"I 'GOT IT.' How many times do you have to 'GET IT'?"
August 2001
By a Forum graduate
I'm a recent Forum graduate and have become quite disenchanted with their sales (aka "enrollment") philosophy. I was beginning to think I was the "Lone Ranger" until I discovered your website. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this for us "dropouts."
Personally I found the Forum to be very enlightening and helpful, but I "GOT IT." How many times do you have to "GET IT"?
The people at the Commitment Seminar I attended all started to seem "Stepford Wife"-ish...it's sort of creepy. I left each session angry that out of the three plus hours we were there, only a small morsel of new information was delivered and even that was getting repetitive. The remainder of the evening was spent encouraging us to discover our "barriers" regarding enrolling others according to our "commitments." The number one "commitment" of course being, bringing guests to the FORUM. I don't remember that being one MY declared commitments at the start of the seminar! Somehow they slip that in, and it increasingly takes precedence above the commitments you establish for yourself with each group "coaching."
Then, if the attendance was lower than they preferred, we were subjected to a guilt-fest, initiated by the instructor. And then the seminar junkies took the torch to tell everyone, between emotional gasps, that the non-attendees are letting THEM down by not showing up--because this is OUR (collective) seminar. It's pathetic.
I had a problem all along with the pushiness to enroll others and to take follow-up courses. This was bad enough at the end of the Forum, but I was so ecstatic about what I'd learned that I let it go, or tried to anyway.
My philosophy is, if a product or service is great, it sells itself. People don't need constant prodding to encourage them to spread the word.
Landmark asks you in the beginning session to commit to attending all the courses without having a chance to really see what you're committing to. Then they try to place a guilt trip on you if you decide it's not for you--like it's YOUR "racket" that's causing you to back out. But it seems to me that LANDMARK is the racket!
I hit the wall and said ENOUGH! I decided to pay attention to that voice in my head that we're supposed to ignore. I skipped my seminar session. Oh, horrors!
Reading this site helped prepare me for the call to my seminar instructor to say I'm not coming anymore. I don't intend to get into a lengthy debate, but if I'm pushed too hard I'm going to say, "Remember the chocolate and vanilla exercise? Well, I choose vanilla. Please respect my choice. Goodbye!"
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