Balancing Benevolence and Personal Gain

I have been reading (cherry picking) through Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations to try to understand economic theory as it relates to what we do.  The following paragraph is copy and pasted:
.
In a famous passage, Smith remarks that a human being needs the "help of his brethren, so that "it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favor, and show them that it is to their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them".

Our goal (and our success) are dependent upon attracting people to what we do.  This is in the context of a social group where healthy tension exists (in reciprocity) between helping others for one's own benefit.  This is a core construct and this is how all economies function.  The dynamic between self-gain through advancing the goals of others in a group cycle over and over and over again.

The "marketing angle" or the message here needs to be focused on showing others what is in their own self-interest. This is because in many cases, it is rarely apparent to them.  The persuasion aspect, therefore, is to never confuse our own personal self-interests with what is motivating the people we are attempting to attract.

As stated above, human beings need the "help of their brethren".  We will be more likely to "prevail" if we can interest others' self-love in our favor.  We win when we effectively communicate "what's in it for them" effectively - and then teach the adoption of this mindset that will ensure the long-term stable growth of our business.

I encourage you to read this post until it becomes ingrained in your understanding of how we function.  It encapsulates everything we do.

Economic Self Interest in the Context of a Social Group

At the end of the day, everything we are about circles back to the premise of long-term financial security. There are a lot of different lenses we can look through to bring this into focus.  Ultimately, we "promote" economic self-interest in the context of a social group.  The "group" supports and makes possible the entire framework that incentivizes individual participation.

Today there are many internet-enabled ways to make money and most of these are talked about somewhere on this blog.  Among them is what I describe as the "helping people" model.  What this directly infers is attracting people to a community with common values and goals.  The process of educating - and getting people to adopt our values and participate in the attainment of our stated goals.

The point here is that first and foremost we are educators who have a story to tell.  Our story explains a viable and realistic path to financial security.  As a people business, our role is to expose as many people as we can - to who we are and what we do.  And - explain how and why we think we can help them.

The Working Poor No More philosophy is that everyone who is in debt and whose assets do not exceed their liabilities is among the working poor. This is regardless of age, status or current income level.  Most people, especially those we attempt to attract will have "relative stability" inherent in their careers.  They are meeting their bills, contributing to their 401K, driving a nice car, and saving for annual vacations.

At issue is this:  none of these people own their lives and are living life on their own terms.  This is not a judgment, but simply a description of how most people "choose" to live their lives in the absence of an alternative.  Our job is to raise this level of awareness.

Pursuant to true long-term security - in creating a parallel and independent personal economy - we elevate the potential for people to understand change and provide the structure and resources to bring it about.

This is a noble and worthy endeavor.