There is No Easy Path to Millions. There is No Passive Income.

You are pitching on deaf ears

Maybe it’s because I am a male of a certain age. Perhaps it’s because I’m active in the same circles as those who would have me believe their nonsense. Maybe it’s because my phone spies on me and hears me talk about earning money as an entrepreneur.

I get the worst kinds of SPAM and junk mail in my inbox. I get offered “Can’t-miss!” opportunities selling NFTs and “Passive income machines!” all over my social media hangout of choice, Facebook.

Yes, I know Facebook is awful, but I am 55, and everyone I know is there, so as much as I want to quit, I still log in every day and scroll.

The other thing is that my business is there and the people I most want to market to are there as well.

So, I must put up with the snake-oil salesmen and their passive income, Bitcoins, NFTs, overnight blogging success, and easy paths to a million dollars. I want to tell them that their pitches are falling on deaf ears because long ago, I pulled myself out of the “Making money” morass and woke up to the reality of life:

I wasn’t going to get rich overnight, and there is no such thing as passive income.

It won’t happen overnight.

Even if I had the money, I wouldn’t put it in crypto or NFTs. The whole arena those guys operate in smells like con artists, and that buzzing sound is probably all the electricity they need to keep their mining operations alive.

The stock market is a sham, and I just don’t have the stomach to keep promoting capitalism at the expense of everyone else. The more money I add to the billionaire’s coffers, the richer they become, and it widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

I’m not giving Bezos another penny if I can help it.

People are making money out there, but too much of it directly benefits people I find appalling. It’s also not passive, and it takes years to profit.

I just know the mansplainers will come out in force behind their favorite flavor. “Bitcoin is the future!” “Blogging is passive!” “I made $7k on an NFT, and all I did was play a game!” “Selling on Amazon is like printing money!” “Snowflake!” “Socialist Scum!”

I can hear it all now.

The thing about it is that I am a bit of a socialist, but I still believe a person can start a business and make an honest living. I am a partner in one such company and I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to be successful.

But I have long since given up aspirations of a life of passive income and overnight success. My next ten years see me working hard every day to make enough to survive and have some of the nicer things in life.

For now, I have given up on the people who told me I could make millions as a writer. I have stopped listening to the people who tell me that I can make money blogging. I’ve given up investing in crypto and NFTs and refuse to put any more money in the stock market. I refuse to knowingly keep putting billions more in the wealthy dragons’ pockets when all they do is hoard and rest on their pile of gold.

I live in a developing country, and instead of using capitalism to punish anyone involved with us, the plan is to spread the wealth wherever we go.

Sure, I am sure there will still be purchases from Amazon and other big-name stores, but we will do our best to keep the money where it can do the most good.

For now, I am planning to teach English in China and spend my nights writing. No overnight riches are waiting for me, but I get to travel, and the money I make supports my family in the long run. I may not get to work from the privacy of my home, but my work will involve seeing the world and doing something I love every day.

I just wish the snakes on my timeline would stop trying to sell me passive income and overnight millions.