Inbox, Outbox, Jelly or Jam!

In the beginning I was lost or so I thought.  The walls were closing in around me and the wolves were smacking their lips on my backside.  I wanted to escape from it all but there were no exits, no escapes.  I stared into the looking glass of my computer for answers until I was numb or asleep.

Time warps, transitions, dreams and e-missions, questions and answers from every position culminated, integrated and separated.  Soon I was confronting a league of subjects.  Each one describing a possible solution to problems that I’d known or ignored and each one offering some form of escape from financial strife.

My Email If Printed

I stumbled upon one such subject containing a small box with an artistic cover.  It contained a zip file which I unzipped and many smaller boxes came pouring out.  A man’s voice popped out of an audio box and began to tell me things I’d never heard before.

His voice was fine, self assured, humorous and he imparted a sense of confidence, passion, and commitment as he spoke.  “This ain’t rocket science”, he said every so often.  “Anyone can do this”, he went on to say.  “Find a hungry target market and satisfy that market.”

The subject’s name was “Shawn-i-pop-outa-things” and the thing that “anyone can do” was called “internet marketing”.  He gave me everything in the box for free and called it “Internet Marketing In a Box”.  It made perfect sense to me, the title anyway.  I then owned my first set of PDF ebooks but not my last.

I could hear Shawn-i-pop-outa-things but he couldn’t hear me.  I knew he was much more powerful than I as I became very curious to know how it was that he could appear in my looking glass.  His email address was “do-not-reply”  Yet before he said goodbye he shared a link to one particular tool and source of his many powers known as Pappa-wanna-pay-pal.

I followed his advice and registered for an account.  I then joined an excellent marketing products membership site of his using my new account and away we went. Shawn-i-pop-outa-things expressed a very positive influence over me, so much so that I didn’t hesitate to pursue “the thing that anyone can do”.

In exchange for the free internet course I granted him permission to share my looking glass address with his best friends.  There was Eric Uber-rocks, Hairy Hey-fuhgit-about-it, Tallman Like-building,  Phannie To-die-for, and Elizabeth-among-others.  They all introduced me to their friends and to their friends and so on.

Each one would share excellent advice, reports, ebooks, and video lessons with me for which I was most grateful.  They also shared promotional links to their products and to their affiliates products and I purchased as many as I could afford at the time.  You might say that I was “information driven”.

Yet, it took months to sort out the league of subjects and solutions that were forming settlements around me.  I believe that I opted-in to email lists a few too many times like a few too many oysters or ales.   I didn’t have the time or an adequate solution for managing twenty or more emails a day when I was new to the internet.

So I opened more email accounts to handle the many new emails I was getting every month.  My inboxes became my new home for over 6 months.  Finally, I was so overwhelmed with solutions and information that I began to transition away from reading and buying all the time.  I began to do something.

-Japanese proverb-

If internet marketing could possibly be contained in one sentence then
“Find a hungry target market and satisfy that market” would be an excellent choice.  The sentence alone however is only a description of something that could easily require months or years to fully implement and accomplish.

Can it be done in days or weeks?  Only if you’re a machine or an alien.  If so then yes, of course.  If you’ve a steady stream of instructions to follow and you were to follow them as directed and you were limited only by the time it takes to sleep, eat, and socialize then it could be done.  Yes, I know  HAL 9000;  you don’t need to do any of those things. You can amass great wealth in 12 hours flat.

We’re not machines though.  We process and proceed as our human hearts and minds see fit.  We also have families, friends, responsibilities and commitments.  The only time I actually think like a computer is when I’m operating or programming one.  Developing an understanding of the capabilities and scope of the computer via the internet has been arduous but valuable.

The endless nightmare before the looking glass is vanishing.
The hounds on my rear are losing ground as I progress through my work.
The tasks before me everyday are more definite and purposeful.
Many things that were so difficult to understand early on are now clear to me.
I look forward to every day with renewed anticipation.

I feel immense gratitude for all of the support, friendship, and coaching I’ve received on my journey on “the road to find out”.  Moments before posting this article I stopped by Mandy Allen’s place.  One particular article there is titled “Set in Stone” and it contains one of the finest parables I’ve ever read.  Upon reaching the end of Mandy’s story I was delighted to find a phrase that reflects a sentiment that I feel as well.  “Do not value the things you have in your life, but value who you have in your life.”

My dear mom, now passed on, cherished her family and was an extraordinary hospital nurse.   We, her kids, often recall mom’s response to us anytime we were having priority issues.   She would say emphatically;  “Things don’t matter, people do”, her emphasis on the word people.  Some lessons last a lifetime.

A thing is no more than the thing itself …even this diamond heirloom?  Hmmmm, yes, even that. … …

-Excerpt from the Tao Te Ching – Lao Tzu.

Photographs by Jane English.