Insider View - Self Improvement - and the dangers of Self Promotion

Lucy Madden ponders the benefits of Self Improvement – and the dangers of Self Promotion

Travelling home by plane to Ireland the other day I noticed that all three passengers in our row, myself included, were reading Self-Help books. On one side I peeked at a tome called The Rules of Life, on the other Why Men and Makeup are not Enough. On my knee, more introspectively, was a Guide to the Stone-Age Diet. This observation was rather bracing.

There are those competent souls who mock the very notion of Self-Help books; I have found them on occasion to be life-changing and still own a much thumbed first edition of How to Win Friends and Influence People. My companions on the plane were both female and young and I silently wished them well as we disembarked into our lives.

We all need help. I had taken my 10 year granddaughter to London for a weekend of the kind of sight-seeing I had never done when I lived in that city. It was a cold, wet January, so we supposed that we would have unobstructed entry into all the places that attract the bigger summer crowds.

Our first destination was a City bus tour where I parted with what was to be the whole day’s spending allowance. A voice shouted “Standing room only”. We were surrounded by a babble of foreign voices that drowned out the traffic noise. Maps became weapons as they were unfolded. At snail like pace we drove through central London, stopping at points of interest and discommoding the natives.

Passing under London Eye, the sight of a long queue waiting in the rain for entry deterred us from joining it, and we journeyed on to the Tower of London where another queue snaked around the corner of that great stone building.

It was the same wherever we went, crowds of people speaking in tongues. The restaurants were full, the shops busy, even a mediocre musical we sat through in a West End theatre attracted a full house. “There’s not much sign of a recession” the granddaughter observed. I suggested we visit Madame Tussauds. “Don’t even think about it” said my sister who lives in central London. “You’ll queue for hours.”

London is not cheap, it is a formidable sprawl and the natives are not always friendly, but it has a distinctive history, a positive identity, and it is very diverse. Obviously it is one of the world’s great cities but I got to thinking that if there are so many people all over the world with so much money, why can’t we attract more of them over here?

The truth is, sad to say, Ireland is just not as interesting a destination as it was ten years ago. So much has gone; the whole idiosyncratic, beautiful playground has been damaged. And what worries me is that those in power don’t understand what is lost or how to correct the situation.

The drive to categorise, to standardise and label isn’t going to encourage people to come here and may just put them off. The crowds in London aren’t looking for ‘quality assurance symbols’ but a unique experience and there that is being delivered. You only have to witness the Ruritanian world that revolves around Buckingham Palace to know what that means. British standoffishness over the EU may raise eyebrows, but it has enabled them to retain and celebrate their national identity.

One of the problems, as I see it, is our obsession with marketing. Last year I attended various meetings and conferences and was often struck how the emphasis was almost entirely on promoting businesses rather than the product itself.

It’s all e.speak and social networking and of course this is vital but it’s far from everything. Time was once set aside to discuss ways of improving what we offer and yes, perhaps it was to the detriment of selling it. But no amount of skilful and sophisticated marketing techniques will in the end continue to sell a product unless it excels; there’s just so much competition out there.

Perhaps we should all be asking ourselves, is what we are doing good enough, is it good value? And undeniably one of the most effective ways of bringing in visitors is the often under-estimated power of ‘word-of-mouth’.

David Nicholls’ novel ‘One Day’ was published with no fanfare and few reviews, yet became a global bestseller because readers recommended it to their friends. Do not most of us prefer to visit a place that comes with a personal stamp-of-approval?

Only a fool would deny the impact of the Internet and its tools, but no amount of self promotion will disguise short-comings at the point of delivery. As far as this house is concerned, from now on a little navel-gazing and a volume or two on Self-Improvement will be on the agenda.

---

Together with her husband Johnny, Lucy Madden runs their magnificent 18th century mansion, Hilton Park, Clones, Co Monaghan as a country house which is open to private guests, groups, small weddings and conferences. The restored formal gardens are also open by arrangement. Lucy is a keen organic gardener and also a member of the Irish Food Writers Guild.