Tough love
From CaseyPedia
A technique employed by Casey Serin's former mentor Duane LeGate in May 2007, in an attempt to shock Casey out of his complacency and make him realize the full extent of his problems.
As Duane explained on the 18 May talkcast (full transcript here):
There's a point in time, Casey, where you've got to sit there and look at yourself and go "What have I done?" If you've got to sign a contract with your wife, something's wrong. If you continue to break the contract that you talked about, something's wrong. So, candidly, my goal, and everything else is one of those tough love. And you know, Casey, you and I have talked about it many a time, tough love. We have not always had pleasant conversations, we've had some candid conversations. And the thing about it is, I'm not trying to ruin you. I'm not trying to hurt you. I've told somebody the other day: I would love to fly out to San Francisco and just shake you. I just want to shake you.
Casey was shaken, but not physically, largely because Duane's "tough love" involved publishing formerly private email conversations on leading Haterz™ blog Exurban Nation. Amongst other things, this graphically revealed the full extent of Casey's impulsiveness and fondness for chasing shiny objects. Casey tried to get Duane to clarify what he was trying to do:
CASEY: What is your goal in making it look like I'm doing something bad here? Because I don't believe I'm doing anything bad here. What is your goal with saying what you're saying?
DUANE: My goal is simply this, Casey. You have not had consequences for your actions, and, two, you need to hit - and I mean slam - on rock bottom before you're going to change. I believe...
CASEY: I need to hurt more? You feel I have more to go down? I have a lower level to descend to?
DUANE: Yes. And this is one of those tough love conversations. Candidly. This is. Because you have not changed your actions at all. Period.
Possibly because this conversation coincided with money actually coming in, Casey wasn't especially minded to listen. And by the following talkcast, on 25 May (transcript available here), he was in no mood to talk to Duane. Shortly after this exchange...
CASEY: Now here's a question for you. If you mean the best towards me, you have the best intentions at heart, why are you out there violating my privacy with personal e-mails?
DUANE: Casey, sometimes tough love is just that - it's tough love.
CASEY: Tough love? You gonna break someone's trust by showing them tough love and expose to the world personal, private e-mails? It's not that there was a lot of crap in them that people are going to find all this dirt...
DUANE: You're right.
CASEY: It's just the whole fact that you did it. Does that sound like a good thing to do as a businessman? What if your other business and professional associates started exposing your private e-mails? That doesn't sound right to me.
DUANE: Hey, Casey, if I was as out of control as you are, I would want somebody to intervene on my behalf. That's the bottom line.
...Casey cut him off. Which may have been Casey's own idea of tough love.
