The Shifting World of Work: From Single Employers to the “Hustle” Culture#

Just 30 years ago, it wasn’t weird at all for employees to think they’d spend their whole career with just one company. Nowadays? You’re considered a bit silly if you don’t change jobs every couple of years. And there’s this growing idea that it’s even silly to have a regular job at all.

This focus on being an entrepreneur, an investor, or a freelancer is pushing lots of young professionals down career paths that honestly aren’t really good for them.

Now, starting a business can be amazing and super rewarding. I might sound a bit like a hypocrite saying this because, hey, I started this YouTube channel! I did it partly because I thought it could make good money, and it has, which is awesome. BUT, I’m also super aware that I got extremely lucky. Like, winning the lottery level of lucky, just to get where I am now.

I also know that running a YouTube business is probably the easiest kind of business there is. Things like distributing the product (my videos), advertising, accounting, hosting the videos online, and sending invoices? That’s all handled for me. It’s also really low risk. If my channel had gone nowhere, I would have only lost about $300 on equipment and software.

I bring up YouTube because it’s a perfect example of a business model that keeps pushing this idea that if you’re not a “#Hustler”, you’re somehow failing at life. So, if you’ve ever thought, even without realizing it, that you’re meant to be a business owner, it’s time to understand how money works and find out why it might not be as great as everyone says.

Making This Content Possible

Just a quick note: this video, like all videos on my channel, is here because of the awesome support from my channel members and patrons on Patreon. If you want exclusive stuff, get videos early, and other cool perks, definitely think about supporting the channel on either platform. Thanks, guys!

Why Everyone Wants You to Be a Business Owner#

Okay, so it’s not just you. If you’re like most of my viewers (statistically, that’s men aged 18 to 55), you’re probably bombarded with ads and suggestions from people talking about how fantastic it is to be your own boss. This trend has blown up recently, and there are some really interesting reasons why. Actually, there are three main ones:

1. It’s a popular type of content.
2. It’s become much easier to spread the message.
3. There’s a growing bunch of people who NEED you to believe it’s true.

Let’s start with that last point, the people who need you to believe it. You might think big companies or “the powers that be” would hate people leaving to start their own thing. After all, they want employees working hard to make them rich, right? And more business owners means more competition, doesn’t it?

Wrong!

While an individual boss might not like their employees quitting to start up (especially when it’s hard to find workers), there’s a much bigger, louder group that really depends on people wanting to be their own boss.

When I say that, you were probably picturing those dodgy YouTube ad guys who popped up before this video, trying to sell you a course on things like:

• Amazon FBA
• Crypto trading
• Real estate investing

Yeah, these guys are definitely some of the worst offenders, but they are nowhere near the only ones. Some of the biggest companies in the world were built on the idea of you being your own boss.

The Rise of “Your Own Boss” Companies#

Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) companies were some of the first examples of this. Back in the 1950s, when the “American Dream” was huge, the idea of starting your own business sounded great to the fast-growing middle class.

The problem was, starting a business back then, especially before the internet, was really hard. You needed:

• Inventory (stuff to sell)
• A storefront (a physical shop)
• Equipment
• Employees (if you wanted to grow)

This was all incredibly expensive, a huge hurdle, which meant most people just stayed regular employees.

The promise of early MLM companies was that you could start your own business by using the resources of an already existing company. This got rid of all those big hurdles. Of course, these companies usually have terrible success rates, and most serious business people think they are scams. Statistically, you’re actually more likely to lose money in an MLM than in a completely fake pyramid scheme, but that’s a story for another time. No matter what you personally think of these companies, you can’t deny that their whole pitch relies heavily on how amazing it is to be your own boss.

These days, MLMs have been joined by a never-ending list of companies that all promote the idea of being your own boss, setting your own hours, and quitting the 9-to-5 grind. Some of these companies have a bad public image, some have a good one, and some are somewhere in the middle. But they all work in a similar way:

They promote the idea that starting a business is good, but it’s also hard. So, they say, “Start a business with us, and we’ll remove these difficulties!” (Naturally, they’ll take a good chunk of any money you make).

I mentioned my own experience with YouTube earlier. If I wanted to reach as many people as I do now without YouTube, I would basically need to start my own TV studio. I definitely didn’t have the time or money for that. By removing those huge barriers, YouTube allowed me to build a pretty successful small business. But, nearly half of what I earn goes to the company that made it possible.

In my case, this arrangement is clearly a win-win. But the average person who really tries to make YouTube work will put in hundreds of hours and maybe only make a few dollars a month, at best. At that point, they’d have been much better off driving for Uber, although I bet most people wouldn’t see that as a good platform to build a business on.

Now, all businesses have risks, so this part isn’t even the biggest problem. These types of businesses are part of what academics call the “Platform Economy”. This is where people create their own independent businesses but operate almost completely under the wing of a larger company (the “platform”).

The main issue with these Platform Economy businesses that people start is NOT that the platform takes a cut of the money. That’s just how business works; you don’t get server space, marketing help, and product development for free.

No, the main problem is that Platform Economy Businesspeople are totally dependent on the platform their business is built on.

• If Uber suddenly decides to cut how much drivers make per mile in half, the drivers don’t really have a say.
• If a Fiverr freelancer gets kicked off the website, their entire business disappears.
• If YouTube stops recommending my videos, I pretty much have to go find a regular job again.

The Well-Wishers: Another Group Pushing the Idea#

This brings us to the third group that NEEDS YOU to believe that being a business owner is the best thing ever. So far, we’ve looked at the shady scammers and the platforms acting as middlemen. But maybe the worst ones pushing the “start your own business” idea are the ones who genuinely mean well.

I’m not talking about your friends and family here. Sure, they might be excited about your new business idea, but as long as they don’t financially depend on you, they probably don’t care that much about how you make your money.

I’m talking more about people online – running forum threads, creating “how-to” videos on setting up online stores, and so on. They might truly think they’re helping you, but they may or may not realize two very important things:

1. They are, consciously or not, very dependent on their viewers believing that they can copy their success. I talked more about this in my video on personal finance influencers. I don’t want to repeat myself too much, but if people start thinking that being their own boss isn’t all that great, these public figures will likely lose viewers faster. This means they are more likely to leave out or downplay the real risks and hard parts of running a business.

2. They are victims of selection bias. Think about it: you’re much more likely to watch well-made, popular videos on YouTube. The people making those popular videos are usually successful business owners. You’re less likely to sit down and watch a video by someone in a messy apartment talking about how they re-mortgaged their house and wasted ten years on a business that never took off. One type of video is naturally more likely to be suggested to you, and you’re going to want to watch more of that one. The other type of video might be way more common, but people aren’t going to want to watch it, so it’s less likely to ever be recommended to you in the first place. Both people might genuinely be trying to share their business experience, but you’re almost only ever going to hear one type of story.

I’ve used YouTube here because I know it best, but the same goes for:

• Influencers on TikTok
• Business leaders on Instagram
• Even your friends on Facebook who seem super successful

The message that starting a business is good gets pushed up and seen, while the message that starting a business is risky and hard gets pushed down and is harder to find.

The Reality of Starting a Business: Effort, Certainty, and Reward#

Now, if after hearing all this, you still want to start your own business, that’s awesome! I really didn’t mean to crush anyone’s dreams with this. My goal is just to make people aware of what it’s really like to go into business for yourself, especially given all the fake gurus and platforms that make it sound easy.

There’s usually a trade-off between ease, certainty (how sure you are you’ll get results/money), and reward (how much you can potentially get).

• You can pick something easy with high certainty, like a regular job or driving for Uber. But you have to accept that the rewards won’t be as big.
• You could go for something with high income certainty, like being a doctor or a lawyer. But you need to be ready to put in a lot of effort and time getting qualified.
• And then there are some jobs that don’t need much effort but could potentially make you lots of money. A YouTuber is a good example, because despite what they might tell you, they really don’t work that hard compared to doctors or lawyers. The big problem here is that you need to be incredibly lucky for this to actually work out.

You simply cannot have ease, certainty, AND high reward all at once. If that were possible, everyone would be doing it!

The same is true for business. If someone is shouting about how easy it is to get into a certain type of business, or how you’re guaranteed to make money, that shouldn’t be a selling point. That should be a giant red flag.

A business that’s easy to get into means your competition can also get into it easily. More competition means less profit and a much higher chance of failing.

If you are serious about going into business, you want to find something that is INCREDIBLY hard to get into. Or even better, find something that ONLY YOU can do. This might be because of your specific skills, your network of contacts, or maybe even your money (capital).

• Maybe that means you need to spend ten years working in a specific industry first.
• Maybe it means you need to save up enough money to design that first product prototype.
• Maybe it just means you need to meet the right people before you can even open shop.

Whatever it is, you will be much better off starting a business that is difficult to get into, rather than one you can “start online within an hour.”

And hey, maybe by the time you’ve put in the work and are actually ready, you might decide it’s not worth the stress after all. Maybe you’d rather just work towards a comfortable retirement. Or then again, maybe not, because I have some more bad news… most of you watching are not going to retire.

To find out why, go check out my video from last month.

Once again, I want to say a huge thank you to my channel members and Patreon supporters for keeping it possible for me to teach you, How Money Works.