Hello to whoever reads this!
I’m a 21-year-old trying to navigate the path my future will take. I come from a lower/middle-class family, the way I’m currently living feels like a potential nightmare if it shapes my future or the resources I can provide for my future children. I understand you might wonder why I’m thinking so far ahead, but with many of my peers progressing in their lives and graduating university, I can’t help but consider my own trajectory. I want to build a name for myself, and in this era of high living costs, a normal job might not suffice. It seems like nowadays the only wealth that lasts is being born into generational wealth, which I wasn’t born into and so now I’ve gotta think outside the box.
Now, during my university break, the idea of starting a business or venturing into e-commerce (specifically, dropshipping) has been on my mind. However, navigating this market proves challenging, given the advice, some say “dropshipping is dead” while others sell their courses. It’s a bit overwhelming, and I’m left wondering where to start and who to trust for authentic guidance. Ultimately I aim to invent and launch a brand, my current wage feels inadequate for such goals. Therefore, my plan is to build my income before diving into the challenges of running a business.
I find myself at a crossroads, uncertain about the best path forward. I’m determined to make money, so any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Help a person out.
I think the “younger generation” is making rational choices based on return on investment. You could choose to take risk or work hard but if the payoff isn’t enough then obviously you can refuse to do it. So “laying flat” “quiet quitting” and all of this is actually a rational economic choice for many people. Nevermind that the way that the “older generation” got ahead was to practice exactly the same. The only difference being, the price of homes was much lower so you could get 10x or 100x return for the same amount of effort.
It’s harder for younger people to make it work especially starting from 0 now. You also have to ignore the advice of well meaning but out of touch older people like buying only your dream home or a brand new detached home (now it’s get any property at all and not waiting), ignore distractions like crypto alt coins or picking stocks (you have to invest in an S&P500 index fund but you can’t make stock picks because that’s gambling) and so on. The amount of knowledge required to succeed, the knowledge floor and decision floor if you will has gone up.
One wrong move won’t ruin you, but ongoing bad decisions (every day you decide to keep all money in cash, delay buying any property, staying in the same job for too long because of fear, etc.) would compound and create extreme difficulty over the long run.