John is a close friend of mine, and a terrific object lesson in the kind of life MGTOW can lead to. Motivation, perhaps, for people new to the philosophy or on the fence.

John was married and did the whole plantation bit -- big, expensive house, corporate job, all that. When his marriage blew up, he went full-throttle MGTOW. His first step was to decide to bail on being a tech executive and become a ... painter. Specifically, a classical portrait painter. So, he moved to Italy, learned Italian, and spent seven years, which is about what it takes, living in Florence and training.

When he was done, he moved back to the US, and started painting as a career. He now lives in a beautiful house at the end of an unbelievably switchbacky road with almost no neighbors except deer, wild turkey, and whatever else lives in the woods near him. He lives an extremely quiet, private life. Visitors include friends, models (all of whom are young and gorgeous), a beautiful woman he has a relationship with but who does not, and never will, live with him, and a small group of friends. Art comes first for him, period. His house is filled with his paintings, and sculpture he's working on . There's a woodworking shop on the covered area of the deck, and he's started building, among other things, planters for growing herbs and veggies.

I went up to see him last night -- a work thing I thought would take a long time, didn't, so we had a couple of beers, stood on his deck and watched the sun go down, had dinner, smoked cigars, looked through his telescope after the sun went down (I saw the rings of Saturn for the first time!) and talked a lot -- women, art, politics, religion, as we usually do. He is a genuinely happy man, doing precisely what he loves, and this is the view from his deck, into the valley below.

If John can do it, you can, too.

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The tree has to go, but the view is incredible.