The Promised Land Project

2025.10.04.

The Promised Land Project is a daring experiment—honestly, there are moments when I think I shouldn't have started it at all—through which I attempt to grab attention using satirical and absurd content. It is the kind of "project" that, at first glance, might look like a grotesque prank or a sign that, at 50, I’ve finally lost my marbles. But behind the absurdity lies a very serious intention.

My goal is to make people think, to wake them up to their personal responsibility, and to encourage them to stand up for the things that matter, own their decisions, and ultimately move toward a more conscious life. For some reason, I feel a "calling" for this today. I believe that sometimes the best way to deliver a vital message is to turn the very cause of the problem—in this case, the attention-hunger and absurdity of the modern age—against the problem itself.

In this post, I want to show you where the idea came from, the history of the project, the problem it reacts to, and exactly how it attempts to provide a solution in a satirical guise.

The Backstory – The Road to Satirical Awareness

The idea came to me just a week and a half ago during an early morning coffee. A few hours later, I was already in active planning: talking to friends, questioning AIs, and creating illustrations. I didn't have the full picture—I still don't—but I felt I had to dive in.

A long professional and personal journey led me here, during which I have tried so many things in my experiments with conscious business and self-awareness.

• 2022 – The Start of Business Mentoring: After 2.5 decades of building and leading businesses (including both successes and failures, and two successful exits), I decided it was time to turn my experience to the benefit of others. I launched my mentoring and consulting practice. Now, four years into the process, I’ve spoken with over 200 CEOs and have increasingly pivoted toward self-awareness-based business building.
• Early 2024 – Launching the vendler.hu blog: For over 1.5 years, I’ve been writing about my self-awareness and business experiments. My writings functioned as public therapy for a while; today, they serve as a "window" into my experimental lab, "entertaining" those who wander onto my site.
• Summer 2024 – Business Experiments and "Slow Business": During the summer, I began experimenting boldly with value-based business models and alternative mentoring formats. I grew tired of the traditional approach; instead, I researched how entrepreneurship and self-realization can be done in a more human-centered, value-based way. In this spirit, I launched several initiatives:
• Slow business experiments (e.g., Lost Garden Ltd.)
• Forest dog-walking mentoring sessions
• Coffee house entrepreneurial meetups
• The "Pay What It’s Worth" business model
• The "Pay or Share" model
• Vendler AI digital business mentor system
• Lost Garden House – an entrepreneurial community space
• SlowBusiness Facebook group
• "Finally Friday" – entrepreneurial conversations
• Book publishing experiments

From 2022 to 2025, there has been a conscious construction in my life: looking for ways to provide value amidst the noise of modern urban life, and how to encourage people to take action and responsibility. All these experiences finally matured into the idea for the Promised Land, which condenses the essence of these initiatives into a radical format.

The Problem: Breaking Through the Noise

As I delved deeper into mentoring and community building, a fundamental problem became clear: it is incredibly difficult to break through the noise of everyday life. We live in an age of constant information bombardment. Thousands of stimuli compete for our attention daily—social media posts, news, ads, notifications—and people are simply exhausted. We are tired of not being able to rest, of not being able to hide from it all.

The problem has several layers:

• Declining Attention Span: We spend less and less energy on deep immersion. Many no longer read long articles or books. Short, "snackable" content dominates. In this environment, a traditional, serious appeal often fails to even register—it simply slips by because too much else is competing for the spotlight.
• Avoidance of Depth: There is often no desire to face uncomfortable, vital questions. It’s easier to stay in a constant spin, consuming something new, rather than stopping to ask: Is my life heading in the right direction? Self-awareness often takes a backseat to daily survival and entertainment.
• The Hunger for Meaning: Paradoxically, while superficial content seems to rule, the desire for belonging and deeper meaning is growing. "Slowing down" and "mindfulness" have become trendy, meaning that deep down, everyone feels the need for a better, more meaningful life. They just can't find the exit from the hamster wheel.

Seeing this, a desire formed in me: How can I deliver my message so that it actually punches through the noise? How can I speak to those who are bored with "motivational bullshit" but still crave something real?

I wanted to do something that jolts, provokes, and creates curiosity even in a cynical, information-saturated person. The thought was: if only provocation can break the threshold, then let's provoke—but with good intentions.

The Concept of the Promised Land

The Promised Land is my answer. It is essentially a satirical social campaign that is both an attention-economy trickand a deep educational experiment. The solution is two-phased: first, I shock and attract people with absurd promises, and then, once I have their attention, I slowly reveal the true message beneath the surface.

The Surface: Absurd Promises

I decided to "lean into the role" and create a fictional "business" that promises everything you ask for—and even what you don't dare to ask. These are openly exaggerated, shocking, and slightly ridiculous offers, such as:

• "I’ll Work Out for You" program
• "Thinking Your Life Over" consultancy
• "Outsourced Inner Harmony" service
• "The Essence of 111 Self-Help Books in One Sentence"

The tone is misleadingly serious. I talk about these "services" as if I’m actually launching a business—using marketing hype, fake and real statistics, and pre-order "sales." The goal is to make people wonder: "Is he serious? Or is this a joke?" This uncertainty fuels curiosity and viral potential.

The Deeper Layer: The "AHA!" Moment

This is the risky part: slowly revealing the cards. Behind every ironic post, there is a hidden lesson. As the weeks pass, more signs will point to the fact that there is more going on here than an absurd business attempt.

If I do it right, the turning point arrives—the "AHA!" moment where the message becomes clear: You cannot outsource certain things in life. If you want to grow, the real work cannot be done by anyone else. There is no magic pill, no Savior who brings a finished result. Lasting change requires us to do the heavy lifting ourselves.

The educational goal is for the participants to take away these deeper thoughts:

• Responsibility: I am responsible for how my life turns out.
• Leaving the Comfort Zone: The price of freedom is often hard work.
• The Value of Perseverance: Consistant work beats quick fixes every time.
• The Courage to Be Yourself: Asking the hard questions: "What do I really want?"

Closing Thoughts

For me, the Promised Land is a creative projection of my own manifesto. Professionally, I believe that marketing tools can be used for good, not just for selling products. Personally, it contains all the lessons of my recent years: the failures, the mentoring experiences, and the power of honest conversation.

I know it’s a risky venture. Some will misunderstand it; some will only see the joke. But I believe those who need to hear it will understand. If I can wake up even a handful of people to the fact that there is no "external savior," it was worth it.

The project doesn't end with the campaign. I will continue the community work at the Lost Garden House, the discussions on my blog, and my own learning journey. The goal is to open doors.

I am proud of this satirical mission. I feel that humor, irony, and provocation can truly create value. As a final word: we might not always reach the goals we set for ourselves, but it’s not the achievement that makes us happier—it’s the knowledge that we are important enough to ourselves to dare to be the active shapers of our own lives.

I will continue to work on this—sometimes with satire, sometimes seriously, but always with heart and passion. I warmly welcome everyone on the path who wishes to join this strange but beautiful adventure toward a more conscious life.