I’ve been thinking about how I can make the Dane of Earth channel of value to my audience, as opposed to me just spouting off about my views and ideas. What do I have to say that will be worth your valuable time, and elevate the overall conversation?
I keep coming back to the fact that I can offer a view of the world from a unique perspective — the perspective of a person who has taken the road less traveled to some of the farthest reaches of the human experience.
To be clear, I’m not talking about an action adventure story here; more like a psychodrama. I don’t have so many stories about exciting exploits in exotic locations, but my travels in this world have led me down paths that few people dare to tread, and the experiences I’ve had along those twisting trails led to insights that, I believe, can hold value for others.
You might now be wondering about these dark and dangerous paths I referred to. Well, I knew it was going to come to this.
I know that the price I’m going to have to pay if I want to garner support for my projects is to be transparent about my situation, exposing myself to the risk of shame and humiliation. I can’t figure out any way around it. So here goes.
The truth is, I’m broke.
“Ooooh! That’s rough!” I hear you say. “That can’t be easy to admit publicly.”
Oh, but that’s just the start. If I was just broke, I’d be right in there with a large portion of the population. No, I’m not just broke. I am extremely broke. This chart showing net worth distribution by age group paints the picture pretty clearly:
My net worth is literally off the chart. I won’t list the number here, but let’s just say that my net worth probably puts me in the 0.0001% of the lowest net worths in the US. That’s what I mean by extreme.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The full scope is so much worse, because it’s not just that I am currently under water, it is that I have never been above water in my entire adult life. That’s right. I have had a negative net worth ever since I took out my first student loan at the age of 18.
So I have no sense of what it is like to experience financial security or a feeling of prosperity in this life. That notion has been banished to the realm of my imagination so far.
So there you have it. It’s out there. And it’s no small thing for me, because I know, as I’m sure you all do too, what a stigma it is to be a financial failure in the richest country in the world.
I have avoided doing this for so long as I tried in vain to think of some way to avoid it. But the conclusion I keep coming back to is that I can’t project my thoughts and ideas into the public square and try to interest people in entrepreneurial ventures while keeping this gaping pit that is my financial situation secret.
What I have come around to is that I need to attempt to pull off a feat of spiritual alchemy by turning this massive obstacle into a source of power. I intend to turn my abysmal financial situation into an asset that I can leverage to change the situation — the ultimate case of bootstrapping.
How can I possibly turn such a negative situation into a positive, you ask?
The first part of the plan is to intrigue people with the mystery: How did an intelligent, ambitious, creative person like Dane end up so very broke? After all, I went from a farm boy to starting innovative businesses to working for Silicon Valley high-tech startups, pulling down six-figure incomes for years. What’s the story behind that? (Trust me, there are all kinds of juicy details behind that question.)
So I’ll be writing more articles about this topic of how I came to be in the situation I am currently in, and I’ll share certain details with supporters as appropriate.
The second part of the plan is to plant the seed in peoples’ minds that they are currently observing an opportunity presenting itself to them. I’m counting on some subset of my audience recognizing that Dane of Earth represents a vast reservoir of untapped potential just waiting to be tapped. As I write this, the ‘value’ of these prospective projects is effectively zero, so it should be of interest to someone looking for a ground floor opportunity or a hidden gem.
The third part of the plan is that as my audience grows, each of my individual projects will gain followers and participants. Eventually, the growth of individual projects could drive the growth of the Dane of Earth project itself.
Other than those strategic pillars, the plan is to just start cranking out content to let people know what I, Dane of Earth, and my various projects are about, build an audience, and engage with anyone who engages with me… and keep going. Then pray and put my trust in God that All is Well, whatever the outcome.
Thanks for reading my post, and please consider supporting the Dane of Earth project.