It sounds like you really got it, Paul. These are tough concepts to explain for sure, but when you get it at a deep level, it actually makes things seem simpler.
First, you don't have to go veg to be a lightworker. I don't recall ever saying that. In the most recent article, I used people's attitudes towards animals as an analogy for our attitudes towards other people. I figured a lot of people could understand that analogy. The point was that a darkworker thinks about people like a non-conflicted meat-eater thinks about animals. That doesn't mean a lightworker can't eat animals (assuming the lightworker eventually develops a consistent philosophy towards animals).
I went vegetarian and then vegan mainly for selfish reasons as mentioned in
Why Vegan. It wasn't until much later that I starting caring about the animal treatment issues. So you're right that the motivation for such a change can stem from either polarity.
With respect to business, I can totally relate to what you say about the opportunities coming. I get offers every week that would easily double or triple my income if I took advantage of them. All I have to do is promote very profitable but largely worthless products for a cut of the sales. Internet marketers frequently offer 50-75% commissions because they make even more money on the back end. Many of these products are in the Internet marketing field. All I need to do is to promote them is stir up people's greed, and they'll surely sell. The products won't be effective for the vast majority of people, but that's no barrier to a darkworker. I don't even need to review the products myself. I just have to endorse them via a sales letter that's already written for me. On this path I'd recommend dozens of such products every year. I'm fairly certain I could clear $1M a year this way, and it wouldn't take much effort at all. Just post a few blog entries and cash the checks.
Getting attached to power and money is a path to the dark side. The more you travel that road, the worse it gets. Once you acquire a certain position in business, it's easy to worry about losing all the power and money you've gained, and that fear of loss can trap you. If you run into a situation where you have to choose between integrity and power, which will win?
I definitely make less money on the lightworker side than I could on the darkworker side. I certainly do well financially by most people's standards, but I give up a lot of potential income by promoting products I believe in instead of those that are the most profitable. For example, I don't earn much by promoting
The Journal, but I just love introducing people to it. It's a product I've personally used for years and find to be very beneficial. Erin uses it too. I also met the developer, and I know he takes good care of his customers. I could earn 10x as much by promoting an Internet marketing program instead, but it would provide less than 1/10th the value of
The Journal.
Recently a wealthy businessman asked me, "Do you realize what a huge goldmine you're sitting on?" He then went on to outline a simple plan for how I could earn an extra million dollars in a matter of months. He's right too. His idea wouldn't violate most people's standards of ethics, and it would probably work. It's a great way to extract a lot of cash from my visitors, but it's clearly not the best way to provide the most value. I turned down his plan without a second thought. Even if I gave the money away to charity, it's still not the best way to provide value to people.
I realized that in order to be an effective lightworker, I had to be willing to sacrifice positional power in any form (fame, money, etc) whenever it detracts from helping people. Among other things this meant I had to make peace with the notion that I could die broke. I thought long and hard about it and then said to myself, "If I really do my best to make a positive difference in people's lives and end up broke/ostracized/discredited in the end, I'm willing to accept that. But if I retire a famous billionaire but know deep down that I consistently held back on the service side, I'm unwilling to accept that."
I had to devise a different way of defining wealth and success. Instead of using money as the score, I consider the number of people I've helped, how deeply I helped them, and the rippling effects my decisions might have down the road. I aim for a high score in this area (even though it's harder to measure) instead of a high score in the bank account. To be honest this was a hard adjustment to make because being in business conditions us to use money as the primary scoring method.
Think about how you evaluate your own success. Could you feel totally successful if you were dead broke but you knew you were having a positive impact? Could you feel successful if you became a billionaire but knew your impact wasn't as positive as it could have been?
One thing that will help you progress on the lightworker side is deciding how you'll evaluate your progress. If your method of evaluation is based on your personal gains, it will hold you back. Money is a useful resource but only to the extent that it boosts your service.
Hope this helps.