One of the things about the internet and the advent of
social media is the creation of what some people would call bullshit jobs. For
someone like me, a misfit who screwed up a traditional career, the creation of
bullshit jobs was a godsend of sorts. We, the world’s misfits, suddenly had an avenue
to express ourselves, build a personal brand and in some cases make a few
pennies (the more successful ones have made a lot of money)
I started blogging back in 2006. I started the blog with no
particular vision in mind and back when PR work was plentiful, blogging it didn’t
occur to me that blogging could be anything more than a place to store my rants
or at least the rants that the mainstream would not publish (this being in the
days when the mainstream offered stringers a few dollars for their rants.)
For me, I only looked at blogging as a potential source of
income much later. It was at a stage when I noticed that I had a follower or
two and the numbers started going up. While my adsense account is currently
suspended, I did notice that my income could go from a few cents a month if at
all to about a dollar or two on monthly basis. I’m not making enough to give up
anything else but I figured that getting a few pennies here and there for
something I’m going to do anyway is better than not getting anything at all. I’ve
also reached the stage where I ask for the odd donation from readers, though I’ve
not been terribly successful at this.
Despite not earning enough, blogging has helped get my name
about and its always good to have a place where people might find you. One day,
I hope blogging might help finance an old age pension when the body is no
longer able to wait tables and nobody in corporate wants an old dude.
While I was a gradual convert to blogging and volgging as a
job late in life, I’ve been following guys who have been very successful at it.
Watching this makes me wonder how things could have turned out if I took the
plunge and set my mind earlier on.
One of the guys that
I follow from time to time is a guy called Sam Chui, who reviews first class
seats on airplanes. He’s living the life that most can only dream of. I, for
example, can only look at internet pictures of first-class cabins and indulge
in fantasies. At this stage in life, I wouldn’t fly in Etihad’s residences because
even if I had US$20,000 to spare, I’d be thinking of things like paying down
debts like the mortgage. However, it’s nice to see one’s dreams in action and I
wonder what life would be like if I could actually get paid to live the high
life. A sample of Sam’s videos can be found at:
Another fellow that I’ve grown very fond of is a little
Jewish boy called Drew Binsky, who decided early in life that he wanted to
travel to every country in the world. He’s managed to do it by making travel videos.
While Sam Chui lives the life of luxury, Drew Binsky does
things at the ground level and I like the fact that he likes to portray the
optimistic side of the places he’s been to. In a way, he’s doing important work
by showing us that we’re probably more similar in our wants and needs than in
our differences. One of the videos that I remember is the one on why this
American Jewish boy loves Muslim majority nations. Amongst his favourite places
are Iran and Syria, not exactly the place where you’d expect an American Jewish
boy would be welcomed.
Mr. Binsky’s videos are a god send in a world dedicated to
stressing the differences between cultures and stressing the need for conflict.
Mr. Binsky is doing us a service by showing us people at a ground level:
The other things that I give Mr. Binsky is the fact that he
tries to get a picture of what the cost of living is like so that his Western audience
can understand costs of living elsewhere. One of his main themes is what US$10
can get you in various places. Take a look at the following videos:
Madurai, India - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugwDTDwb6Vc
;
Lagos, Nigeria - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrRLCoKmLLA;
and
Karachi, Pakistan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrRLCoKmLLA
There’s something appealing about people having the ability
to do what they love and being able to earn a living from it. The age of so called
“Bullshit” jobs has shown us that the standard nine to five or nine to six in
an office is not the only way that one has to live.
However, while the idea of getting paid to live your dreams
is appealing, it’s also a lot of hard work and quite often you have to find
your earnings elsewhere. I remember Alex Au telling me to not think about monetizing
my blog for the very reason that I’d be beholden to my paymasters, thus not
being able to be truly independent. However,
I’m in the “social commentary” business, which is notoriously unrewarding in
the financial sense. There are other spaces where people have made a decent
living. It is, however tough work as Mr. Binsky explains:
The key to success in a “bullshit” job of being a blogger or
vlogger is content and traffic. The higher the traffic, the more you can get
out of the people who pay. However, this takes time and effort to develop.
The creation of bullshit jobs has helped the world. It has created
an avenue for those who didn’t fit into the standard corporate world. It has
created happiness, which is something we should all celebrate.
1 comment
Truly a content-rich post💜💖🙏!
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