The concept of VALUE - a frustrated outlook.

[Mihaiio]

INTRODUCTION

First of all, since this is my first post on here, I'd like to give @MJ DeMarco a shout-out for his two incredibly well written books that have helped many people, including myself.

While reading the books (especially UNSCRIPTED ), a lot of my suspicions and observations about the world were validated, especially the more "human" side of things..

However, there was one topic that MJ seemed to avoid while I was reading both of the books…


That Topic? - The difference between "Want" value and "Need" value.


What is value?

Look, If a person buys your video game because it looks cool, and enjoy playing it afterwards, I have no problems understanding that you’ve succesfully provided both perceived value and actual value.

… but have you provided them real value?

No, truly – what have you actually provided them? Yeah I know they are “satisfied” and are writing outstanding 5 star reviews of your game, but what value is it really when you look at it logically? You just sold someone instant gratification, a major time consumer, an escape, an extended visit at SCRIPT world, and who knows what else.

How is a McDonalds providing "real" value? You overpay on instant-gratification, while eating unhealthy. Such value.

How is degenerative hip-hop / mainstream music that promotes instant gratification, drugs etc real value? And yes – I know it has insane perceived value and actual value, but real value?

How is any “escape” (fiction, movies, entertainment) real value when It’s distracting It’s very own consumers from achieving their soul’s wishes?

Like shit, I feel like I'm living in crazy town over here. As far as I know - the times I've grown the most as an individual were when I received real value - harsh truths that I didn't want to hear from successful people, getting rejected over & over again, being cheated on by my first girlfriend and so forth - all made me stronger in the long-term, even if it was crushing at times in the short term.

The Problem

Look, I understand - people want what they want. you said it best MJ - the market is a spoiled brat.

But that's the problem, isn't it? Day by day, the market continues to grow more spoiled by the day… Thought police, outrage culture, social media mobs, you get the picture - at what point does it stop?

Let’s say you’re a comedian, and overnight – people unanimously decided that only fart jokes would now be considered funny. You, on the other hand, would know that this is absolutely crazy and stupid, and yet – what could you do?

The market is a spoiled brat, after all! Despite how much you hate it, you’d have to adapt to only telling fart jokes from now on, otherwise no one would listen to you and you wouldn’t be able to pay rent.

You could be the next Patrice O’Neal, but if the market is too stupid / spoiled to understand it, it wouldn’t matter.

So basically, we are continuing to spoil the child, hoping to get ahead ourselves individually with an “Everyone else does it..” attitude… for the detriment of everyone else. Cool.

I predict the market to become even more spoiled than it already is. The more society advances economically, the less need there is for things that have any actual value. With each passing day, perceived value gets stronger (social media narcissism, dating app pictures, brand clothing etc), and it will only continue to do so.

Consumerism and degeneracy will only continue to grow, creating more SCRIPTED citizens. An Individual’s control will only get smaller and more difficult as distractions become more apparent (companies getting data on you, abusing your impulsive human nature etc ), requiring more discipline in order to resist.

It’s only gonna get more “want” based (perceived/actual), while real value (need), stuff that actually matters for both an individual and a society - will decrease. People and products that have real value will become unrecognizable from the SCRIPTED citizen's eye, even more so than it is now.

I genuinely have no hope for the future of society with the way it’s going. I’ve come to realize that Economical advancement does not equate with the “advancement” of the individual. (Although I'm starting to believe that since everything is relative, it will always seem that way).

MY QUESTION:

With all that said, my question to @MJ DeMarco and the Fastlane members is - how do I "brainwash" myself to truly believe that selling the SCRIPT to the SCRIPTED is providing real value to them?

As far as I'm concerned, that's just rationalizing away the fact that I’m taking advantage of SCRIPTED people.

No matter what way I try to spin all of this in a positive light, it’s just not working.

Am I being unfair here? Too Righteous? Too much of a “captain save a world” when the world doesn’t want to be saved?

It’d be fair to say I feel somewhat “angry” at the world for being what it is. It’s not even the fact that it’s deceitful that bothers me, but that it appears to be logical, rational & truthful while being deceitful, aka - a big hypocrite.

I feel like I came into this world with high expectations / standards of it and the human kind in general, only to realize that those expectations were almost to perfectionism levels – unreachable.

So now, It’s like life is a video game that I don’t enjoy, but I can’t stop playing it either, because there is no other option – you’re always playing. All that’s left then is to find something, a mini-game of some sorts that I enjoy or that makes sense (Entrepreneurship) in this imperfect game I was born into.

I hope I’m missing something here, and I want to change my outlook to a more… positive one, but right now, being only 20 years old from Eastern Europe – all I’m seeing is shit, and the only thing that has helped so far is not smelling it or turning a blind eye to it.

Thank you for reading

P.S - I'll reply to all / any comments when I wake up. Cheers!

There is a market for stuff that helps people, no BS books, self development courses that help, etc...

But, sadly, it's hard to teach someone to fish when everyone they meet say they'll give them fish if they do something (Buy this game and you'll be happy playing it, watch this movie because it's great, listen to this, do that, eat that so your brain produces happy chemicals,etc...), they are all INSTANT

They don't require self discipline, even aquiring information became a convenientce (documentaries, youtube videos that are explained so well, are so easy to understand, but at the end you remember nothing because it's not relevant to anything you're doing)

Self discipline is not taught, but it's the only thing that needs to be learned in order to go from a confortable path that's going the wrong way to a trip in the jungle that gets you where you want to be.

The only way to "save people that don't want to be saved" is to make them realise that they need to be saved, and explain how to save themselves.

Sadly, this is impossible with a market that works like a heat seeking missle, it only goes after what's interesting, pleasurable, instant and easy, preferably something that evryone else is doing and is served on a silver platter by a hot model.

Problem? School, governament, they don't want you to WANT to DO things, they want you to WANT things and they tell you the easiest path to what you want, by the time one reaches an age where things can be achived, the sense of what's possible is restricted so much that wanting to have an impact on the world falls outside the boundries, heck, having an impact on yourself is an achivement noteworthy of social status (Omg! this dude learned a skill that takes 6 months of 1 hour trainings per day to learn, i must mention this to every person i introduce him to, awasome!).

This creates a snowball effect for both those that go the wrong way and those that go the right way.

People that are lazy and think they can't do stuff will be less motivated and will feel more and more that they don't matter, and can't matter (wich, of course, because it's most people, is explained with "i'm not lucky", even if the road to success is, quite literally, one google search away, "how do i make progress in [insert important area of life]")

While people that feel they can improve become more like Eddie Morra from Limitless, from bookwriter to senator in a few years

And it all comes from turning off the damn TV and doing something (according to literally any successful person)

 

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[Mike Hart]

There is a market for stuff that helps people, no BS books, self development courses that help, etc...

But, sadly, it's hard to teach someone to fish when everyone they meet say they'll give them fish if they do something (Buy this game and you'll be happy playing it, watch this movie because it's great, listen to this, do that, eat that so your brain produces happy chemicals,etc...), they are all INSTANT

They don't require self discipline, even aquiring information became a convenientce (documentaries, youtube videos that are explained so well, are so easy to understand, but at the end you remember nothing because it's not relevant to anything you're doing)

Self discipline is not taught, but it's the only thing that needs to be learned in order to go from a confortable path that's going the wrong way to a trip in the jungle that gets you where you want to be.

The only way to "save people that don't want to be saved" is to make them realise that they need to be saved, and explain how to save themselves.

Sadly, this is impossible with a market that works like a heat seeking missle, it only goes after what's interesting, pleasurable, instant and easy, preferably something that evryone else is doing and is served on a silver platter by a hot model.

Problem? School, governament, they don't want you to WANT to DO things, they want you to WANT things and they tell you the easiest path to what you want, by the time one reaches an age where things can be achived, the sense of what's possible is restricted so much that wanting to have an impact on the world falls outside the boundries, heck, having an impact on yourself is an achivement noteworthy of social status (Omg! this dude learned a skill that takes 6 months of 1 hour trainings per day to learn, i must mention this to every person i introduce him to, awasome!).

This creates a snowball effect for both those that go the wrong way and those that go the right way.

People that are lazy and think they can't do stuff will be less motivated and will feel more and more that they don't matter, and can't matter (wich, of course, because it's most people, is explained with "i'm not lucky", even if the road to success is, quite literally, one google search away, "how do i make progress in [insert important area of life]")

While people that feel they can improve become more like Eddie Morra from Limitless, from bookwriter to senator in a few years

And it all comes from turning off the damn TV and doing something (according to literally any successful person)

Looks like we are pretty similar in our world views. Thought I'd see a part in your comment about changing my outlook on things, but it seems to me you pretty much agree with my observations.

 

[Mike Hart]

That was some sleep.

We have long winters over here ahah.

 

[Mihaiio]

Looks like we are pretty similar in our world views. Thought I'd see a part in your comment about changing my outlook on things, but it seems to me you pretty much agree with my observations.

The only way to change stuff is to change the educstion system (Next to impossible, at least not in useful time) or invent a product made for kids and teenagers (because they are still forming and don't have much experience with life, so they'll be more convinced to change) that promotes and makes convenient self actualization and use as a marketing strategy popular influencers (Say, a Facebook for learning stuff promoted trough youtubers, but it would require ingenuity, resources and some level of luck on different levels)

You can't make Neo do something about the matrix if he takes the blue pill

 

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[Rabby]

Making people think bigger or longer term still works. For some things.

Maybe not for selling soda pop, I dunno. ("Why buy regular soda pop when you can buy soda pop that gives you strong bones and helps you save for college!!" LOL).

But Apple made people re-think phones by offering one that did a lot more than be a phone. And Henry Ford said "If I asked people what they wanted [something something] horse buggies," etc. You can refocus people, if you want. And you can reimagine things. That's one of the opportunities of entrepreneurship.

But it's true that many people will have returned to short-term thinking, instant gratification states when they find you. No matter what you're selling... even retirement plans or college education savings plans. Maybe because instant gratification is built into our nature. And that's not invalid... we can't always sacrifice the present for the future, and gratification is actually an important antidote. And many situations do not require long term planning or big thinking or "responsible behavior" at all... if all you need is lunch and a coffee on your way to a sales appointment, all the thinking and plotting of a diet and workout routine would be in the way of what you're actually trying to get done.

The key is "when they find you." People often look for quick, obvious solutions to their problems first. As they should, in most situations. That's why it's so easy to market quick, obvious things. They're already looking for them. I think this can give marketers an overly cynical view of other people though. You see them when they're looking for something quick and obvious, like a cookie and a soda. But that isn't all they do, and all the other people aren't looking for a cookie and a soda at the same time. It's just a state, part of a cycle people go through. Some people will become more stuck in the short-term, narrow, quick and obvious searches for products, perhaps to their detriment, hence fast food. But most people will cycle between that sort of thinking and broader, longer term, more holistic thinking. At some point they look for subjectively better solutions, or they are at least open to them. If you have a solution for them when they're in that mode, or if you have a way to re-focus them when they're open to multiple solutions, you'll be able to sell to them.

 

[Jon L]

I think what you're doing is discovering what's important to you. Listen to what you're finding. If you feel that selling cookies/beer/knives/whatever goes against your morals, don't sell them. And, FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOUR DECISION.

There are a ton of people that think the way you do. They tend to gravitate towards the helping professions: psychologist, doctor, various non-profits, etc. That's probably how you're made, too. Listen to it.

If you want to be an entrepreneur in those professions, non-profits spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on various things. Help them do that more efficiently. A potential new client of mine runs a non profit that helps people with disabilities. How cool is that? I'd make a decent amount of money, and help him serve his clients more efficiently. Plus, I would have a good chance of helping similar non-profits who, according to this potential client, are woefully behind the times technologically.

...

I'd also suggest that you need to become less black and white. 1 cookie after an ironman race is GOOD FOR YOU. 100%. Your body needs fat, sugar, etc after something like that. Just don't eat 1000 cookies. Similarly, your body needs various essential vitamins and minerals, without which, you'd die. Just don't consume too much of them, or you'll also die.