For anyone who’s scrolled through YouTube looking for videos on business advice, I’m pretty sure you’ve come across many people like those featured in the image above. With enough observation, all of them preach the same message and rhetoric over and over and over again. Whilst repetition can be helpful to highlight the importance of a message, it also conveys a sense of desperation – desperation to get people to give them money. Lots of it.
Numerous entrepreneur millionaires have taken to social media, claiming to know “insider secrets” to the aspects of starting, running, and managing successful business. The increased “anti-college” agenda only helps to fuel this barrage of lookalike and soundalike content. These entrepreneurs then create online courses and charge absurd prices for them; marketing is a whole other ballpark. The courses are advertised as being super-rare opportunities to become super-rich, earn millions of dollars in a short time frame, and constantly promoted with absurd price-slashing. Extra offers are added to give the sense that nothing is really enough, thus more and more is spent in the hopes of attaining a dream. In the end, the courses’ content is more or less what basic business college would teach and much more money is lost in the process. Whilst these entrepreneurs claim they’re rich due to their hard work and sacrifices, in reality they’re getting even richer from these online courses and self-help books that are doing little to no help to young aspiring business owners.
The wild world of social media is riddled with extravagant posts of self-proclaimed entrepreneurs flexing – that is, showing off expensive items, womanizing at parties, drinking beer and smoking cigars, and overall acting rather wild.
This then returns to the title – has entrepreneurship lost its original meaning – that is, to earn money by being self-employed? And for the way you present yourself as an entrepreneur and your business – has it lost its way in terms of morality and behavioral class?
I am confidently sure that most people would argue that everyone should have the freedom to flex and be proud of what they do and the wealth they own. But with flexing comes a risk of developing dangerous mentalities and behavioral traits – namely, greed, narcissism, entitlement, and indecency. Showing off comes with an inherent belief that “I’m better than everyone else”, which is a slippery slope into allowing all sorts of desires and the craving of fulfilment of said desires to overpower you.
All successful self-made rich people must maintain a moral anchor, otherwise, they risk internal corruption that leads to the destruction of themselves and others.
Furthermore, this causes a fallout of trust amongst young people and “truth-seekers”. The seething, pent-up emotion results in a loss of trust, leading to every entrepreneur being ousted as a potential scammer or con artist who is never to be trusted – merely because they mentioned that they are an entrepreneur or are promoting an online course or selling a book.
My advice is threefold:
- Consult with others outside your social circle about any business opportunity or online business course offer to avoid being trapped in an echo chamber of confirmation bias.
- Don’t slap the “SCAMMER” label on every Tom, Darrel, or Harold out there. Just do your due diligence and homework before making any major moves.
- Relax and take your time with learning from job experiences. Success is not limited to entrepreneurship. With 5-10 years of experience, one can grow to a six-figure salary in some fields. (Again, do proper research!)
Here’s to many great successes by God’s will,
– Ahmad