Selling Your Soul for Easy Money

I recently published an intriguing little booklet called Feeding the Soul of Steve Jobs, which is about finding the sort of life and success that Steve Jobs enjoyed. It dove-tailed so well with my popular blog-post about The Psychic Proximity Principle that I used it as the framework for the booklet, giving all of you a wonderful case study in putting the power of weak magnetism to work!

As I was writing, I went off on a tangent about the evils of acquiring money for its own sake. I was going to use it as a bonus chapter in the booklet, but I decided against it.  I still find it useful, so I decided to put it here for your "fun and profit"!  Enjoy!

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For those of you who have no interest in realizing your potential beyond a low money-grab, I will happily share two legal and honorable methods for becoming "well-off".
I and several friends have used these two methods to become financially "set".  Either will provide anyone with enough money to get the playthings shallow people seems to desire and "the good life" as far as our modern "easy path" society defines it. Regardless, I am here to help you accomplish this small goal.

Before I begin, the best advice I have for the money-motivated (and everyone else as well) is to never get into financial debt or get out of it as soon as possible. Dave Ramsey or any number of personalities can be found on the Internet to help you eliminate debt. It is a good thing to do no matter your personal attitude toward money as it frees you from bondage and provides you the resources to act independently. You can't really accomplish much if you are a slave to creditors!

Following either of the routes below, you should be financially set in a surprisingly short time. Hopefully, after you have the money you want, you might find a way to discover your soul and make use of The Psychic Proximity Principle, though it may be a huge course change.  Until that transcendent day, here are two simple and proven routes to financial security:

The "Hot Job" Route

1. Get the current list of "hot" jobs and choose between either the first or second job on the list,
2. Get low-level work in a bigger company hiring people in your chosen hot job (even as a janitor to begin with) and develop relationships with the hot job holders and their managers.
3. Get the education needed to get your chosen hot job (the company will often help you do this), and
4. Take any advancement opportunity you are offered toward the hot job.

This route also works with the traditional professions, such as medical doctor, lawyer, MBA, etc.

The "Military" Route

1. Join your national military or local military reserve unit,
2. Serve for an enlistment or two (or if how you spend your days doesn't matter to you, stay through retirement),
3. Secure work with a military contractor,
4. Take any advancement opportunity you are offered.

This route requires no real planning or formal education but lots of diligent effort. It works best if you are enlisted as contractors don't need many former officers.


There will always be money in the professions, hot engineering roles, and the military. The point is to get in the front door, rise to the needed requirements, and work hard. Money will readily flow as a result.  As always, I suggest you pursue The Psychic Proximity Principle first to protect yourself from the "empty soul" disease of the money-grab.

There are no Rat-holes to Respectability

In my time working for the military, I have been introduced to the concept of the "rat-hole". This is a situation where a lot of time, money, and other resources are spent on something that ultimately accomplishes very little or nothing. There are rat-holes all around us and we often don't realize it until they have already stolen a lot of our precious time and money!

I'll tell you about one of the bigger rat-holes where I have wasted a lot of life: disability exemptions.

Many people know my son Matt, who was diagnosed with autism just before his third birthday. If you spend time with him, you will quickly learn that he is disabled. He doesn't have the judgment needed to live independently, to contribute as an equal partner to a marriage, or to lead a family. He was determined by experts to be disabled. A determination of disability is essential to help a person get the added help they need and to get recognition by society that such aid is justified and needed.

The resources and time spent to determine Matt's autism was not a trip down a rat-hole. Sadly, as a result, I took a personal journey to explore my own relationship with autism, which ended up being a long stroll down a very useless rat-hole. I even went so far as taking all my children to be professionally evaluated and wasting a lot of time and money on it. While Matt was obviously disabled and needed a determination of what future expectations family, friends, and society should have for him, I and my other children are not disabled and should have somewhat capable lives. We may be odd in ways similar to Matt, but that doesn't include an inability to meet the requirements of society.

Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking! What would an "autism" determination have accomplished for any of us? If some diagnosis was coming (it didn't), would we get some hoped-for special pass or government benefit? No. I think my wonderful wife tried to get me to realize this, but I wasn't listening. In my case, a diagnosis might have actually interfered with my ability to provide for our family. Can you imagine if I was suddenly prevented from operating a car or if I was required to take drugs that wrecked my work performance? My family and life could have been ruined by continuing down this silly rat-hole! In the end, it only wasted some time and money.

There are plenty of rat-holes out there, leading nowhere useful and causing far more harm than just the loss of some time and money. As an acknowledged surveyor of some rat-holes, I feel somewhat qualified to identify a few. Let me address the gargantuan rat-hole of "difference".

Everyone is different. However, those differences typically don't preclude a person from participating effectively in society. The problem comes when people think their particular difference justifies some special treatment or exemption from common responsibility. In the past, a proper term was applied to this situation - discrimination - and was soundly and rightly discredited. Whatever perceived differences you see in yourself or others, it didn't take away from everyone's responsibility to provide for themselves, overcome obstacles, to start and raise a family, and be a decent neighbor. In a word, we are all expected to become respectable members of society, differences notwithstanding.

Over the years, a growing number of people have rediscovered rat-holes of "difference" that earlier generations largely dismissed as foolishness. Many people now pursue "new" (actually age old) re-definitions of gender and sexuality that rob them of respectability as they purposefully reject family creation and responsibility. Others manufacture or "blow-out-of-proportion" perceived mental or physical illness to justify being a bad neighbor or expecting others to provide resources for them. There are now larger numbers of people who choose to live in such rat-holes; far more people than the larger society can afford to deal with.

I will tell you from experience the pursuit of such exemptions from responsibility are a complete waste of time and energy. There is nothing to be gained by examining yourself against "new" gender definitions and exploring self-absorbing sexual "preferences". I have gone down similar roads of extended navel-staring myself and it proved to be a worthless effort. Sadly, society is now redefining respectability to accommodate such things and forcing everyone to respect people who waste precious social resources. Courts and psychologists are demanding that society treat people who refuse to create families and take on adult roles as both highly respectable and totally acceptable! The shrill voices of far too many militantly childish people are forcing our entire culture down their own self-indulgent rat-holes just when we need to spend our "adult" attention and resources facing real problems.

Take it from someone who has wasted some life exploring a few rat-holes: There is no rat-hole to respectability! Put childishness aside and embrace time-honored definitions of responsibility. You will find that you accomplish far more with the same effort, enjoy far greater happiness and satisfaction, and people of true worth will honor you!  

Back to Prison

In 1999, I had just left my off-shore job and I was able to find work at a prison about 60 miles from our home as a computer technician. I only worked there for a few months, but I met some inmates that were Mormons like I am. One of them hooked me up with the prison chaplain and asked that I start a "sunday school" class for the Latter-Day Saint inmates. I decided to do it and a friend of mine, who had spare time and income on his hands, got involved with it as well.  Many Saturdays, we would make the drive to the prison in my friend truck, spend some time with a handful of inmates, and drive back, which took up the bulk of the day.

It was a marvelous experience and I can say that some of my most enduring spiritual experiences happened in a tiny, cinder-block room in the bowels of the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility (GCCF)!

Sadly, as the years passed, I guess my friend got burned out and dispirited as our favorite prison chaplain died of cancer and the cost of travel and time was taking a toll on my family and causing a few problems, so our prison visits came to an end.

I don't remember when we stopped visiting at the prison, so I don't know how long it has been since I did it, but it has been a long while.  A few months ago, I got the impression to look up what the Church (of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) had on its website about prison services and was quite impressed with the progress made. When we started fifteen years ago, there was very little guidance and we were basically on our own.  I said something to my wife, looked up what prisons were nearby, and dropped the subject.

Then, one of our high councilors came and spoke at our ward and I had an impression to ask him what the stake was doing for prison services.  He surprised me by saying that they were just getting something pulled together and that they would love to have someone who had some experience or even interest in doing this! I was hooked up with another man who the stake had identified and finally got on the phone with him last night.

So, I am getting back involved with LDS Prison Services after a bit of a hiatus and it seems to be motivated by the Lord. Perhaps there will be more on this in future posts.

I am the Master, Not the Doctor

Lest you think me cocky with the title, it was not not me that proclaimed myself a Master.  After nearly eighteen months of effort and lack of sleep, Western Governors University has proclaimed me a Master of Science.  I am told I have mastered Information Technology and have a specialization in Network Management, so who am I to argue with that?

Now that this is done, I will likely take a bit of a break and then get back to my more philosophical writing, if I can muster such.

Words to Strip From the Vocabulary

After I got rid of offense from the vocabulary of children in a previous post (vaguely Orwellian, I know), I recall how I excised the word fair from the household some years ago.  I made the kids stand up at the dinner table if they used it (which is not effective for hyperish kids like our twins), typically in phrases like "That's not fair".  The kids just used riaf (yes, fair spelled backward) as a substitute for "not fair", but it put the point across that one should not be expecting equal treatment, no matter what society promises.

Of course, this bothers lots of people, but my point is that you should not be expecting something that you are never going to get, as it just breeds a long stream of disappointments that tear the happiness from life.  Also, it may prevent the universal sin that many people have of being demanding, especially in matters that make other people's lives miserable.  The only thing worse than being unhappy is to build your own happiness from "happyy bits" you have torn away from other people.  You must help other people be happy, which will actually add to your happiness as well!  (Sounds syrupy, but it is true.)

Wanting the best for yourself and of yourself is one thing, demanding it from others is quite something else.  Of course, as parents training children, one must impress upon them how they must behave.  You can't treat children (especially your own) like little adults with rights they have not learned to handle!