P.S. – Jesus claimed to be the son of God. But if you don’t believe that, one of your heroes is a big fat liar or a crazy man!

Peace

Guys – I’ll admit you’ve got some points. Here’s some real information that I, well, on this blog, have not particularly mentioned often, if at all:

I have commonly seen myself in the past as kind of crazy, even delusional. The people that are closest to me have been the first ones to tell me that I am MASSIVELY egocentric, and often times this can give people a terrible vibe that I am trying to act superior to other people. But that simply isn’t true. It’s as you said – perhaps teens could get out and do more than play Xbox? I began this blog as a means to not just help others, but in form it has also been helping me, and others who know me will likely be able to tell you that it has helped to keep my train of thought centered on a single goal.

I never meant to imply that my accomplishments were impressive. Am I proud of them? Yes, I am! The things I have put together artistically are the things that I love to do, they’re my passion and have been for years. There is nothing wrong with showing self pride, though I do understand that I can go overboard with it and for that I sincerely apologize. I will try to work on this in the future.

All personal experience and what seems to have been majority opinion tells me that I am NOT a typical 19 year old – but you believe I am?

What is your point about my pursuing an Associate’s degree right now? It is simply where I am in life. I have not implied that not many other people can do it, or that it is worthy of noting as an accomplishment. A biography, even one geared towards marketing in a specific way, does not have to be about nothing but credentials. I’m a high school graduate right now, and I am perfectly aware of that.

If you feel that how I am presenting myself is giving off too much of a vibe of my wanting people to be impressed, how would you suggest I better present the information to be more helpful to the reader?

That may be what YOU say success in business is, but there are plenty of companies out there, including all those big major corporations, that are not paying people livable wages, being socially conscious – but they’ve got billions invested in them, and they’re profitable. Is this to say that companies like Wal-Mart are failing in your definition?

Barton Ct. Productions is a corporation, and a corporation is a legal entity. That entity can be devoted to any purpose. Hell, we could even devote that purpose to making toaster pastries just for ourselves to eat and enjoy. And that would be how the company could be defined: “we don’t make money, but we love ourselves some strawberry jam!!” The point is that we feel we are making an impact in people’s lives the way we set out to do so – by inspiring with creativity. That makes this particular corporation a successful one to its purpose. Money will simply be a tool to reach more people.

As for my book – the only way a sizeable audience could ever connect with it is for people to read it. The Island of Yellow does not currently have an ISBN, or any marketing money spent on it at all. I made a decision when I put the book together after years of it sitting idle to allow the book to EARN its commercial success. Do you know why I did that? Because I knew that few people would actually care about the specific story I was writing about and would not pay a dime to hear it, except for the few that shared the same feelings as I do. The book is also very personal to me, and for those who read it they often say it speaks loads about my personality and who I am at my core. If you really want to understand whether or not I have too much of an ego, or am simply trying to impress people – PLEASE read the book.

Jesus Christ as a hero on my MySpace page? To say Jesus Christ is my hero does not necessarily imply that I am Christian. I’m not, and I would want to be beaten to a pulp or run over by a car before I ever called myself that again. I’m a religious scientist, and I follow the belief in Science of Mind, created by Ernest Holmes in the 1920′s. Jesus Christ is someone I consider to be a powerful spiritual leader, and one who probably knew more than anyone in terms of spiritual knowledge. SoM is a belief that coincides with subject reality, and in subjective reality – happiness can be your shining beacon for which to aspire to. And is holiness unhappy? If it is, I never want to be holy.

What would you suggest a better name for this blog to be? Scott Free Thinking was something I came up with in a quick flash and I thought it had a great ring to it, but what would work better? You’re spending a lot of time criticizing my pride, but what could I do to make things better? This is what I deal with on a consistent basis – people usually just say, “this sucks,” rather than taking the time to tell me what could be done better. I had to talk to at least a dozen people the first time I finished a short film to actually get a specific piece of advice from them. Virtually everyone I talk to would just say, “I don’t know what could be done to improve it, I just don’t like it.” Why? “I don’t know, I just don’t…” So, please, tell me – what can be done?

I don’t see where he was saying that. He was referring to you exaggerating your businesses and hobbies to get us to listen to what you say. You don’t ever say, “I’m just a typical 19 year old, but maybe there’s some truth written here.” Instead you say, “look at me, look at my businesses, look at my books….listen to me.”

You can’t have it both ways. You offer up all your accomplishments as your impressive “I don’t want to brag” vitae in place of “certificates, the numbers, or the market” but yet want success to be quantified as “happiness”.

On your myspace page, you list Jesus Christ as a hero, but no where in your writings on this blog do you confess him or include tenets of Christianity. In fact, any studied follower of Christ knows that He doesn’t guarantee a life of happiness here on Earth. Christ wants lives of holiness, not happiness.

Actually, anyone CAN write a book. Not everyone can write a book worth reading (or buying.) The answer to who’s going to explore themselves in a literary way, again, more than you purport. It’s called a dairy or blog. The fact that you sent a Word doc or PDF of it to a vanity press is not an impressive accomplishment.

You said: “Numbers cannot be applied to lifetime happiness, only heart can be happiness – and happiness is what creates a successful life.”

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In other words, it’s subjective. I would say your hypothesis is that happiness/success is the same thing; in the eye of the beholder and subjective. The problem is, you quantify the totality of your ‘accomplishments’ as your qualifications for you to be heard, being successful or set apart from other teens, but yet you shun quantifying the financial success and whether the companies and books created actually had a connection with a sizeable audience.

Because the fact is, success in business isn’t Scott paying someone to publish his book and Mary Lou at the trailer park starting a business selling crocheted toaster cozies just because they DID it. Success in business is growing a profitable company that connects with an audience, meets a need, and pays a livable wage to its employees. HOW successful is a comparison of that company with other like companies in the same categories, that’s why there’s a Fortune 500 and an Inc Top 50.

Are you a self-starter? No question. Are you confident? Some might say overly. Are you a good businessman because you’ve started businesses? Hardly! Are you a successful author because you paid someone to self-publish your book? Please.

Scott, there’s no question you are a successful hobbyist. But until you demonstrate true business success, they’re just hobbies. A little dose of humble pie never hurts, and your resume/ego inflation doesn’t fool anyone. “Pursuing your Associates Degree in Psychology”? Everyone knows an Associates degree is a community college certificate in general studies with a small number of 100 or 200 level classes that any freshman in college or grandma with time on her hands can take.

My advice (along with most life coaches) is to find one thing you’re good at and that you’re passionate about and stick with it. Designing tshirts, making short films, writing pop psychology, whichever. But maybe take a hard look at toning down your propensity to build yourself up into more than you are. It just shows your immaturity and lack of comfort in living in reality. The fact is you’ve started a lot of things that most teens would not have. FACT, FACT, FACT!

But all the verbosity inflating your ventures into sounding like things that they’re not, doesn’t accomplish your goal, which I thought was to show that young people can be motivated to do more than play Xbox. While your accomplishments show you’re unafraid of taking risks, the way you present them shows you SO want people to be impressed, but they’re just not as impressive as you think they are. They show initiative, but that’s it. They don’t show business savvy, a connection with a specific audience or demographic, or profitability.

Unfortunately, whether this is reality or not, you present yourself as an narcissistic egomaniac. And positive thinking aside, there’s nothing healthy psychologically about that.

You say happiness is what creates a successful life. Then stop the egocentric inflated language and self promotion. Pursue your hobbies and education without regards for financial success. I’ll be the first to say, “good for you, I’m glad you’re happy.” But just realize when you hold yourself up for examination saying, “look at me and what I’ve done and what I’ve written!”, some people are actually going take a closer look and see if there’s any substance.

P.S.- I get the Scott Free Thinking now that you explained it, but if a blog was titled “Sugar Free Thinking”…I think PTDW has a point as far as poor branding.

If it means that to you and you like it, great (hobby). It you study branding for a business, it’s all about the customer/reader’s first impression/thought.

My company has been very successful on its current scale, and we are accomplishing more with it than we initially thought we ever could. What measures a company’s success? Its money? Its mission? Its creative accomplishments? Barton Ct. has done more for us than high school or our parents probably did on the creative, or even professional front. In that aspect, it is a very successful company that I love, both in its principle and the people that have made it what it is.

Writing a book is something that not everyone can do; is everyone in the world going to take the time to sit down and explore themselves in a literary medium? Will everyone take the effort and energy to churn out over a hundred pages of self exploration, or even attempt to creative a beautiful story to share with others? Absolutely not, the point of this idea is that for someone to successfully start and finish writing a book shows that they have a certain kind of initiative, a passion, a fire. I’m well aware anyone can use a vanity press – and who cares how many copies of my book have sold? Was I writing it for the people that buy it or was I writing it to tell a story? Writing has never been about making money or becoming popular, or at least…it definitely didn’t start that way.

Sure, anyone can use on-demand services like CafePress, but is CafePress or the sales reports what I’m boasting about? No, sir. It’s the creativity. A person can print some text on a shirt and get another to laugh, another might be able to take their beautiful hand drawn artwork and produce a design that no one else has ever created before. It’s about originality, it’s about expression.

The only one being pompous would have to be you, because you are too concerned with finding someone who has genuine credibility to you. Since I do not have the certificates, the numbers, or the market – you’re assuming that you should not listen to what I have to say. What you might later realize is that your discrediting of someone due to their commercial success is actually a highlight of how your own commercial success is non-existent. If it bothers you that I do not have the things you’re seeking, it also bothers you that you do not have what you want either.

Teenagers, or even adults, children, human BEINGS in general are not supposed to be measured by their achievements or super achievements. Our brains do not function by terms of numbers alone; you can learn a lifetime of lessons from the mentally retarded just as quickly as you can from a high IQ college professor; they’re simply different fields of knowledge, one based on syntax, the other based on experience. One has value in one area, the other in another.

What I would like to suggest is that for those who read about success and achievement, desiring it for themselves, measure it not by numbers, measure it by heart. Numbers cannot be applied to lifetime happiness, only heart can be happiness – and happiness is what creates a successful life.

And as far as a company founded by a teen, lots of people “found” companies. It’s in measuring the company’s success that the company’s founder is deemed a success. Would you care to share details, yearly net profits, etc.?

Same with “writing a book”. Lulu.com and other ‘vanity presses’ will let anyone publish a book for a price. How many copies have sold of your books?

I’m not trying to pile on here, but so far all I’m reading is nothing new (ala Tony Robbins, The Secret, etc.) In fact, all of the “created a store in partnership with CafePress” is a tad deceptive as well. Anyone with an uploadable gif or jpeg can print tshirts and mugs on CafePress. It’s like saying I created an online newspaper distributed daily in partnership with Hotmail. A tad pompous IMHO.