Do you know when inspirational and motivational videos make the most sense?
When you are going through difficult times or struggling financially.
When you are at rock bottom, you look for any solution.
Most people prefer the band-aid solution because it will make their problems go away. They want to feel good "now" instead of solving their problem for the foreseeable future.
Advice is a Double-edged Sword.
People give advice based on their experience. It may or may not work for you because everyone has a different experience in life.
For example, if someone drops out of college and builds a multi-million dollar business. Then, he would tell everyone that a degree is nothing but a piece of paper. You should create something, take risks and try to build a business.
So, should you drop out of college?
Should you never work for anyone again?
Should you pursue your passion for being a writer/musician/actor?
Maybe it will work for 1 or 2 people, but hundreds will regret these decisions. When 1–2 people successfully do something extraordinary, they are glorified much more than 99 people who are still struggling out there.
Most people dream about being on vacation and not working again. If everyone was on vacation, how would the world function?
Somewhere in your heart, you want to be rich. You want to be successful and famous. And most of all, you want to avoid all the hard work and grind of your job.
Don't feel happy? Quit Your Job!
Your work will have good days, average days and stressful days.
If, on a bad day, you take the advice of some internet influencer to quit your job, will you be happy for the rest of your life?
Or will you be happy because you pushed yourself on all the boring and hard days?
Will quitting make you happier, or will staying focused make you happier?
When advice comes from ordinary people, you can easily ignore it. But if the advice comes from your peers, mentors, or millionaires, you must filter it.
Question whether it's right for you or not. Whether it matches the kind of life you want to live or not?
The Internet is full of millionaires who advise people to drop out of college.
Many people will drop out of college and regret not pursuing a degree in their late 30s when the online hustle is over.
The Internet has Glorified an Easy Path to Success.
Internet is full of life advice and self-help books.
The usual story goes like this— someone had a hard life. They were struggling. So they read tons and tons of self-help books.
Reading success stories makes them feel like they, too, are capable of great things. It makes them believe there is an easy and smart path to success. You can avoid all the hard work and crack the shortcut to success.
So, they start selling this secret formula as books/programs/consultation calls.
If someone had a hard life and read tons of books, it's not enough to make them a life coach.
How can you help others if you have never learnt a skill, built a business, or solved a big problem?
The problem is that 70–80% of internet influencers repurpose other successful people's advice.
Something like making a million dollars is easy. You have to work smart.
Struggling financially? Invest in this crypto coin and become a millionaire.
Almost everyone is struggling financially. Almost everyone wants to be rich. So, you want to follow along when you see rich people getting richer by investing in crypto.
Today, there are more projects than anyone can count.
There is a high chance that you will lose your money. Very few projects survive in the bear market.
Yet, if a rich influencer gives this advice, people follow it. Everyone wants to make more money. Everyone wants to improve their life.
By following blindly, you will end up losing more money. You will get in a worse situation than you already are.
Unless you have skills, work ethic and experience in an industry, there is no secret formula to becoming insanely rich. There is no secret formula to making more money.
Of course, there are better opportunities. When someone working in a dead-end industry moves to sales/marketing/tech and has work ethic, it will change his life. But it won't be easy or quick. And it will take years to build a good foundation.
If someone reads inspirational stuff and thinks they can teach it, it won't have its effect for long. Life is difficult. There is no alternate path to hard work.
Do hard work. Then teach people how to do hard work. Solve critical problems, and teach people how to solve critical problems.
Somewhere In Your Heart, You Always Know What's Worth Trying
If someone is born in poverty, they will believe they have limited opportunities. They try to spend their lives within these limits. Building skills and financial education is hard.
Then, someone born into a rich family will have money, opportunities and connections. They have enough resources to live a comfortable life. Most things are doable, if not easy enough.
If a poor person tries to learn about money from someone born rich, it won't make sense to the poor person. It may be possible that it's the worst advice the poor person can get.
You can see people are influenced by bad advice every day.
But, somewhere in your heart, you always know what's right for you and what's not. You always know which path will make you happy and which one will make you sad.
I believe that if your gut says you should do something if you believe you are capable of something, you should try it. Even if the result is a failure.
But don't delude yourself that there is an easy, secret path to becoming successful.