My Final Message: To Be…Or Not…To Be (Pardon Me Mr. Shakespeare)???
I have always been a bit of a news junkie…AND…I love keeping tabs on my teammates throughout the incredible Aerospace industry, so it is quite common to see me watching the morning and evening news, and perusing social media especially LinkedIn. However, I’ve noticed an increasingly trend in both media vehicles – NEGATIVITY AND INCREASING FEAR MONGERING.
Let’s be honest, these themes have existing for quite some time. But it’s just with the evolution of cable TV and social media, that the emphasis on these themes has grown to levels that would drive the most positive, wholesome, timid, pure, and honest, individuals to insanity. As opposed to the days when there were three networks…AND…“Honesty” in advertising. These networks would put in tireless efforts to verify their reports and they battled against each other to be seen as the most honest or the most accurate. And in advertising, to be found marketing anything not 100% factual would be a death sentence to the businesses fighting so hard to gain or hold onto their piece of the market.
Quite frankly, the level of negativity, half-truths, personal attacks, demeaning language, and judgement-judgement-judgement of nearly everything said or done, was driving me to the breaking point. So, on October 5, 2020, I started my own business (46:10 Ministries) to bring nothing but honest, positive, heartwarming, and supportive messages to the world. My platform was a website I developed called God and Our Country, which can be found at https://godandourcountry.com.
I put in hours of research for every message, checked numerous sources and public feedback, and have invested in the very best tools and security, to share my positive messages. I have committed to never saying a disparaging word towards any person, and I have also committed to not be influenced by religious or political biases. I sell no advertising, I charge no fees, and I will not share, or sell, the contact details of any of my web site members or subscribers. Also, a little over a year ago, I developed the technology to be able to send daily positive messages to our members every morning around 5:00am. I started doing this to share these messages, delivered to your inbox, before you start each day.
I do all of this TOTALLY FREE to my readers, viewers, and members. I don’t receive any money or preferential status from anyone. This has been done 100% by me donating my own time and resources. (FYI – I also take no business tax right-offs😊) My business is, and has always been, A TRUE 100% NOT-FOR-PROFIT !!!
With the third anniversary of my business approaching, I find myself at a crossroads. Yes, I have about 300 web site members, and get a few positive and thankful comments each time I post a message, but there is virtually no traffic on my website, and I honestly don’t see any impact coming from 34 months of effort.
I recently sent out a simple two question survey which took about 10 seconds to complete. In that survey I asked the 300 members if they found value in my messages, and should I continue providing them. I received one …1… response out of 300. I certainly didn’t expect 300 responses but I thought many of my 300 members would provide some level of feedback.
The conclusion this brings me to is that we are all so busy, that even positive messages and reflections are luxuries for which we have no time. Another conclusion is that my messages just aren’t good enough to spend the time reading. I agree when I started the business, some of the messages were too long (6–8-minute reads), but realizing this, I shortened them to about 3-4 minutes on average and I rarely exceed 5 minutes. In fact, if you average every message for the past 18 months, the average message is 2.3 minutes.
The final conclusion I come to is that most people don’t really like “positive” messages. They want trash talk, shock jock, and personal attack messages. Afterall, just gather around a water cooler or cruise through social media, and the majority of what is being discussed in based in negativity and is VERY judgmental. Ironically all the things I was trying to counter with me business.
So, I’m afraid the resounding message I have received from all of this, is that you folks don’t really want what I’m messaging. Be it you simply feel you don’t have the time for my messages, my messages aren’t good enough and thus worth your time, or truly down deep inside, you prefer the negativity and judgmental society of which we are constantly bombarded.
So, for a business, that’s what supply and demand is all about. I have provided sufficient supply, but there is no real demand from you folks. Thus, I will likely be terminating my web site and closing my business due to this lack of demand or better described lack of interest.
So, I leave you with some parting thoughts on critical topics:
· Prejudice and discrimination – I’m sorry but as long as mankind exists, you will have these biases. We are flawed people – none of us perfect. Thus, we feel we need to strive to be better instead of putting our faith and trust in God, and be thankful for what we are and what we have. This flawed human drive, turns us into judgmental people which leads to prejudice and in some cases discrimination.
· Government – Government will only do what we the citizenship allow. Yes, it is nearly impossible for one person to make government change, but as a community, society, and growing culture of active and involved citizens, we can make government change.
· Crime – Enforcement and accountability need to be our daily desires. We must empower and fund our officers so they have the resources and support to enforce our laws…AND…we need to take politics out of the judicial system so that egregious crimes have more severe penalties and consequences.
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Social media – This can be a good thing, or a very very bad thing. Better security, protection of people’s accounts and rights, and ability to control the messages and content, is critical. Provide enough protection for trust, and social media can be a valuable tool.
· Global Warming – I’m going to offend some people but there is no such thing. Temperature trends have risen and declined since God created this great planet, and they will continue to do so forever.
I AM CONVINCED THERE IS NOTHING MANKIND CAN DO TO DESTROY
WHAT GOD HAS CREATED…UNLESS GOD HIMSELF WANTS IT DESTROYED.
· The Media – We need to stay informed by researching all the facts…OR…we need to shut out the media all together. This industry is designed to invoke fear and angst and to do so by sensationalizing every story and/or report. We must do the research and know the facts so that we can live in what is real and distance ourselves from the hype.
· Last but certainly not least – We are bombarded with fear, worries, struggles, physical and mental health issues, financial issues, relationship issues, and violence and crime. All of these things can be directly linked to an absence of God in our lives.
God gave us all free will – so everything that happens can be directly related to us, mankind. BUT – God also loves us and wants a relationship with us. So, if we walk with God every day, talk to God every day, pray to God every day, and live our best lives, IN LINE WITH what God has taught us through His Word, we will have trials and troubles from time-to-time. But all of these troubles will be far smaller and much less impactful, than the chaos we are seeing today. TRUST IN GOD AND YOUR BURDENS AND WORRIES WILL BE LIGHT!!!
I thank all of you who have joined my website, enjoyed my messages, and hopefully found some positive reflections to help you along. As disappointing as this final chapter may be, I have enjoyed bringing you the true message of God and His magnificent creation.
When all is crazy, troubles seem to never end, and all hope seems to be waning, NEVER NEVER NEVER FORGET THAT GOD LOVES YOU AND WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU!!!
Be still, and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10
Thank You …AND… God Bless…All,
Kent Sharp
46:10 Ministries
