The other day I ran across a video on YouTube.
It was a video tour of Thomas Merton’s hermitage.
If you don’t know who Tomas Merton is, that’s a story for another time.
But long story short, he was a Trappist monk who became quite famous for his writings. (Something I believe you should become very acquainted with if your goal, like mine, is to be a saint.)
Listen, the Trappists are hard core.
They live about as bare bones as can be. Heck, they aren’t even allowed to speak, for cryin’ out loud! They have to use their own hand signals for the most basic of communication.
I mean, they’ve got the mortification/renunciation/detachment thang down.
Anyhoo, so I was watching this video (which you can see here if you want) and saying to myself… “Wow! Look at how spartan his living conditions were. He truly walked the walk. What a sacrifice to live so humbly.”
Then I literally laughed out loud.
Because I was reminded of a time not that long ago — 2006 to be exact — when my living conditions made Thomas Merton’s hermitage look like Aaron Spelling’s Brentwood mansion.
After losing everything — for the 4th time in my entrepreneurial experience — I initially had to live in my car. With an 80 lb. Doberman, if you can imagine that.
Oh how far the mighty had fallen. (In spite of what I believed then, I’m now old enough and smart enough to know that I was not mighty. Never was nor currently am. I’m nothing. It is only the One who lives in me who is mighty.)
After that humiliating and terrifying homeless experience, I wound up living in the only place I could afford. A one bedroom apartment in a bad neighborhood in Gainesville, Florida.
No exaggeration, that apartment was only a tiny bit bigger than my home office where I’m writing to you at this moment.
Why should you care about any of this?
Well, one thing I’ve learned over the past year — and have confirmed thousands of times — is that darn near nobody on this list cares even the least little bit about what I have to share. (I still don’t understand why they don’t unsubscribe.)
However… if you’re one of the very, very, darn near infinitesimal few folks who do care… let me elucidate how my loquacious and long-winded babbling applies directly to you, your future, your financial security… and the survival of your family and loved ones.
(’Cuz very, very soon, those of us with means are gonna have to take care of some folks who, sadly and through no fault of their own, will soon be impoverished — literally overnight — and without means to live.)
Okey dokey, back to my impoverished living conditions…
Yeah, it was humiliating. And I was scared. In constant fear of being homeless again.
But… I had paid the price for more than a decade at that time (a higher price than any other marketer I know) to learn direct response marketing and copywriting.
That was all I had to save me from my financial desperation.
So I put what I knew into practice.
I worked day and night at it. With my laptop on top of a big cardboard box. The only “furniture” I had.
Four months later… I was making six-figures a month. Back when six-figures a month was a lot more money than it is now. (Thanks to the central bankers and their debt slave financial system they created to enslave and impoverish us all.)
The lesson?
I believe there are a couple:
- No matter how bad off financially you are right now, you’re probably not as bad off as I was in 2006.
- If you really desire… and you learn direct response marketing the way I teach it… you can turn it all around. In a very, very short period of time.
And since I’m such a dumbass and make sooooo many boneheaded mistakes… I’m sure that you’ll do much, much better than me.
All the best,
Doberman Dan
P.S. Speaking of financial desperation, if you want to see what I would do if I were desperate for money these days… click here.
Pax vobiscum.
