Lifestyle Design? Please, Shut the Fuck Up
Yup, I’ve hit that point. After listening to too many podcasts, reading too many articles and seeing too many online course offers in my inbox, I’m exhausted. I’m tired of 20 something year olds giving me life advice and telling me “you just gotta keep hustling” (as though everyone else that hasn’t “made it” yet is just sitting on their ass), I’m tired of people acting as though working at any company is selling your soul to the devil and I’m tired of hearing that all my dreams will be realised when I become yet another Internet celebrity who gets asked to do podcasts all the time.
Seriously, what ever happened to people actually getting good at something? I know a ridiculous amount of guys in their early 20s offering coaching services and my first thought is “you’ve been out of high school about 5 minutes, what the fuck do you think you know about anything that you should be charging money for it?” All these guys want to be an entrepreneur, but I notice something important — they are all young guys who have decided they don’t want to work for anyone else before they’ve spent any significant time actually doing so. They didn’t like their first job, and now they’ve decided that rather than putting their head down, actually learning something and putting up with a bit of hardship, that the corporate life isn’t worth it.
Of course, because they “discovered” this, they’ll tell anyone that listens the sole reason you’re unhappy is because you work for the man.
What irks me most about all of this is that the people pushing it are after one thing — an easy life cashing in. They want to write some self development books, sell a few courses and do it from a beach while the cash rolls in. I’m not afraid to say that writing a book just so you can have passive income offends the living shit out of me. There are more than enough authors who are working hard on their craft trying to get recognised, or people who are actually good enough at something to write a worthwhile book about it. You showing up on the scene just trying to make your cut dilutes the pool and distracts people away from work that is actually good. What annoys me even more is that there is now a strategy/formula for getting your book to bestseller status…
and it has nothing to do with writing a decent fucking book!
It’s all smoke and mirrors. Catchy title, great cover, blurbs about how great it is from anyone you can con into doing it, and gaming the Amazon system. Nowhere is being a good writer, working on your craft and actually developing mastery mentioned. Even worse are those out there who are trying to make money by teaching people how to make money. Yep, you read that right. They’re right up there with used car salesmen when it comes to value.
Unfortunately the Internet has become the new late night TV. It’s all just people trying to hawk their substandard wares and hoping that people are gullible enough to enter their credit card details. I find it ironic that the guy that coined the term “lifestyle design”, Tim Ferriss, is the exact opposite to all of these people. He doesn’t live a life of leisure, he lives a life of work. His books may seem gimmicky, but years of research went into all of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if the current brand of Internet entrepreneur leaves a horrible taste in his mouth when he encounters it.
Seriously, all you guys (and girls) who are trying to have an easy ride in life by cashing in, just stop. Stop offering advice to people when you don’t really know anything about anything. Stop trying to make money off of shitty, substandard work.
And for God’s sake, stop thinking that having a life coaching certificate means you know anything about life.
Fitness trainers, Instagram community and other “wellness” people, we need to talk…
Behind the Scenes with an Instagram “model”
