2021, and Defining Appreciating Interest
In order to curate content for you, it must be very clear of our purpose for Appreciating Interest.
At the most basic level, Appreciating Interest is a curated knowledge collection focusing on defining happiness for ourselves and strategizing the most effective, ethical path for realizing this happiness.
A few rules:
Any information I, Alex Holden, share with you on this platform will be to the best of my knowledge at the time of the posting. I will be constantly learning and evolving as this journey continues, but I want my past understanding to be available as a reminder to show the growth of (always) imperfect information. I will be candid and transparent upon exposing previous flaws, because I believe the learning process is vitally important. When our ego entrenches us to our past positions despite compelling evidence, it is our pride and not the truth that we seek to uphold.
I will be using marketing and persuasion tactics to coax others into valuing their own desires for their own best interests. I want to be very clear: I believe this is to a positive end and I am ultimately trying to help you. If you do not believe I am doing so, I welcome any and all well thought (civil) arguments as to how I can better serve my purpose. These tactics and strategies will be very clearly described on this website for all to see. I’m not trying to manipulate, I merely want to show you a different perspective. You are the only one who lives your life; you have to decide how to live and your philosophy on doing so.
While Appreciating Interest is more a philosophy of finance than a method of making money, I do plan on making this platform a profitable endeavor. When this happens, I want to be very clear with what happens with this income. At the time of this writing, I have 12 visitors to my website, so I will address platform finances at a more appropriate time. My personal financial information will be very public. Some people believe this information is private (and I may change my mind in the future) but I believe the best way to earn your trust is transparency. Any books I read, or videos I watch will also be recorded and relayed to you - you deserve to know what is influencing me and always check my sources.
The end goal of Appreciating Interest: at the time of this writing, my end goal is to has someone, unrelated to myself, go through this system and realize a goal they believed to be a pipe dream.
In Closing: A New Beginning
Much is made about the agreed-upon end of each year, and this 12/31 is not an exception. For many, the first of January is like freshly fallen snow, endless opportunity for a new direction, a new purpose, even a different lifestyle. But instead of casting a broad net to change every flawed aspect you perceive, I urge you to change marginally. Inertia is just as potent mentally as physically; you can expend so much effort to enact sweeping self-reformation that by the time the ball gets rolling, you have no effort to maintain momentum.
For me, that marginal change is one weekly post for the month of January. I have struggled mightily in finding my voice, but if there’s one lesson from 2020 that I’ve learned is that the cost of me not speaking up is often far greater than the cost of my discomfort in the moment. Herein is my promise to myself, shared publicly to cement it’s existence: I will fail. I will fail often and I will fail spectacularly and I will fail again. I will learn each and every time and improve on my failures as I craft my message: Life is meant to be lived, and money is but a means to this end.
I want you to appreciate interest as much as I do. Its simple once you’ve started because you either continue, being interested further, or you discontinue pursuing that interest. You can’t know until you try, and so here’s me trying!