Why would I spend my whole life working a meaningless job? 

That’s the question I never got a satisfying answer to.

“You have to make sacrifices”, “You can’t just do whatever you want”, “Just wait until you grow up, it’ll make sense”. And so on…

It didn’t make any sense as a kid, and it still doesn’t. 

Sure, you have to make a living, and to make a living you have to work. But if I’m going to spend all this time working in my life, why would I work a job that I don’t care about; a job that isn’t aligned with who I truly am and the changes I want to bring to the world? 

Call me a stubborn idealist all you want, but it’s the stubborn idealists who actually make a dent in the universe. It’s the stubborn “realists” who never make an impact; the maintainers of mediocrity and guardians of bureaucracy. The “agent smith’s”, if you will.

But there’s something us stubborn idealists and the stubborn realists share in common: we are both fearful creatures. Everyday, our decisions are guided by a tremendous fear within us—an unconscious force which shapes our destiny. But we don’t rank our fears the same. 

Our greatest fear is not living up to our potential. There’s nothing that terrifies us more than reaching old age and looking back with regrets. Telling ourselves, “I wish I started that business”, or “If I only I asked out that cute girl/guy.” Reviewing our life’s resumé and realizing we spent our whole lives trying to please the unpleaseable. 

The stubborn realists greatest fear is rejection. There’s nothing that terrifies them more than failing in front of others; having a crowd of thunderous laughter directed at their stupidity. To be kicked out of their vital sense of belonging and left to die on their own.

Don’t get it twisted; us stubborn idealists are just as afraid of rejection as anyone else. It’s hard-wired into us. The difference is that we are more afraid of not living up to our potential than of being rejected. In other words, we’d rather go through the pain of rejection than the pain of living a meaningless life. 

So, if you’re anything like me, I have an invitation for you. A path that was never taught in any schools; a path you’d be hard-pressed to find in any books, yet a path of meaning. 

The Vocational Red-Pill

Since the moment we entered the school system, we were told that to do what we want, we need to make money, and to make money we need a job. The reason we were in school, then, was to eventually get a job so that we can do what we want. 

What they never told us was that you can make money without a job. You can do what you want without having to work for someone else, but under one condition: you must create a business. 

Remember the iconic scene in the Matrix when Orpheus offered Neo the blue and red pill? Yeah, entrepreneurship is the vocational red pill. It’s the realization of, “Wait a second…you’re telling me I can do what I love for a living so long as I find a way to get paid for it? You’re telling me I don’t have to work a meaningless matrix job and can actually make my dreams a reality?”

Sounds amazing, right? Most of you reading this have most likely already had this epiphany. But like any epiphanies, it’s usually followed by soul-crushing resistance. 

Maybe you started researching entrepreneurship, picking up books, talking to other entrepreneurs, but you hit a wall. You were told, “If you want to be an entrepreneur you have to accept a life of endless hustling.” Maybe you tried starting a business and it failed miserably. No matter the form, the wall is essentially the same: starting a business on your own is a borderline impossible feat. Your life will be so much better if you humble yourself and work for someone else. 

I hit this wall when I started my first herbalist business. I thought I found a golden opportunity when discovered the power of infused oils while traveling in Mexico and in only 3 days I created my unique batches, designed and printed labels, bottled my product, and was selling them on the streets. 

I was so proud of myself and eager to share my product. I started getting some sales and other herbalists complimenting my work. Then, the sales stopped. I was sitting on the street with thousands of people walking by and I quickly realized this wasn’t going to work. 

I hit this wall again when I started my own plant-based restaurant. I found a location. I worked with my partners to build a brand, a business strategy, and created over 50 unique, delicious recipes. I poured everything I had into this, but after 4 months, we couldn’t find an investor and I was forced to dissolve the business. 

Point is, as stubborn idealists who choose to walk this path, we fail. After pushing myself to extreme exhaustion working 70+ hours a week and following all the tenants of traditional entrepreneurship, I got virtually no results. I knew there had to be a better way of doing this. I was working harder than I’d ever worked in my life, but hard work wasn’t enough. 

So, since my last failure I made a promise to myself: I’m going to find a way to make a living from my spiritual gifts. I know that my life has a purpose, that I’m here for a reason—and clearly it’s not to be a herbalist or a chef. So I’m going to dedicate my life to finding a formula to earn a living from your spiritual gifts; a way to accelerate the discovery of your life’s purpose and create a sustainable vessel to give your gifts to the world. 

Introducing Spiritual Solopreneurship

After years of extensive study and experimenting, I found a formula. I call it spiritual solopreneurship: the act of building, growing, and maintaining a one-person business that aligns with one’s spiritual values. 

The “spiritual” part is obvious to most Truth seekers; you want your work to be meaningful. The “solopreneurship” part is less obvious; why does it have to be “one-person”? Isn’t that hyper-individualistic and anti-spiritual to try and do everything yourself? 

Simple answer: to build a successful business, you need to start somewhere. The BEST place to start is to build a personal brand. Why?

• You were born with a monopoly, it’s called your name. Nobody else can be you better than yourself. 
• To make it on our modern world, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from the crowd.
• The best way to distinguish yourself is to build up your monopoly: create a personal brand that reflects your authentic Self.
• As you share your unique ideas with the world, you’ll build a following of people who value you for who you are.
• Once you’ve built this authentic following, you can launch any business you want and have a steady stream of cash-flow. 

Think about it this way: you already have a personal brand. It’s called your name. People already love you for who you are. But we’ve been taught that to make money we have to hide who we really are: to separate the authentic “me” and the professional “me” that shows up to work. 

In the old industrial economy, this was a given. You couldn’t show up to your factory job and get a promotion for sharing your unfiltered thoughts with others. 

In the modern post-internet economy, this is a recipe for slavery. If you don’t find a way to leverage your authenticity via social media, you will be assigned a miserable job. 

The best thing is that there is literally zero cost to get started. You can create a YouTube channel for free. You can start blogging for free. There is no barrier to entry.

In the past, the biggest barrier to entry was raising capital. You needed to get investments or put your own money into it. Now, you can start your business and scale into the millions without spending a single dollar. 

Social media is the modern-day equivalent of the printing press; it allow us to communicate faster than ever before. Plus, IT’S NEW. We easily forget about this since our lives have naturally adapted to it, but social media only started to be a thing less than two decades ago. 

And look, I’m anti-social media in many ways. I deleted all my socials at 17 and refused to let my life become an endless scroll of consuming mental garbage. But, like any other powerful tool, it can be used to liberate you or enslave you. Social media isn’t evil, it’s simply a tool; one that you must leverage to become financially free. 

So, spiritual solopreneurship is the art of building a personal brand that reflects who you truly are and creating products and services that bring cash flow into your pocket. Essentially, it’s a way to get paid to be yourself; it’s the escape route from the soul-sucking 9-5 to a meaningful life of service. 

The Asset of Authenticity

“But Jamal, I don’t actually enjoy making content. I don’t want to spend my life talking to a camera.” 

I get it. It’s awkward. It feels like a staged performance. But think about all those movies and TV shows you consume, aren’t those also staged performances? What about those concerts and festivals you attend, the conferences, ceremonies, etc., aren’t those staged performances? 

Think about all of your idols and the people you look up to most. Would you have been influenced by them had they not been recorded by microphones and cameras? Think about all the books that changed your life. Would you have read them if they were never written?

Put simply, we’re all actors in this grand play called Life. The reason why you get depressed or your life feels meaningless is because you’re playing a character that isn’t actually you. 

The moment you play a character that is the real you, everything changes. It’s not that you didn’t order the right recording equipment from Amazon or that you’re being shadow-banned on YouTube; it’s that you’re trying to be someone you’re not.

You’ll know when you’ve struck gold when you share your ideas and you’re overwhelmed with a sense of joy and enthusiasm; when people start telling you how amazed and inspired they are by you. 

Here’s a simple metric; if you’re not laughing at yourself and having fun while sharing your ideas with the world, you’re not being yourself. If you’re not being yourself, you’ll be assigned a cubicle in the matrix. 

Join The Movement

Hopefully, I’ve defibrillated the self-doubt out of you. If so, the next question is, “How am I going to make this work?”

Well, if you hop on this same wave that I’m on, I assure you we’re gonna make this work. 

It might not happen as quickly as you’d like it to, but if you keep reading my subsequent posts and follow my work, I will literally hand you the blueprint. 

I’m not going to stop until I know for an absolute fact that I have a reliable, tried-and-true method to help every Truth seeker to become financially free. 

But, then again, maybe I’m just a charlatan…