Now this is an interesting topic!
I posted a little bit of my take on gurus in the comments of my blog but I’ll go with this vein since I had some more time to mull it over.
To me it seems people rarely use the term ‘guru’ to describe someone unless the message that someone is a guru already exists. Sometimes wires get crossed and people think all speakers are considered gurus but I think ‘guru’ has run out its use and from my experience with speakers they’ll call themselves everything but a guru because it is now a worn out marketing label with mixed connotations. One interesting thing that just occurred to me is that when they are speaking with less enthusiasm about all the other speakers they’ll use the term guru, almost like they are trying to bury the label by comparing themselves as experts while all the others are so called gurus. Next time you see a speaker keep your ears open when they use the ‘me & my’ vs. ‘them & their’.
‘Expert’ will always have a clear title because it is so widely used and a simple textbook definition in the language. ‘Guru’ isn’t as commonly used and has more or less been bastardized by some unscrupulous marketers.
In a perfect world I would say the difference between Gurus and Experts would be that Gurus aren’t only experts but they take the extra steps to take their systems, methods, and experience and form a course to instill the investor ability in others in a more comprehensive and organized fashion.
It’s the nature of profit and opportunity that brings out the bad apples who taint the well and it makes it a little harder to separate the good gurus from pseudo-gurus so renowned experts have to market in different ways (if they know what’s good for them) to sidestep that image.
Many speakers have their real estate systems and a team in place that allows them to go on the road, but in order to be competitive, answer questions, and stay on top of things the good ones know that they need to keep in touch with the nitty-gritty of investing because it shows in their presentations and their materials (good ones mind you).
From firsthand experience I can tell you that we are developing a course and there is a world of thought that goes into it and a major concern of ours is not taking on the title of ‘guru’ but to let the materials, the ideas, and the methods speak for themselves. One of my favorite books ‘Career Renegade’ explains the need for these courses and speakers and that is because it is the best way to increase your knowledge and your skills in a sane amount of time. His example was that he was trying to teach himself copywriting and spent a lot of time and effort into pulling from all these resources, but one day he bit the bullet attended a bootcamp and learned more in one weekend than in a year of trying to shore up all the information himself.
In a business where we price ourselves out of certain duties and hire others because we value our time at $XX(X) per hour and someone who values their time that much isn’t going to be folding letters and mailing envelops. If you try to start from scratch and hit the boards you can very well make it, but dagnamit it’s going to take a lot longer.
A last word, if a legit guru were here who sells courses I'm sure they would bring up the 'investment in education' angle where someone needs to invest a large sum into education in order to take it seriously. Kind of true, I read a lot more courses than I do free eBooks from start to finish.
