As of the latest reports by Grandview Research, the personal development market is valued at roughly $51 billion, growing annually at a rate of 5.9% (citation). This upward trend has been further accelerated in 2024, fueled by social media influencers who have brought personal growth into the spotlight. Names like Simon Sinek, Tim Ferriss, and others have turned platforms such as LinkedIn and TikTok into hotbeds for short-form inspiration.
The industry itself is a patchwork of components: social media, apps, books, coaching, research, and events. While there’s significant overlap with professional growth, fitness, healthcare, psychology, and education, we’ll focus on personal development in its narrowest and most fundamental sense: the Business of Motivation.
Whether it’s helping a lazy person become productive or inspiring a productive person to reach for more challenging opportunities, there’s never been a better time to be in this business. Yet, as promising as this space is, it is far from meeting its full potential.
The Cost of Unfulfilled Potential
Gallup estimates that a lack of motivation is an $8.9 trillion global problem. While this number may seem abstract, the impact is deeply personal. Think about the people in your life who seem stuck, unable or unwilling to grow in meaningful ways. What is it costing them? What is it costing you?
Imagine if the hours spent doom-scrolling on social media or binging Netflix were redirected toward learning new skills or building something meaningful. How much healthier, wealthier, and happier could we all be?
This is why personal development must become a cornerstone of education. Students should be taught how their brains work, why we’re hardwired for unhealthy habits, and how to cultivate growth mindsets. They need tools to develop perseverance, seek mentorship, and navigate life’s challenges effectively.
This is a cause close to my heart because I didn’t have these tools growing up. I didn’t stumble upon them until I was 23, and it frustrates me to this day that it took so long. How much earlier could I have started thriving if I’d had access to this knowledge sooner?
Despite its potential, the personal development industry faces significant barriers that limit its ability to make a broader impact.
3 Critical Barriers to the Personal Development Industry
1. Corporate Dependency
Today, much of the personal development industry caters to corporations. Why? Economics.
Corporations have deep pockets, and senior executives are willing to spend $100K on coaching if it boosts their performance by even 5%. Group coaching, particularly for sales teams, is also popular because the ROI is easy to justify.
While this makes sense from a business perspective, it stunts the industry’s broader impact. Most employers limit personal growth initiatives to activities that directly serve the company’s goals. These programs are often reserved for select employees, leaving the majority without access.
This corporate dependency means personal development remains inaccessible to much of the population, particularly those who might benefit the most.
2. Con Artists
Few industries attract as many bad actors as the personal growth space. The reason is simple: personal development experts are motivation experts. They know how to inspire action, but some use this power unethically.
Take Black Card Books, for example. They offer a low-quality offshore service worth about $500 but sell it using high-pressure tactics for $30K. These bad actors manipulate group energy, hunger, and emotional cues to close deals.
The tools of motivation can be used for good or ill, and this gray area creates significant trust issues. Every pitch or new product is met with skepticism, and rebuilding trust in this industry is a monumental challenge.
3. Unreliable Outcomes
Even the best personal development programs cannot guarantee results. A common saying in personal growth is: “You can only help those who want to help themselves.” This reflects a challenging truth—motivation is a deeply personal journey, and outcomes are influenced by countless hidden variables.
I remember attending a Tony Robbins conference where he selected a random audience member to help. While the exercise was captivating, the results were less than impressive. It was a reminder that even the most skilled coaches cannot guarantee success in every situation.
Motivation depends on factors that are often outside a practitioner’s control, including the participant’s readiness to change, their circumstances, and their willingness to act. For someone seeking help, the journey is riddled with hurdles: finding a coach they trust, affording the cost, dedicating the time, and facing the possibility that it might not work.
This inherent risk makes personal development a leap of faith. For those who have tried and failed before, the barriers to trying again can feel insurmountable.
Hopes for 2025
As we look toward the new year, I see several opportunities to address these barriers:
- Building Trust: We need more trustworthy voices championing personal growth. Equally important, we need systems to quickly weed out bad actors. Currently, there’s no unbiased platform for consumers to review personal development resources before investing their time and money.
- Targeted Content: We need innovative ways to deliver motivational content to those who need it most, outside just the C-Suite and sales. For this to work first, content creators need more incentives to create content tailored to different audiences, second content needs to get delivered in a targeted way that doesn’t spam users, but delivers trusted voices on topics relevant to the challenges they’re facing.
- Lowering the Barriers: We need to make it easier for the average person to make personal growth a part of their daily journey. Not paying into a program they may or may not like, not filling out a 10 page workbook or attending a class they don’t have time for. What they need are simple, low-effort tools. At GrowFrom, we’ve started our journey to make personal development more accessible. Our free platform allows users to set goals, track milestones, and take daily actions toward their dreams.
As we head into 2025, our focus will be on improving the reliability of personal development outcomes. Stay tuned for updates from the GrowFrom team as we continue working to revolutionize this space.
From all of us at GrowFrom, we wish you a year filled with growth, success, and new beginnings!
What are your thoughts on the future of personal development? Share them below or tag us with #GrowFrom!
