@Betsy Ross nails it as usual; the TikTok generation has taken the sound-byte style of information from the past 20 years of mainstream media, and distilled it to the most pure, mindless, sit-back-and-watch style of entertainment possible. when i was in highschool, i was told i had options of military, academia/teaching, trade schools, owning a business, etc. - but these would all take many years, and retirement was something that should happen when you're a literal millionaire with huge assets and strong networks to support you
but the idea of "retiring" has always been strange, because people who hustle and are skilled don't just want to suddenly stop producing/creating; so many people end up retiring (which means getting benefits, paid for life, discounts for age/status, etc.) but then running a small business or doing consulting with a lessened schedule. the retirement thing always seemed strange to me (and uninteresting).
now, i read
The Five-Hour Workweek and found it inspiring...but some people i have met seem to think that working 5 hours a week is the goal, so that you can watch TikTok and sit in bed and "do nothing" (
Office Space quote) - but that wasn't the point of the book! The point of the
Workweek was to automate and decentralize your businesses/processes, so you can work on learning more languages, getting more technical skills, travel more, network more, etc.
but so many people born (we'll say, approximately) 1995 onward seem to just want to become successful quickly, without actually taking the years to develop their punctuality, interpersonal skills, software abilities, etc. that a guy like Tim Ferris has done. the 5-hour workweek goal isn't to sit in Sandals Jamaica...it's to be able to eliminate redundancy and self-assess your own micromanaging (that often leads to companies being bottlenecked at the owner/CEO spot). i downloaded TikTok for 2 hours a couple years after it became popular, and i found it completely vapid, unrealistic, and deleted it. it's just people staging things to get clicks/money; not content that is actually valuable. the most successful people i know are complete psychopaths with their work passions. my friend my same age (late 30s) owns multiple condos and nice cars, but he also works for his multiple businesses the entire day. yes, he takes vacations with his talented and attractive partner, and they are both wholly charismatic, charming, and make you feel valuable and included (this is why they succeed), but they are both constantly calling clients, revising processes, sitting in meetings with their companies, etc. - it's hard to get him free for a simple coffee or lunch because he's pulled by so many things!
and look at the owner of this forum and
@BuySellBA - always flying, meeting with people, taking consulting Zoom calls, reading/researching, studying the news, responding on this forum to questions that he no doubt answered 15 years ago...how many hours a day do we think he spends working on his professional life? i would guess 12 hours, 7 days a week, of actual focused time (not time sitting in an office). the TikTok crowd wants to be told that everything will be fine; it won't be! they want to be told that you can have overnight success like 0.0001% of people/businesses do; they won't have that lottery luck. in the end, saving money by living within one's means, and hustling to create wealth are things that happen when we develop ourselves psychologically, physically, and professionally...and it takes years of learning from previous failures. but right now, the TikTik model rewards 10-second videos that make things seem easy, produced by people who aren't actually wealthy or skilled past their glamorous facade, and it leads to this echo-chamber of thinking being an 'Influencer' is worthwhile or lucrative. is there really any way to explain it other than to work your ass off for years, and continually find ways to self-reflect and improve, getting people smarter than you to assess your possible shortcomings?
