by Celes |  Email This Post

This is the part-2 of my review for T. Harv Eker’s “Never Work Again” 4-Day Seminar. Be sure to read part 1 before reading this review.

1. Never Work Again Seminar: Introduction
2. Day 1 Review
   
3. Day 2 Review
   
4. Days 3 & 4 Review and Conclusion
   

As promised in my previous post, I’ll be reviewing T. Harv Eker’s Never Work Again 4-day seminar for the benefit of all readers. I just finished Day 1 yesterday and decided to make it a daily review so I capture the thoughts while they are fresh.

Overall Day 1 was disappointing. In all honesty, I entered the seminar all eager and excited to learn and absorb new knowledge. But it fell short. I learned several important concepts and strategies, but these didn’t measure up for an entire 1 day seminar (9am – 11pm; I left at 9pm) and certainly not one with a cost price of $1~3k SGD. It felt like content was overstretched to fit the entire day and came across as really thin and sparse.

I was expecting more as Eker has built such a strong rep for his seminars. I’ve heard about how his MMI (Millionaire Mindset Intensive) is a transformational course, and from what I’ve seen/heard, MMI does look like a solid course. NWA is supposed to be a level-up course compared to MMI (which is a foundational module) but it certainly didn’t come across that way.

Tatt and O (Personal Excellence Thai readers whom I attended NWA with) both felt Day 1 of NWA didn’t compare to MMI (which is a much cheaper course at $100 SGD). O said he felt this was only 1/4 the value of MMI. He gave day 1 a score of 5/10, while Tatt gave it a 6/10. I personally rate it a 4/10, based on (1) value of content and (2) speakers’ power/presentation.

Granted, I’m probably more critical since I’m a trainer and have a different set of benchmark on what makes good training vs. a standard audience. It’s easy for me to spot opportunity gaps in training since training, coaching others and personal excellence is essentially my life’s work. The important thing is giving Day 1 a score of 4/10 doesn’t mean I feel I can do better or I know better; it just means I’m measuring them against the highest standard which we do for ourselves too.

For what it’s worth, this Never Work Again seminar run isn’t conducted by Eker himself – it’s hosted by his trainers, Marjean and Marcus de Maria and an ensemble of speakers. I’ve a feeling it’d be better if he hosted it. Eker appeared by way of a recorded video clip from his past workshop which I actually found to be one of the more valuable and engaging segments in Day 1.

Here’s my overall observations and rudimentary points on how I arrived at 4/10:

1. More talk than content = Hollow. There was way too much talking, big promises and hyping up which just kept circling around and around. I found myself constantly wondering when the host would just get straight to the meat/action and get the next speaker out so we could start learning something. It’s like I am promised a huge 8 course meal again and again but throughout the day I barely got to taste the appetizer. Whatever value shared felt sparse. See #5.
2. Participants: I estimate about 400~500. Participants came from all over the world, with majority from South East Asia region (SG, MY, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc). There were a few from HK / TW / CN, and a small handful from Europe and US. Most participants attended MMI before – not surprising as MMI is the foundational course for Eker’s seminar series. A small handful are actually attending NWA for the 2nd time.
3. Speakers: There were a total of 8 speakers in Day 1, including Marjean and Marcus. All the speakers are successful individuals (millionaires in one way or another) who have generated massive wealth for themselves through passive income. The 8 speakers also includes Eker, who, in the true spirit of passive income generation and “never working again”, “trained” us via a recorded clip from his past NWA training in Singapore. I found it disappointing as I was looking forward to see Eker train live.
4. Lack of Structure: So far, the seminar feels somewhat disorganized, like it’s nothing more than different speakers and topics strung together in no particular order or significance. It can be more valuable to audiences by having an overarching framework that connects the 4 days (more than just the topic of “massive passive income”). Each day can have a specific theme that connect to the main theme  (e.g., Day 1: Investment, Day 2: Business Structure Creation, and so on). But there’s none of this. I still don’t know what I’m suppose to expect for Day 2, Day 3 or Day 4 except that I’m supposed to be learning more about making passive income.
5. Actionability of Strategies: If I am to sum it up, there are overall 2 groups of people who are attending the workshop: (1) People who have a huge pile of money reserves and want to know how to use/invest that money to generate passive income (2) People who have limited savings and want to know how to create passive income. So far, it seemed Day 1 seems targeted at (1) and since I’m not going in as group (1), it bears little relevance to me. I expect more coverage on (2) in the next couple of days. I also feel that many things the speakers shared have undoubtedly worked for them in their countries (US/UK) – but not necessarily in a different environment/climate like SG. They were sharing more specific tactics than strategies/principles on passive income generation. These tactics come across as highly context-based – i.e. they will going to work in this period in a situation, but beyond that I don’t really know if they can hold. I personally find it much more valuable if I was learning universal principles and concepts that I can integrate and apply accordingly in different times/places. Tactics wear out but principles don’t.
6. Other Issues:
   
   • Non-Endearing Host: Marjean kept complaining about how the audience’s energy was low (which it wasn’t – this is just how Singapore audience is like) and spent a fair bit of time preaching about how we need to give our 100% if we want to earn massive passive income. It was quite frankly, a dampener and wasted a fair bit of time. She’s probably a nice person in real life but as a host she came across as somewhat arrogant and authoritarian. Half the times she was on stage, I wished she could just hurry up and pass on to the next speaker.
   • No agenda / information. One thing I don’t like is how they don’t reveal who the speakers are nor share the agenda. I don’t know if it’s because speakers are only confirmed in the last minute or it’s to cut down logistical work from all the printing/reprinting of schedules. I suspect it’s a combination of both. Either way it doesn’t help us get an overview of what to expect – we only got to know the topic when the session starts.
   • Typos in handout. This is a nit-pick but I feel it’s important – There were a couple of glaring typo errors in the “declaration” sheet, which is an essential document in the whole seminar. For a professional event like this and one where it’s conducted so many times already (meaning the sheet would have been used many times), I’m not sure why or how that happened. It doesn’t add to the professional image.

Day 1 Content

Each segment ranged from 1.5 hr to 2hr. Due to IP reasons, I’ve listed down the subject of the segments but not the actual topic titles.

• Introduction. This took about 2 hours when it could have been easily covered in 1 hour. There were several important ideas I picked up, but Tatt later told me that this was just a recap of MMI concepts.
• Beliefs on Passive Income. We addressed negative beliefs surrounding passive income generation, examined the root of those beliefs, and built new, empowering beliefs. I felt this was the critical to the success of the workshop and should have been longer than it was. It was 1 hr long and can easily be extended to 1.5 hrs or even 2 hrs imo. Tony Robbins can go on for hours just addressing negative beliefs at his workshops.

[ Lunch break ]

• How To Write A Best Seller’s Book – By Eker, by way of a prerecorded video clip. Eker’s portion was easily the most valuable segment in the entire day for me, especially since I’m planning a new book right now. I also love Eker’s energy and delivery style, which was quirky, funny and most importantly, true to himself. This helped to connect him with the crowd.
• Literary Agent and Publishing. It felt like a fluff segment to me. The content was largely common-domain information – I had previously researched on getting an agent / being published and there wasn’t anything she shared that I didn’t already know from my research. Anyone could have easily googled and found the information, I feel. I didn’t feel this was valuable, and I don’t see how this directly relates to the theme of never working again or generating passive income.
• Lease Options*. The speaker was very sincere and genuine; I really like him. However, this topic was not actionable for me – Refer to Observation #5 above.
• Investment Pitch*. This was a sales pitch segment to invest the speaker’s company than actual strategies/content. If you’re not attending the seminar with ready money or intention to invest, it’ll be totally irrelevant to you.

[ Dinner ]

• Generate Fast Profits in Hard Times*. It wasn’t actionable for the same reasons as listed in Observation #5.
• Licensing. Last segment for the day, from 9-11pm. Tatt, O and I didn’t stay as the topic wasn’t relevant for us. Many people also left at this point.

* These are the sales pitch sessions. They follow this general formula: (1) A 10 minute introduction on why this particular method creates passive income (2) 15 minute brief sharing on how they do it, followed by (3) 15 minute sales pitch for their course/program to learn this skill so you can create passive income for yourself.

Note that this is my assessment based on my needs; for sure other participants will have a different experience. If you are attending this NWA or you have attended past NWAs, feel free to share your experience in the comments area.

I’m still optimistic about the seminar by the way – usually Day-1s start off slow, and higher value content are put in the later days so participants end off on high notes. In particular I want to learn more about passive income strategies for business which I believe they are covering for Day 2 or Day 3, so let’s see how today pans out. Look forward to get to the real stuff soon
Continue on to Part 3: Never Work Again Seminar – Day 2 Review.

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“Never Work Again” Seminar – Day 2 Review »

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Filed in: Career & Work, Money & Wealth | Posted on Jun 4 2010