It’s About Being a Survivor, and a Warrior, and a God Damn Modern-Day Gladiator

“That woman I’m always talking about on the Internet—she’s coming to England!”

This was (ever so flatteringly) what Client #5, the last client we have the privilege of working with here in London, told us she said to her father as she raced down the stairs in a small town in the north, the moment the announcement was made.

“But, it’s expensive,” she told him sheepishly.

“Go,” he said to her. “If this will help you get your business to the next level, go.”

And so incredibly began our conversation, last night, as we greeted Client #5 in the restaurant, meeting her for the first time.

“So, what’s our yearly revenue goal, madam?” I said to her over a cocktail, shortly thereafter. “Let’s start with the money, and then we’ll work backward.”

She named a number, but it wasn’t the number that was surprising—it was her reason.

“I’d like to move my family to the next town over, where the neighborhood is a little nicer, but the homes cost double. I’m also on a mission to find a way to pay for my four-year-old niece to go to a good private school—education isn’t very good, where I’m from, and I desperately want her to have a fighting chance.”

And, of course, it was then that I decided that I was giving up everything, moving to the North of England, and MAKING IT MY LIFE’S WORK TO MAKE THIS GIRL A MILLIONAIRE. Because this is what it’s all about, you guys. Fuck the Internet. Fuck social media. Fuck all of those morons telling you how to get rich quick with their shiny webinar pitches. This is about real life, and real consequences, and about genuinely helping people defy their every odd and prevail. It’s about being a survivor, and a warrior, and a god damn modern-day gladiator. And it’s about creating your own bloody opportunity, in this life, instead of waiting to be given it.

Today we begin her photoshoot.
Tomorrow, we talk strategy.
And by the time she arrives back home on Monday, she’ll be ready for battle.

And I hope she goes to him, her father. And I hope she looks him in the eye. And I hope he says to her, “well?” And I hope, with all my heart, that she looks back at him and replies, not with kind words about me, that woman on the Internet, but with kind words about herself—the woman that he raised. The woman that is going to change things. The woman who is driven and sharp and clever and talented, who’s more self-assured and confident than ever.

Because when you’ve got a purpose, in life, it’s not about the revenue goal at all—it’s about what that revenue means.

And I wonder, sometimes, if maybe the rest of us forgot.