‍One of society’s greatest lies is that employment is stable.

And one of society’s greatest blind spots is that the same technologies which are disrupting the workforce can enable you to create your own stability (from your couch).

Technology has been disrupting workforces since the plow was invented in 3000 B.C.

In the 1980s, the drum machine was invented.

Until then, music producers had been paying human drummers $50 an hour (which could add up to thousands when recording a whole album).

But suddenly, those producers could buy a Roland TR-808 for just $1195. This thing would record as many albums as they wanted, and it’d never bring cocaine onto their premises.

This is why so many 80s records feature that digital drum sound. There’s just no arguing with economics like that.

In 2024, job security is actually lower than ever.¹

And if you’re a freelancer, you’re not much safer.

Unless you’re differentiated, AI is coming for you.

In other words, if another person can do your job, AI probably can too. And it will do it more efficiently, for no pay, and without ever needing a vacation.

For most employers, replacing humans with AI is—or will soon be—a no-brainer.

So what should you do?

Should you specialize further? Nope. AI will catch up with you sooner or later.

Should you diversify? Nope. You’ll never compete with the kind of skill stacks AI will be offering in 5 years.

Should you retrain into something else entirely? Nope. If you can be trained in something, AI can be too.

There’s only one solution: to take total control of your own financial destiny. And I’ll tell you exactly how a little way down this page.

But first I need to dispel a myth that’ll get in your way…

The Myth of “Money Is Evil”

Most people have some kind of limiting belief around money, and every one of them comes back to this deep-rooted cultural assumption that money is somehow evil.

But if you take a coin or banknote, you only need to examine it briefly to see that there’s nothing “evil” about it. These things can’t be evil: they’re inanimate objects.

Certainly, the code that represents digital money can’t be said to be evil, either.

Perhaps then it’s the idea of money that’s evil?

Well, that depends on who you talk to.

One person may have been victim to fraud, lost everything dear to them, and therefore believe money is evil.

But another person may have had a series of hard-won business successes, and therefore believe money is “good”.

“Believe” is the important word here.

The truth is, money is neither good nor evil.

Only human beings are good or evil.

The confusion lies in the fact that money is a tool by which that good or evil can be carried out on massive scales.

Money Misinterpretation

"For the love of money is the root of all evil.” - 1 Timothy 6:10

This is the famous passage from the bible that so many people misquote, then use as support for the claim that money is evil.

But precision is vital when working with text. Unlike speakers, authors can’t give tone to their words to help with interpretation.

When we’re precise with the above quote, we see that the words “love of” are the important ones here.

It’s the love of money that leads to selfishness.

It’s the love of money that leads to greed.

It’s the love of money that leads to exploitation.

And never was there more exploitation than during the industrial revolution.

Money Madness

In 1788, 66% of the British textile workforce were children.²

They put in 15 hours a day, 6 days a week, with minimal breaks.

They earned just $20 per week (adjusted for inflation).

Meanwhile, factory owners sipped champagne, rode horses and made millions in their sleep.

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This was life for four and a half generations of people all over the world (this was at the peak of the British Empire).

The exploitation of labour is the primary cause of the cultural assumption that money is evil.

It had been going on for centuries before the industrial revolution, and it’s still going on in the developing world today.

And hell, I get it—I’d be thinking the same if I were in that factory 6 days a week.

So how did these factory owners live with themselves?

Money Ministry

Those factory owners attended churches where the congregation was upper class.

The ministers knew their audiences well, and knew what they wanted to hear.

What would you want to hear if you were profiteering off of great misery? You’d probably want to hear things like:

• ‍“Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to gain their favour, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.” - Colossians 3:22-24‍
• “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” - Romans 13:1-2‍
• “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it.” - Proverbs 10:22

Spirituality & Religion Are Not a Package Deal

Plenty of people to this day are religious without being spiritual. Consider the “Christian Right” in U.S. politics, who routinely block efforts toward affordable healthcare.

Religion is based on rules, whereas genuine spirituality transcends rules.

Authentic spiritual teachings encourage practitioners to examine—in their own direct experience—what is and is not for the benefit of the humanity.

My monk teacher told me to imagine Buddhist religion as an ornate box. Inside this box, he said, is the wisdom of the Buddha. And if you know how to carefully reach inside the box and take the wisdom, then you can throw the box away.

In fact, the Buddha taught that attachment to rites, rules and rituals must be the first thing to abandon on the path to realization.

When Ziji Rinpoche was asked, “how do you know when someone is really enlightened?” she said that it’s delightfully simple.“Someone who is enlightened,” Rinpoche said, “is of benefit.”

Spirituality is The Ultimate Business Plan

Unlike those factory owners, you no longer have to exploit people if you want to earn a lot of money.

• In 1850, people made goods by hand. In 2024, your goods can be entirely digital.
• In 1850, people sold goods at physical marketplaces. In 2024, the marketplace is in everyone’s pocket 24/7.
• In 1850, people delivered messages by hand. In 2024… well, look at how you and I are interfacing right now.

Traditionally, genuine spirituality (as distinct from religion) was incompatible with business. Because it’s impossible to experience inner peace while exploiting others for selfish gain. It just doesn’t feel good. It’s only possible when one is deeply confused regarding the nature of satisfaction.

*But with these advances in technology it’s become possible to earn a lot of money without a single employee. (*And without causing pollution or creating any other problem for any other person.)

In fact—as you may have heard from me before—the best way to earn money in 2024 is to help people.

It’s not just that keeping spirituality and business apart is a bad idea… It’s that bringing spirituality and business together is a great idea.

Of course, teachers who are entrenched in spiritual traditions will continue to preach old rules. My monk teacher—well into his 70s—simply couldn’t process how different things are now.

So I had to make a choice:

1. Follow the old rules and satisfy my teacher
2. Abandon the rules and do what was necessary to help the largest number of people

If I’d chosen number 1 you wouldn’t be reading this post.

So What is Genuine Spirituality, Exactly?

Well, it depends who you talk to. And this frustrated me for a solid 2 years.

I studied intensively throughout that time to get to the bottom of the question. And I found that all spiritual teachings can be divided into two camps:

1. Additive spirituality
2. Subtractive spirituality

In additive spirituality, the recommendation is to use rites, rules and rituals to change yourself into something better:

• If you’re angry, you must cultivate peace
• If you’re miserable, you must cultivate joy
• If you’re selfish, you must cultivate compassion

But in subtractive spirituality, the recommendation is to simply relax out of anger, misery and selfishness. Because these are mental/emotional processes which, when abandoned, reveal the peace, joy and compassion that are effortless, natural qualities of humanity.

But I, like most people, encountered additive spirituality first—because it’s far more common.

It’s more common because it aligns better with the typical person’s conditioned mindset: “I’m not okay as I am and so must do something to make myself better.”

In this mindset, we’ll try anything—cocaine, religion, or *additive spirituality—*to make ourselves feel better. (Of course, religion is healthier than cocaine, and additive spirituality is healthier than religion.)

But after 2 years or so of hardcore additive spiritual practice, I came across a number of subtractive spiritual teachings. And what they presented was impossible for me to ignore.

“Could it be,” I asked, “that all of us are perfect by nature—and that all we need to do is stop the mental gymnastics that keep us dissatisfied?”

I’d been huffing and puffing in my additive practices to try to make progress, change my mind, and make myself better. But what if all that was unnecessary?

I had to find out.

So I stopped all my additive practices and proceeded with one simple instruction:

“Rest naturally, without seeking or describing anything.”

I stopped meditating.

I stopped speaking with my monk teacher altogether.

I even stopped “practising mindfulness”—because the way I’d been doing it involved deliberately changing what was going on in my mind.

I relaxed more and more deeply, more and more frequently, into radical acceptance of everything that appeared within awareness… And things got really good, really fast.

Long story short, I discovered after all that peace, joy, compassion and effectiveness are indeed naturally arising in the absence of mental/emotional processes that block their expression.

And here’s where this post finally comes to its main point:

That natural compassion I discovered—that natural wish to do good—is the ultimate fuel for a modern, purpose-based, one-person internet business.

And I’ve been able to guide my students to this realization far quicker than I reached it myself.

Since I started my online business in 2022 I’ve achieved multiple $10K months without compromising the integrity of my message.

It’s easy to make a buck saying what appeals to mainstream audiences. I was never going to do that—there’s too much power in what I’m talking about here. It’s my duty to share it with you.

And whether you’re aware of it or not, there’s a message in you which represents your own great contribution to humanity. There’s a message in you, full expression of which will leave you satisfied on your deathbed. There’s a message in you which will lead to endless win/win arrangements between yourself and the people who need to hear it.

This is the only business model that makes sense in 2024, and I’m here to get you started on it…

If You Don’t Have a Vision, You’re Lost

My mission is to normalize wellbeing for 1 billion & 1 people.

This isn’t just a line in my social media bio—if I were operating on anything less than a 50-year timeframe, I’d be talking shit anytime I mentioned that mission.

Because if you want to achieve anything on a grand scale, you must have a long view. Otherwise you’re flying a plane with no destination (which means you’ll run out of fuel before you get anywhere worthwhile).

My 50-year vision involves creating a wellbeing-focused alternative to mainstream education. Practically, this means guiding parents to their own realization of effortless wellbeing, then training them to homeschool their children. Because if I disrupt the pattern of kids getting fucked up in childhood then they won’t have to spend so much time straightening themselves out in adulthood. Then they can get to helping others sooner. This is how my movement will gain momentum.

Here’s a screenshot of my goals. They sit on the front page of my life management system:

As you can see, I’ve started tackling items at the bottom already.

Some are delayed—that’s just how it goes in any big project: “shoot for the stars, land on the moon” and all that.

This 50-year plan gives structure to my entire life:

• It gets me out of bed and at my desk before 6am, 7 days a week
• It determines how much coffee I drink
• It informs what I say on social media
• It gives me reason to eat well and stay in shape
• It guides my entire schedule

Whenever I revise the structure of my week, this 50-year vision is my guiding principle. If a task gets me closer to my vision, it stays. If it doesn’t, it goes.

Trying to be as efficient and effective as I am without this “north star” would be impossible. How would I choose what to do? I’d have no criteria by which to judge my own suggestions.

If you wish to die satisfied—if you wish to feel your life was worthwhile when you reach its end—you need a vision.

How to Create Your 50-Year Purpose-Based Business Plan

Step 1: Perspective

If you want to create an effective long-term plan it’s vital that you get free of the chaos of daily life.

So, first and foremost, enjoy this guided meditation:

Step 2: “Begin With The End In Mind”

“Imagine yourself going to the funeral of a loved one. Picture yourself driving to the funeral parlour or chapel, parking the car, and getting out. As you walk inside the building, you notice the flowers, the soft organ music. You see the faces of friends and family you pass along the way. You feel the shared sorrow of losing, the joy of having known, that radiates from the hearts of the people there.

As you walk down to the front of the room and look inside the casket, you suddenly come face-to-face with yourself. This is your funeral, three years from today. All these people have come to honour you, to express feelings of love and appreciation for your life.

As you take a seat and wait for the services to begin, you look at the program in your hand. There are to be four speakers. The first is from your family, immediate and also extended—children, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, who have come from all over the country to attend. The second speaker is one of your friends, someone who can give a sense of what you were as a person. The third speaker is from your work or profession. And the fourth is from your church or some community organization where you’ve been involved in service.

Now think deeply. What would you like each of these speakers to say about you and your life? What kind of husband, wife, father, or mother would you like their words to reflect? What kind of son or daughter or cousin? What kind of friend? What kind of working associate? What character would you like them to have seen in you? What contributions, what achievements would you want them to remember? Look carefully at the people around you. What difference would you like to have made in their lives?”

From “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, by Stephen Covey

Start a fresh journal entry and run the exercise. Invest it with feeling. Be exhaustive. Be detailed. Don’t censor your thoughts.

Step 3: Identify Your Main Goal

In what you wrote, you should be able to identify a single major goal (or a “constellation” of related goals). If not, I recommend repeating the meditation and journaling exercise on a number of separate days until you become clear.

Sooner or later, you’ll identify what you most deeply care about—the one change you’d most like to see in this world before you leave it.

Step 4: Craft Your Plan

1. Write your main goal at the top of a digital document.
2. A few lines down, write where you are now.
3. Fill in the gap, creating as many lines as you need. You may find it easier to work top down, you may find it easier to work bottom up. You may even bounce up and down as ideas come to you—or put something in the middle.
4. If you get stuck, go to chatgpt.com and ask it to help you fill in the space between any 2 points on your plan.
5. Add dates where useful, but don’t feel you have to put them everywhere. Your plan will naturally shift over time.
6. When you’re done, you should have clarity on what to do right now to take 1 step closer to your 50-year goal.

Bonus: Craft Your Purpose-Based Weekly Schedule

After I made my 50-year plan, I built out this weekly schedule, based on what I need to be doing in the short term to realize my long-term vision.

Note that this schedule is not in my calendar—it’s just a list of items that I tick off each day.

This gives me the structure of order with the benefit of flexibility. If I’m in flow state on something (like I am writing this post) I can leverage that for as long as I like, then pick up the next schedule item when I’m done.

Of course, this is highly personal. If you’re someone who prefers strict time structuring then go ahead and put everything on your calendar. On the other hand, you may prefer greater spontaneity (though I caution against being so loose that you have to decide what to do in each moment of your day).

If You Need More Help

I’ve got your back.

Click here to tell me where you’re stuck with all this. I’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

If I’m able to help, we’ll get you into my private app where I’ll hold you accountable to a custom protocol for achieving the greatest vision you can imagine.

This is how we build our utopia.

Win/win for the win,
dg 💙

~

Sources:

¹ https://doaj.org/article/04a4c1974cd44b339fb0fe501169858f

² https://courses.lumenlearning.com/tc3-boundless-worldhistory/chapter/textile-manufacturing/