If you can't earn enough money in 2024, it's because you're not spiritual enough.

Please don't listen to anyone who tells you that money and spirituality are incompatible. This view had its utility, but it's now past its sell-by date.

The monk I studied with for 5 years is very wise, but on this particular point, we disagree.

After he instructed me to start teaching my own students, I tried to make it work as he recommended:

For a whole year, I taught for free.

The second year, I taught for donations.

But by the third year, I realized there would always be a cap on how many people I could help unless I started a business. Though to be fair there was one alternative to this, which my teacher was very keen on:

I could have committed myself and my wife to a life of poverty.

• We could’ve found a squat to live in
• We could’ve begged for food
• We could’ve asked her boss at the NHS to excuse her showing up barefoot

After all, that’s how things were done in the time of the Buddha, right?

And the Buddha was the holder of supreme wisdom, right?

So the recommendations he made in 500 B.C. must still be appropriate, right?

Let’s think that through…

Ancient India Was No F¥cking Joke

In 2023 I got married in Calcutta.

Me and my wife—who grew up there—spent a month with her family.

The most interesting place we visited was a flower market.

Merchants were either running around with huge baskets of flowers on their heads, shouting to one another over the heads of hundreds of customers, or sleeping on the hard floor with hundreds of people walking right past their heads.

Thousands of fresh flowers were laid out on market stalls. The merchants had picked them that morning on the outskirts of the city. And the way this natural beauty contrasted against the harsh working conditions was an image I’ll never forget.

We left the market via the back entrance and walked through the slum the merchants lived in.

Tin roofs.

No electricity.

No plumbing.

We passed a large group of residents crowded around a large cooking pot. It seemed like a communal spot.

“Babe,” I asked, “is this what life was like for the working class in the time of the Buddha?”

She nodded.

“And what exactly is life like for these people?”

“They wake up before sunrise, get to work, put in around 12 hours, then use their entire pay to buy a single  meal.”

“Every day?”

“7 days a week.”

“Do they ever take a day off?”

“The markets close for puja [religious holidays], but you’ve seen what those are like—it’s all rituals. Not exactly downtime.”

This was important context in my ongoing contemplation of the relationship between spirituality and money.

Work 7 Days a Week or Meditate 7 Days A Week?

This was the choice common people faced in 500 B.C. India.

They would typically find a little time for spiritual practice, but consider: what would your meditation be like after 12 hours of back-breaking labour in 40 degree heat? What would your meditation be like if you were barely surviving with 6 children to feed?

The Buddha formed the sangha [spiritual community] to make it possible for ordinary folks to dedicate themselves to spiritual practice.

Spiritual Economics

"We need money to live and to enjoy life, but we should not think of money as the main source of happiness." — Dalai Lama

The Buddha was a master of social engineering.

He set up a win/win arrangement between the monks and the lay people (non-monks).

1. The lay people made donations to the sangha
2. The monks used the donations to take care of their basic needs
3. The monks would practice diligently to gain spiritual insight (which was deeply valued in ancient India)
4. The monks would invite the lay people into the monastery, where they’d share those insights with them

See how this created a feedback loop of mutual support? Pretty cool, right?

This was a sweet deal for any working-class person who could become a monk. They’d get food, clothing, shelter and medical care paid for by the public. They’d do less physical work than they’d been doing outside the monastery. They’d focus on spiritual practice, which feels pretty f¥cking great once you’ve got the basics down. And they’d get more respect than they had as a worker.

So why didn’t everyone become a monk?

Well, the Buddha had a few rules for those who wanted to put on the robes:

1. They had to have consent if they lived with parents (which was common into adulthood at the time)
2. They had to be free from debt and obligations
3. They had to be in good physical and mental health
4. They had to be free from criminal offences and ethical transgressions
5. They had to be released from any government service (yes, India already had government back then)
6. They had to demonstrate genuine motivation for spiritual realization
7. They had to find a senior monk to sponsor them

If I’d grown up working the flower market I’d have put down my wicker basket and joined the Buddha’s club in a heartbeat.

Modern Spiritual Economics

To say things are different now would be the biggest understatement of the 2.5 millennia.

Back then, monastic living was a step up for most people.

These days, if you tried to sell someone on divorcing their family, living in the forest, eating two meals a day and sleeping on a hardwood bed they’d think you were insane—even if you could guarantee them full-blown spiritual enlightenment.

Because it’s no longer necessary.

In this age of abundance, everyone has plenty of spare time. If you want to meditate 4 hours a day, you can. (And you have more energy to dedicate to it than the flower merchants do.)

It took me a year to reason all of this out. But the little journey we’ve just been on illustrates why my monk teacher’s recommendations to live in poverty were inappropriate.

But I get it: it worked for him.

The Underlying Principle of The Buddha’s Mission

Why did the Buddha do what he did?

Simply, he did it to benefit as many people as possible.

When I realized this, I made that same intention my north star.

“How can I benefit as many people as possible?” became the most important question in my life.

At the time, I was still teaching mindfulness for donations. Which meant I had to keep teaching music too if I wanted to pay rent.

More and more people were calling me for mindfulness instruction, but I was missing more and more of their calls—because I was often teaching music when they rang.

Now, if you’ve ever been friends with a music teacher you’ll know one thing about their students: most of them don’t practice. And this means the teacher ends up teaching the same lesson to the same student dozens of times.

This is nothing against the students. Music is a hobby for almost everyone who plays. And hobbies, by nature, are casual.

But there I was teaching young Freddie—a perfectly good lad with about zero interest in drums…

Meanwhile, my phone was buzzing in my pocket with someone on the other end who:

• Had broken up with their partner
• Had taken too many mushrooms
• Had suffered a panic attack
• Had realized some profound truth in meditation

And that person felt like getting my guidance—right then and there—was a matter of life or death.

So there were two things I could’ve been doing in those moments. Helping someone with their hobby, or helping someone with their existential crisis.

After enough of those moments, it became clear: the only way for me to help more people was to build a business around my new teaching.

As I started creating content and teaching more people, I had another important realization: my teaching was made up of many influences, not just those I’d drawn from Buddhism:

• I was drawing from the $20,000 personal development course I’d taken (duh)
• I was drawing from my wife’s deep knowledge of psychology
• I was drawing from a vast selection of wisdom teachings

The idea that I shouldn’t charge money for my service began to look silly.

In April 2023 I launched my first course, which generated $10,000 in profit. The participants were transformed (check out their stories here). That profit enabled me to close my music business and go into teaching mindfulness full-time.

And as this cycle continued, it became clear to me: running a purpose-based business is a spiritual practice.

But it doesn’t look like the spiritual practices of 2,500 years ago.

Why would it? Why should it?

By wriggling free of dogma and limiting beliefs around money I’d opened up the door to limitless mutual benefit.

And you can too.

But first we’re going to have to address any limiting beliefs that are still holding you back…

The 6 Big Limiting Beliefs Around Money

1. “Money Is Evil”

What is money, exactly?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, money is “a current medium of exchange in the form of coins and banknotes.”

If you have a coin or banknote to hand, take it out, look at it, and consider what evil deeds it may have committed in its history.

Money can’t be evil.

In fact, to claim that it is goes against the core teachings of the Buddha, which demonstrate that even people aren’t truly evil. Rather, they’re just acting out the results of past actions. (e.g. they were abused as a child, so they abuse their children in turn—because they don’t know any better. This doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be held responsible for their actions—just that no-one wakes up in the morning and thinks to themselves “I want to be a bad guy today”.)

There’s another important thing the Buddha was against here: beliefs.

All beliefs are what the Buddha called “mental fabrications”. That is, they’re made-up, imaginary, illusory. Beliefs are, in a way, a layer of thinking placed “on top” of reality. And they’re nothing but trouble. (See: history of wars waged in the name of religion.)

2. “Exchanges of Money Are Always Win/Lose”

This one is so short-sighted that it barely deserves an explanation.

But there are people who believe that when you charge a fee for something, the payee is automatically disadvantaged—simply because they’re giving away money.

This belief overlooks the simple fact that no-one pays for anything unless they feel they’re getting adequate value in exchange for their money.

Further, it overlooks the fact that every good business thrives on giving more value than its customers pay for. And this arrangement is easier than ever to operate on with the dawn of the tech-enabled, internet-based one-person business. (This business model is what enables me to write you these deep-dive emails, even though you may never give me a penny.)

3. “Money Blocks Spiritual Development”

This one’s easy: there’s really no such thing as “spiritual development”.

The word spirit means “essence”.

There are all kinds of beliefs about what “spirit” might mean—a soul, some kind of energy body, etc. But I already discussed the danger of beliefs.

The definition “essence” is much more practical and dependable, and it tells us exactly what to aim at in our spiritual practice: the removal of anything and everything that’s in the way of our true nature.

Now, you may wonder “can money block our true nature?” In answer, I ask you to once again take out your coin or banknote and consider whether it has the power to do so.

Your beliefs about money may block your true nature. Your thoughts about money may block your true nature. Your feelings about money may block your true nature. But that inanimate coin or banknote? No.

4. “Money Will Inflate My Ego”

Are you still holding your coin or banknote?

I suspect you see where this is going.

5. “I Have to Give All My Money Away to Be Enlightened”

Renunciation shows up a lot in spiritual traditions. It means “to give up”.

But it doesn’t mean “to give away”.

You might give something away as a gesture of giving it up. Nothing wrong with that. But is it necessary? No.

The Buddha teaches that the cause of dissatisfaction is attachment.

Attachment is a mental/emotional phenomenon. No object ever made you attached to it—no matter how much it might feel that way.

To confirm this for yourself, consider:

Would you be upset if the coasters on your coffee table went missing?

Probably not.

Unless you had a reason to be attached to the coasters on your coffee table—like my dear stepmother, whose coasters belonged to her late mother. She has an attachment to those coasters. Therefore she treasures them—and would be upset if they went missing.

Now consider whether you’d be upset if your old Nokia that’s been sat in the drawer for 10 years disappeared. Almost certainly not. But when it was your current phone, you would’ve been.

Importantly, the Nokia is still in your possession. And it’s still the same object. It’s only your attachment to it that’s changed.

This proves that we don’t have to give something away to break our attachment to it.

Mindfulness practice, and the resulting insight, dissolves your attachment to everything—without your having to give it away.

One of my business coaches earns $3 million per month, but is demonstrably unattached to it.

It’s possible.

6. “My Spiritual Community Will Disapprove If I Earn More Money”

Repeat after me:

So f¥cking what?

It seems everyone’s forgotten how to mind their own business in 2024. (Though perhaps it was always like this in religious communities. I strongly recommend against religious communities—as distinct from spiritual communities. Religious communities are about rules. Spiritual communities—good ones, at least—are about awakening.)

Here’s the big question: how will you feel if, on your deathbed, you realize you let other people’s judgments be the directing force in your life?

I took the ultimate disapproval on the chin to be here writing this email to you—that monk teacher of mine was the wisest person in my life. Until I realized that—on this issue at least—I was wiser.

Don’t sell yourself short—you just might know better than anyone else what’s good for you.

“Your Money or Your Life”: Material Wealth vs. Spirituality

Most people—including many respected wisdom teachers—believe (uh-oh) that the material world and the spiritual world are incompatible.

And so, to try to answer the existential problems in life, they choose one or the other.

Let’s look at how “worldly” solutions and “spiritual” solutions differ in relation to these big questions.

Existential Problem #1: “I Don’t Have Enough”

Worldly Solution: “Get More”

This is the proposal we’re all given in the modern world: if you feel you don’t have enough money, get more money and that will make you happy. And if you feel you don’t have enough status, get more status and that will make you happy. And if you feel you don’t have enough possessions, get more possessions and those will make you happy.

This goes around and around in a never-ending loop, which ends in a midlife crisis. Or, worse, it ends in deep, crushing regret on your deathbed—when it’s too late to change anything.

Spiritual Solution: “Own Less”

The spiritual answer is that wrong-headed model of renunciation I illustrated above. “Give away all your sh!t—it’s those inanimate objects that are making you dissatisfied. Magic!”

Existential Problem #2: “I Don’t Know Enough”

Worldly Solution: “Learn More”

The average person changes career 6 times throughout their life.¹ How many of them do you know who found ultimate happiness by doing so?

Spiritual Solution: “Think Less”

Spiritual traditions value wisdom over knowledge, and typically recommend committing to a single way of life. If a monk gets restless, he is first told to investigate that restlessness directly. Good advice, generally speaking.

But if that monk really wishes to apply his mind to something outside the traditional model of monastic life, he must disrobe. This reinforces that dualistic view of worldly pursuits vs. spiritual pursuits—even though that monk may be able to do great benefit through, gee I don’t know, coaching people he meets on social media.

Existential Problem #3: “I Don’t Smile Enough”

Worldly Solution: “Indulge More”

If you’re unhappy, society tells you to drink more beer, eat more food, have more sex, consume more entertainment or all 4. To be fair, things are changing as we increase awareness around mental health. But they’re changing slowly against the tide of decades of harmful cultural norms.

Spiritual Solution: “Do Less”

It’s common for spiritual practitioners to mistake apathy for enlightenment.

“I don’t need anything,” says he who sits in meditative absorption 8 hours a day—failing to see that he’s formed an unhealthy attachment to altered states of consciousness.

“I’m perfectly satisfied being detached from the world,” says the lone yogini—failing to see that she’s benefiting no-one but herself.

~

The question that arose out of my consideration of all the world’s answers to these questions—societal, psychological and spiritual—has defined the past 2 years of my life:

What if we can have the best of both worlds?

“Form Is Emptiness; Emptiness Is Form”

This is one of the central teachings of Mahayana [great vehicle] Buddhism, which developed after the time of the historical Buddha. Mahayana includes several schools, the most famous being Zen.

This teaching is a response to earlier notions that form (worldly stuff) must be denied for one to realize ultimate wellbeing.

When these teachings reached Tibet, they developed further into Vajrayana [diamond vehicle] Buddhism, which included Tantric practices—ways of using worldly phenomena to aid spiritual realization.

These philosophical and practical developments occurred over 1100 years, leading up to the 12th century.

But that’s still an enormous gap, isn’t it? And not only in terms of time. In terms of lifestyle, the gap between 1100 A.D. and now may as well be the same as the gap between 500 B.C. and now.

So it’s a good thing we can apply discernment—another of the Buddha’s favourite tools—to continue to adapt the teachings to our actual circumstances.

This adaptation is what I represent: the total unity of spiritual wisdom with modern life—made possible by my Buddha Mode Protocol for holistic self-improvement, applied to a purpose-based internet business.

Let me illustrate how this works by painting pictures of 2 alternate-universe Dan Goldfields, then showing you what this Dan Goldfield’s life is like by comparison…

Dan Goldfield #1: The Monk

This Dan Goldfield decided to fulfill his mission of service by prioritizing spirituality, starting a Buddhist monastery on the outskirts of his city of Bristol in the UK. Here’s how he did it:

1. He conducted 3–6 months of research
2. He hired a solicitor to deal with various necessary legal matters
3. He bought land on which to build his monastery
4. He hired an architect
5. He hired a construction firm
6. He had the works approved
7. He furnished and equipped the place
8. He set up necessary utilities
9. He hired staff
10. He invited monks and nuns (there are only a few hundred of them in the UK so he hoped his monastery was good enough to pull them away from their current homes)
11. He designed and provided training and integration procedures for new residents
12. He developed a program for the community
13. He held an official opening ceremony
14. He set up a community outreach initiative

This took Monk Dan Goldfield 3 years. If you’re wondering where the money for all this came from, I’m as clueless as you are. I’m not even sure how he fed himself.

Dan Goldfield #2: The C.E.O.

This Dan Goldfield decided to fulfill his mission of service by starting a massive corporation, whose mission was to supply people with every indulgence they desire. Here’s how he did it:

1. He, too, conducted research and used this to create a traditional business plan
2. He, too, hired a solicitor to deal with necessary legal matters
3. He secured investment
4. He developed a brand identity and marketing strategy
5. He developed products
6. He found a location
7. He secured a technology stack
8. He recruited and trained 1000 people
9. He obtained licences and permits
10. He set up a legal compliance team
11. He negotiated to launch his products into major retail outlets
12. He set up a team to monitor customer feedback
13. He set up a team of psychologists to make his products more and more addictive

This took C.E.O. Dan Goldfield 5 years and 1825 migraines.

Dan Goldfield #3: The Purpose-Based Solopreneur

This Dan Goldfield decided to fulfill his mission of service by simply serving as many people as he could, in the simplest way possible, with the tools already available to him. Here’s how he did it:

1. He started an X account (it was Twitter back then)
2. He started writing daily about what had worked to improve his life
3. He found affordable education on how to start and run a one-person internet business
4. He applied what he was learning as he was learning swiftly and efficiently, able to move fast due to the inner work he’d already done
5. He watched his analytics to see what his growing audience was responding to
6. He identified a problem they were having (inconsistency in their meditation practice) and created a course that solved the problem
7. He generated $10,000 through sales of that course
8. He started coaching people who came to him for guidance (first at $149 per session, then $200, then $300)
9. He started teaching other people how to start their own business, working with Dan Koe and the Kortex team
10. He continued to invest in his own growth, paying up to $7500 per session to learn from top business coaches

~

Dan Goldfield number 1, in the real world, would never have gotten through stage 1. His denial of worldly matters would’ve led him to starve to death.

Dan Goldfield number 2, in the real world, would have suffered a nervous breakdown—as occurs for so many in the corporate world.

Dan Goldfield number 3, by contrast, could’ve done the whole thing from his couch if he’d desired. His integration of worldly and spiritual needs kept him balanced, and he was able to start helping thousands of people from the very beginning.

(I know—this illustration is kind of ridiculous, but it was a fun way to get my point across.)

And if you’re still thinking that earning money as a spiritual practice will be less effective than hustling and grinding, consider…

Spiritual Billionaire: Ray Dalio

Ray founded the world’s biggest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates, which manages $124 billion.

He attributes his company’s success to principles of radical transparency and meditation.

His personal net worth is $15.4 billion.

Spiritual Millionaire #1: John Mackey

John built Whole Foods to $13.7 billion before selling it to Amazon.

He founded the company with the mission of providing natural and organic food while promoting sustainable agriculture.

His personal net worth is $75 million.

Spiritual Millionaire #2: Anita Roddick

Anita founded The Body Shop on her vision of ethical practices and sustainability in 1976, 40 years before these ideals were in fashion.

She stood by natural ingredients, fair trade, and zero animal testing to build a business worth $320 million despite her competitors cutting corners she refused to.

Her personal net worth was $104 million when she died in 2007.

~

There’s also plenty of research demonstrating the effectiveness of purpose-based, wellbeing-first work practices…

The Research

• A study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that mindfulness practices at work lead to better employee performance, reduced stress, and improved well-being.²
• A study by Deloitte found that companies driven by purpose and aligned with ethical values perform better financially in the long run. Purpose-driven businesses achieve higher market share gains and grow three times faster than their competitors. They also see higher levels of employee and customer satisfaction.³
• Research by Gallup shows that companies with higher employee engagement, often fostered through ethical and spiritually aligned practices, experience 21% higher profitability.⁴

But if you’re still not convinced, don’t worry—I’ve got your back…

How to Run a Day’s Work As A Spiritual Practice

A beloved spiritual master lived in a mountain monastery.

Entire families would journey from miles around to trek up the mountain and sit in this master’s calming presence.

One day, a disciple entered the meditation hall and whispered urgently in the master’s ear, “the military has been burning monasteries to the ground! We must leave at once!”

The master seemed to float down the mountain in his grand robe.

Days later, they arrived at the nearby town.

It was quite unlike the peaceful monastery—loud and chaotic.

Passing through the gates, a young boy bumped into the master.

“WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING!” the master yelled, his face turning bright red. “DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!”

That young boy eventually joined the order of monks and developed the master’s teaching for the townsfolk.

Later, he told the story of his master’s arrival in the city.

“It’s easy enough to float,” he told his own disciples, “but can you walk without touching the ground?”

~

“Floating” is what the master was doing up on the mountain, where it was easy to be at peace.

“Walking without touching the ground” is what I’m about to teach you to do—to remain calm amid the chaos of modern life.

Here’s a step-by-step process you can use to align with the principles this post is based on—even if only for a day.

Run this as an experiment, and tell me how it goes for you in an email (dan [at] dangoldfield [dot] com) or in a DM on X or Instagram.

Step 1: Purpose Alignment

Rise an hour earlier than you usually would.

Yes, this may feel difficult, but if you’ve read this whole post so far I suspect you’re someone who wants to change something in your life. This is your chance.

~

I strongly recommend an app called “Sleep Cycle”, which tracks you as you sleep and wakes you up during a light phase. This greatly reduces grogginess. And if you have a wearable device, it can wake you with vibrations on your wrist so it doesn’t wake your partner like a regular alarm.

~

Now, go somewhere you won’t be disturbed.

Bring to mind the change you most wish to see in this world.

Your current day may not be particularly aligned with making that change, but consider: you must deal with current commitments if you’re ever going to transition into a more purposeful lifestyle.

For me, the transition between my old career teaching music and this new, more purposeful one took 3 years.

But remaining aligned with my true purpose fuelled that transition.

Use this time to meditate on your purpose, visualize its achievement, journal on it, and make plans to align your life with it—no matter how long they take.

Then choose a word or short phrase that reminds you of this alignment, which you’ll repeat to yourself throughout your day as a reminder.

(Today, I’m using the word puppy, because finally getting one for my wife will be a huge victory for us—facilitated by getting our first mortgage.)

Step 2: Morning Mindful Routine

A typical morning routine feels like a chore.

Today (or tomorrow, or whenever you run this experiment) you’re going to do things differently.

Consider: if you don’t brush your teeth you lose them. And if you lose your teeth, you’re less able to show up and make that change you want to see in the world. You have to put dentures in every day, for example, which eats away at your available time. And your constantly worried about your smile.

Being mindful of the grand scheme of things is how you invest mundane acts with meaning.

Apply this perspective to your entire routine to infuse it with power.

Step 3: Mission Start

If you’re like most people, you have to commute.

Are you sulking all the way to the office?

Or are you on your way to make positive change in the world, no matter how small?

Consider your journey to work a pilgrimage.

Step 4: Beneficial Engagement

To a particular colleague, a smile from you might make all the difference in their otherwise miserable day.

This kind of thing compounds: being liked by an entire team of people is a powerful thing. Being liked by your boss, even more so.

Step 5: Focus Protocol

Once you’re at your desk (or forklift, or sales floor, or wherever else your main tasks for the day take place) it’s time to use mindfulness to lock in.

If you can’t focus on the task at hand immediately, focus on your breathing instead for a few minutes. I assure you, this small investment of time will pay off in your ability to carry out your responsibilities afterward.

Take this time to slow the mind and unify it around your work.

Then give the whole of yourself to what’s in front of you.

Even if this weren’t a way to get better results (which it is), I promise your work will be more enjoyable this way—and the time will seem to pass much, much quicker.

Step 8: Level Up

After work, dedicate a minimum of 30 minutes to levelling up in some area of life. I don’t care which.

• Go to the gym
• Learn something
• Do a home workout
• Make a social media post
• Eat a healthier dinner than usual
• Give your partner or family a bit more quality time

Step 7: Daily Review

Afterward, take out your journal.

Review your day, taking time to reflect on what went well, and what you’d improve if you were to live the same day over again.

Step 8: Wind Down

If you enjoyed living your workday as a spiritual practice, why the hell not run it that way again?

Go to bed one hour earlier than usual, and wind down with meditation, cuddling or a light walk an hour before that.

Living your day in this way is much more pleasurable than running it on autopilot, so you’ll need less cheap pleasures in the evening to cope.

~

If you run your days like this for a week, you’ll feel like a different person.

If you run your days like this for a month, you’ll feel like the entire universe has shifted around you.

If you run your days like this for a year, you’ll be well on your way to transitioning into a life of your own design, based around your deepest purpose. And you'll be earning more money than ever—without feeling you're even trying.

But I know this kind of intentional living feels difficult for a lot of people.

If you need help, click here to tell me about your goals and hear back from me within 24 hours about how I can help you achieve them.

With love from my sofa,

dg 💙
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¹ https://novoresume.com/career-blog/career-change-statistics

² https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-30792-001

³ https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consulting/articles/driving-business-value-with-corporate-purpose.html

⁴ https://media-01.imu.nl/storage/happyholics.com/6345/gallup-2020-q12-meta-analysis.pdf

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