I am closing in on having written the Daily Thoughts for the Day for 18 months. This was something I was not sure I could do, but decided to attempt. What benefit others have found in this journey I will likely never fully know. I do know I have received incredible value. I have learned much about myself, about the topics I have written about and a whole lot more.
Conversations with friends in recent weeks have swirled around the expectations of people today regarding the concept of “free.” When my wife and I began home educating our children in the 1980’s, it was our assumption we were responsible for the process, including any costs that might be incurred in doing so. Today, the internet provides both opportunity and many sources on how you can accomplish this task for free. In some provinces in Canada the government will provide funds for you for home schooling. We often find parents who contact our company asking, “What can I get for $xxx.00? This is how much the government gives me.” I really have to constrain myself sometimes from asking, “You don’t contribute from your own pocket for your children’s education?
This week my mentor, Joel Bauer, in the one year on-line training course I am taking, challenged me on giving away for free, all my years of education, knowledge, experience, insights, and growth. His perspective is, “When you undervalue, or give away your life’s work, you are not perceived has offering anything of value and you are not taken seriously.”
This concept of wanting everything for “free” has been around the church for a long time. Charge for what you do and you are perceived as greedy, selfish and a whole lot worse. 1 Timothy 5:18 tells us that a worker is worthy of his wages. Yet, we are all guilty of the allure of the “free.”
Intellectual theft and copyright infringement in a variety of forms is alive and well in our world today. In fact it is often promoted and excused in promotion of the concept of “free.” This does not make it right, or beneficial in the long run. The pursuit of “free” often produces a sense of entitlement and at the same time a lack of gratitude, appreciation and satisfaction in life. The phrase popularized, but not coined by Warren Buffett, “having skin in the game,” speaks about having a stake, some sort of personal investment or commitment in what you are involved with or in. The concept of “free” gives you none of that and as a result produces less value overall.
So let me ask, after having potential free access to the Thoughts For the Day for the last eighteen months, whether through Face Book or email (you can go to my blog site and access all of the posts) for free, who would be willing to pay a small membership fee to continue having access to the type of information I am sharing? (Let’s say $9.97 per month, or perhaps $99.97 per year. The yearly price works out to approximately 27 cents per day).
I would really like to hear from you, even if you have been silently reading these posts and have never pressed a like or dislike, or made a comment. I am not saying I will move to a membership basis, I am simply thinking our loud at this point. Knowing you are out there, at least let’s me know I am not simply doing this for myself. Thank you for your response.