This was inspired by this passage by Micki McGee's Self-Help, Inc.: Makeover Culture in American Life.

The solution Dr. Covey [author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People] proposes—that women who are rearing children ought to cede (or at least postpone their ambitions for self-determination—is legitimized through a robust sort of nostalgia that appeals to scriptural wisdom, traditional metaphors, and American myths. Although he substitutes "under the sun" for "under the heavens"—perhaps a turn of phrase to appeal to his more secular readers—Covey's paraphrase of Ecclesiastes ("to every thing there is a season") aligns his advice with centuries of biblical wisdom. The reference might also remind the close reader that Covey writes in a tradition that goes back to the introduction of Johannes Gutenberg's Bible in 1456, when the development of mass printing techniques made possible, for the first time, not only widespread literacy but also the codification of manners and the emergence of the genres of advice manuals or self-improvement books. Some social observers have suggested that the Bible is perhaps the first and most significant of self-help books. Others have argued that the success of self-improvement literature, whether secular or religious, is contingent on its ability to function as inspirational literature.

These are all just preludes and prototypes for the killer self-help book that will take the people by storm in 50 or so years. Another prelude is that a religious self-help book, The Purpose-Driven Life, is already competing with the Bible as far as influence. You hear of Church groups organizing themselves around Purpose-Driven workbooks more so than the Bible itself.