50 pages • 1-hour read
I Will Teach You To Be Rich: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works
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Literary Devices
Procatalepsis
Procatalepsis is a rhetorical advice in which a speaker or writer presents the counter-argument first and then addresses it. Sethi opens each chapter with the authorial stance that readers have encountered this topic before through personal experience, the advice of friends and family, and information spread by the media and personal finance pundits. In order to prepare readers for his action-oriented approach to each topic, he then begins every chapter by presenting the counter-argument to his advice. He explains what other people have said about the topic, how most people approach the topic, and the invisible emotional scripts that govern people’s behavior related to the topic. He then explains the flaws in these ways of thinking before elaborating on his own advice.
In Chapter 3, “Get Ready to Invest,” for example, he opens with a section in which he illuminates the general excuses that young professionals give for not investing: “I don’t earn enough” and “I don’t know how to pick stocks” (96). With this device, Sethi draws in readers who themselves are thinking, “I don’t earn enough” and “I don’t know how to pick stocks” before he shows them why they do earn enough and why lucrative investing is not about picking the right stocks. In the following section, Sethi enumerates and controverts the invisible scripts around investing—there are too many stocks to choose from, it’s hard to tell when the market is going to peak and valley, I don’t want to lose my money, etc.—and he explains why each invisible script represents faulty thinking.
By presenting the counter-argument first, Sethi disarms his readers’ defenses and encourages them to agree with him about the ineffectiveness of conventional personal finance wisdom. Once readers have admitted that the way things normally work hasn’t worked for them, Sethi presents his own advice, which is simple, straightforward, and action-oriented.
Testimonials and Personal Anecdotes
Sethi’s chapters are peppered with testimonials from readers and personal anecdotes. Every major point that he makes in every chapter is supported with testimonials, sometimes in groups of three or sometimes alone, that include the reader’s name and age. The testimonials come predominantly from readers in their twenties and thirties, with the oldest reader aged 45. The testimonials endorse Sethi’s advice on every topic in the book, from investing with Vanguard to guilt-free, conscious spending.
The testimonials support Sethi’s arguments by providing evidence that his advice works. The large number of readers who have written to endorse Sethi’s methods and advice suggest that his system works. In addition, the testimonials reassure readers struggling with establishing their personal finance system that they are not alone. Sethi’s audience is young professionals; by populating his book with the voices of past readers who are young professionals, Sethi shows his current readers that they are in good company. If other people have taken control of their finances, so can the young professional holding Sethi’s book.
Additionally, Sethi incorporates personal anecdotes into each chapter about how he manages his own finances. These anecdotes serve two rhetorical functions. Firstly, they make readers feel as if they know Sethi, as if he’s relatable. He tells stories about himself as a child with South Asian immigrant parents as well as about his greatest financial mistakes and successes and about conversations that he has had with his wife. This personal information makes readers more likely to take Sethi’s advice because he represents himself as a friend. Secondly, Sethi’s personal anecdotes present him as a success story of his own system. He explains how he arrived at each of his financial principles through a combination of personal experience and education. His success provides another layer of evidence that his advice works.
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