How to Create Real Value (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

How to Create Real Value

[Holistic Star]

Cool post Steve

[Holistic Star]

(sorry I couldn't resist)


I've been teaching hypnobirthing to couples to help them have an easier birth. At first it was really hard to calibrate if I was giving value. My first 2 mums had to have emergency c-sections so didn't get to use the techniques at all.

But now I am getting the feedback I need. My favourite comment so far is from one of the dads who had been awake for 48 hours after supporting his wife through a difficult back-to-back birth with additional complications. He gave me a big hug and said the course had helped him stay calm and support his wife through it all and thanked me for my help.

Now I'm getting great comments from my mums, saying that their babies are calm and the midwives were impressed with how the mums smiled through their labour.

Giving value rocks!

[WhiteCrow]

Yeah great article!

Serious though, it is kind of funny. I started my own blog two days ago, and the next day Steve writes the article "How to make money during a recession".

And now the article on how to create value. Talking about synchronities.

What I have discovered during my writing (I have been writing a lot before my blog) is that everytime I was hesitant about writing something (because of shame or guilt) it was precisely the content people got the most out of it.

I was having a conversation lately with a colleague about being social. And we were talking about how we are always perceived as self confident, yet we both are more insecure than we would like. We never talked about things as personal as that, but it lead to 2, 30-days trials to invite a girl every day for a date.

Thanks Steve

[now or never]

Wow, this was a quick response Steve!

Ok, first I'm glad you're throwing open the subject of value like this, and it's good to see some of the comments you made. A few points to add...

Firstly: Anyone can provide value- like you said, if nothing else, hug babies and give body heat... BUT... Assuming you don't have spare money (or time to waste) then soon you will run out of food to eat. Then you must conserve body heat and have nothing to give etc etc...

I'm assuming that most people would love to provide huge value in line with their passion or life purpose (something else which needs further discussion). And most people want to earn money from it- as you say we have to give to ourselves before we can give to others. Steve, think of yourself, can you provide more in any given day if you have personal abundance or poverty- be realistic. Everyone needs to get there and I have to say if we waste time hugging babies (and it is a waste if we are to reach full potential) then we fail to give to ourselves fully and to each other.

Secondly you said that homeless people are in a position to provide more value should they choose to than the people at work in jobs. I'm sure you can't be serious, otherwise be a taxpayer in the UK and see for yourself how much value most "dependent" individuals provide at our expense! But I drift, and to be fair most of them do create jobs for the police and social services.

Steve, I suspect you can crack this problem for the majority. Can I suggest as a 30 day trial you try to support yourself and your family assuming you have nothing- no contacts, no internet (still maintain current businesses like this website of course), zilch. You have no cash, you have overheads and dependents to support and you are not computer minded or into self help. Now read your own articles and create some value!

BUT I hear you say... your passion is aligned to self help/ technology and you can best provide value here. Sure it is, but assume it isn't- after all it need not be huge value- go and hug babies- but at the end of each month are you getting by? Was it wise to quit that job? You don't have to be winning after 30 days- but what is the most likely forecast of events from there? I hereby challenge you to thirty days as a mere mortal like the rest of us! What do you say!???

p.s. This challenge could be the most real value you've provided the masses with in the whole history of this site!

[RRR]

Steve: With the new format of articles are you striving for strong value? Was this article pre-planned or written spontaneously? How do you feel about pumping out info-crack? What do you think happens when you expose the willfully powerless to truth? What happens when you tell people to quit their jobs and they refuse? Chapter 5?

How can you transform your blog from exposing truth to others to exposing power and love? Can a blog do this as a medium? What is the maximum value of a blog as opposed to another medium (face to face interaction for example)? Is blogging providing strong value?

[Raphael]

Awesome post, Steve!

Time to share some facts: as mentioned earlier, I quit my job which wasn't aligned with my goals. (I wasn't creating or delivering value there either, btw) and
last week I became Toastmasters Competent Communicator. I joined TM after reading your blog ~a year ago :-)

I think THIS is awesome!
Thanks for your inspiration which helped me accomplish that ^^

[SuavePlaya]

Of course blogging provides real value. Steve provides useful information, I say it's useful because like steve says if his site was to shut down people would be wondering what happen to steve or his site. It's not really tough like the three stooges some people would say they provided no real value, but they did by making us laugh all the time. The tough part is finding what you love doing.

[bbdream8]

I agree with what Steve had said. Being able to take action and tweaking the strategy along the way is the way to create strong value. It will be great if one can really change others life by creating strong value, just like how Steve did it. Great job!

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

[RT Wolf]

I'm not sure Steve has ever defined what value is. I think he has given indications of how to tell when you're producing value. So, here goes my definition of value:

Anything someone else finds valuable is value created and delivered. Bam. Value exists solely in the heads of the people involved. As far as i know, there's no metaphysical entity saying, "Thou hast created 50 dollars of value." or any objective/external measure of value, its all in people's heads.

As an example, say I told you I want to trade your time and effort for a bunch of pieces of paper and perhaps some metal pieces. You'd look at me like I'm an idiot. Then I told you that you could trade those pieces of paper and metal for the results or values of other people. Now we're talkin about currency and money, which are, ultimately pieces of paper, but they have value in your heads.

You're creating value all the time. You smile at a coworker and they smile back, you've added a tiny bit of value to their lives. A subset of the value you create is value that you can charge money for (largely out of societal customs). For example, if my gf charged me money for giving me a massage, I'd be like...no, that's not how we work. But if I went to a massage parlor, I'd expect to pay. Since you're creating value all the time, you want to learn to focus it and your abilities to making your value as hard-hitting or as broad as possible. That may mean improving your skills.

Steve also suggests focussing on creating unique value that really only you can provide. This is good advice in a number of ways, one of them being economically. Economically speaking, the law of supply and demand says that if supply is limited but demand is higher, then the price goes up. If you do somethign that only you can do and is in decent-to-high demand, you can make a lot of money. This is also good for your sense of self-expression, because working off your strengths is a lot better than working off your weaknesses. Remember not to define yourself by your medium, but by your message.

Different people perceive value differently at different times and in different places. If I've just come out of the desert, I'll trade you the entire value of my bank account for a glass of water because it is that valuable to me. If you ask me now, I'll probably give you no more than fifty cents or a dollar.

Sometimes your work and other people are just not a match for each other. That's where target markets or audiences comes in. Your work will not resonate with everybody. However, you want ot keep getting the word out there so you can find people your work will resonate with, and then they may forward it on.

Another thing is to get the idea out of your head that if "you're good enough" or your value is "good enough", you will get money for it. This can really involve your self-esteem and ego. It's just whatever people find valuable. People pay hundreds of dollars to buy paintings created by an elephant. Have to be honest, they're crap. I know kids with no artistic training who can make better paintings, but those paintings (or perhaps the idea that an elephant made them) are valued at hundreds of dollars for some people.

[now or never]

Ok, so we have a forum here for smart people... agreed?

Which is smarter:

method a)
1) Tell people to follow their dreams and passions
2) Tell people to quit their jobs and provide real value instead
3) Suggest that homeless people are in a better position than employees.

method b)
Try to find a common thread, a blueprint if you like, of actual THINGS or ACTIONS a person can do from ground level to create real results. Such a blueprint would allow for everyone being different and would form the basis of a step by step plan that could be followed by everyone.

If no such blueprint is possible, where is the sense in telling people to quit jobs and hope for the best? Do you think a lack of money will really focus thoughts on creating value or push them in desperation to MLM?

[JeromeX]

Hey, lots of quiting-job promotion here. Quiting-job is not the only way to create real value and pursue your passion, just like a paid job is not the only way to survive.

You can learn to love what you are doing, just like you can learn to do what you love. You can always find meaning and value in your current work, even as a garbage-pickup workers. One of house-keeping workers in my condo is such a happy guy, and everybody in our condos likes him and repect him. Obviously he loves his job.

If you love to help others and lift their consciousness, you can pratice mentoring and teaching in your current work. I have tried this in my job before, it generated real impact in the team in terms of inspiration and morale.

Your mindset decides whether you will be able thrive in both work-place and self-employed business. If you feel miserable in your job, mostlikely you will suffer after quiting your job and starting a business.

Organization (including corporation) is most effective way to create and delive value. There won't be ipod, Windows if there is no corporation and "job-slave" (this is a quite misleading concept IMO). Steve's book won't get published without publishing house. Self-publishing maybe a new way to go, but it will still have to involve other workers in printing, binding, packaging, delivering, transportation, selling, etc.

[RT Wolf]

Originally Posted by now or never

Ok, so we have a forum here for smart people... agreed?

Which is smarter:

method a)
1) Tell people to follow their dreams and passions
2) Tell people to quit their jobs and provide real value instead
3) Suggest that homeless people are in a better position than employees.

method b)
Try to find a common thread, a blueprint if you like, of actual THINGS or ACTIONS a person can do from ground level to create real results. Such a blueprint would allow for everyone being different and would form the basis of a step by step plan that could be followed by everyone.

If no such blueprint is possible, where is the sense in telling people to quit jobs and hope for the best? Do you think a lack of money will really focus thoughts on creating value or push them in desperation to MLM?

Cool straw man argument with the smart people bit.

I would argue that the level of abstraction he is at when discussing this is the lowest level that you can talk at which it is still applicable to everyone, that is "provide value". If you go any lower or more concrete with actions, its not applicable to everyone, and his specific actions you already disagree with (ie, quit your job, start a business, learn what provides value through trial and error).

I don't believe Steve doesn't have all the answers for the specific ways to implement his ideas in your life. Perhaps you can buy consulting time with him, cause I'm sure he can offer some good specific advice for you in that way.

[RT Wolf]

Originally Posted by JeromeX

Hey, lots of quiting-job promotion here. Quiting-job is not the only way to create real value and pursue your passion, just like a paid job is not the only way to survive.

You can learn to love what you are doing, just like you can learn to do what you love. You can always find meaning and value in your current work, even as a garbage-pickup workers. One of house-keeping workers in my condo is such a happy guy, and everybody in our condos likes him and repect him. Obviously he loves his job.

If you love to help others and lift their consciousness, you can pratice mentoring and teaching in your current work. I have tried this in my job before, it generated real impact in the team in terms of inspiration and morale.

Your mindset decides whether you will be able thrive in both work-place and self-employed business. If you feel miserable in your job, mostlikely you will suffer after quiting your job and starting a business.

Organization (including corporation) is most effective way to create and delive value. There won't be ipod, Windows if there is no corporation and "job-slave" (this is a quite misleading concept IMO). Steve's book won't get published without publishing house. Self-publishing maybe a new way to go, but it will still have to involve other workers in printing, binding, packaging, delivering, transportation, selling, etc.

You make a good point, you are creating value in your current job already. I also agree that happiness and fulfillment and value creation are osmethings you BRING to your work, not just derive from it.

However, is this the best possible value you can create for the most people in a way that also fulfills your purpose? For example, Steve has previously mentioned that he'd rather spend his time writing articles, books, etc that help millions of people than spend his time home schooling two people (even though they're his kids). He's making the tradeoff between creating value in a somewhat limited manner (as one might in a job), with creating and delivering value to millions.

[Andrew Brunelle]

Steve, I noticed something about the links in your post today. I remember how when you put a link in your post in the past, it would open in a new window. Clicking on a couple in this post, they opened in the same window. Just wondering if this was intentional or not.

Other than that, I found it to be a good, solid post on creating value. Your first post was miles away from your recent posts and you've really grown since then. I've been reading since late 2005 and I am more impressed with what you are doing every month. Keep growing and keep this blog growing.

[JeromeX]

Originally Posted by RT Wolf

You make a good point, you are creating value in your current job already. I also agree that happiness and fulfillment and value creation are osmethings you BRING to your work, not just derive from it.

However, is this the best possible value you can create for the most people in a way that also fulfills your purpose? For example, Steve has previously mentioned that he'd rather spend his time writing articles, books, etc that help millions of people than spend his time home schooling two people (even though they're his kids). He's making the tradeoff between creating value in a somewhat limited manner (as one might in a job), with creating and delivering value to millions.

Not everybody (not even smartest people) can create and deliver values by his own in most of industries. Can you do marketing, designe, sales, customer-care, manufacturing, fund-raising, public relationship, transportation, quality control, accounting, etc. by your own?

My point is that there are some negative information here which will not help lift others' consciousness, instead, it will lower the consciousness of mass. If you think job is a modern slavery-contract, mostlikely you will trap in slave mindset as your own boss. Positive mindset matters in both world, no matter what you do.

BTW, I am self-empolyed currently.

[cheech]

I'm interested in how the concepts of strong and weak value play out socially. I feel like I've gotten pretty good at creating weak value within my social circle, by listening, caring, loving and generally trying to make people feel good about themselves. 10 years ago I was pretty introverted, and would have had a lot of trouble providing any value socially, so this is a big step forward for me (and as steve said, it does come just from getting out and doing).

I can't say with any confidence that I'm creating much strong value, though. I'm not sure how I'd go about it, and I'm somewhat hesitant about trying it. I feel as if trying to make big changes in my friends' lives is pretty intrusive and presumptous. I'm not sure I have the right to decide what changes they should make, and I'm worried that they might resent me for it. Does anyone have any advice and experience in providing (unsolicited) strong value to friends?

[now or never]

RT Wolf,

My personal situation is different. I have the best of both worlds- part time, highly skilled well paid job and my own business as a life coach. As a life coach I am concerned that people may take Steve's advice literally without a solid foundation for change in place.

My main objection is that if we forget the whole "value" thing for a moment and look at creating a balanced and "On-purpose" life, then the way for an individual to achieve that is through the individual themselves. In other words a coach will never TELL or suggest a client what to do- they must figure it out themselves essentially. So how is this different to what Steve does? Well, Steve asserts certain things as "fact" and here it seems a great many readily swallow it without question. Only a handful have questioned the definition offered of "value" for example. Still many struggle with purpose, or feel they should be doing raw food, or quitting jobs or joining toastmasters. These work for Steve but they cannot be right for everyone. For the more strong willed and independent types we can extract the best bits from Steve's articles and discard the rest- others I feel may be following blindly in his footsteps and going further from their ideals.

So what if:
1) We accept many people don't want "jobs", and do crave freedom, independence, the ability to offer more to society than they currently do and be financially rewarded for it accordingly.
2) They would love to know their life purpose but haven't a clue what it is.

Take case one: Steve's advice is quit your job and when you get hungry you'll quickly see how to provide value. Sure, let's teach people to swim by chucking them in the water. When they start to go under, tell them to focus more on staying afloat than drowning.

Take case two: Wanna know your purpose: Sit with paper and pen and write things down until you cry. How does Steve make these things sound so credible in his articles?

If Steve, and WE all want to deal with these issues, let's accept that most people haven't found the answers and instead of finding excuses for shortcomings in his articles, let's throw in some ideas and try to get something that will work. We're all on the same side, but lets get real, admit these areas could be improved and work together to do it!

[RT Wolf]

Originally Posted by JeromeX

Not everybody (not even smartest people) can create and deliver values by his own in most of industries. Can you do marketing, designe, sales, customer-care, manufacturing, fund-raising, public relationship, transportation, quality control, accounting, etc. by your own?

My point is that there are some negative information here which will not help lift others' consciousness, instead, it will lower the consciousness of mass. If you think job is a modern slavery-contract, mostlikely you will trap in slave mindset as your own boss. Positive mindset matters in both world, no matter what you do.

BTW, I am self-empolyed currently.

I think I understand. Correct me if I'm wrong: You're suggesting that people can learn to be happy AND fulfill their life purposes (ie to raise consciousness, bring joy, etc) in their jobs, and thinking about them as wage slavery is a bad idea?

Your argument sounds a bit like the "what if everyone follows their dreams, no one would be a garbage man" at that point though I might be mistaken.

My point is thus: I'm not suggesting we don't need other people, especially to deliver the value, however I am suggesting that a job is not the best way to deliver whatever value you'd like to deliver. For example, personally, I like teaching and sharing interesting ideas. I want to help people see the world in a new way, get a little aha moment, perhaps. I work part time as a night manager of a student center at my university, I can try to bring that element to my job by talking to others I work with. Say I find two or three people who are interested in what I'm interested in and we have good conversations and we all learn a lot from each other.

I can also try getting a job at a newspaper or magazine that specializes in writing about that sort of thing (scientific american or the new yorker, for example). I'll be able to get the word out to a lot of people that way but I'll be significantly constrained. I won't, for example, be able to choose my own topics, often. Unless I work as a freelance writer, where I have ot pitch ideas, but they still have to figure out whether to run them or not.

Alternatively still, I can start up my own website, be in charge of my own editorial process, I can do my own marketing or hire a marketer to help me get the word out, instead of relying on older marketing ploys and potentially have access to millions.

So, just by numbers, in the first case I can share ideas with maybe three people. The next case, I can only go to the maximum reach of the magazine (maybe a few hundred thousand and shrinking every year), or I can have to the hundreds of millions of people on the internet. If I define my notion of value to be how many people get an aha moment and see the world differently after reading my works, which one of the above three cases creates the most/best value?

BTW, congratz on being self-employed! I'm working on that myself.

[RT Wolf]

Originally Posted by now or never

My personal situation is different. I have the best of both worlds- part time, highly skilled well paid job and my own business as a life coach. As a life coach I am concerned that people may take Steve's advice literally without a solid foundation for change in place.

I'm sorry, I used "you" to refer to anyone, not you specifically.

My main objection is that if we forget the whole "value" thing for a moment and look at creating a balanced and "On-purpose" life, then the way for an individual to achieve that is through the individual themselves. In other words a coach will never TELL or suggest a client what to do- they must figure it out themselves essentially. So how is this different to what Steve does? Well, Steve asserts certain things as "fact" and here it seems a great many readily swallow it without question. Only a handful have questioned the definition offered of "value" for example. Still many struggle with purpose, or feel they should be doing raw food, or quitting jobs or joining toastmasters. These work for Steve but they cannot be right for everyone. For the more strong willed and independent types we can extract the best bits from Steve's articles and discard the rest- others I feel may be following blindly in his footsteps and going further from their ideals.

I agree with that. Pavlina wrote a post about how everything he suggests or other people doesn't work for everyone:
Trust Yourself, Not the Experts

And there is the danger that people will simply substitute society-inherited goals for Steve-inherited goals. I do not credit that as Steve's fault, if anything, he's tried to prevent it with that blog article. I feel that you don't like the way he says things in a matter-of-fact manner, as if it is "the truth" and to be followed. He talked about this in a recent article, actually, Calibration, where someone felt that he shouldn't do that, and he said that it is a decision he made because he can have the biggest impact on others.

I'm amused that in his articles when he mentions that if you don't have your own goals, then you're working on other people's goals, like landlord's, or shareholder's of your company, society, etc. Steve has goals for us, too. Point is, you can't escape this, and I trust Steve to have my interest at heart better than most other advertisers.

So what if:
1) We accept many people don't want "jobs", and do crave freedom, independence, the ability to offer more to society than they currently do and be financially rewarded for it accordingly.
2) They would love to know their life purpose but haven't a clue what it is.

Take case one: Steve's advice is quit your job and when you get hungry you'll quickly see how to provide value. Sure, let's teach people to swim by chucking them in the water. When they start to go under, tell them to focus more on staying afloat than drowning.

Take case two: Wanna know your purpose: Sit with paper and pen and write things down until you cry. How does Steve make these things sound so credible in his articles?

If Steve, and WE all want to deal with these issues, let's accept that most people haven't found the answers and instead of finding excuses for shortcomings in his articles, let's throw in some ideas and try to get something that will work. We're all on the same side, but lets get real, admit these areas could be improved and work together to do it!

Here, it sounds like you're suggesting his advice is bad. And because of the aforementioned fear that people will blindly follow what he says, they'll take his bad advice and be worse off. That about right?

As I said above, Steve is an expert in that he's had way more experience and done way more research than most people have, but there's no "one truth" here. It's really whatever works to get you to your goals within acceptable moral/ethical constraints. That includes whether you take his advice or not, and I would caution against judging him solely on the basis of a few posts, considering he's written over 800. There's something for everyone! I dunno how many articles of his you've read. He's written about a variety of ways you can do transition to providing value without quitting your job in the past. His claim is, as I understand it, also that if you do temporarily fall into financial hardship while you learn to deliver your value as best you can, that's ok cause it'll work out better for you in the long run. Do you disagree with this? Or am I misunderstanding your argument?

The second one, your argument seems to be that its absurd, not whether it works or not. As before, some things just won't work for some people, though Steve has tried to share the best way he knows how to find your purpose. You can search the forums for the people for whom that particular method as worked.

Edit: You do have a point, perhaps elaborating a variety of methods of discovering your purpose would be more useful to more people(though I do think he's done that). For example, his 20 minute method didn't work for me, I also tried the Passion Project by impaul, which was a great help, though still a bit off base for some reason.

[JeromeX]

Originally Posted by RT Wolf

So, just by numbers, in the first case I can share ideas with maybe three people. The next case, I can only go to the maximum reach of the magazine (maybe a few hundred thousand and shrinking every year), or I can have to the hundreds of millions of people on the internet. If I define my notion of value to be how many people get an aha moment and see the world differently after reading my works, which one of the above three cases creates the most/best value?

RT Wolf, I can understand your situation. Remember that writting and sharing ideas is only one of value creating careers, in which freelancers can thrive. Imagine a world that all people are doing nothing but writting blogs?

Corporation and capital market are most valuable innvoation in modern history which make mass value creation possible. That is why we human being created more value in this and last centuary than in thousands of years. I admit that corporations also created some stuffs that we are not proud of. But we can not throw out water with baby.

In terms of personal choice, say, coporation provides diversfied careers for people with different passions. I have been working in both worlds. My observation is that if you can not succeed in organization, you will have hard time to succeed in your own business.

In organizations, people with different kind of passions can create and deliver great value to billions of people together. You are supposed to do the fun part. Freelance is not most effective way to creat and deliver for most industries, IMO.

[Jake Birkett]

Great TShirts, but it appears that the traffic from your site has ground theirs to a standstill! (At least on my PC).

[yoopersmith]

Originally Posted by now or never

Ok, so we have a forum here for smart people... agreed?

Which is smarter:

method a)
1) Tell people to follow their dreams and passions
2) Tell people to quit their jobs and provide real value instead
3) Suggest that homeless people are in a better position than employees.

method b)
Try to find a common thread, a blueprint if you like, of actual THINGS or ACTIONS a person can do from ground level to create real results. Such a blueprint would allow for everyone being different and would form the basis of a step by step plan that could be followed by everyone.

If no such blueprint is possible, where is the sense in telling people to quit jobs and hope for the best? Do you think a lack of money will really focus thoughts on creating value or push them in desperation to MLM?

This blueprint sounds like it would provide a lot of strong value...perhaps you could create it and deliver it?

[now or never]

RT Wolf,

Your replies are accurate and correct. I guess my main concern is that we have kind of lost the plot on this whole freedom/ money making/ life purpose/ passion stuff. Whether we have a passion or purpose or not, I think most people if totally honest, would love more money, if not directly then for the freedom and independence it can give you.

I think maybe this focus on value is a red herring and in some ways it would be better to just cut to the chase, look at business models that have succeeded and imitate to some extent. I might be in for a kicking by saying what I'm about to, but a hell of a lot of people here want to provide value, and spread the light/ word/ whatever via the internet to "reach more people". The cynic in me says that sitting at home writing useless articles for web pages, and hoping to make more money for it as it is "global" is what's really on the minds of these people. When they're not updating their motivational websites are they really out there hugging babies at Steve suggests?

If we were all honest and said money was better then maybe we should spend more time on something like the Warrior Forum (sorry if I'm not allowed to make that reference- I'm unconnected to it and only heard of it a week ago) where they deal with making money more directly, rather than some of the mumbo-jumbo that goes on here... Only my thoughts, and I'm prepared to be grilled for them!!!

[now or never]

yoopersmith,

Like your humour- I'm working on it but don't hold your breath!

Seriously, I mean Steve said many times he'd rather be homeless and broke than in a job. Now I understand the mindset, so let's assume we really are in that situation (it offers a fair start point for everyone)- what are some of the things everyone could do that would:

a) provide value- if this is really important
b) offer a better standard of living to the homeless man than a job

Can you see what I'm trying to get at it? Wouldn't your initial advice to a homeless guy be to clean himself up and get a job, like gardening (he can't afford to buy a lawnmower for his own business remember)

Or would you give him a laptop and tell him to set up a personal development website?

[-B-]

Here's this for an example, which I hope is simple and illustrative:

-you work for a company, earning the company $60 an hour; you make $20 an hour.

-you work for yourself, earning $60 an hour.

Now, that's a horribly simplified example, that ignores a lot of other critical and important factors, but as an example only I hope it serves a purpose to illustrate a facet of the concept Steve's trying to explain.

[now or never]

-B-,

The facts are simple enough, it's the HOW that's missing.

If someone can't swim and I drop them in the water then shouting at them to swim is plain common sense. Just won't help in any practical way at all! I'm not doubting Steve's logic, just saying it doesn't help in any practical way...

[Fullcrum]

So you feel like a "chode", huh?

How funny.

Nice power aligned article.

[carenkh]

Originally Posted by now or never

Whether we have a passion or purpose or not, I think most people if totally honest, would love more money, if not directly then for the freedom and independence it can give you.

I think maybe this focus on value is a red herring and in some ways it would be better to just cut to the chase

Is this a joke? If you read more of Steve's articles you'll see that he believes chasing money is the red herring!

I wish I had written this quote down... it was something like if you don't have freedom NOW, there's no way money will make a difference to you. I've found he's right.

[now or never]

Carenkh,

No it's not a joke. It's of course opposite to what Steve is suggesting. For Steve to have an affect on the world at large, then the methods he suggests must go beyond a feel good factor and create results in the real world. If nothing changes, then he has created no change and thus created no real value. If the only change is the way you view your situation e.g. instead of being upset about being homeless you are now feeling a warm glow about it after reading one of his articles, then fine- great... But will this have a significant impact on the world at large?

If Steve and his website really wants to provide value and create a more conscious/ enlightened world then we need two things. Firstly we need our awareness raised to a level where we are prepared to rise to the challenge. Steve does this very well. Secondly we need the tools with which to grow. It is the tools that are lacking. All I'm suggesting is that if we want to have a change in the real world, as opposed to simply the way we view our lives, then other sites or resourses may be a better place to find them. I agree it will be a challenge for Steve to do this. His articles are always warm, reassuring and kind, but sometimes that's all they are.

During his juice feast he raised our consciousness (well some, not mine- I can't stand the thought of a life on juice!), and he listed the benefits of juicing and made a good case for trying it. During his trial it was a roller coaster and he was explaining his frustrations with the juicing process, emotions etc. But, he went a stage further- he included recipies, advice on juice combining and told us everything we would need to do to embark on the same. In other words, he raised conscious awareness and gave some tools. Does that make sense?