The History of Self Improvement from Benjamin Franklin to the Computer Chip

The History of Self Improvement from Benjamin Franklin to the Computer Chip

Author: Bruce Ehrlich

The desire for self-improvement is innate. As human beings, we have built into us, a drive to succeed. In fact, each one of us represents a huge chain or winners that goes back in time to the beginnings of our species. That's why we kept growing bigger brains -- these were tools of survival.

Our more modern idea of self-improvement has it's basis in the correct belief that we utilize the wisdom of those who are successful in a particular are experts winning moves or use their unique insights. Whether it we measure success by money, happiness, intelligence, creativity, social skills or a combination of all of the above -- we know that we can become better in the ways that we wish --- if we choose the right self-improvement tools. We literally can pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps and become the person we want to be.

We know that education in traditional venues, such as schools, colleges and training programs can help us learn certain sets of skills. But we also know that we can get the extra edge from self-help and self-improvement materials developed outside the traditional areas of education. Self-improvement has been around a long time. Yet with exception of a few books like the Almanacs of Benjamin Franklin, self-improve as course of action for success oriented people really began to develop it's momentum of popularity '30's and 40's with like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie helped thousands of people and became run away best sellers. I

In the 50's, we can remember Psychocybertes, written by a plastic surgeon, and by the 'Sixties, it was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintain that set the pace for the self-actualizers as then popular psychologist Abraham Maslow called them.

But this was just the beginning. By the time the seventies rolled around, Leo Busgalia was telling all of us how to love more and live better in books and on a special program on PBS. In the late seventies, Tony Robbins exploded onto the scene with Unlimited Power.

With almost everyone having a tape recorder and more free time while driving then home with the wife and kids, it was natural that audio taped version of self-improvement books would catch on. Certainly, Robbins books were popular, but an entire company, Nightingale-Cognent began selling tapes by an ever increasing number of self-help experts.

While the number of self-improvement and self-help books has exploded, the two books mentioned above -- Think and Grow Rich and How to Win Friends and Influence people still remain remarkably popular. In fact, entire training programs have been created to help those who can't get the entire teaching from a book.

Seminars are certainly more interactive than listening to a book or tape. I know I've read books and listened to tapes that asked me to do exercises. Usually I either skip them or fast forward the tape. But seminars, with their group setting, lend themselves to experimenting with new behaviors and ideas.

Until the mid-eighties, self-improvement was confined mainly two the three genres listed above, books, tapes and seminars. It was in 1993 that Mind Prober, the first interactive personality test was released by Human Edge
Software. Back then, with only a million PC's in the entire world (there are now a several hundred times that number, Mind Prober sold one quarter million software packages!

Computers, from the beginning, leant themselves to self-improvement, in a way that none of the previous media had. Unlike a book or tape, you don't passively listen to them, you interact with them in ways that are fun and interesting. I never find myself skipping through a program the way I do through a book or tape. And they are personalized in a way that seminars can never be. When you are in a room with 200 people, it is hard to have the material tailored for your needs. You vie for the attention of the trainer. And many are two embarrassed to try for his attention in front of so many other people. On the PC -- you can work discreetly and with all of the information personalized to your style.

Ten years ago, the president of our company, Bruce Ehrlich got the idea that he could put together a catalog of self-improvement software and offer it to the public. Thus was born the Mindware catalog. Five years later, Ehrlich took another jump, putting his Mindware catalog on-line as the MInd Media Life-Enhancement Network. Ours was one of the first ten thousand sites on he web.

One of the first things we did when we took the leap into cyberspace was licence the rights to publish our top twenty best sellers from the ten issues of our print catalog and sell them inexpensively. We have sold many thousands of these bundles -- which are designed to give everyone a chance to discover the advantages of software for improving their lives.

But yes -- we're in a new Millenium. With it, the computer technologies including multimedia and the Internet have turned the PC into the ideal medium for self-improvement that Bruce Ehrlich once imagined it would become. Multimedia CD-ROMs have been created which take a quantum jump in their ability to transform lives.This issue is dedicated to Mind Media's focus as we enter a new era. Below are some of the new features that you will be seeing on Mind Media Life Enhancement Network and some news about five new technology CD-ROMs that Mind Media features. These are the next generation self-improvement and psychological growth tools you've been waiting for:

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