Let Us Talk About “Internet Gurus”

Feeling lost? It is not your fault

Last week, I got mad. I started looking at some stuff about investing online (not going into detail here, it could be anything).

Since then, I am being bombarded with all this crap about day trading, “become rich quick” tips and any other influencer shit that exists out there. I am seeing videos on YouTube of some trading charlatans, promoting how easy it is to trade — you just have to push the button while sitting at the beach, and by analysing a few charts first. Why don’t you do it? It is literally “so easy”.

Why did I get mad?

I am getting mad at this because of two reasons.

1. I know about investing and finance (not so much about trading) and certainly know that all of this is just complete nonsense. And it makes me mad because other people, who do not have a good financial education will fall for this dream.
2. It feeds into the narrative of today, where everything is fast living, everyone wants everything within seconds but does not want to work for it.

And who can blame them? I fear for the next generation because we have created an image where it seems that everyone can just live their dream life without doing anything. The internet is becoming a pool of know-it-alls, talking complete nonsense and receiving money for it.

You need to do your fucking work

Pardon my French.

If you see someone who is successful (even an “influencer”) — be assured they have put A LOT of work into it. Nobody becomes good at anything by just being talented and lucky (there might be very, very, very few exceptions, but the probability of such an event… well, you would not want to bet on that!). People who are successful at anything have consistently worked on achieving the very thing they want. Be it:

• Sports
• Building a business
• Becoming good at painting
• Becoming a good trader
• …

So, no matter what it is you want to do: if you go on YouTube (just for the sake of the argument) and see a video that says “Learn XY BY JUST WATCHING THIS VIDEO”, you can know for 100% that this person is a complete charlatan.

Content production seems just like a big Ponzi Scheme

This is the title of an article I wrote recently. The more I observe what these content producers, influencers and the like do, the more I am flabbergasted. It is not the dumbest concept. Let’s take one of the trading “gurus” I talked about.

So, if you put in “trading for beginners” or anything the like, you will land on his videos. Good SEO management, I must say. You get to watch one of the videos about trading and receive a few tips (that you can also find by googling for 10 minutes, by the way). Then you are pretty quickly redirected to one of his courses (that, obviously, cost money) — but more importantly, you are being invited to join the community via a messaging app.

What is the first thing you read on this messaging app?

“Ground rules: First, watch every single video of this YouTube playlist”

Okay, fine, want to respect the ground rules, after all. But this playlist is just another ton of shit information, that does not say anything, other than directing you towards more useless information.

It is the same for so many other examples. Take blog content producers. I follow(ed) some of them, just to receive the same lines daily to tell you “You can do it too, become a content producer, become successful.”

Take the “marketing gurus” that are active on Instagram. That have a message along the lines of

“You could earn 6 figures a month but you keep scrolling.”

Do you know what all of these content producers have in common? Their whole business model is just the acquisition of people through some sign-ups, either you submitting your information, dedicating your attention by watching their videos (with no content) or signing up for some course that will probably not help you do anything (because as I said, just purchasing a course that lasts 10 hours, does not make you an expert in anything).

Effectively, it seems like a Ponzi Scheme where influencers just produce and produce and produce without having any content. It is a vicious cycle because once they stop blasting out content, their business model stops working.

What am I trying to say?

Pay attention, to who you pay attention to. Anything suggesting you will make money quickly is an absolute red flag.

And yes, this “tip” seems very basic and obvious, but trust me — these “business models” would not exist if they weren’t profitable.

So, what does make you wealthy?

• Consistency
• Spending less than you earn (i.e., the magic word is “SAVING”)
• Acquiring solid knowledge in a field, learning, learning, learning, and building an income stream based on it
• Staying humble

Certainly not by binging YouTube videos about analysing candle stick patterns. If making money quickly would be that easy, nobody would work anymore.

Stay critical.

And don’t make any dumb decisions.