Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa April 2014 | Page 16

COVER STORY

BY NEALE PETERSEN AND MONIQUE TERRAZAS

Know your guru
Making sure you get what you paid for

T

he term ‘guru’ stems from the Hindu tradition
in India, referring to a spiritual teacher
who is able to transmit experiential wisdom
to students. In today’s modern world, ‘gurus’ are
experts in a certain field and transmit their in-depth
knowledge, high level of skill and/or expertise
to a group of ‘followers’ to help them succeed in a
particular area of life.
Brendon Burchard, founder of Experts Academy
and a guru and expert himself, says the best expert
is “a credible authority that defines what people pay
attention to, what things mean, how things work and
how things might turn out. It is essentially an informed
person who gets paid for that insight.”

14

April 2014 SA Real Estate Investor

SUBSCRIBE

Modern ‘gurus’ therefore ‘sell ’ their expertise,
knowledge, insights and systems through books
or courses, and/or via live training at seminars or
conferences. In today’s technological world, the
mediums that are increasingly popular are e-books and
e-courses, DVD and CD products or video recordings
of live workshops and seminars. In whichever way the
knowledge is transmitted, it often comes with promises
that it will improve people’s lives, whether financially,
physically or spiritually.
Many gurus are often also inspiring speakers,
motivational specialists, great marketers and masters
of emotional selling, with multiple websites and a
high social media presence, creating a lot of hype and
www.reimag.co.za