“Old age is like climbing a mountain. You climb from ledge to ledge. The higher you get, the more tired and breathless you become, but your views become more extensive.”

 — Ingmar Bergman

Steve Pavlina stopped by the Hay House office not long ago. If you’re at all web savvy, his name and Website will be prominently bookmarked on your computer. He’s what I would call today’s guru of the art of blogging, but he’d be too humble to wear this title.

To give you a little background, Steve just published his first book with us last October—Personal Development for Smart People. What’s most astonishing about him is that he started out as one of the attendees at our annual Hay House I Can Do It Conferences!

Yep, Steve was making a good living developing award-winning video games, but something was missing. Steve wanted to do more, but he wasn’t quite sure what it was. Then while sitting in a workshop listening to Wayne Dyer, it came to him. He couldn’t really describe exactly what happened, but sometime during Wayne’s discussion about the power of intention, Steve realized in his heart that he needed to move in a new direction.

Steve said it was very scary to take on a new path and leave his lucrative business behind. He started again from scratch to build his Personal Development Website, but before long the word got out, traffic bombarded his site, and money poured in. Soon, his new venture was even more successful than his first.

If you want some sure-fire tips on how to write blogs or conduct a business online, Steve is your man. He can help you navigate your way through any online challenge or crisis, whether you’re a computer geek or a dinosaur of this information superhighway stuff.

When I saw Steve, he immediately put my mind to ease as he offered his guidance on blogging. When we talked about the newer trends in social media, I surprised Steve a little when I told him that I just “tweeted on your twitter.” He just laughed, looked over his shoulder coyly and said, “You may not want to say that too loud here!”

I wish I could share my entire conversation with Steve, but he gave me so much information, I wouldn’t know where to begin, except to point you to his book Personal Development for Smart People, his blarticles (as I fondly dubbed his in-depth blog posts) and his Web site, which is a goldmine of information on almost any subject you’d like to explore. But there’s one thing Steve said that really stuck in my head about blogging: “Always give your readers something new; teach them something they didn’t know.”

Whether you’re a twitter trainee or social media specialist, I invite you to take this challenge. When you’re out there googling, wikipedi-ing, blinging, facebooking, youtubing, moblogging, digging, tweeting, or just internet dawdling, please share any golden nuggets you find so I can pass them along, and I’ll do the same for you.

Something I Didn’t Know…

Steve Pavlina learned the path of his own personal development in a jail cell. He was arrested for felony grand theft at age 19 and expelled from school. From here, he decided the best course of action was to go to work on himself. He founded a successful software company, developed award-winning computer games, and has one of the most popular blog sites on the internet. He now makes a great living giving away his best ideas for free on his Website.

 Best Line I Read Last Night:

“The Internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom.”

— Jon Stewart