I went into this winter thinking Generative AI would make me a multimillionaire in my 20s or 30s. After 4 months of grind, it seems like I was half right. Generative AI has the potential to dramatically boost my wealth. But I think I’ll really be building a business that’s worth mid 6 to low 7 figures. I’m not a mogul, even though I do sometimes fantasize and dream of it. This change of heart has been fairly sudden for me, but I also think it was bound to happen. My belief is that working hard and building a business makes you less desirous in a very fundamental way. Being able to get what you want out of life changes your psychology.
The Upper Echelons of Business Are Competitive
This should be obvious. But things get pretty wild when you go look beyond the top 1% of content creators, and are able to observe the sheer amount of traffic and money they are pulling in. It takes a lot of grind to reach those levels. It might seem like an appealing lifestyle at first, but being a mogul involves a lot of work hours, along with a lot of isolation. Life isn’t promised to you, you may not want to gamble your time.
You don’t need a lot to live
Especially if you’re in a “poor” country. All you need is proper financial managment, and a healthy lifestyle. Once you can rent or buy a house that is away from natural disasters, you should be fine. This is a good thing about the world. It is becoming a better and better place as time goes on.
Business valuations only work on paper
Elon Musk being valued at $500T based on shares may or may not make sense. When it comes to us regular people, real money matters. Odds are, you’re going to be able to set up a good business, and it’s going to run smoothly for a bit. But you probably won’t make more than $1M per year. Those are just the stats for people who stick to business. Knowing this, you know your odds of being worth $10M are incredibly low, and can proceed through life with this reality in mind. If your company gets royalties forever, cool. But don’t expect it to happen automatically.
It’s a big world
Prices are converging around the world. But some countries are really beautiful and cheap. You truly don’t need as much money as you think, provided you stay in one place. If you’re Gen Z this means that you can expect the world to also become more beautiful and easy to live in as you grow older. Poor countries won’t be so poor after 20 years of development. The world is a big place and more options open up with each passing day.
You’ll be too old when you can afford the IG lifestyle
Having a lot of random experiences as rich person sounds great, until you realize the time and work hours required to acquire significant wealth. It’s not worth it. You don’t want to waste your youth partying. But don’t spend from 20-50 chasing money simply because you couldn’t get lifestyle inflation in check.
Burnout
You need to be able to fight for what you want. But it is demotivating to fight for what you don’t need. Burnout will hit you once you know you have a decent shot of being able to live forever as a result of your work.
Everybody thinks they want to be rich. Most people don’t have what it takes. And that’s actually OK. While it can get good to dream and fantasize, you should always learn your limits and live within them, rather than allowing work to consume you.
Thanks for paying attention.
