Well, that’s kind of how I feel right now.
Some say that increased affluence has done good for our society, training brighter minds and propelling our world into a more intelligent future where people make rational decisions and stupidity is limited.
I say: The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Firstly: How do you define “rational”? Here’s the catch: What is rational for the individual and what is rational for society tend to be complete opposites. That’s way laws are in place – People who evade taxes are in fact saving their own money for a good that would be provided anyway. So, when people are becoming more “rational” the conventional meaning is to make rational choices for “themselves”. This means more and more people would become selfish – inflating their own capabilities to get better jobs, rejecting blue-collar jobs in favour of something more “glamarous”, and at the same time putting down the credentials of others.
This is where the problem lies. In a society of pompous individuals where everyone wants to manage and/or sit around in an office, who is the one actually doing the work? I’m not sure why people are complaining that foreigners are taking away local jobs when the truth is that your local Singaporean actually believes he/she is in fact TOO GOOD for the job. This in fact creates its own self-fulfilling prophecy. Because nobody professional is being, say, a salesman at Courts, the job is now left to 1) foreigners, 2) students and 3) desperate people, all of whom probably would do a pretty shitty job at being service staff. As a result, people in the profession, and hence the profession itself, become heavily stereotyped against, chasing away people who are actually competent at the job. Also, this is probably a supply-side problem as well. Because people tend to underestimate the importance of blue-collar jobs(meaning the importance of actual shit being done), bosses will pay shitty wages for service staff. Now, who is going to work in a scorned profession for low pay?
Something that selfish people tend not to get is the idea of equilibrium. People in this day and age are instinctively hunting for high return for low price, and for win-win situations. But what people fail to understand is: 1) There is always a loser, and 2)Payoffs – Sometimes, you really do have to pay for quality. Allow me to illustrate with an example – The financial industry is overly huge now, when you consider what they’re doing – basically turbo bank transfers. Yet, it attracts people in throngs every year based on the fact that people are being paid highly – Particularly, that investment bankers get very rich very quickly; It is the dream job of many a student.
What these people don’t see, however, is that the majority of these people go through their jobs unhappy, and that multiple companies go bankrupt every year, putting people out of jobs. When you make money off an investment, inevitably someone else is losing money – For some reason, the notion that it could be you does not occur to anyone. Of course, if nobody loses, then everyone loses(it’s called inflation). It’s just frustrating to see people you know walk off that career cliff without even knowing it. The worst part is, these people know that they aren’t even going to enjoy it.
This again reflects some fundamental problems with today’s society – The increased focus on education means that nobody wants to do actual work and earn an honest living, instead doing stuff that doesn’t really contribute to society as a whole, all in favour of money. Is this rational? Based on the information that they have, perhaps. Then comes the problem of why these people don’t go about getting more information, which means that despite people getting more affluent and literate, the fact that majority of them are still frogs in their wells, just that the weather has changed.
While it is true that the only external resource that you need to start an
online business is a computer and a connection, you must have some
personal qualities as well, because without these them, it is going to be
a lot more difficult to achieve success – not necessarily impossible, but
definitely far more difficult.
The first thing that you have to bring to your business is an absolute
determination to succeed. From the very beginning, you have to be
completely, 100% determined that whatever you do is going to
succeed, without exception. You have to be willing to do whatever it
takes to achieve that success, even acknowledging that there will
sometimes be a ‘cost’ involved (e.g. less time with your family in the
early days).
You must also accept that there is work to be done.
If you have not already done so, when you start searching the net for
information about starting your own business, you will find that there is
a lot of nonsense flying about, and you have to learn to recognize it for
what it is.
There is no secret, magic formula that is somehow going to
mysteriously transform you from an individual who has no money in
your bank account to one with a million dollars, in six months or less.
That is called the lottery, not business, but you will undoubtedly see
products that make outrageous claims of this nature.
These products are successful because everybody is looking for the
secret shortcut to success that means they do not have to do any work.
Don’t fall for this garbage. There is no secret, there is no magic formula
– success is in direct proportion to the amount of effort you put in, end
of story.
You have to be organized and focused, and you have to have (and work
to) a plan. If a job needs doing, then in the early days at least, it is
down to you to get it done, and it won’t get done if you are
disorganized, lacking in focus or have no plan.
You have to be a little thick skinned too, because when you tell people
that you are trying to earn money on the internet, many of them (none
of whom have any idea what they are talking about) will mock you and
suggest that you are crazy. Ignore it, and bolster your spirits by
remembering that it is you who will have the last laugh!