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Type the words 'life coach' into Google and you'll get about 7.31 million websites at your fingertips, all vying to transform you into a happier, more successful and richer individual... minus the fees, that is.
In terms of search engine results, life coaching slam-dunks many other occupations, including chartered accountants (4.46 million), football coaches (5.72 million), hamburger flippers (131,000) and abra drivers (861,000). It also scores more sites than a search for Nelson Mandela (5.43 million) or Mahatma Gandhi (4.72 million).
If Google searches are an accurate gauge of importance, there's no reason to doubt that life coaching is indispensible to civilisation as we know it. But do we really need to be coached?
Isn't school, university, life experience and the ranting of our parents and know-all friends enough? (Note: I didn't include work-based training programmes.) Do we really need someone to guide us through the muddle of relationships, work, bills and the truly big issues? (Eg, who is the rightful ruler of the TV remote?)
As we all know, when the Industrial Revolution gained momentum, the entire social fabric changed and as the world developed, life become increasingly complex, requiring us to spend years at school learning how to deal with it.
In terms of complexity, the UAE lifestyle's right up there and when you've got thousands of expats here without conventional mentors, who do they turn to for advice... aside from taxi drivers?
Fortunately for those needing direction, we have a steady flow of life coaches coming through and even some based here (check the Spinney's noticeboards). There are guitar-toting life coaches, DJ life coaches and others who use yachts, horses, drums and hypnosis to do the job.
Some have accreditations, presumably issued by other life coaches. But who accredited them? Why must doctors and lawyers spend years studying, when instead they could get a cereal pack-style certificate and forge a career in late night television?
But at least life coaches don't promise major physical changes.
I recently spoke to a Dubai woman who told me about some new-fangled wellness treatment here that can overcome baldness and even make you grow taller. Oh, and it can make you richer.
Its name registered a meagre 203,000 sites on a Google search, need I say more?
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