[ahimel]

Originally Posted by Tobias Zimpel

But then, according to steve, a highly conscious darkworker would also provide genuine value, but with the intention to get as much money as possible for himself.

True. There's no way you can tell the difference between a high-level darkworker and a high-level lightworker without talking to them (or telepathy.) The difference is not in their actions, but in their intentions.

OK. So let's suppose by providing value, I'm earning 5.000 bucks a month. when I spend 2.000 on myself, there are 3.000 left I can spend on helping others or growing my business. If I spend 4.500 on myself, there are only 500 left.

But again I'm thinking in terms of limited amound, and that by spending money on myself, I'm harming others in that I don't spend it on then. But on the other hand, I could teach them how they could make as much as I do...

Right. If you reduce your spending to $500/mo, you can give away $4500/mo. But if you instead increase your income to $10,000/mo, you can spend $4500/mo and still give away $5,500/mo.

Or you can help them help themselves. If Steve split his monthly income among everyone who reads this blog, we'd each get ... what? $1/mo? It's an OK model, I guess, especially since he has readers in places where $1 is worth something. But a better option is to teach us (as best he can) to generate our own incomes. Then we can get ourselves to $2000/mo, $5000/mo, $50,000/mo

• without Steve doing any extra work
• no matter how much his readership grows he still is providing the same value to everyone
• we have the ability to keep making money even if Steve kicks the bucket
• we get the joy of growing and learning
• we get to feel the pride of achievement when we manage to make our own money.

So which of these people provided more value: the person who makes $1,000,000/mo and gives it all away, or the person who makes $1,000,000/mo, spends $100/mo on hosting and equipment and time to write a personal development blog, and spends the rest on themselves?

At the moment I love them more than myself, but still that's a good point - that I should start loving myself more...

And that's part of your problem. In this case, there must be balance; lightworker syndrome is what will happen if you go too far. Then you can't help anyone, so you have a duty to avoid it.

BTW: Looking at people like Joe Vitale makes me wonder on which side they play. Joe is providing a lot of value (he's pumping out a new info product, book, DVD or something every week or so...), making an amount of money I can't even imagine, and spends a lot on himself, like on cars.

Like I say, it's hard to know without talking to him, because there's no way you can tell from his actions. I wrote about that for business, but most of those principles will apply regardless of how you make your money - you can't tell the difference between a McDonalds run by a darkworker and a McDonalds run by a lightworker.