Great post, Steve. I'm at a crossroads on this issue and this improves clarity. Right now, I'm creating a procrastination seminar to help others deal with the sort of stuff I already dealt with. I am coming up against two main issues, though:
1. How should I price it? Some part of me wants to charge $0 for it, because I believe that'll be the best for the participants. However, it will be win/win for me and them to charge whatever rate the market will equalize at, but this rationalization appeals to my logic but not my intuition or emotions. I also feel weird about charging a large profit margin for something (say a DVD that costs me $3 to make but sell for $50). I get the impression that this is a sign I'm in a scarcity mindset. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
2. The issue of original ideas comes up. I want to share ideas I've picked up over the years from various sources, but I have a resistance against basically making money from other people's ideas. I feel it's not being genuine or authentic. Am I mistaken? Steve, you've occasionally written posts founded on ideas from others, though you've cited them to my knowledge, and you've made money from, other people's ideas, though you did a lot of your own thoughts as well. If its mixing other people's ideas with enough of your own that makes them justifiably yours to profit from? The other perspective I've gotten is that "ideas" by themselves are worthless and no one has any real ownership of them, even the originator of the ideas. This seems unfair. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance! I appreciate it.
I do want to highlight one thing: value is not "objectively" good or bad, it's what's valuable to whom. That's what a target market is, the number of people who consider this of value to them. Paris Hilton's exploits provide no value for me, but for other people it does. Wayne Dyer's works also provide no value to me, right now where I am, but it does to other people. You may have to make sure people understand that your works have value to them, where marketing/advertising comes in. I'm still trying to figure out how to market in a way that's congruent with my other ideas, and Steve's a great model.
Models are a great thing. For example, I've decided my model for my blog is Malcolm Gladwell. He writes in an interesting, entertaining and engaging manner about issues that I'm very much interested in (basically how human beings work), and he's well calibrated to success.
Fullcrum, you can read this:
Why “What if Everyone Did That?” Isn’t an Argument | Mind-Manual
There's also the possibility that some people actually, genuinely enjoying cleaning.