Rusty Nails and Bubble Gum (How to Make a Million Dollars)
Hello My Friend,
What makes a business, product, or service successful? Is it that the business, product, or service is good? No. That’s very often not the case.
In many instances that which makes a business, product or service successful isn’t necessarily the product or the business itself, but rather the ‘personality’ behind it; the images, ideas, and feelings associated with the product or business – which, in most cases, is based on some superficial ideal portrayed by a specific person or group of people. A product or service doesn’t have to be good for it to be popular and successful.
For example, Victoria’s Secret isn’t selling lingerie as much as they are selling the fantasy that you will look like the sexy models depicted in their advertisements – eventhough they know damn well that 99.99% of their customers won’t be looking so hot when the actually put the garments on. What they are selling is fantasy and they simply use cheap, China-made clothing as the way to do it. If anyone thinks a man can tell the difference between dime store ladies underwear and $50 panties, you’re dead wrong. And if you think he cares, you’re just plain nuts.
This is the same little secret that emboldens the people who get on TV and make social media posts claiming that YOU, TOO can have a rich, luxurious life just like theirs IF you order their program and follow their three little steps; easy steps that anyone - even you! - can replicate with this simple formula, and then you can sell it to all of your friends and neighbors, and they can get rich, too! But - can it really be that easy? Just three little steps?
The first step, they’ll tell you, in creating wealth is your belief in yourself. The second step relies on your belief in the product; you’ve got to really love what you’re selling or promoting. The third step is getting your product or service in front of a lot of eyes. If people don’t know what you sell, they can’t buy it. And that all sounds pretty reasonable, right? Pretty standard, ‘How to Start a Small Business’ kind of stuff.
Ok, let’s start with the first step: you have to believe in yourself…and you don’t... And so, we have our first little snag in the process of you becoming a millionaire. You don’t believe in yourself. Great. And so you can’t really be successful. Why? Because you don’t know who you are, and you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing – otherwise you would be doing that and not trying to find out HOW to do that by investing your time and money into this goofball program – which is fine.
How are any of us supposed to know how anything works until we gain our own experience or learn from the knowledge of others who have come before us? But there are a lot of unscrupulous hucksters that know that, at some point, all men and women will go through this stage of desiring growth, of wanting more out of life, and those slick sons-a-bitches will very often try to take advantage of the fact that you don’t have an honest, fundamental understanding of who you really are, and so they will try to sell you a retail version of you that doesn’t actually exist; a make-believe persona that they convince you will succeed by using the ‘Secret Formula’ found in their courses, programs, seminars, products, and services.
That first step in most of these get-rich-quick schemes...that’s the big one: belief in yourself. It’s the one that the shady schemers gloss over because they know that if they dwell on it, they won’t get anyone to buy their product or services. They want you to imagine that you are just like them and, therefore, you can do it, too. “See?” They’ll say as they pass hot chicks in bikinis walking by the pool. “I’m living proof!” They want to convince you that - despite all logic, reason, and common sense – you and Mr. ‘Also Nobody’ are just the same. But that’s not true and it never will be.
When you hear someone claim that you can make a million dollars in two short weeks with just a handful of rusty nails and some bubble gum, you better not think that this gimmick has anything to do with nails and gum. Just because somebody has made millions with the ‘RNBG Success Formula’ doesn’t mean that you will, too.
This kind of gimmick has everything to do with WHO is selling instead of WHAT is being sold. Whatever gimmick they are shilling is totally irrelevant, but you get so swept up in the hype and charisma of the salesman that you let your reason and discernment fly out the door, and you talk yourself into buying this wonderful breakthrough program that allows even dummies like you to strike it rich. But you don’t realize that you’ve been hypnotized and you have been lulled into a false sense of honor among the thief in front of you, trying to sell you a gimmick that may or may not have ever worked under any circumstances with any positive results…despite the charts, graphs, and personal testimonials they flash in front of you.
But now they got you thinking, ‘Well, geez, I have some rusty nails in the junk drawer in my kitchen and I could buy a couple packs of gum…hmmmm. I think I can do this!” and then you invest your money into the program only to find out that even with all the rusty nails and chewed-up bubble gum in the world you just can’t make any money. And, of course, you wonder why you’re not getting the results that the toothy snake oil salesman got.
So...what’s the problem? What can you do? Well, maybe you need to buy the additional ‘RNBG Million Dollar Bonus Business Booster Pack’ which claims to have that one, teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy missing ingredients that a lot of students, just like you, lack; it’s that ‘super-special secret’ that will guarantee success.* In fact this secret is so valuable and so guaranteed to work that if you order now, you’ll get your very own, limited edition, very exclusive, organic plastic envelope printed with the words, “Rusty Nails & Bubble Gum Million Dollar Money Holder” so you’ll have a place to stash those fat stacks of cash as that dough comes rolling in!
You can see where this is going, right? Once you come to the conclusion that what you bought was a fantasy, a dream designed to sucker you in based on the fact that you have no direction in your life, then steps 2 and 3 don’t even matter. Sure, you could try to pull one over on a couple of your friends or relatives by sweet-talking them into your stupid scheme, but they’ll see right through the nonsense and will likely be offended that you thought they’d fall for such a dumb idea.
And this is the point at which you realize the real value of the program that you fell for. You learn the valuable lesson that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. It can be summed up with a simple phrase popularized by the rap group Public Enemy when they warned you, ‘Don’t believe the hype.’
So, while you thought you DID believe in yourself, you actually believed in the guy who believed in himself - and that’s why he struck it rich: he knows who he is: a Snake-Oil Salesman. Fine. He’s good at it. We all need a gimmick, right? Good for him, bad for you.
It’s people like this that know how to use their style, charm, and charisma - and your desperation and longing - to distract you from truly exploring yourself and, instead, buy their extremely vague blue-prints of a plan that won’t work for 9 1/2 out of 10 people.
The only time these plans work is when the person is already in love with themselves and they already know that they can succeed under any circumstances - and these people, these self-directed sons-a-bitches, wether they know it or not, have found God. Maybe they have a different name for it, but they love themselves and they have found freedom in their ability to celebrate this fact as they explore their life without boundaries, limitations, or fear.
You and me, on the other hand, we’ve got a special kind of stupid that makes us believe in everything BUT ourselves, and we are susceptible to all kinds of vultures. Well, we used to be, anyway. Things have changed.
You see, there is no get-rich-quick scheme that works if you aren’t doing what you are meant to do be doing. If you aren’t having daydreams and fantasies about hardware and alternative adhesives, then do yourself a favor and, please, don’t get into the rusty nails and bubble gum business.
You have unique qualities, characteristics, skills, ideas, and visions that can be used to better your life and the lives of others, but it’s up to you to discover those assets and use them in the way that only you can. Of course, you aren’t limited to one or two things. You can undertake many ventures in your life, but there really is a thing or two, something very special to you, that you should be pursuing. But only you know what that is.
Sure, it’s fun to believe and daydream that you are just like the guy in the video who struck it rich, and eventhough you and the guy have some similar qualities it just so happens that those qualities aren’t enough for you, as your unique Self, to replicate the ‘million dollar system’ because it doesn’t truly resonate with your core character.
Yes, your desired end results are the same: success, but getting there takes the path that only you can take - and that’s the path you make, the one you wear by walking your way - always toward your destination - for a long time. Now, that doesn’t mean that you can’ have success right now and on each step of the way, but don’t get distracted by the pretty flowers that beckon for your attention. Think from the end. Each step you take should make even clearer still, the picture of perfection that you’re walking toward.
The person who sold you that last stupid gimmick was showing you what a Professional Huckster can do, and you’re not a one of those so, fortunately, you don’t have to be a shill to make a living. That’s good news.
People who can mimic others are neat, right? Sure, I like an impersonator or a talking parrot as much as the next guy. But anyone can buy a ‘paint by numbers’ kit and fill in the colors in the right spots and end up with something that resembles the Mona Lisa but it lacks the fine nuanced brush strokes and truly creative aspects that can only come from the Soul of an artist who knows exactly how THEIR vision comes to life. They see it in their Mind’s Eye - and you can’t see that.
You cannot duplicate the vision that inspired the original creation of the Mona Lisa, you can only fill in the blanks of someone else’s magnificence, but you can never call it your own. It’s just a cheap copy. So, really…who cares?
A monkey can be trained to put spots of color on a canvas but that doesn’t make him Van Gogh. It not an artistic creation if there is no sincere vision behind it. And this is what the hopeful (but naïve) buyers of these shady money-making programs don’t know yet. But soon enough we all find out.
After enough failed attempts at striking it rich with fool-proof gimmicks, we are forced to confront ourselves and (hopefully) come to the realization that our success is entirely dependent on exploiting our own, unique qualities that only we possess - and that’s not something we can buy.
“But,” you may ask, “how do I know who I really am? How do I know what my ‘purpose’ is?” And to that I answer, “Stop fucking around and get yourself a God.” That’s really the only answer there is. It’s the fundamental, very, very, very first step you must take if you are ever going to know who you are and why you’re here – and it’s the step that HAS to come before any success of any kind can be achieved.
Everybody has to ‘meet their Maker’ sooner or later, right? You might as well do it now, and figure out who your Maker is and what the fuck you’re supposed to be making. You have to consciously explore your consciousness and answer the questions that we all toy with, but most never narrow down: “Who Am I?” and “Why Am I here?” And then the (sometimes horrible) follow up questions: “Then why the hell am I living like this” and “What must I do to become who I really Am?”
Let’s say that you have a lot of money, and you drive a nice car but you’re miserable and lonely. What’s the solution? Get yourself a God.
Let’s say you have successful relationships, and are creative but always broke. What’s the solution? Get yourself a God.
Let’s say you want to start your own business, but you can’t afford the equipment you need. What’s the solution? Get yourself a God.
Maybe you buy Victoria’s Secret underwear but, secretly, you hate your fat, gross thighs. What can you do? Get yourself a God.
I don’t care what, how, or why you’re not happy, successful, or abundant – the answer to any problem is to stop fucking around and get yourself a God; stop distracting and confusing yourself with ideals that don’t belong to you, that aren’t your own. Stop getting hung up on the differences between you and everybody else. There is beauty IN the differences between you and everybody and that is what makes life so interesting.
If we were all striving for the same definition of beauty, beauty would cease to be because it would no longer be extraordinary. “Oh, great, more beauty. So what?” But it is what is different that strikes us a beautiful because it is its own extremely unique expression that cannot be found anywhere else. And this is why you’re here: to find out what beauty you possess and how you can bring it to the forefront of your life as it guides you through your journey ever closer toward perfection.
In fairy tales, Holy Books, epic poems, and a billion stupid movies and cheesy songs, the whole world has been telling you to “follow your heart.” Well, this is what it means! But do you have the guts to really do it? Not to become a rusty nails and bubble gum-like millionaire, but to lose yourself in the Beauty of Unity with God? That’s what I’m selling. Who’s buying?
Look. I’m telling you, once you get yourself a God you will get your Whole Self, your Real Self, your Authentic Self, and from there you can achieve all of your dreams and fill in all the missing pieces that will make your life complete, and give you the comfort and satisfaction of knowing that you are perfect just the way you are right now and forever because you are One with God and God never fails.
But getting yourself a God is very expensive. It costs even more than the Platinum Inner Circle Silver Gold 3-Day Get-a-Way Luxury Resort Networking Retreat that your favorite big-time motivator mover and shaker is trying to convince you that you need to buy in order to achieve true happiness - it costs a little bit more than that.
Getting yourself a God will cost you YOU – and that is a price most people are not willing to pay.
Until we meet again, my friend, think good thoughts.
All my love,
Rev. Shakes Spear
* Successful results aren’t actually possible with this snake-oil program because it is designed for losers and failures who are gullible enough to fall for ‘fool-proof’ gimmicks. When will you ever learn? Anyway, thanks for the cash! We had a great time spending it. Next time read the fine print, dummy.