An Easy Way To Find A Fight – Declare You Want To Make Money: 8th Letter to BodyChance Students


I’ve turned a corner in my letters to BodyChance students seeking financial success as teachers of Alexander Technique: what are the real obstacles to your success? In my 8th letter, I start exploring concepts that jeopardize success, starting around your idea of making money…

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SUBJECT: How to get into an argument without even trying – just talk about making money to someone who doesn’t have any. Which side of the argument are you on?

Dear Seito-san,

My purpose in writing to you is plain and simple - I want you to make money as a teacher of Alexander Technique. Why money? It’s a reliable way of knowing that you are actually teaching. My motive is entirely selfish – if you succeed, I succeed. Our interests are tied together.

First off, respect who you are. Here’s the facts:

-       you spend a minimum of three or more years in education
-       you spend between 3~4 million yen (30~40 thousand dollars) in tuition fees
-       your craft is highly skilled – it requires continuous education
-       you are deeply committed to serving and bettering the human condition.

That’s you, an Alexander Technique teacher. Are you now thinking: “Alexander Technique  is undervalued and misunderstood. I want to change that!”

Do you? Really? Are you prepared to do what it takes to make money?

As soon as the concept of “making money” comes up, peoples’ minds go all wobbly in the legs. It is common to impute on to money all kinds of confused and prejudicial beliefs. But a dollar is a dollar is a dollar. By itself, it makes no statement. One dollar, a million of them, even a billion of them - inherently there is no meaning. If you are Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, you’ve got more money than anyone else in the world, so what do you do? You give most of it away.

But you are only free to give it away AFTER you have made it – Bill and Warren got that part, but a lot of Alexander Technique teachers I know are still confused. What are your thoughts about making money? Will it be OK to charge a lot for your lessons? How much is too much?

All these questions go to your core beliefs, beliefs that are often unrecognized yet are powerfully shaping your life experience. Over the next few letters I will be exploring various beliefs that potentially jeopardize the very things you say you want.

In my next letter I will ask: what does travelling on a plane have to do with making money?

cheerfully

Jeremy

PS If you are feeling stuck and want to ask questions, join my circle of friends in FaceBook by putting in a friend request here: www.facebook.com/chancejeremy There's lots of interesting discussions going on there about my blog!

Comments

  1. One thing I would like to mention, and am very grateful for feedback about, is - is there a way to share the fact that folk around here are so lucky to have a working AT teacher at all without sounding as irritated as I feel; there are 8 on my county's STAT list and yet I am the only one teaching, they have all given up and gone off to do different things. I would give my eye-teeth for a share/lesson, but they don't want to even do that. I haven't put this well at all, and it looks really negative, but I feel it so important to not only reach as many people as possible, but also show that the AT is alive and well, no matter how many teachers aren't teaching. I do feel the various teaching societies perhaps need a list of 'resting' teachers and 'working' teachers? We all rest at times and that's fine, it's just not easy for people looking into the AT to find so many not teaching, and I really don't know what sort of quality/image this presents? Any comments on this? Thanks.

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  2. I posted a long comment about how relevant this topic seems to be at the moment, Jeremy - fb seemed to go wild earlier today with people I know having major knee-jerk reactions to just this topic about feeling ok to earn money in this sort of work. But where the comment has gone I don't know....maybe it will re-appear, or it's lost in the ether.... Hey ho, I will watch for other comments with interest; it's such an important topic - thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Annie - both comments got through. Hmmm. I am not STAT, and it appears to be their policies you object to. Good luck with that. Maybe a blog post, maybe not. I'll rumminate. But I guess at Letters to the Editor could stir up a much needed discussion. It won't start till it starts.

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