Ideas in the Wild: Sam LaCrosse On Why Values Are The Key To High Self-Esteem
Sam LaCrosse believes the self-help industry is a fraud. We are not exceptional. We can’t have it all. The money won’t follow just because we do what we love. Anyone who tells us something different is lying, and yet, so many people are helpless today because they don’t know why they need help. They flock to self-help gurus because they don’t know any better.
Sam’s approach to living a rich and fulfilling life does not involve cookie-cutter slogans or self-esteem dogma. The path to a good life lies in discovering and honoring our own core values. In his new book, Value Economics: The Study of Identity, Sam cuts through all the BS and shows readers the way forward with lessons from personal anecdotes, popular culture, history, current events, and sound economic theory. I recently caught up with Sam to learn more about why he wrote the book and the ideas he shares with readers.
Why did you write this book?
There are many “self-help” con artists out there who use cheap nonsense like “love yourself” and “treat others the way you want to be treated” to make a lot of easy money from emotionally and mentally weak people. But you know what those platitudes are? Weak. They’re simply words that anyone with an internet domain can pull out of their backside and throw onto a Microsoft Word document in order to make people “feel better.”
This book’s goal is not to make you feel better. Well, at least not in the way we’re used to. If you’re looking for a book that will tell you you’re amazing, and you just need to find yourself and pull said words out of your backside, put this down and get you and yourself back to the self-help section. We’re going into uncharted territory.
And that’s where the title of this book comes in. In this day and age, it’s not enough to just have values anymore. No. It’s about our ability to use them to their greatest effect that will prove the difference.
According to the dictionary, the definition for the word “value” is “relative worth, utility, or importance.” The definition for the word “economics” is “a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.” That last definition is a bit boring and stiff. Basically, think of economics as how we use our resources, which can be anything depending on the context of the conversation.
However, we still have a problem. Seeing as our identity groups are all but disintegrating in front of our very eyes, it is not useful to define individual value hierarchies in the form of a group identity — that defeats the whole purpose. Thus, we must create our own values from an individual level while simultaneously making sure they do not get in the way of anyone else pursuing the same goal.
What’s an idea you share that really excites you?
We must know how to use our values in the proper way to navigate life. Only then can we have even a slight chance of getting what we deserve or want. Gone are the days of abstract statements and well-meaning words. Good riddance.
Value Economics is meant to keep you on track. To qualitatively and quantitatively reassure you whenever you question yourself. To let you know when you’re messing up and how. To help you understand what caused a certain thing to happen and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again. To keep a system for doing the most important thing: deploying your value resources. They are the most precious resources. They can’t be wasted. And hey, if you miraculously end up learning about economics, that’s great too.
But, most importantly, I believe this is the crucial step for reclaiming our identities as individuals. In the Western world, what made us so different from the East we left was that our culture was not focused on groups but on individuals. Based on great things and thinkers like the ancient Stoics and Enlightenment philosophy, our founders crafted a society in which individual responsibility and values were to reign supreme over the tyrannical collective. And they were right to do so.
Because a non-tyrannical collective must start with a non-tyrannical self. The warrior must first master himself before he can assume the responsibility of doing his part in the war. Only when we establish our own identity can we contribute to something greater than that identity. That is the highest virtue. That is what purpose is. That is what identity is.
How will implementing your idea improve your readers’ lives?
You must be seeking something to better yourself. You must agree that self-esteem, or our modern perception of it, is a little bull. You’re making an effort. You’re trying. And, in a world where not a lot of people try, where many people do things just to boost their “self-esteem,” that’s saying a lot.
If you do indeed value yourself, and not just shallowly “love yourself,” you will inherently develop confidence and every good trait that comes with it. This cannot be done in reverse order. It must follow a chronology. This is the starting point. Those without a sense of self-value cannot accomplish anything. They’re simply adrift, purposeless balls of bleh that are completely at the mercy of something way stronger and way beyond their level of comprehension.
However, when you value yourself, when you acknowledge that because of the sheer luck of the universe you turned out to be as un-messed up as you are, you can discover the abilities of competence. You can pursue mastery, which is half the equation of real self-esteem. You can become something. You can build on your own inherent value to create more of it.
