A Bit About Me and Why I Do What I Do!

For those of you who are unaware, I am a writer, youth advocate, life coach and a mentor. I truly enjoy all of those positions and I truly feel fulfilled because I have the opportunity to make a difference in somebodies life. Writing is obviously very near and dear to me because I am able to share my experiences, my views on the world and for the most part I try to write stories that make people think. My aim is to hopefully teach a lesson or convey an important thought or message to all my readers. Outside of simply trying to entertain you and obviously be exciting, my main focus is to always engage the reader and try to share some knowledge with them. There's always a point to why I write and typically I'm trying to save you from going down the same paths I, my friends, or my characters have gone down themselves.

It's very important for me that when I write there is a purpose, and I want it to be clear that I'm not just writing to sell books. I hope that throughout sharing my purposes and my messages with you that I also entertain you, and I hope that you recognize that it's all tied into The Josh Project and the work I do with at-risk youth. So for example, every book I sell, 50% of the proceeds goes right back to the Josh Project and in turn we are able to create more programs for kids. I am essentially helping to protect the kids from going down the same roads I went down and they don't even have to read my books. I would like people to read my books and see the stories I'm trying to share, then by supporting me and my writing, you are also supporting the youth in your local community. Sounds like a win to me. Entertaining story for you and more programs and community centers for the kids.

In a strange kind of way it's actually something I've been working on for the last two years and I hope that the public and the community can actually get on board and start supporting what I believe is a really amazing initiative. If we all live in a society together why are we supporting actors, writers, filmmakers, entertainers and comedians that don't support us? We need to get back to the time where we understand the value of a dollar and if we spend our dollars, our hard earned dollars, we should feel good about who we're spending our money with and we should demand that we get something back for the money that we spent. That is the definition of value, I don't enjoy just throwing money away. 

In other words if I go to a movie, and these days I'm spending about $20 per person and that might not even get me a drink and a ticket for the show, I'd like to know that the actors or film company I'm supporting are also supporting me and my community. Am I really that crazy or out of line for having these types of expectations? If in Canada, where I live for example, we spent 500 million dollars on American movies and the American actors or film
companies don't spend a penny to help improve or support Canada, why are we still supporting them? Maybe we should support some Canadian films who in turn build schools in our home towns? Maybe we should make these companies be more aware of how and where they make their money, and who it is that should reap the rewards? I'm all for helping others, but isn't the golden rule that we fix our own house first, then we go and help fix others houses? I'm very happy to see actors helping kids in Africa, but when you still have a major problem with the youth in your own backyard, shouldn't we take care of that first?

Now I know it's a bit of a strange thought and I know you might be wondering how did I come up with such a thought. Well in keeping with a lot of the stories I share, the work that I do and who I actually am, I had a dream about it and it was a very vivid one. As usual when I have one of these vivid dreams, I wake up and I write down some of the finer parts of that dream and in my dream it seemed like a fabulous idea. Why wouldn't I spend money with somebody who wants to spend money with me? Isn't that the natural progression of how sales even began? It's the natural way to get a good deal, why would I spend $20 and get nothing in return? That makes no sense to me.

I truly believe the time is now for a major shift in our consciousness if we can all start to understand and believe that there is more out there than meets the eye then maybe we can once again see a mild form of evolution. Let's have a big conscious shift and I guarantee we can initiate change and we can make things happen, but we have to believe it's possible and we have to start thinking outside the box. If we can get to that point then we might actually start to see some of the changes we've been yearning for for as long as I've been on this earth and I'm sure longer. For example, if when I told people I had dreams as a child that I could remember and write down, then I'd watch as the majority of what I wrote would come true, and the initial reaction wasn't, "are you crazy", then I'd know we were closer to change.

To learn more about The Josh Project and what we are trying to accomplish, please visit us at www.JoshuaStern.ca

As always your support is needed and necessary!! Thank you for taking the time!