The story of Harry Pt 1

I have a day job that I love.  I plan on doing it a long time into the future.

I was meeting with a colleague (who doesn’t work for my company)  during lunch, and after talking about some business, we went on to personal things.  We talked about family life, and this person mentioned that he had a unique podcast which covers old television shows.  It was really quite fascinating. 

He asked me if I”m working on anything interesting, and I mentioned that my side project and passion is The IRS Self Defense and Self Settlement Advocacy Group, the course, and the membership platform.  I told him about my previous tax debt issues, how I filed multiple Offer in Compromises with tax professionals to no avail and how I took matters into my own hands and settled my tax debt for 4 cents on the dollar.

My hope was to share my experiences and all of the knowledge I gathered along the way and in the process, provide people hope, encouragement and a strategy to take back control of their financial lives.

His face nearly turned white, as he said, “Steve, I’m embarrassed to say this, but I have a massive tax debt and am considering right now writing out a big check to a tax settlement firm, plus this firm is planning on billing me $900/month until the tax debt is settled.  

I couldn’t believe my ears frankly.  

I was struck by the fact that someone close to me, in my circle is facing the same problem as me, and how we’ve had multiple communications together and this never came up.  It reminded me that people are embarrassed and will rarely discuss their tax woes, certainly not with work colleagues.  It is one of the reasons people with unsettled tax debt feel so alone, and one of the reasons why everyone rushes to the tax settlement firms to solve their issues.  

They feel like it is their only solution.

I shared with him the way to access my course and he gratefully received it.  He also had a spark of hope, like “Man, I’ve been looking for some answers and I couldn’t find them.”  I could see he felt like this could be the break he was looking for, or the life line that he needed.

As I left, I thought to myself:  If all I did was write and produce the course to help my friend, it was all worth it.  I felt the supreme sense of satisfaction that I was able to help someone I knew.

My colleague is hopefully studying the course as we speak.  The suspense of knowing his reaction is getting to me a bit frankly.

We’ll see what he has to say.  Stay tuned!