The Financial Philosopher

Please Help Me Become 'The Anti-Columnist'

"Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because the have to say something." ~ Plato

I recently stumbled over an online article announcing a contest, called "The World's Next Great Investing Columnist."  At first, I thought of the typical online financial media columnist, which is more of an over-educated noisemaker than a writer serving the reader's best interest, and how I would never fit into that mold.

But then I thought of the themes and purpose of this blog, The Financial Philosopher: Helping people find their way through the noise and distraction of the outside world so that they may become more acquainted with the greatest source of wealth--the authentic self.

Next I read some of the reader comments following the article announcing the contest.  This particular reader offered a cynical and sarcastic "formula" for the online columnist, which is to:

Create a controversial title to get the clicks… state some 'facts' you Googled supporting your title… intersperse some trite humor and borderline-offensive commentary… Publish. Next week, present a contrary article following all of the above.

This comment gave me the idea that the online world needs more columnists who write because they have something to say, not because they have to say something.  Therefore the winner of this contest should not be the "World's Greatest Columnist" but rather something the world needs now--something we may call The Anti-Columnist.

Please join me in my quest to win this contest and to bring the themes of The Financial Philosopher to a broader community and vote for my article...

Here's the link to my submission for the contest: Are You the Hunted or the Hunter?

Ironically (but not surprisingly) readers must use the Facebook "like" button to vote. I believe there may be just enough intelligent people who are on Facebook that can vote for the article to help us win. But I digress…

What's Next for this Blog

"As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

November 1 marks the fifth anniversary for the beginning of this blog.  As I noted last month, one of the top 5 lessons I've learned in 5 years is that planning for the future can be beneficial but the plan itself is almost useless because life is so fluid.

With that said, I won't give you a luandry list of "things to expect in the next 5 years" but rather some general things I know will occur over the next several months:

• Broadening Horizons & Expanding the Dialogue:  Avoiding herd behavior and thinking for myself has helped me tremendously in the past several years but I've also learned much from other people.  Starting next week, I will begin publishing posts from guest authors.  I do not anticipate guest posts to be frequent but I will put as much thought into selecting guest authors as I do the topics I write.  Next week's post will be from a long-time TFP reader who happens to be a thought-provoking writer.  Stay tuned for that!
• Seeing Projects to Completion:  I have several book ideas in my mind, on paper and in electronic documents.  2012 will finally be the year where I begin expanding to other outlets for the themes presented in this blog.  The first project will be an Ebook, which will hopefully be ready by the beginning of the year.  It will be an annotated book of quotations that will actually do more for the reader than provide inspiring words that fade from the mind and escape personal application.  The quotes, along with my notes, will be organized into sections that will methodically take the reader through an awakening progression that can help the reader live an authentic life of meaning and purpose.  Other book projects may come later next year.
• Moving to a New Blog Platform:  This point is more of a blogger's preference (not necessarily of great interest to most readers) but I will move this blog from TypePad to WordPress.  The move should allow me to create a greater look and feel to the blog for a greater overall reading experience and also open the doors wider to dialogue with readers by making the comments section more user-friendly.

Sharing my plans with you helps me to commit to them and make them reality.  So I appreciate your enduring this selfish reflection.  I look forward to sharing more thoughts with you and hearing more of yours in the years to come...

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Related:

Balancing Life and Planning

My Purpose is to Help You Help Yourself

Reasons Not to Subscribe to This Blog

"When I find the road narrow, and can see no other way of teaching a well established truth except by pleasing one intelligent man and displeasing ten thousand fools—I prefer to address myself to the man." ~ Maimonides

I've had the honor and priveledge of communicating with many of this blog's readers.  You are truly some of the most impressive humans I've experienced in my life.  From time to time, I also come across some readers (or I may imagine those who quietly come and go without my knowledge) and think to myself, good riddance.

In that spirit, here are some reasons why you should not subscribe (or if you are currently subscribed, should unsubscribe) to this blog:

• You are afraid of what you might find inside yourself once the layers of physical world distractions (e.g. media noise, conventional thought, social pressures, excuses for failure) are removed.
• You are looking for some kind of a shortcut (e.g. get-rich-quickly schemes, answers to your questions).
• You may judge me, your humble author, after reading one blog post or, even worse, you perceive value from this blog for an extended period of time then unsubscribe after one blog post does not please you.
• You think "self-improvement" means reading other people's words, becoming inspired for a while, then returning to your mindless existence.
• You don't want to challenge your biases or pre-conceived notions.
• You don't realize, if you are still reading, that all of the above reasons not to subscribe to this blog are actually and absolutely the reasons you need this blog or others like it!

"The worst readers are those who proceed like plundering soldiers: they pick up a few things they can use, soil and confuse the rest, and blaspheme the whole." ~ Friedrich Nietzshe

I could go on with a longer list but I think you get the idea:  At the core, I am a philosopher, which explains why I don't have 100,000 readers, why I am not financially wealthy and why I may seem arrogant or non-feeling to people who don't know me.  I suspect this may be why most philosophers in history never married (I'm fortunately an exception to this pattern).  But I digress...

My writing will never speak to the wants and whims of your brain; this is a job for media sources having the ultimate purpose of making money by attraction and distraction.  My writing, at least as it is intended, will speak to your mind, which will hopefully become the master of your brain and ultimately of your life.

If you are still reading, good for you and thanks for enduring my rare but sincere rant.

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Related:

Thanks for Reading The Financial Philosopher

Hell is Other People