being a financially successful blogger are from bloggers who only became successful when they started selling courses on being successful bloggers. Many successful YouTubers are successful because they teach aspiring YouTubers how to be successful on YouTube.

Show me a course on blogging from someone who turned a blog about their love of 19th century door handles into a six-figure business. That’s someone worth listening to. Show me a course on six-figure songwriting from someone whose success came from writing chart-toppers, not from running six-figure songwriting workshops.

Self-Serving Connection

I’m not saying there’s no value in offering coaching programs for coaches, or YouTube creation courses for aspiring YouTubers. But is it the only thing they do, or have been successful doing?

Therapists often need to see a therapist to get professional help with the emotional weight of their job. But you know what you never see? Therapists who only do therapy for therapists who only do therapy for therapists. The mental health industry doesn’t exist to serve itself, and neither should you.

I frequently speak and write about the fact that human connection is the core of success in business. What most people want more than anything, and are willing to pay for, is to feel seen, heard, and understood.

Knowing that is incredibly powerful. But like all tools it can be misused. Watch out for folks who use the tool of connection to prey on your deepest insecurities, fears, and desires. They know how to connect with you over those fears and say all the things you want to hear.

But if you’re struggling to make it as a coach, think twice before you spend thousands of dollars on a program run by a coach who only coaches coaches to coach coaches. It’s not going to get you where you want to go.

If you fall into an infinite regress you’ll never hit solid ground. Best case scenario, you give up, because you aren’t trying to sell courses to people who sell courses to people who sell courses, so those sales techniques aren’t going to work for you. Worst case scenario is you decide the only way to be successful is to start selling courses to people who sell courses to people… and now you’re part of the problem.

Seek advice, guidance, and wisdom from those who have actually gone where you want to go, not from those whose success came from selling the dream to folks like you.