1511
For whatever reason, I always turn to LJ to type my thoughts.
I live in the southern suburbs now where minds are slow and cards are fast. If I were any good at poker, I would be living large, however I am mind-numbingly awful. I have the best poker face and have been called a poker shark. I like to play.
I have the slight opportunity to move to Portland, OR. I feel lucky. I also feel stuck. I asked my co-worker today why we're not taught how to prepare taxes or do an oil change. Her response? "That's what parent's are for." I sat behind my desk with such a blank stare. I never once imagined this to be a parent's job. Maybe it's a sign. Regardless, Portland seems close and exciting. I want to leave and leave for good. I need to find something new, someone new, and somewhere new. My current full time provides slim opportunity for growth as I am the one dragging the office along to progress.
This has been the most difficult two paragraphs to write in my entire life. When did this become such a chore. I have been backspacing crazily. I just did it again.
It moved me. Maybe it'll do the same for you.
"CANDID CONFESSION: Back in college, I walked in on my girlfriend having sex with one of my best friends.
It was horrific. It was truly one of the first times I felt that I'd been fucked over…pun intended for story purposes coming up.
Even though the image hung in my mind, and ate at me for awhile, I moved beyond it.
However, as bad the image was to me, it hung with them for much longer. Both of them, individually would apologize profusely, over and over, for years.
Long after I'd not even cared anymore.
It allowed me to realize that the person who gets screwed over isn't the person who loses the power. There is a transfer of karmic energy that occurs when such an event happens.
It's uncanny.
Fast forward to today.
I give the impression, on Facebook, that I make my living doing branding work for big name entrepreneurs.
That is highly untrue.
Here are some shocking statistics of what I've earned in my currency business versus what I've been paid by 'gurus' in the internet marketing world.
Currency Business: I've personally sold $9 million worth of my own products and services. If you include the dealers who came to me, whose businesses I set up, branded, etc….that figure soars far beyond.
There is hardly an Iraqi Dinar note being sold as an investment in the world today that I don't have some peripheral connection to.
Internet Marketing: $10,000 in 3 years.
Every person you have ever seen that I've done work for has either not paid me, or paid me so little that if you factor in my time versus what they paid, I would have done just as well working at McDonalds.
Why is this?
I let them pay what they think I'm worth.
These people make their living trying to figure out how to get the most money they can from people, while paying the least they can to people they hire.
(Some of you may consider that smart. I'll show you here why it's not.)
So when presented with an offer to pay what they think I'm worth, they can't help themselves.
It's like dangling meat in front of a lion.
They can't understand why I'm doing so. It short circuits their wiring.
In their mind, they can't imagine that a person has a larger goal than the immediate money gained from them, so they assume they are able to fleece an unsuspecting "designer".
I'm not a photographer.
I'm not a videographer.
I'm not a graphic designer.
I have become an expert in those areas, because I use my brain.
I care about creativity.
What I am is an absolutely ruthless entrepreneur, and I'll take years to go about crafting an image to get to a goal that I'm working towards.
The best way that I've found to own someone is to let them not pay you for hard work.
Even though it's a disease they can't control in the moment, their humanity takes over in the long run, and eats at them.
Last year, I worked for a few weeks on a huge launch for a famous infomercial personality.
Again, I allowed them to pay whatever they thought I was worth.
The emails about my work, from him, and the rest of the team, were the following:
Damn Marshall this is REALLY good!
SOOOOOOO EPICCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just came.
I came twice... My gf will not happy with you this evening Marshall with my lack of interest in her
These were emails from the team after I sent them the first finished launch video.
Seeing these responses, and knowing that the launch was somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million, would lead you to believe that I must have been well compensated.
Zero Dollars.
Now, any of you reading this know that when I put something out, I don't fuck around. I am a very serious human being.
Even when I know that I'm going to either be short-changed, or not paid, that doesn't change the fact that I'm still going to be me, and I'm a guy who has worked very hard for everything he gets in life, and gives the same respect to others that do as well.
That infomercial personality emailed me just over a month ago.
He needed a favor.
You know how hard he had to gravel to ask for that favor?
It was painful to watch it happen.
I've been seeing that more and more.
I've been quietly rising up the ranks in this market, without putting out a product, a service, or anything that is normally used to gain a foothold.
More of them are coming back.
They see that they made a poorly calculated mistake.
I'm hearing, "Hey, man. Aaaaahhhhh, that work you did for me...I really appreciated that. I'm sorry about you getting paid so little (or not paid). That's just wrong. I don't know how that happened……."
Graveling 101.
Moral: Be kind to people. If you need something from someone, don't try to finagle the lowest price. Business isn't a game. It's real life, with real people.
Pay what that person is worth. Just because you can negotiate the lowest rate, doesn't mean you should. That person has dignity.
And more importantly, they have hard earned talent that you don't have.
Have respect.
-Marshall Wayne"
I live in the southern suburbs now where minds are slow and cards are fast. If I were any good at poker, I would be living large, however I am mind-numbingly awful. I have the best poker face and have been called a poker shark. I like to play.
I have the slight opportunity to move to Portland, OR. I feel lucky. I also feel stuck. I asked my co-worker today why we're not taught how to prepare taxes or do an oil change. Her response? "That's what parent's are for." I sat behind my desk with such a blank stare. I never once imagined this to be a parent's job. Maybe it's a sign. Regardless, Portland seems close and exciting. I want to leave and leave for good. I need to find something new, someone new, and somewhere new. My current full time provides slim opportunity for growth as I am the one dragging the office along to progress.
This has been the most difficult two paragraphs to write in my entire life. When did this become such a chore. I have been backspacing crazily. I just did it again.
It moved me. Maybe it'll do the same for you.
"CANDID CONFESSION: Back in college, I walked in on my girlfriend having sex with one of my best friends.
It was horrific. It was truly one of the first times I felt that I'd been fucked over…pun intended for story purposes coming up.
Even though the image hung in my mind, and ate at me for awhile, I moved beyond it.
However, as bad the image was to me, it hung with them for much longer. Both of them, individually would apologize profusely, over and over, for years.
Long after I'd not even cared anymore.
It allowed me to realize that the person who gets screwed over isn't the person who loses the power. There is a transfer of karmic energy that occurs when such an event happens.
It's uncanny.
Fast forward to today.
I give the impression, on Facebook, that I make my living doing branding work for big name entrepreneurs.
That is highly untrue.
Here are some shocking statistics of what I've earned in my currency business versus what I've been paid by 'gurus' in the internet marketing world.
Currency Business: I've personally sold $9 million worth of my own products and services. If you include the dealers who came to me, whose businesses I set up, branded, etc….that figure soars far beyond.
There is hardly an Iraqi Dinar note being sold as an investment in the world today that I don't have some peripheral connection to.
Internet Marketing: $10,000 in 3 years.
Every person you have ever seen that I've done work for has either not paid me, or paid me so little that if you factor in my time versus what they paid, I would have done just as well working at McDonalds.
Why is this?
I let them pay what they think I'm worth.
These people make their living trying to figure out how to get the most money they can from people, while paying the least they can to people they hire.
(Some of you may consider that smart. I'll show you here why it's not.)
So when presented with an offer to pay what they think I'm worth, they can't help themselves.
It's like dangling meat in front of a lion.
They can't understand why I'm doing so. It short circuits their wiring.
In their mind, they can't imagine that a person has a larger goal than the immediate money gained from them, so they assume they are able to fleece an unsuspecting "designer".
I'm not a photographer.
I'm not a videographer.
I'm not a graphic designer.
I have become an expert in those areas, because I use my brain.
I care about creativity.
What I am is an absolutely ruthless entrepreneur, and I'll take years to go about crafting an image to get to a goal that I'm working towards.
The best way that I've found to own someone is to let them not pay you for hard work.
Even though it's a disease they can't control in the moment, their humanity takes over in the long run, and eats at them.
Last year, I worked for a few weeks on a huge launch for a famous infomercial personality.
Again, I allowed them to pay whatever they thought I was worth.
The emails about my work, from him, and the rest of the team, were the following:
Damn Marshall this is REALLY good!
SOOOOOOO EPICCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just came.
I came twice... My gf will not happy with you this evening Marshall with my lack of interest in her
These were emails from the team after I sent them the first finished launch video.
Seeing these responses, and knowing that the launch was somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million, would lead you to believe that I must have been well compensated.
Zero Dollars.
Now, any of you reading this know that when I put something out, I don't fuck around. I am a very serious human being.
Even when I know that I'm going to either be short-changed, or not paid, that doesn't change the fact that I'm still going to be me, and I'm a guy who has worked very hard for everything he gets in life, and gives the same respect to others that do as well.
That infomercial personality emailed me just over a month ago.
He needed a favor.
You know how hard he had to gravel to ask for that favor?
It was painful to watch it happen.
I've been seeing that more and more.
I've been quietly rising up the ranks in this market, without putting out a product, a service, or anything that is normally used to gain a foothold.
More of them are coming back.
They see that they made a poorly calculated mistake.
I'm hearing, "Hey, man. Aaaaahhhhh, that work you did for me...I really appreciated that. I'm sorry about you getting paid so little (or not paid). That's just wrong. I don't know how that happened……."
Graveling 101.
Moral: Be kind to people. If you need something from someone, don't try to finagle the lowest price. Business isn't a game. It's real life, with real people.
Pay what that person is worth. Just because you can negotiate the lowest rate, doesn't mean you should. That person has dignity.
And more importantly, they have hard earned talent that you don't have.
Have respect.
-Marshall Wayne"