The 16 Benefits of Private vs. Open Communities
For 2017 I invested more than $10K to participate in private online communities (more than $15K if you include the associated travel and related expenses). For 2018 my investment has already exceeded $30K, and I’m looking to bump it to $40-50K within the next several months. — Steve Pavlina Today I dissect a long-form, incredibly high quality blog post by Steve Pavlina from 2018 called 'The Rise of Private Communities' — for Pavlina, the investment he'd made into private communities was better than Bitcoin. Earlier this year Scott McKeon and I established a private community called The Constant Student, and I've
What will you tell the world, that it’s not ready to hear?
Galileo Galilei spent the end of his life under house arrest, after violating the belief system of his time. The Roman Catholic Church imprisoned him as retribution for his scientific findings of heliocentrism — that the earth revolved around the sun. It defied what people at the time believed. I write of The Eiffel Tower Principle — the historic landmark also faced kickback and criticism from the French community who couldn't forsee what a wonderful gift it would be. I use this example to break down how and why people resist innovation at first. It took Einstein years to have his ideas adopted. In
The Owen Wilson Test
How do you know when your work is good enough? Keeping your personal standards high is a pretty good start. Beyond that, I use a cheat called The Owen Wilson Test. As in the famous Hollywood actor who often says 'WOWWWW' in films. (See here). An emotive, heartfelt 'WOWWWW'. When I send a writing piece or advertising idea to a friend I wait to see if it garners a WOWWWW reaction from them. People will not ask you 'is this the very best you can do?' and they won't always be conscious of what your very best is. So when something is just okay, they'll say 'that's good!' But