The bald-faced lie of security
Published: Sat, 04/04/20
i.e., Security (personal, financial, business, etc) simply doesn’t exist.
Dan started the article off by talking about how that month was the one year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. One day, Americans thought they were secure, the next they weren’t. Yes, even with Pearl Harbor having happened, and multiple examples of our embassies and terrorist attacks in Europe showing it was possible, Americans (thinking we are somehow immune to such atrocities, because America) got complacent and forgot there is no security.
He then related it to the financial and business world at the time:
One day huge numbers of people were feeling secure in their investments and nest eggs… the next (thanks to Enron/Global/Adelphia/Big-8 Accounting, etc… combined with the stock market turning to mush around the whole affair) they had nothing.
These cats thought they had financial security and were “set.”
Reality declared they weren’t.
And, just like with Pearl Harbor et al. as a precedent for being attacked, there had been many prior historical demonstrations of just how unsecure people are financially — like the 1929 depression, Black Monday, the confiscation of gold, numerous retroactive eliminations of tax shelters, etc.
As Dan put it:
“Could they retroactively change the IRA laws and tax and confiscate your savings to save social security? Of course not, you say, yet history says, you betcha. Could a trusted, big-name corporation in which you’ve invested actually be a charade run by criminals? Of course not, you say, yet history and current events say yes.”
Sobering thoughts.
“But Ben, I’m a business, I don’t rely on investments!”
Well, according to Dan’s essay, you ain’t any safer, Chuckles.
He brought up all kinds of examples of entire types of businesses, media, and products that were legal one day, then outlawed the next. Like the Sherman anti-trust law that destroyed numerous companies instantly. Or the various laws defining what "pyramid schemes" are. I am friends with some players in the MLM world. When one of the big companies Vemma was declared a pyramid in mid 2015, it scared a lot of big time distributors doing tens of millions per year into getting serious about marketing themselves & their own brands instead of their companies. Good for people who understand how to mine gold from adversity like my pal Ray Higdon, who now trains many of these top earner blokes to build their own brands instead of their main company's. Not so good for someone who’s income and whose team’s income were dependent on a so-called “secure” business structure that collapsed with the pound of a gavel.
And what about infomercials?
As Dan observed, there one minute, gone the next.
Then, brought back again.
Who’s to say when they won’t be outlawed again?
Even flipping properties and JV’s between certain professional practices have been targets of states. And I hear tell some states are prepping to crack down even on “life coaches” saying they need to be licensed.
In Dan’s words:
(This was 2002, the marketing *medias* have changed, not the specter of the threat)
“If they can outlaw broadcast FAX, what makes you think they cannot outlaw all telemarketing or all ‘junk mail’”
And, I would add email marketing.
Or text marketing.
Or even marketing on social media.
“That would never happen!”
Don’t be so sure about that, Mr. Miyagi.
History says you’re wrong — and, even though a lot of people seem to think direct response marketing didn’t exist prior to the internet (and, for certain clueless millennials, before Facebook), there has always been a battle between marketers and the U.S. government, and there always will be. Even the late, great copywriter Gene Schwartz went to bat for all of us at one of the higher courts (maybe even the Supreme Court, but I don’t remember exactly) to make sure we could advertise what it actually says in the books we sell.
But, even that could easily be overturned some day.
Imagine having to get a bureaucrat’s opinion of your copy in addition to your client. Or, needing a government-sanctioned license to practice copywriting, coaching, consulting, etc.
Something to ponder, if you’re a freelancer.
Especially with the governments of the world almost certainly going to use this current crisis to expand power & install even more strangling & draconian regulations for peoples' "protection." Witnessing in real time how mindlessly the sheeple are falling into line with the government & media Narratives already is quite telling.
Politicians & bureaucrats can't let a crisis like this go to waste, after all...
But wait, I know, that would NEVER happen here, right?
More:
The myth of security doesn’t stop with money and business and marketing. Dan even went into how there is no real security in romantic relationships or even personal and familial relationships. At the time, he’d just been abruptly divorced at a time where he was 100% convinced any problems could be worked out in his marriage.
Yes, I know, *your* unicorn would never leave.
And, hopefully you are right.
But, there are millions of examples each year and multiple millions of historical examples (and a proverbial horde of rich divorce attorneys) of people who had the “perfect” marriage who have demonstrated otherwise.
Fact is, unless you have mind control powers, you cannot control others.
To paraphrase what a popular concealed carry handgun instructor said:
You’re going to do what you’re going to do, your person is going to do what he/she is going to do, the lawyers are going to do what they’re going to do, both your families and friends are going to do what they’re going to do, the marriage counselor is going to do what they’re going to do, the family court judges are going to do what they’re going to do…
Anyway, point is this:
There's a Pearl Harbor and a 9/11 and an Enron and a Coronavirus for every aspect of life.
This virus and its sudden impact on the entire world economy is simply one of many.
After this crisis comes and goes, there’ll be another at some point in your lifetime.
And on it will go.
Each time it happens it’s a painful reminder of how there is no "security" and never has been, and never will be. Even the "impenetrable" Helm's Deep in The Lord Of The Rings had a drain the orcs could get through, after all.
Which brings me to the hook:
I distinctly remember this particular back page essay having a huge impact on my inner game, my beliefs, and the realities of life. And, while it seems like it was a lot of doom and gloom, Dan’s message was ultimately optimistic.
(In my way of thinking, at least.)
Specifically, when he got to the entrepreneurial lesson, which was:
“The only real security is your ability to produce”
This one sentence has stuck in my psyche for the past 18 years.
So has this part:
“… you had better sustain a very, very serious commitment to maintaining, improving, enhancing and strengthening your own ‘ability to produce’, because, in truth, it is all you’ve got and all you will ever have. Anything and everything else you see around you, you acquire and accumulate, you invest in, you trust in, can disappear in the blink of an eye.”
Yeesh.
The point:
The goal of that issue was to get people thinking about getting (if you don’t already have one) a “gigantic, awesomely powerful ability to produce”, and having that be the only goal (I would even say “Mission”) you put all your energies into. And then, to nurture, feed, exercise, strengthen, and invest in it.
If you don’t have such a skill then now’s the time to learn one.
Or several.
Like, for example, the skills Michael Senoff has acquired over the years, and now teaches in his “Emergency Fast Cash” audios. He’s the master at sneaky ways of making cash for businesses. In fact, I don’t know of anyone who is better at whipping up cash practically on demand — during good or bad times — than Michael. I’ve worked with, JV’d with him, watched him in his element for 16 years and he’s brilliant at it. And while he normally lists this program for $597, he will sell them for just $47 to my Horde via my affiliate link below, if you do it by tomorrow, Sunday, April 5 at midnight PDT.
Plus, there’s this, too:
If you buy from my affiliate link below by tomorrow’s deadline, you not only get the $597 “Emergency Fast Cash Now” series for a mere $47… but you will also get:
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To get the Emergency Fast Cash Audios plus these Stefania File: Volume 4 videos, go here before the Sunday, April 5 at midnight PDT deadline:
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Ben Settle
P.S. Speaking of having the ability to produce —
This morning “Email Players" subscriber Oliver (last name withheld by request) sent me this ditty:
"BTW since this COVID hullabaloo started I've had more potential clients reach out than ever before, and I'm in a tiny niche. Your advice about constantly doubling down on written communication/persuasion... and more importantly... being known for it... is absolute gold.”
Contrast that to this email I got last week:
“My husband lost his job two weeks ago due to the lockdown of his industry. My clients are pulling back for 30 days. I have GOT to cut expenses for April, starting NOW.”
I wonder if that includes Netflix, and other entertainment expenses…
Whatever the case, clients don’t “pull back” if you are making them money.
Unless, of course, they are completely stupid clients.
They do pull back, however, if you aren’t producing for them.
The tides Warren Buffet talked about are certainly showing who’s been swimming naked. And those naked are showing themselves to be those who don’t have an ability to produce.
All of which proves:
There is no security but your ability to produce — that was true before, it’s true now, and it’ll be true in the future for as long as you draw breath…