Aaron, a lot of us owe our thanks to you. :)

I have an expression that I remind myself of occasionally...It's simple.

"Good things come to good people"

We all do things at time that are not necessarily good are don't feel good...but if you are truly good at heart and stay true to yourself...then good things will come.

Let me know if you ever want some business advice/help. I'm a 20 year veteran of the Direct Marketing world...

Best Regards - H.L. DeVore

What a fabulous email. It's nice to be appreciated. I finally purchased your ebook early this morning. I wish I had done it years ago. I'm hoping to get a chance to read it more today but I like what I've read already.

I'm new to SEO and I believe it will be extremely helpful. I've seen so many positive reviews about your book that I had to check it out.

Mr Wall-

Please don’t take this as an attack on your character as I do not know you personally. After reading this, it will be interesting if my comment will even be posted; and what your response will be.

You've come a long way from earlier posts with inaccurate statements, typos, and disturbing attacks on the navy and government. One would recognize that you were just an angry individual who found an easy way to vent where people may listen (via internet) and support (or not). Several of your postings are “conspiracy theory” in nature. Nevertheless, I am finding it difficult to understand your true intentions in life; as I am certain, you are as well- and may not know it…yet.

What I mean is you claim that you want to help people and that giving people hope gives you hope. Hope in what? Explain.

From this posting, the insightful may tell you that you post blogs to vent, influence, receive feedback, gain recognition, and feel better and more secure about yourself. Using your time to make more money cannot buy that (taken from another of your posts).

Let’s go deeper. Judging from your postings and articles, many of your statements contradict your actions.

What are you doing to help other people?
• Helping them make money? As you know, at least what many of your postings claim (not in these words), money is what creates many of the world’s woes.
• Helping them get closer to self-actualization? How?
• Helping them find happiness and hope? How- because they read your blog? That’s temporary.

However you think you are helping others- is it really making the world better?

I’m asking these questions because I’m trying to understand your position on and intent with making the world better. As stated above, so many of your posts from various sites contradict many of your own statements. Take for instance 6/30/07 and your rip on SUVs, yet months earlier you quoted a friend to sum up your beliefs in that you would not be happy driving a Geo Metro. Implying that it is the car for those who do not have the money to buy anything else. Maybe you meant it in other terms?

Or how about a few days earlier- 6/25/07: what the heck are you trying to say? That statement is bursting with question marks. It goes to show that someone who doesn’t understand religion (and business in another decree) will post their thoughts as they come to them, as erroneous as they may be. (FYI, God created us- we created religion.) If religion and corporations are so bad, why would people with good intentions join them? You are profiting off corporations- doesn’t that make you a hypocrite? Under religious calling/beliefs, the individual or group who uses much of their time and income to travel to poverty areas of the world, whether it be in the US or abroad, and help those in need (and when I say help I mean provide labor, training, food, medicine, expertise etc)- are they hypocrites as well?

From your postings alone, I can easily cite dozens more examples.

Yes, you can be bitter against the “system” but don’t assume that the “system” as a whole is corrupt or wrong. If this is true, it wouldn’t last and would cease to exist. Only the organization with true intentions and people who really care and stick to their moral code, will continue to adjust and self-correct. I guess that’s why our military has been around for so long…hmmm. I know, you don’t agree- or do you? You see, even though you will rip on an organization (our government or other organizations), you have friends who you trust and admire; yet, who continue to thrive in those very organizations that you rip on.

It appears, in your view, you are always in the right. Only those who agree with you, as in any narcissistic relationship, are going to gain your admiration.

I don’t know you and I don’t claim to know you. I’m only stating what I’ve observed and read, from your own words, about you. And, in turn, you are doing the same- posting what you believe, from what you read or think you know… in the short time you’ve existed. Don’t get angry and post some two-bit refutation, back up what you say.

If you want to be taken seriously by people who really want to, or are attempting to make the world a better place- put it all out. Tell us who you really are. What are your goals?

Do you support a particular political party or just specific politicians who, you feel, will support your views? And why? Are you anti military or is it that you feel that the government (or current office) has misused their authority over the military? Are you anti navy or just anti-sub? Do you support the troops…, are your friends in the navy not really your friends…, or they are your friends but in to take advantage of the “system”?

What is your position on the environment? That’s one I’d like to know because you’ve challenged some of your own statements with opposing views and actions. Is the almighty dollar more important than your fellow man? Do you still donate to the United Way? Do you recognize where donations to the United Way go?

Give us your beliefs- Agnostic, Christian, non-practicing Jew etc. Citing blog post: 11/10/03- I hope you don’t place your faith on a few simple statements as “understanding”. You restated it yourself- question authority. Your belief (back then) that a few words from the Quran agreed with your views, must be good for the soul is not questioning authority. That it must make you more “Islamic” than “chrisian” (proper spelling: Christian) cannot be true because you don’t understand and/or appreciate either faith. Islamic beliefs and those very words that you quote, originated from the teachings of Christ through Muhammed. So does that now make you more Christian? I know, I know, its only a blog; yet, as you have eluded to, you want to help others?

Do some research. Converse, with an open mind, with others who have opposing views. Find out why. Practice empathy. Serve the less fortunate. Now that, as you have stated, you make six figures and don’t have a boss, get out and travel- by yourself and with various groups to get a first-hand account of what is going on beyond the www. Stop being a “wishy washy politician”.

Bottom line is: what do you really know and what are you doing, constructively, about what you claim to understand? Search for the truth and continue to question it; stop posting your beliefs as fact. That’s the challenge.

Hi Ron
I admire your comments.

How I help some people is largely by helping make markets more efficient, by helping people become better marketers. Many people who I have helped are able to make a living working for themselves, and some make far more than I do. Some of them have sent me letters and cards or emails or even called me and invited me to hang out with them.

I have helped others in other ways (financially, emotionally, socially, legal issues, etc.). I could get into specifics but I think I would just look like I am stroking my ego and a bit too narcissistic for my tastes. Though when I had a lower self esteem a year or two ago I probably would have bit at the offer.

Your tip on talking to people with other views is a great one. One of my friends who studied economics always changes my point of view when I think crazy stuff about economics. Right now I am reading a book by Frank Luntz and I just finished one by Alan Greenspan. One of the easiest ways to get out of a rut and better understand psychology and markets is to read an in depth perspective from a fairly rational person who opposes your current worldview.

I think religion, military, and politics are tools to hurt people as much as they are to help them. Each has their own hidden costs. Some you would not understand until you LIVED through certain situations.

As an example, when the Kursk sunk, I was on a submarine equipped with a rescue vehicle that could have saved their lives, but the Russians refused assistance. And then I thought, if it was the other way around, the US probably would have done the same thing, and I would have just died. Emotions and thought processes like those are hard to comprehend unless you live through them. And they melt down the way you think about pride, military, country, religion, etc.

My general theory of business include the following ideas

• the best work is rooted in deep passion
  
• most innovation comes from individuals
  
• the larger a corporation is (on average) the larger the amount of fraud needed to keep it financially viable (on average)
  
• corporations buy politicians
  
• most people are too overwhelmed, selfish, or apathetic to care about cutting education to buy another bomb to drop on a third world child
  
• as open source (and similar passion driven movements) spread then individuals are going to need and want company structures less to survive