Beyond the artistic endeavors that I offer, I want my legacy to be about how those endeavors are used. Although I haven’t made a whole lot of money off of being an artist so far in my life, I have made some, and for any money that I make through endeavors to come, I want to use that economic energy efficiently and effectively.
Whether I generate revenue from sales of my books or songs, poetry or other words I write, by performing comedy or music, educating or entertaining, I want to channel the economic energy I create along the same lines I used to create my best life on a personal level. Just as I cultivate good health in my emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual lives, so do I want what I create to affect the world.
And so I do address and reward the artists that contribute to the beauty of my life, the services I receive through other businesses, the engagement of my citizenry that contributes to the world I live in, and the community I help develop as I contribute to it.
And as much as I’d love to be known for any of what I do as an artist, my greater desire is to promote the idea of ABC Squared Economics, and the balanced cultivation of Artistry, Business, Citizenry, and Community. So perhaps my goal, or at least one of them, is to connect with people who can build the technology to support it.
I think I’ve done a fairly good job of channeling the money that I’ve made since I started using it again. Granted, I haven’t become an avid user of money in the last decade, but I did manage to publish five books, produce 16 songs ( and write a couple dozen more) take two motorcycle tours, and accomplish a bunch of other cool things that I’ll get into eventually. And even though I’ve maintained an income just above the poverty line over the last decade, I still managed to give a few thousand dollars to alleviate suffering for the homeless, hungry and needy.
I’m not just trying to toot my own horn, but if I can live as meagerly as I have been and still contribute positively to the world, then I think there’s hope for the rest of the world as well. It’s true that I do have a number of digital properties that can be reproduced ad infinitum, including books, music, and videos, but it’s a drop in the ocean of other digital properties created by artists all over the world. Imagine if we could give every one of those artists an avenue to encourage the artistry they offer, empower the business services that it employees, practice the citizenry required to be a responsible steward, and cultivate the type of community we really want to create as the artists of our lives.
In the new economy, I see us moving beyond enabling companies that see financial profit as their singular, narrow-minded goal and the supposed non-profits that are purported to balance the scales of selfishness competitive capitalism creates. What I see more and more is investing in social profit, and I believe that ABC Squared Economics can help us do that in order to create a better world.