Signals for what’s next – and what matters
Health ⎪ Innovation ⎪ Society
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Hey Reader,
Most of the deepest, wisest people I know are either broke or just getting by. Or they make a decent living but not “killing it” by any means.
You know these types. You are one of them – or you wouldn’t be reading this.
They are therapists, artists, mystics, meaning-makers. Debt laden doctors or motivated entrepreneurs seeking to do more than build another social media app. They carry the world but are not paid for lifting. They boosted Wordle to global fame. They listen to podcasts without yelling. And they couldn’t troll someone online if they tried.
But they are failing at the game of capitalism. Not because they’re wrong. Because they’re misaligned with the architecture of the game itself. Capitalism pay for certainty, spectacle, and speed. But deep people wait, whisper and wither.
It’s a mismatch. An ancient soul trying to speak through a TikTok algorithm.
Meanwhile, Haley Bieber sold a billion dollar skin care company this week and continues to hawk her 20 dollar smoothies. Or hedge funds and private equity buy up hald the country (the other half is owned by China). The world turns on a myth they didn’t write.
In times of perma-crisis, Mr Rodgers said to look for the helpers. But too many helpers are on the downside of financial advantage and so limit how many people they can serve.
And I seethe with rage about this. Good people should be well off. It’s time to take money and the markets back from the tech bros and the finance gurus and put in your hands.
This is for the thoughtful ones who feel like capitalism left them unread—who speak in essays while others sell in slogans, and wonder why their depth doesn’t convert.
The Double Bind
If you go deep, you’re ignored.
If you sell, you’re a grifter.
If you do both, you’re “trying too hard.”
This is the double bind of the soulful modern: you want to create something that matters—
but the moment you package it, it feels like betrayal. And you get criticized for it. Meanwhile the Rock launches a new brand everywhere and he’s celebrated.
This double standard creates deep problems for deep people. Your hesitation manifests as procrastination, loss of first mover advantage, and self-censorship.
And yet—
You also know that money runs the world. That without capital, you’re at the mercy of institutions, donors, or burnout who don’t share your depth nor your goodness. You can’t build a school, a business, a better life, or an honest ritual without it. Non-profits go unfunded and creative, reflective and deep people are trapped in soul crushing jobs operating in cubicles, fending off emails from angry bosses, and worrying about the AI job-apocalypse.
So what now?
Money and Messages
Selling requires belief not just in your product—but in your right to be seen.
And you deep people? You carry the wound of invisibility by design. It’s shame. I know, I struggle with it everyday. You secretly long for visibility but fear exposure. To be in business is to externalize what you revere the most – and hold it up for public scrutiny. But more than fear of rejection is a fear of reduction – that who you are becomes less because you put a price tag on it.
The paradox, however, is that this attempt at self preservation prompts self-erasure anyway.
But if your course, your service, your product or your store truly helps, heals and humanizes then you need to sell. Not doing so is not humility. It’s hoarding medicine.
This core wound manifests in the following ways that handicap your ability to win the game of money markets and meaning. Deep people:
1.They Value Integrity Over Influence – they would rather be honest than persuasive. They speak in caveats while the market rewards soundbites.
2. They Associate Money with Moral Corruption – Many have internalized the myth that profit = greed. So they sabotage their success unconsciously to stay “pure.” Does money corrupt? Or the lack of it? Maybe both? The decision you make inside will affect the business plan you execute on the outside.
3.They Don’t Design for Scale – We are in a services, gig based economy. Healers, consultants and professionals love 1:1, depth work, nuance. But capitalism scales through systems, products, and distribution. So stay deep but understand the mechanisms of scaling your efforts.
4.They Play Defense, Not Offense Deep folks often spend years refining their craft or waiting for the world to discover them. Capitalism rewards those who declare, ship, iterate, promote—ready or not. Don’t wait for permission and certainly don’t wait till you’re “ready.” Readiness is a lie. Go, go, go !
5.They Market Ideas Instead of Identities The market doesn’t buy ideas. It buys status, transformation, aspiration. Most deep people lead with concepts, not emotional desire or identity alignment. But before any dollars (or crypto) is exchanged, emotions must be shared.
6. They Underestimate the Power of Narrative – Capitalism isn’t just about numbers—it’s about storytelling. Entrepreneur, as business professor Scott Galloway states, is just a synonym for storyteller. But deep people mistake storytelling for ego, glibness and sleaze.
The Sacred Must Scale
Deep people, hear me out: the way through is not to abandon depth. It’s to become bilingual. You need to learn to code switch. It’s a harder path than that of Goldman Sachs VP, but it’s a more fulfilling one. Even holier.
Speak the language of the market without betraying the language of the soul. “Sacred commerce” or “mythic capitalism” says:
Your wisdom deserves wealth. Your products can carry power. Your truth can go viral—if it’s wrapped in a form the world can digest.
Here’s the shift: depth is not the opposite of commerce. Shallow products and services are.
The problem isn’t selling something. The problem is not selling anything of true worth.
Modern entrepreneurial language has co-opted this message. We constantly hear of gurus, marketing experts and digital business owners who speak of providing “value” to customers. Just keeping providing value and you can charge high premiums.
But the people who most speak of value are rarely the ones offering it. Meanwhile elementary schoolteachers, stay at home mom, nurses working back to back shifts get shafted.
Play the game—but play it with care, myth and fire.
How to Sell Without Selling Out
(And Enjoy Money Without Being Owned By It)
1. Root Your Offer in Service, Not Performance – You’re not selling yourself. You’re offering a transformation others need. I have written before about the future of the marketplace is the transformation economy. Your vibe is not “look at me” rather “this might help you.”
2. Charge Like It’s Sacred – Based your prices on impact, integrity, and energy transfer—not just what the market will bear. It’s a lesson that the pharmaceutical industry should head. You are building a reciprocal economy, not a hustle funnel.
3. Build Beauty, Not Just Funnels – Design your offer and your marketing with reverence—every page, post, or pitch should feel like a blessing dressed in strategy. No manipulation. No coercion. Just resonance and invitation. Clarity is not selling out. Hype is.
4. Know Your Enough Point –The sellout wants more, always. The soulful builder defines “enough”—money becomes fuel, not identity.
5.Stay Close to Your Source -You’re most at risk of selling out when you forget who you were before the audience arrived. Keep a practice. Stay in community. Build rituals that remind you why you began. The marketplace gives you feedback. But only your soul gives you direction.
Postscript
Don’t hate the player, hate the game as the saying goes. Perhaps we ought to say, win the game to remake it. Or transcend it.
But you can’t ignore it.
Or the marketplace becomes a circus. A place of algorithms, charlatans and value-agnostic opportunists.
Be a merchant of meaning not just utility.
Tomorrow Can’t Wait,
