The Cult of “Passive Income” | Internet Analysis

Hello, my dudes! My name is Tiffany, welcome back 
to my series, Internet Analysis, where I like to   research and discuss things relevant to social 
issues and media. Today's topic is: the cult   of passive income. And no, this is not literally 
about a cult, but you know what I mean. Lately,   my TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram have been 
flooded with these self-made entrepreneurs   posting their tips on how to make money, be 
your own boss, and become financially free.   In this space online, we've seen the promotion of 
side hustles for a long time, but now I think the   passive income ploys are the new thing — well 
they're not new, they've been around for a   long time, but in this moment, pretty popular. 
Instead of one, or maybe two measly paychecks,   don't you want a dozen or more passive streams of 
income? Do you want to make money while you sleep? To begin, why are passive income ideas so popular 
right now? I don't think this will be news to any   of you, but people right now are working shitty 
jobs for low wages — wages that are not keeping   up with inflation or the cost of living.


asked my Patrons about this topic and one said,   "you can't possibly work enough 
hours to make up the difference,   so this dream of passive income is the only 
hope." We also have an absolute lack of security,   long or short term; you could be fired, 
let go, replaced from your job at any time.   The cost of housing is very high. Many people 
have given up on the dream of ever owning a home.   Student debt is a massive crisis, 
as is medical debt – here in the US,   especially! For many, the likelihood of ever 
being able to retire, let alone comfortably,   seems near impossible. Bottom line, we do not have 
a strong social safety net in the United States,   so we feel like we have to save, work, hustle, in 
order to secure our own futures. Nobody is going   to help us do that; our government's not gonna! 
So, you put all these factors and others together,   you've got a recipe for desperation.

People 
just want solutions, we want to be able to hope   for a better future. Whether you are 
deeply in debt, broke, middle class,   or rich, the idea of passive income is universally 
appealing; it's minimum input for maximum output. So first, I want to start by touching on MLMs. A 
lot of the passive income ideas that we're going   to talk about in this video sound a little MLM-y 
to me, which I'm sure I will continue mentioning   throughout this video.

So for those who don't 
know, MLM stands for 'Multi-Level Marketing',   also known as network marketing, or 
dozens of other euphemisms. Basically,   the typical MLM pitch goes like this: "Hey you, 
do you need more money? Do you hate your job?   Are you unemployed? You can join this company, 
be your own boss! Sell these wonderful products   that are so good, they're not even sold 
in stores, you have to buy them through   network marketers like me! And also, you can 
recruit people below you to be on your team,   so they'll sell more things, recruit more 
people, and put more money in your pocket." MLMs are promoted as a low effort, 
easy way to make unlimited money.

"You can work from your couch or on the 
beach! I've made like $20,000 this month,   just by using Instagram and messaging 
some of my friends! I swear, it's true!" I love that one minute they're telling you this 
job is effortless, it's so easy! … and the next,   they're ranting about how hard they work. 
"It's not easy, not everyone can do this!"   Interesting… I made a video 
about MLMs a few years back,   and there is an entire anti-MLM community 
online, if you're interested in hearing more.

Anyway, if you were near the top of a 
pyramid-shaped team, with lots of people in your   downline: yes, you would be receiving more or less 
passive income. It may seem pretty passive to you,   but this system requires the exploitation of 
lots of people beneath you, and unless you're   at the very tippy-top of an MLM company, guess 
what, you are also being exploited! Like 99%   of MLM consultants do not make money, many 
actually lose money in this, so don't do it.   And that's what brings me to my point: Many 
of these passive income ideas or side hustles   are predatory. They prey on people who are 
struggling, vulnerable, looking for a miracle. "Here are my tips for making passive 
income. You don't have to do much work,   and you can make up to $50,000 
in a day.

Watch for part two!" But despite the messaging that emphasizes 
how easy and passive this is, the reality   is that trying to pursue passive income 
actually requires a lot of time, energy,   and often involves startup costs or investments. 
So, for the average working class person who is   exhausted, broke, and overworked already, 
this is not very feasible. In this video,   I'm going to cover some of the most popular, 
most recommended passive income ideas promoted   on social media, and try to figure 
out, is any of this worth the effort,   or is all of this just a repackaged version of the 
classic, hustle culture, get rich quick scheme? Before we continue, this portion of 
today's video is sponsored by Skillshare.   As you may know, Skillshare is an online learning 
community with thousands of high-quality,   valuable classes. Whether you 
want to learn something practical,   maybe improve a skill for work, or something just 
for fun, there are endless options to choose from.   In the spirit of this video, I wanted to 
pick some classes that are relevant to my   non-monetized hobbies.

First is "creative writing 
for all, a 10 day journaling challenge." I haven't   journaled very much in recent years but it is 
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also documenting all of that for my future self. And my next choice, "plants at home: uplift your 
spirit & your space." As many of you can relate,   I'm sure, I really find taking care of my plants 
to be a very relaxing and satisfying activity.   I have improved a lot in terms of my knowledge 
and my ability to care for my plants,   but of course there's always more to learn! And I 
would like to get ahead of any potential problems,   before I'm at the point where I need to google 
how to fix them.

So this is going to be great! On this channel we love learning! So if 
there's anything you would like to learn   or would like to get inspired about: the 
first 1000 of my subscribers to click the   link in the description will get a one month 
free trial of Skillshare, so you can start   exploring your creativity today. Thank 
you Skillshare, now back into the video. Step one, become a content creator. Almost 
every passive income video I've seen recommends:   start a blog, start a YouTube channel, become 
a content creator; and this makes sense,   because many of the ideas involve marketing or 
selling things, which are obviously a lot easier   if you have a pre-existing audience. And of 
course, because we're watching this content   on social media, the successful people telling 
us these ideas are themselves influencers and   content creators.

They've already done the hard 
part of getting a following, now they can tell   you what else to do. I found this video by Ali 
Abdaal, 9 Passive Income Ideas – How I Make $27k   Per Week. First of all, oh my god, at that 
amount of money… His channel covers a lot   of these topics: how to be productive, how to 
work efficiently, how to earn extra money… "Alright, so when I say "passive income," I 
always air-quote it, because there is really   no such thing as passive income, there is no way 
to make money without doing anything at all…" Okay, at least he mentions that first thing. "But when I say passive income,   what I mean is that it's money that 
is not directly tied to our time." I appreciate that explanation, because I 
think it is honest and straightforward.   Passive income is all about spending an 
initial amount of time to work on something,   then continuously earning 
revenue from that over time.

"So, let's say you were to write a book; if you 
write a book, you publish a book, and that book   is now in bookshelves. You've done the work 
kind of once, to write and publish the book,   but now anytime the book sells, you 
make money from royalties – that is   passive income. You could literally 
be making money while you sleep,   because you've created this thing which is out in 
the world, which is generating income for you." So, let's talk about YouTube as a passive income 
stream.

If I, right now, were to take a month   off of making videos, I would be passively 
earning income from work that I already did   a long time ago. But again, the process of 
building a YouTube channel up to the point   where it can be monetized, making lots of 
high quality videos and gaining an audience,   that is definitely not passive. Really, you're 
going to be making a lot of videos for free,   for potentially years, before you even start 
earning pennies. This whole idea of using   YouTube as a passive income source is also 
heavily reliant on the almighty algorithm.   As I've seen with my small channel shout-outs, 
there are so many great channels out there   making really great content, that have not been 
picked up by the algorithm yet. Even if you are   consistently making really good videos, it can 
still be extremely difficult to bring in viewers. And I don't say this to discourage 
anyone from pursuing youtube — just,   if you're *only* looking at 
this as a way to make money,   best of luck.

BUT if it is a hobby, if 
making videos is something you enjoy,   it is worth the effort. and it is possible that 
you could earn some income from it eventually. Anyway, the next tip that comes along 
with starting a blog or a YouTube channel   is affiliate marketing. Some people claim to earn 
hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month   just through sharing affiliate links. I do think 
this is a really nice revenue source for creators,   because often our audiences ask 
us where certain things are from.   If a content creator is influencing 
a consumer to buy something,   I think they do deserve a cut of that sale; and 
this doesn't just apply to like, Instagrammers or   YouTubers — anyone who is creating content. 
but this strategy can definitely go sour.

For example, instead of just making 
good content that you want to make,   that's valuable to the viewers, maybe 
linking your shirt, or the camera you used;   some content is created just for the purpose 
of sharing affiliate links. Have you ever read   a blog post that was clearly just a ton 
of keywords thrown in for SEO, and then   the promotion of an ad or some affiliate link? 
Even worse, I found this TikTok, for example: "best side hustle, if you have no money and no 
experience. google affiliate programs for your   topic. all these companies pay you a commission 
to promote their products.

Now go to youtube   and search related videos. download some of 
these videos and… create a tiktok account   like this one. upload the videos you found 
and place your affiliate link in the bio." Totally! Gain an audience by reposting other 
people's content, and then just direct your   audience toward your affiliate links. Honestly, 
this brings up the ethics of monetizing meme   pages, but that's another topic for another time. 
Regardless, for most people, you probably won't   earn a lot of money from affiliate income, unless 
you're promoting a lot of links for very in-demand   products. It can take a lot of effort to 
create all that initial content, whether   it's blog posts or videos, but I guess once that 
is done, the affiliate income is pretty passive. Let's get into classic side hustle or 
passive income grinds. Classic side   hustles can provide extra income. join the gig 
economy, become a driver or a delivery worker.   Many people do this as a full-time gig or 
to make ends meet, but side hustles like   these are obviously limited by the number 
of hours you can spare in order to work.   Even with a nine-to-five job and 
a side hustle on the weekends,   it can still be hard to survive.

So again, the 
appeal of passive income comes from the promise of   less work, less hours, and the potential 
for making more money, even while you sleep. To quickly go through some other passive income 
hustle ideas that I've seen on a lot of these   videos, one popular idea is to sell digital 
art like merch, lightroom presets, templates,   phone backgrounds, many possibilities! One of 
my Patrons said, like someone who sells knitting   patterns, or tattoo designs, or other creative 
content they've already made two new customers,   their profit directly comes from their labor and 
the value they provide. And I think this is great!   It's hard enough for artists to find ways to get 
paid; you put in the work to design something,   upload it, then it could, in theory, have 
potentially unlimited sales; you can continue   earning income from the same piece of work for a 
long time.

However, from looking at some of these   TikToks, some of these do feel pretty gimmicky to 
me. Like, "just shit out a bunch of designs and   upload them to a bunch of merch sites!" which, you 
know, people buy these things, so I guess, why not   try? But anyway, after designing and uploading 
your work, the hardest part is marketing your   items. If you don't have an existing following, 
or audience, or people to sell to, it might be   difficult to get any sales at all, especially on 
these sites that are flooded with competition. Then we also have the popular method of drop 
shipping. Essentially, you buy wholesale products   from sites like Alibaba and sell them online 
without any physical inventory or handling   of the products yourself. I did make a video 
about Twitter ads, where I talked a lot about   those weird products that are promoted under 
viral tweets. Yeah, that's dropshipping.

Many   dropshippers, of course, use social media like 
Instagram or Facebook to promote their product,   but the most popular platform is Amazon, of 
course. Feels very low effort for a decently   high reward. Honestly, I'm gonna say, because 
I'm reminded of all those drop shipping videos I   watched, so much about this makes me mad. The fact 
that many of these people openly put in the least   amount of effort as possible, they steal people's 
work, they steal people's marketing materials,   they just collect all this information 
from different places, they're never   interacting with the product.

They use things like 
undisclosed Twitter ads to promote their products,   and worst of all, many of these products, 
because they're coming from sites like Alibaba,   are extremely cheap and low quality. So then 
people, after like six weeks of waiting,   finally received this stupid item that like, 
either doesn't work, or just isn't great.   They probably wasted their money, and now they 
have more trash, more waste! if you buy a poor   quality product, it's likely to end up in 
a landfill! And these dudes – mostly dudes,   some women, enbies! drop shippers! these people 
are making bank off of this, gleefully, and I-   you know, is it perhaps my anti-capitalist 
spirit that makes me feel like this is wrong?   Somebody is gonna be like, you can do 
whatever you want! Sure, you always can…

Continuing on, there is a surplus of investing 
advice, including crypto, NFTs, forex trading,   etc. These have been everywhere, they're in the 
news, because yes, some people have gotten very,   very rich off of them; but many, 
many people have lost a lot of money,   and I think often it is low income or poorer 
people who are targeted with these strategies,   especially for any new up-and-coming 
crypto coins. Just like an MLM,   "this is your chance to get in on 
the ground floor – you're early!"   Coffeezilla has made some really great videos 
about these, and especially the influencers,   who have done some extremely shady shit – 
including, ALLEGEDLY: pump and dump schemes. I am personally not interested in crypto or NFT's. 
On one hand, it's just too complicated, I do not   care to learn.

On the other hand, I have learned 
enough, I've heard from knowledgeable people   about how harmful these things are, especially 
environmentally – like, the mining of crypto,   the ridiculousness of NFTs. It's just not for me. 
And again, I'll probably get some smart investor   in the comments telling me I'm an idiot and I'm 
going to lose my chance at a bunch of money. Oh   well! And then when it comes to forex trading– 
again, complicated, not interested. But I have   seen plenty of MLM-type figures promoting this, 
claiming to teach people how to be forex traders;   as soon as you're asking people 
to join your team, absolutely not.

Then for more passive income investing 
opportunities, we have micro investing   platforms like Robinhood or Webull. and to 
quote all personal finance content online,   "This is not financial advice!" I 
personally think individual stock picking   is just too risky. I know some people find 
it fun, but it's also extremely stressful to   watch your stocks rise and fall; I personally 
prefer contributing to my retirement account,   putting some money in mutual funds – that's it. 
The thing about individual stock picking is,   you are probably not going to discover the next 
Apple; so if people are telling you "This stock-   you've got to invest, it's gonna blow up!" 
That's just a major risk. If losing that   amount of money is going to harm you, don't do 
it. But if you have money you can afford to lose,   I guess just think about it like gambling- 
potentially burning money, for fun. Then we have the classic: real estate 
investing.

I recently made a video about   dystopian real estate content, and that 
was what inspired this video – look at me,   actually making the video I asked if you 
guys wanted to see! Me, making a part two   continuation? Rare! For that video, I watched 
way too much content, especially on TikTok,   about real estate investing, and it did melt my 
brain. They all basically boiled down to either:   1. flipping – which in my opinion, sucks 
majorly! Please stop doing these cheap,   low-effort flips! 2. Wholesaling – I gotta be 
honest, I still don't really understand this one. "Hey I wanna buy your 
property for 90k." "Ok sure."  "Thanks.

pexels photo 4348401

Hey I wanna sell you a property 
for 120k that I have under contract."   "Hmm, it looks like I can fix it up and sell 
it for a good profit. Sure I'll buy it!" "Huh,   so you're buying this property for 90k then 
you're assigning it to him for 120k?" "Yep,   it's called wholesaling. I'll be making 
30k without risking any of my own money." All I know is that these guys love showing off 
the big checks they get from this, from literally   doing nothing but buying and then reselling 
a property for a higher price. Love that. "watch me lowball a seller. I do wanna 
just be straightforward with you about   the 30,000 you're looking for, we 
probably have to be in the $2500   range.

(pause) 'say what?' 
That's too low? 'uh yeah.' "Guys, that house that I'm trying to buy, 
is worth less than 30,000, fully remodeled.   You guys think I'm lowballing, that's actually a 
fair offer. It needs at least 15 – 20,000 in work,   I'm offering 2 – $4500. How am I supposed to 
make any money if I don't get it at that price?   And I'm assigning it to a cash buyer, so where 
am I really supposed to make any margin?" Again, the actual numbers don't matter.

This guy 
is probably buying the property for let's say,   $2500. He sells it to the cash buyer, they 
buy it for maybe $10,000. so whatever,   this kid is profiting at least thousands, probably 
at least as much or more than the actual seller,   just for wholesaling. Then of course the cash 
buyer is going to do some cheap renovations,   flip, and sell for their max profit.

So everyone 
in this is making more money than the person   originally selling this property. and the whole 
crux of this wholesaling thing is that they go   after run down properties. so most likely, these 
sellers that they're targeting and preying on,   are people who couldn't afford 
to take care of their properties,   or were struggling financially already, and 
are going to accept these deals because they're   desperate for some kind of cash flow. anyway, 
all around it's icky. he said it himself,   he said he was lowballing a seller.

Can you 
imagine seeing that on tiktok? I'd be pissed. And 3. Buy a property, rent it out, and become a 
landlord! As one of my Patrons pointed out: "Oh,   being a landlord is passive income? So you agree, 
you don't do any work?" I love that. But really   though, all of these are so frustrating, because 
people do really treat housing as something to   play with, something to make bank off of, 
rather than looking at it as an essential   that everyone needs to survive. It's about you 
making your passive income, and being a landlord,   and doing the least amount possible.

Investing the 
least amount of your money back into the property,   because you want to maximize your profits. 
So you end up fucking over your tenants,   who are actually paying your mortgage. And also, 
these real estate investing tips are told as if   everyone has an equal opportunity to pursue them, 
but you need capital in order to invest at all;   you need a lot of capital in order to invest in 
real estate. So really, lower income people tend   to be exposed to more predatory, risky ideas, like 
banking on the latest crypto-coin.

While richer   people get to rely on more secure investments, 
plus real estate, which is considered one of   the safest investments. Rich people can afford 
the long game of waiting for their investments   to slowly ac- accrue value, is that the term? At a 
point, if you have a massive portfolio of stocks,   shares, real estate, it can add up to pretty 
substantial passive revenue. You can automate and   delegate any work involved, so you're receiving 
most of the gains with very little effort.   This is passive income, baby! And no 
surprise, it works best for the rich. With that, I want to get into personal finance 
influencers.

"I will teach you how to be rich   like me! The financially free lifestyle…" 
These creators often start to gain a following   as they earn more money, which helps the cycle- 
more viewers, more subscribers, more income,   more videos about how much money they earn- and 
how; and it just continues. I recently watched   this video: The Growing Problem With Personal 
Finance YouTuber Influencers, and I think it   summarizes these points pretty well. A lot of 
these influencers end up sharing their personal   success stories, which reels in the audience. 
They share their reactions to other personal   finance things, they give some predictions about 
where you should put your money, yada, yada… These aspiring mentors often hook their audience 
by first showing off the wealth that they have.   Look how successful I am, look how much 
money I make, look how little I work! I   started from the bottom, I'm just like you! 
And then naturally the viewers are intrigued;   maybe they do see a bit of themselves in 
that creator.

They want that success too,   they want that money! Easy money? And again, 
this is very reminiscent of MLM stuff.   It's the same messaging, you know? They hook 
you by talking about how much capitalism is   sucking all of our souls- which, true. Being 
a worker is so hard, working so many hours,   I'm tired, I'm not making enough money! But then, 
you get into the allure of being an entrepreneur,   being self-employed. Okay, that sounds good. 
What can I do? I've definitely seen a crossover   of real estate content and these exploitative, 
self-help, 'dude bro' finance channels.

They   pretend they're trying to help you and they want 
to give you valuable advice, but they really want   something from you. They target young audiences 
and present an alternative to traditional paths,   like going to college or getting a job. 
Working for your money? Eww, like the poors?  Instead, this content claims 
to teach them how to attain   'financial freedom' and transcend the working 
class, by becoming part of the owning class. "I always thought, the way to become rich, and 
never worry about money again, was just get a good   job. So I went to college, became a software 
engineer, and three weeks into my first job,   my entire perspective changed. They laid off 
25 people. There were 50 year old men, walking   out of their offices, crying because they had no 
clue where they were going to get the money to pay   their mortgage, or pay for their kids tuition, 
because they have no other source of income!" You know, this guy has a point. it is really 
horrible that this can happen to people,   after a lifetime of hard work and dedication. 
We really need a social safety net and you know,   universal free public college would 
also be great.

Medicare for all! "So that's when I started learning 
about real estate investing." Oh no. you were almost there… When I watch this kind of content, I ask, what do 
these creators get out of this? If you are indeed   so rich, so successful, why are you spending 
so much time making TikToks? Do you really want   others to follow your tips, do what you did? 
Do you want that extra competition? And no,   of course they want a social media following, 
because that's valuable. Much of this content   is not actually informative; 
when it's coming from grifters,   it doesn't really teach you what you need to 
know, it's just a teaser for what they're trying   to sell you.

If you really want to learn, 
you're going to have to buy their ebook,   join their courses or coaching seminars. it's 
a tale as old as time: rich guys telling you,   "I can tell you how to do it, you can do it if you 
just follow these quick and easy steps, and spend   $5,000 on my course!" This YouTube comment 
said it pretty well, "Starting to feel like   the only way to make money is to make money 
making videos about how to make money." Amen! Courses and coaching. these seem like the ultimate 
way to answer the question of 'how did you do it',   while also using your audience to earn a 
buck or two.

Again, to me this ties back   to something we see often in MLMs, the concept 
of pyramid coaching. "I became rich as a coach,   so I'll teach you how to become a coach and create 
your own courses about getting rich." One of my   favorite things about this type of content is that 
it tries to strike the impossible balance between   'I am exceptional and aspirational', ala Rachel 
Hollis, but also being relatable. 'I was just like   you- if I could do it, anyone can!' Of course, you 
need your audience to believe they can do it too,   so that they'll buy your stuff and keep following 
you, but you've also got to stroke your own ego   a bit. I mean, you're so successful, how else 
would people know? You've got to convince your   audience that they need you as a mentor, 
in order for them to become successful. And hold on, I just want to mention that 
yes, of course, there are plenty of creators   who do create really good courses, courses that 
actually contain a lot of valuable information.   There are, I'm sure, coaches who are genuinely 
good at coaching.

I don't want to throw out the   accusation that everyone who has a course, or an 
ebook, or is a coach, is a scam artist; I don't   want to say that. But I'm just saying, there 
is this pattern, especially within the sphere   of self help, personal finance, where we see 
these creators doing a lot of the same things,   and I'm sure some courses are more valuable than 
others- and also, probably more cost-effective. Let's talk about F.I.R.E. Now, what is the 
ultimate goal of having all of these streams   of passive income? To live the dream of financial 
independence, retire early, aka, F.I.R.E.

It's   basically a lifestyle that revolves around extreme 
frugality, plus extreme saving and investing,   in order to be able to retire early – much 
earlier than the standard in the United States.   Some of these F.I.R.E. followers save more than 
50%, 60%, 70%, 80% of their income annually. Now hey, I totally understand wanting to free 
yourself from the shackles of capitalism as   soon as possible, or as much as possible. It might 
feel like, if we could just survive off of passive   income, or very minimal work, then we are free, 
we can pursue whatever we want. But is F.I.R.E.   really feasible for most people? The thing is, 
unless you've made it big and you're already   coming from a career where you're a high earner, 
most people do not make, or have the ability to   save enough money to have an early retirement.

Not 
to mention, to start your own F.I.R.E. journey,   it's best to be debt free, have a stable income, 
and generally be able-bodied and healthy,   to minimize, you know, emergencies, and that 
can feel very impossible with the state of   our higher education and health care systems. 
One of my Patrons know noted that their health   struggles have taken away many of their most, 
quote-unquote, "productive" working years,   and also the cost of health care has greatly 
prevented their ability to save money. These   are not all my thoughts on F.I.R.E. I'm sure I 
could do a whole video on that; but I will say,   for those who don't mind living a super frugal 
life forever, basically, I'm glad that people find   comfort and support in the F.I.R.E. community. But 
for many, this concept is not even a possibility. Lastly, let's talk about promoting yourself to 
the owning class. From what I've seen, another   ultimate goal in a lot of this passive income 
content is to stop being a worker, get to a point   where you never have to work a regular job again. 
It is true, being an owner is a much more secure,   powerful, and profitable position than being a 
worker.

But these content creators don't just   want to, say, own a business- like, be the owner 
and the manager, whatever. No, the ideal situation   is just owning the business, and contributing as 
little as possible to the everyday operations.   Cue automation, productivity and boss moves. 
When I asked about this on Patreon, one of my   Patrons mentioned Tim Ferriss and the 4-Hour 
Work Week; I'll admit, I have heard about it,   but I haven't read it, so, sorry if any of this 
is misleading. From what I've seen, the whole goal   of The 4-Hour Work Week concept isn't to stop 
working altogether, but to optimize your time in   order to earn the most money, get the most wealth 
out of the least amount of work.

This focus on   efficiency, time management, and outsourcing 
your life surrounds the concept that your   labor is high value, and that your time should be 
high value as well; and that part sounds great.   Our labor is high value, and time is valuable, 
which most people don't have nearly enough of,   because they're not getting paid enough at their 
jobs. Doesn't everyone want to escape the rat   race and have more time to enjoy life, but still 
make a lot of money? Is it possible? As with all   idealistic concepts, there are some major red 
flags, including that point about outsourcing,   specifically.

Ferriss suggests that your time as 
an entrepreneur is so valuable, that you should   easily be able to hire someone to weed out the 
things you don't want to do or worry about. Just   hire a virtual assistant, someone who works 
across the world and earns a much lower wage,   to go through all your emails, do industry 
research and schedule your calendar.   then take it a step further, and get all your 
groceries delivered, and have your resources come   to you.

You don't have time to do unenjoyable 
or unprofitable things; your time is valuable. One question though, does that same principle 
apply to the gig workers that you're hiring? You   would hope that someone taking advantage of this 
4-Hour Work Week thing, and hiring gig workers,   outsourcing their life, would hopefully be 
paying those gig workers very fairly, very well.   But, with an idea so obsessed with 
efficiency and increasing profits,   I doubt it.

This passive income realm 
is very closely tied to productivity,   hustle culture, side hustles. 
'Work smarter, not harder!   I'm not going to be a dumb little worker, earning 
nothing! I'm going to be a boss- a girl boss!' Anyway, on TikTok, I have seen a couple of 
interesting examples of becoming your own boss,   like a 22 year-old who bought a carwash! 
There's a whole genre of this like,   vending machine businesses; I see your 
fat stacks of cash and I raise you   buckets of quarters! They typically act like 
all you have to do is go collect your sweet,   sweet profits, but of course, these businesses do 
require labor and expenses. But again, it's easy!   Just go buy a business, hire people to do the 
labor- boom, you're making passive income! Go,   literally collect your coin. Now, if you ask 
me how did, say, a 22 year-old afford to buy a   car wash? Shhh! That's not the point, just- just 
like, hustle and work hard, believe in yourself! Final thoughts; I don't blame anyone for wanting 
to pursue passive income. We feel the need for   having these backup plans because we don't have 
that social safety net.

If you lose your job,   how are you going to pay your bills? 
You're going to lose your health insurance,   what are you going to do then? So, this 
idea to have multiple streams of income,   is supposed to provide that individual 
safety net, for you and your family,   your loved ones. If shit ever hits the fan, 
and one stream of your income ends or slows,   you have other ways of bringing in money, that's 
a comforting thought. Basically, I get the appeal,   but I wouldn't recommend listening to these 
people online who promise you that they can   make you rich, with three easy steps, just buy 
their course on crypto investing… No! No! now I wanna give a thank you to my Patrons! if 
you wanna look at some bonus video content, polls,   monthly livestreams, that's all on patreon! and 
extra thank yous to my executive producer tier:   we have uwu face, Abby Hayden, Geoff, 
Jaden, kaesi luck, Mardi Schmeichel,   and VivianOlodun.com.

thank you all for being 
patrons and thank you for watching this video. once again if you're interested in trying 
out Skillshare, learning something new,   click the link in my description, first 
1000 people will get a free 1 month trial! hope you guys enjoyed this 
one. Stay tuned for future   Internet Analysis videos. Okay, thanks, bye!.

As found on YouTube

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