“I am not a self-made man.
Every time I give a speech at a business conference, or speak to college students, or do a Reddit AMA, someone says it.
“Governor/Governator/Arnold/Arnie/Schwarzie/Schnitzel (depending on where I am), as a self-made man, what’s your blueprint for success?”
They’re always shocked when I thank them for the compliment but say, “I am not a self-made man. I got a lot of help.”
It is true that I grew up in Austria without plumbing. It is true that I moved to America alone with just a gym bag. And it is true that I worked as a bricklayer and invested in real estate to become a millionaire before I ever swung the sword in Conan the Barbarian.
But it is not true that I am self-made. Like everyone, to get to where I am, I stood on the shoulders of giants. My life was built on a foundation of parents, coaches, and teachers; of kind souls who lent couches or gym back rooms where I could sleep; of mentors who shared wisdom and advice; of idols who motivated me from the pages of magazines (and, as my life grew, from personal interaction).
I had a big vision, and I had fire in my belly. But I would never have gotten anywhere without my mother helping me with my homework (and smacking me when I wasn’t ready to study), without my father telling me to “be useful,” without teachers who explained how to sell, or without coaches who taught me the fundamentals of weight lifting.
If I had never seen a magazine with Reg Park on the cover and read about his transition from Mr. Universe to playing Hercules on the big screen, I might still be yodeling in the Austrian Alps. I knew I wanted to leave Austria, and I knew that America was exactly where I belonged, but Reg put fuel on the fire and gave me my blueprint.
Joe Weider brought me to America and took me under his wing, promoting my bodybuilding career and teaching me about business. Lucille Ball took a huge chance and called me to guest star in a special that was my first big break in Hollywood. And in 2003, without the help of 4,206,284 Californians, I would never have been elected Governor of the great state of California.
So how can I ever claim to be self-made? To accept that mantle discounts every person and every piece of advice that got me here. And it gives the wrong impression — that you can do it alone.
I couldn’t. And odds are, you can’t either.
We all need fuel. Without the assistance, advice, and inspiration of others, the gears of our mind grind to a halt, and we’re stuck with nowhere to go. I have been blessed to find mentors and idols at every step of my life, and I’ve been lucky to meet many of them.”
— Arnold Schwarzenegger
It’s easy to forget, but sometimes the easiest and the most valuable thing one can do is simply to ask questions.
It's easy to forget especially if you’re a writer, blogger or any content creator really. You spend most of your time thinking and analyzing, and then before long the only mind-stretching activity you’ll have is reading or watching fellow creators.
So it’s easy to forget the little beautiful thing that took you to where you in the first place, curiosity.
This isn’t going to be a typical blog post, there won’t be any personal opinions nor even comedic takes on topics of any sort.
This is where I ask you, dear reader your opinion about some things I’ve been pondering about the last few weeks.
Publishing 3.0
First it was Gutenberg and the printing press, then came Al Gore and invented the internet, and with it the publishing industry saw a revolution that dramatically reduced the need for gate-keepers by giving the power to the creators.
(I was joking about Al gore by the way).
Nowadays, anyone can publish their own books, novels and stories without any gatekeepers deciding on who or what should be allowed to get published.
“We are now in the greatest era. For the first time ever, with no fucking money, with no goddamn connections, this – referring to his smartphone – can put you on the map.
If you’re good enough, if you are good enough to be up here, to make bling-bling, if you are good enough nobody is stopping you.
Not fucking Donald Trump, not the fucking Russians, nobody!
If you are a minority, if you are a female, if you are a transgender, if you are a fucking alien!
The market doesn’t give a fuck!
If you make the best shit, you will win”.
— Gary Vaynerchuk
So the Question I’m asking myself is:
What’s the next step in publishing? And could steemit play a significant part in it?
Imagine if writers could start publishing online page-by-page having their readers following each chapter day after day week after week in their favorite platform… All while getting incentivized to do so.
Could this be an industry that would help pushing the steem blockchain forward?
After all, we are living among the most digitalized society in human history, and now people love to read online more than any generation before us.
We are living in a time where the attention span is different than other generations as well, so a page by page publishing could on theory make sense as well.
There are so many things that seem to hint that a move in that direction could be a smart thing for authors to do these days.
Meaning that on addition to selling paperback and Kindle editions, they could publish some chapters in steemit as well, and steemit gets an additional audience by introducing more people to the steem blockchain.
I’m truly curious about other opinions on this subject, and that’s why I decided to write this post in the first place.
Which brings us to the second point, and the other thing I'm curious about:
How could we help to push steemian authors reach a wider reader-base with their steemit-published novels?
Maybe this could help bring more audience to steemit, maybe it would promote self-publishing on the steem blockchain. I don't know.
But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that if we’re the kind of community that is based on continuous improvement and mutual support then probably we will be unstoppable.
Today I want to bring attention to the brilliant author and our fellow steemian @ericvancewalton.
When he first announced that he was launching his second book on steemit, I wanted to help him, I didn’t know how at first.
So I hired someone to promote it and bring more audience and eyes to steemit, and now it has a few thousands views and it’s still running, and will keep accumulating views for over a month.
But we need to do more, so here I am asking you about your opinion of how to help boost book publishing on steemit?
All ideas are welcome, let’s pick each others’ brains and come up with some cool ideas and community activities to help steemit authors with launch their new books in our beautiful platform, and at the same time hopefully add book-publishing to the sectors where the steem blockchain can revolutionize the industry.
And in doing so, I hope we solidify the sense of community we have here because as Arnold said, we may all be standing on the shoulders of giants.
P.S: Special shout out to @ezzy and to David @Kadavy and wishing him luck with his new upcoming book as well, I hope it's a great success!
Really great post, moving story about ur way to the top😊
Behind every man or woman is family or friends etc, so easy to forget.
My parents have been my wheels in life, beliving in me even when I didnt. Pushed me to never give up without trying.
If we have the passion and belive.....we can do anything😊
Ur story is very inspiering, makes me feel a little uplifting......oh right that was a upvote lol
Thx for sharing. U are an inspiration.
U inspiered me ♡
Great idea about boost book.
Love that:
we may all be standing on the shoulders of giants.
Hey Sara,
Thanks a lot for the kind words!
I agree if we have passion and follow it, we can do it :)
P.S: I'm so happy you have such amazing parents :)
Ur so welcome :0) and thank U for being an inspiration. Yes Im lucky to have great parents.
I wouldnt be were I am without them.
Im glad u have to...ur mom sounds like a sweatheart♡
Yes we can do it.
Great idea on the progress of publishing on Steemit!
Need to spread the information!
Thank you Deleni! yeah you're right, we need to spread the information!
"Rise by Lifting Others !" I Can just Read the TOPIC of your POST Thousand Times and Forget the BODY of the POST. Because I Can Imagine ME Being SUCCESSFUL using the Formula "Rise by Lifting Others !" Well Motivated !!! Cheers...!!!
Thank you!!
Talent must be heard. Help of experienced friends of course is also very important. A good decision to publish the parts of a book and to be able to contact the author. Thank you for your post!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
We are all interdependent on each other for survival. Every one of us is blessed with something to offer.
Thanks for sharing this @the-alien
.. I'm staying tuned.
That was a great motivational post. I love the story of Arnold.
As for Steemit, it's true, I didn't like to read online before but now it's my addiction. Thanks to Steemit!
I just want to say, this is my first ever read/look/reply/anything off Steemit, but might I say...Wow... I have never seen such a thing. I am originally from Cork, Ireland, and I absolutely love these reads. I too am a bit of an entrepreneur. I hit rock bottom at one point in my life after the military. Got consumed by drugs and literally ate the very dirt I thought I should be running on... Needless to say, I've had one hell of a learning curve some call life. But, I'm not here to talk about me. I just wanted to say, awesome read brother, and Thank-You... I want to try to launch my book here and see what you all ACTUALLY think... I think we learn a lot from others experiences, and I applaud you for sharing this great read. slán agus beannacht leat. ;)
Thanks for the GIF!
no problem sir!
Now that is what i call "Mindblowing"
Hello alien... where are you keeping your ship? Mine is invisible! 😊
Haha mine is invisible too ;)
Awesome post, loved you used Arnold, I been into lifting for the past 10 years and own my own gym company, 8 locations in California, loved the post!
Upvoted and follow you for more :)
Thank you so much!
So positive
Yes really positive
Good Quality post. We do not care some facts.
@the-alien
This platform has no limits for the medium in which messages are communicated. I feel as time and development progress, media preferences (video, podcast, writing) can be user preferences. That way, people can author in their preferred form, and people can consume in their preferred form. And for some, it would be all (written from for at home, audio for work/commute, video for lunch breaks, etc.)
I agree. There are no limits, let everyone shine with what they can do best :)
Thank you for sharing
Thank you!!
It's a great information about arnold
I know, it's a great quote he wrote.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a legend. Everyone should read his biography, he's such an inspirational man
Yeah I've read just a part, such an inspiring personality.
Arnold is awesome! I have a few of his work out books
Are they good? Do you recommend?
I don't understand the mindset of most people who treat life like a competition. Worried that when other people succeed they're taking away opportunities for you to succeed. People get so bitter and spiteful toward others who achieve success.
I view the world as a non zero sum game. There's plenty to go around, not some finite amount of success, happiness and love. I want others to succeed, to be happy and find love. I get happy when I see others doing well and know that my time will come if I continue to put in the work
There's all kinds of competition, but I think that you only need to improve your own self, and focus on what you do and maybe that's enough :)
This post is very interesting ! I don't know how the future will be but always better for sur ! And I believe the steem blockchain make part of it.
I think so as well, in fact one of the slogans I put in some steem ads I make is: Welcome to the Future! :)
Love that you quoted Arnie, and he is right. We are social, interdependent creatures by design, and we should help each other.
I was pondering putting some short stories on Steemit. I'd written a short story collection, and a two of them I could (and should) turn into short, ten chapter novellas. These were story collections I put on KDP that got no attention.
I think you should do it, and help others along the way.
Yeah helping others along the way is never a bad thing to do :) Curious about your short stories btw.
They are kind of like Christian Aesop's fables with a modern spin. I don't know if that's your thing. One of these days I'll post them. Thanks.
Good afternoon and thank you very much for sharing, if you follow me it would be great, I'm new to this community, I invite you to read my first story, thank you very much
Oh thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
I think as long as there is a community in the literature section. I feel like Steemit can make improvements on how posts are delivered to people, like the more obscure tags are difficult to access and it would be nice if there was a search function. Good vision.
I'm sure they're working on that, and on making the site better accessible for tags and communities :)
Thanks for the great comment!
Great post @the-alien, I also like the stuff you have been re-steeming :) thank you
Thanks Bruno!
Really inspiring
Thank you!!
I love how humble this post is, because every great man or woman had someone behind weather directly or indirectly, thanks for the read
Thank you for the great comment!
Your welcome I enjoyed it
I literally clicked on this post because of that glorious Arnold picture lol.. Who else did so :D
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What an awesome post! Very positive and very inspirational. I also appreciate that you started with 'big Arnie' (love him) and finished with Common - who is a bit underrated I think. As someone new to this platform, I don't know yet what the potential is for the future, but I feel like you've asked some important questions. So, I'm going to follow along with you and hopefully when I'm a bit more familiar, I'll have some way of helping out!
Racheal
Great point, Adil!
I'm sure that steemit could have the power to help authors significantly in promoting their work. What would be missed so far (and that doesn't only apply to books) is a better organization and structure of content on steemit.
Right now all these pearls disappear somehow and somewhere in the depth of the blockchain. Even if you want to find a piece of content you've created on your own you'd face some difficulties in finding it in your own feed.
A "book section", "author community" (since communities will come), a "steemit exclusive first pages corner" or however we might call it would be a blast!
The comment section could be especially adapted for that use having kind of a "review" feature (like you find it on amazon). That would be of special interest for publishers, too. They might find some new and interesting talents there...
SteemBook - Exclusive insights into the future of writing.
And until we might have such a feature, book entries could be simply tagged with one specific tag to be found easier for "book interested" users.
Sorry for the long text :-D
Hey Marly :) Please never apologize for the long text, I miss talking to you :)
These are all great ideas, especially "the review section" like Amazon, I think this is brilliant!
By the way, looking forward to your book whenever it comes :)
Hehe, me too. My trip to NY and Vegas totally absorbed me.
But now I'm back - happy to chat again ;)
The book... is parked. However, the good thing about a mixture of fiction and auto-biography is that it doesn't have an expiration date. It only gets better by the time...:-))
Very true
Great post! This is definitely something I would like to help forward in the future :)
Thank you Natasha!
Thank you so much for all of your help! I'm very humbled by the support this community has shown me. I intend to pay it forward whenever I can. Great article, man!
Here's a related post I wrote today detailing the results of the launch:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@ericvancewalton/is-steemit-the-future-of-self-publishing-a-veteran-author-s-opinion
Don't mention it, any time man! Hopefully we can do more :)
And you're right, this community is truly amazing!
Thank you!!
Yes, pay it forward.
Arnold very motivational , you might like my article jerry loved ur idea job site, u might like this https://steemit.com/steemit/@danlupi/ned-and-dan-interview-in-2016-on-block-talk-and-new-app-animal-safe-house-coming-to-steem
This
Brought me to where I am. Thanks to the internet and uncensored news. But first I had to be aware that there is a lot of fake news, fake science. I first had to question the 'truth' which was so readily served.
If I read any magazine, article I can see almost right away what is fake.
To me the question is: How can we accelerate this process for everyone? Steemit is definitely a step in the right direction.
This seriously inspired me so so much. I have been facing some difficulties career wise, but I feel a whole lot better after this post. Thank you.
So true, we live in communities and with people that help and shape us. No man or woman is an island.
Excellent post friend thanks for the information, I am new to steemit if you can pass by my blog there I am telling you what happens in my country, I hope your support God bless you
@the-alien very inspirational i have upvoted btw i wrote a story too have a look please
https://steemit.com/story/@diverse-thinker/blood-is-not-thicker-than-water