What One Man Can Do, Another Can Do

Encouraging words for overcoming debt and other obstacles.

Readership: All; Men; Men in debt;
Theme: Consolidating Masculinity
Author’s Note: This essay was written on 2022/10/6. Editing, formatting, and images added by Jack.
Length: 2,000 words
Reading Time: 11 minutes + 4 videos totaling 27:23 minutes.

Case Study 1 — Roger Bannister

In his post, Restoring Respect (2022/9/28), Jack shared the following magazine cover of one of the greatest athletes in history, Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes.

My favorite part of Bannister’s story is what was going on around him as he trained up for the attempt, and what happened after he broke the four minute barrier (emphasis mine).

“So the four-minute barrier stood for decades — and when it fell, the circumstances defied the confident predictions of the best minds in the sport.  The experts believed they knew the precise conditions under which the mark would fall.  It would have to be in perfect weather — 68 degrees and no wind.  On a particular kind of track — hard, dry clay — and in front of a huge, boisterous crowd urging the runner on to his best-ever performance.  But Bannister did it on a cold day, on a wet track, at a small meet in Oxford, England, before a crowd of just a few thousand people.

When Bannister broke the mark, even his most ardent rivals breathed a sigh of relief.  At last, somebody did it! And once they saw it could be done, they did it too.  Just 46 days Bannister’s feat, John Landy, an Australian runner, not only broke the barrier again, with a time of 3 minutes 58 seconds.  Then, just a year later, three runners broke the four-minute barrier in a single race.  Over the last half century, more than a thousand runners have conquered a barrier that had once been considered hopelessly out of reach.”

Harvard Business Review: What Breaking the 4-Minute Mile Taught Us About the Limits of Conventional Thinking (2018/3/9)

What one man can do, another can do!

Bannister’s story reminded me of a line from the 1997 movie, The Edge.  It wasn’t a great movie, but this one line has always stuck out in my mind, “What one man can do, another can do.”  [Language warning.]

No one has taken that principle to heart more ardently than Dave Ramsey.  He’s been featuring a “millionaire theme hour” for years now, and for decades, his radio show (and now YouTube and podcasts) has featured the “debt free scream” in which listeners tell their stories of how they paid off debts.  Many of the story tellers explain that listening to others’ “debt free screams” motivated them to pay off debt.

The message is clear.  “What one man can do, another can do”.  As Nadeane, a YouTube commenter on one of the “debt free screams” put it, “I love seeing under 35s becoming debt free!  It gives me so much hope that I can do it too!  £28,835 left to go!”

Let’s look at a few of these redemption stories in which normal people are doing the supposedly impossible.

Case Study 2 — Jack and Lisa

Jack has a 2-year degree, works as an electronics technician, and has a net worth of $2.3 million at 43 years old. (His story begins at 2:18.)

Case Study 3 — Derek and Ambere

Derek is a tattoo artist and recovering drug addict from Salt Lake City, UT.  When the government forced him to shut down his tattoo shop, Derek relapsed and ended up in jail.  I’ll let him and his wife, Ambere, tell their story.

Case Study 4 — Chris and Amanda

Chris doesn’t say exactly what he used to do when he was young, but given his vague description (I don’t blame him), it sounds gang related.  He and his wife, Amanda, paid off almost $48k in 31 months on a fairly modest income.

Case Study 5 — Paul and Stefanie

This link will take you to the story of Paul and Stefanie at Dave Ramsey’s YouTube channel. Paul is 29, he has a blue collar job, and he lives with his wife, Stefanie (27).  These two pulled off the supposedly impossible trifecta; they got married, paid off student loans, and paid off a house, all in their 20s!  All of that in Tacoma, WA, one of the more expensive places to live in the USA!

I hope Stefanie has an older woman in her life telling her what a catch she has!

Case Study 6 — Tyler and Bre

Tyler and Bre got married right out of high school. They’re both under the age of 25, and they’ve already paid off their house and student loans!

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Those are just a few clips that stood out to me, and that’s enough to make my point, but if you want to hear more encouraging stories like these, there are many other stories from people of just about every walk of life on Dave Ramsey’s YouTube channel.

How does this relate to Redemption?

Jack’s emphasis on redemption (the theme for September 2022) led me to the inescapable conclusion that each “debt free scream” is literally a redemption story.  Note how each of these redemption stories starts with confession (“I’m $X in debt”) and repentance (“I’m going to change all my money habits that got me into this mess”).

When King Solomon wrote that “The borrower is slave to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7), he was speaking literally.  In ancient Israel, one way to discharge a debt one could not pay was to serve the lender as a slave for a predetermined amount of time.  During that period of slavery, a relative of the slave could pay his debt and restore him to freedom.  His status as a slave would be wiped away completely.  This act was called redemption, and the relative was known as the redeemer.  This is not the only meaning of redemption, but it’s the meaning Jesus referenced when he described our sin as a debt we could never repay (Matthew 18:21-35).

Jesus was a master story teller.  His parables are short and seemingly simple, yet they contain depths of meaning that one could plumb for a lifetime.

One of the beauties of comparing sin to debt is that when we’re set free from sin, we’re set free to serve God.  Likewise, when we’re set free from debt, we’re set free to build wealth.

Qui Bono?

While we’re at it, I’d encourage you to consider the old Latin saying, “Qui bono?”  Who benefits?

There are three kinds of entities / people / voices that will tell you that striving towards a real life redemption is a hopeless endeavor. Borrowing from Biblical archetypes, I’ll call them Thieves, Tax Collectors, and Prostitutes.

1. Thieves

By “thieves”, I mean hope thieves.  There are a lot of hope thieves out there.  You’ve read and heard the self-proclaimed “best minds”, and “experts” on the internet spout all variations of the following statements.

• “The American dream is dead.”
• “The little man can’t get a head.”
• “Young people can’t get married.”
• “Millennials can’t afford houses.”
• “Millennials can’t pay their student loans.”

The message is clear.  “You can’t win, so you may as well not try.”

Hope thieves don’t just steal hope from others, they prevent others from seeking redemption.  They’re like crabs in a bucket.  When one crab starts to pull himself out of the bucket, the others pull him back down.  Hope thieves know that “what one man can do, another can do”, which is why they don’t want you to succeed, because if you succeed, that proves they could succeed too, and that would put them to shame.  They don’t want to change their ways because that would require them to do work they’re unwilling to do.  They don’t want to confess, or repent — and redemption requires confession and repentance.  Hope thieves (A.K.A., crab people) would rather wallow in the mud (which also makes them swine) of self-pity than confess and repent, and since misery loves company, they want you wallowing right next to them.  They’ve thrown themselves a lifelong pity party, and you’re invited.

2. Tax Collectors

I’m using the label “Tax Collector” loosely here to mean anybody that tries to hit you up coming and going.  They’re looking to use you, take what they can from you, and then send you off, preferably without you even knowing that you’ve been conned.  Tax Collectors are ubiquitous and they assiduously keep themselves hidden from critical view.  Google is a great example of a Tax Collector.  They collect all your personal information and sell it to God knows who for a vast amount of money.  They censor search result information and even emails, and you don’t have any inkling of what goes on.  Google benefits* by monitoring start-ups and market dynamics and preventing small fries from amassing market position and wealth.  PayPal is no better.  Banking policies, insurance scams, and student loans would also fall into this category.

* H/T: PA Pundits – International: Why You Should Ditch Google and Gmail — Before It’s Too Late (2022/10/9)

3. Prostitutes

Again, I’m using “prostitutes” loosely to mean anyone or anything that entices you to spend your time and/or money foolishly and distracts you from making progress towards your dreams and goals in life.  Here, “Prostitutes” would include advertisers, Big Pharma, politicians, and any women who are not within your personal domain of influence.  Bad friends would qualify too.  On a more personal note, bad habits (e.g. excessive drinking and smoking), masturbation, rumination, and Simptation will only slow you down.

Introspection and Incentives

Take a moment to think it over.  Who benefits from you believing that “I can’t win, so I may as well not try”?

• Do you benefit?
• Do your lazy friends benefit?
• Does your competition benefit?
• Does the converged media benefit?
• Do the crabby hope thieves and swine benefit?
• Do women who are not within your personal domain of influence benefit?
• Do politicians who want you to believe you need them to fix your life for you benefit?

Qui Bono? Who benefits?

Jesus said,

“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”

Matthew 7:6 (NKJV)

Do not give your precious things – your time, your energy, your efforts, the fruits of your labors – to crab people, Hope Thieves, Prostitutes, Tax Collectors, or Swine.

How do you know if a man is a hope thief, a crab person, or a swine? He tells you that what others are doing is impossible and gets angry when you show him that others are doing what he claims is impossible.  He whines about problems, but won’t lift a finger to fix them.  He demands that things outside of his control change, but he won’t change anything within his control.  And, most importantly, when you try to help him, as Jesus said, he will trample your efforts and “turn and tear you to pieces”.

Lastly, I’d encourage you to ask yourself, “Have I been a hope thief for others”?

If so, then don’t be crabby! Or else you’ll drag everyone else around you down.

Note: In addition to dogs and swine, another Biblical typology for this type is “birds of the air”, specifically the blackbird, owl, vulture, and woodpecker.

The Conclusion

The principle of “What one man can do, another can do” applies to every area of life, not just finances.

How do you feel when you hear stories of people doing the supposedly impossible?  Does it inspire you to do the same, or does it make you angry?  Do you think, “If they can do it, I can do it too”, or do you think, “Sure they did it, but I can’t because [insert excuse here]”?

Now, you have a decision to make.  Will you listen to the Hope Thieves, Tax Collectors, and Prostitutes, or will you listen to the people who are doing the supposedly impossible, and think to yourself, “What one man can do, another can do”?

You’ll never improve your life if you surround yourself with crabby people, hope thieves, and swine.  Will you continue to wallow in the mud of self-pity with them, or will you surround yourself with people that are already doing what you want to do?

It’s time to identify the crabs, dogs, swine, and vultures in your life and do some house cleaning.

It’s your life, your decision, and your consequences.

Related

• Σ Frame (Jack): Start Small to Build Internal Locus of Control (2021/10/14)
• Σ Frame (Jack): Forming the Vision of Achieving a Goal (2022/4/6)
• Σ Frame (Red Pill Apostle): Breaking Through Mental Barriers (2022/4/8)