Influencers and “Gurus” Are the Reason Why I Took a Break From Social Media
Their fancy stuff has nothing to do with their products
Ever since the “Rich Dad Poor Dad” books appeared, they were one of the book series that blows up in the self-help and financial industries. People were reading the books on getting rich, staying positive, and all the same crap you hear in the self-help world.
At first, it looked OK when he wrote about this because I read them too. I like his equation about self-employment, entrepreneurship, investments, etc. It makes sense.
However, ever since that book was released, there has been a flood of people who claim the same thing as “Rich Dad.” And there are just so many of them, trying to get people to buy their courses, telling you that you can be rich too.
By buying their courses.
Apparently, sometime later, after doing more research, I realized that most of them turned out to be fake gurus and MLM-related.
The Seed of This Irritation
I’m guilty because I fell for this type of scheme. I was looking for ways to earn some passive income, and these ads just came out of nowhere.
Reading “Rich Dad Poor Dad” brought me into this world. I felt like I knew something that nobody knew and that I wanted to be rich like him. So I tried to find ways to make money the way he advised. I got to work and researched a bunch of things I could do to make money.
And that’s when I came across these ads on social media, where they appear with Ferraris or living in some fancy house and wearing fancy clothes.
It didn’t occur to me that these people could be lying at first because it all looked convincing.
I was really hooked on what they are telling me. I mean, I too want to be financially free and not having to worry about money every time I go out to buy something. And seeing that they have that stuff on camera makes it more convincing.
Plus, I didn't realize that they made it sound so easy, so I was already on board. Best of all, I didn’t need to have special skills to go into this entrepreneurship, so I was ready to join these people.
Until they gave me the starting price of their online courses.
It’s not because I couldn’t afford it; I just find that it’s absurd. Why would anyone sell a course for $2,000? Don’t get me wrong, I love online courses. In fact, I learned video editing from online courses too, but they cost me 10x less than that. I just don’t remember an online course costing that much unless it is a university course.
At that point, I was really skeptical, so I didn’t buy the course.
And thank God for that.
Learning the Dark Truth
About two weeks later, I was still finding ways to make money online on YouTube.
Then I ran across a YouTube channel called Coffeezilla, where his show called out many of the financial “gurus” that I kept seeing on social media. He was exposing them one by one, telling everyone the truth behind people buying their courses.
I was stunned. Because I was one of the people who totally fell for their marketing on buying their courses. Apparently, there are people who bought their courses, and it turns out many are dissatisfied.
What made me astounded was the fact that these people made money out of their courses — not their real entrepreneurial business. These people prey on other, poorer people and convince them to buy their products, telling them that it’s easy to open a business.
They jack you up with so many self-help materials, something we would get hooked on easily. These “gurus” keep telling you the same thing that even I get sick of hearing all the time:
- Work hard
- Don’t give up
These words are true, but they’re only true if you are working on the right thing, not the wrong one. These “gurus” didn’t even touch on that part as well, which deeply irritated me.
And what’s worst, these so-called gurus/influencers can get away with it, too. Because in their words of disclaimer, it’s often said: “This is only for people who are willing to work hard.”
No wonder they can get away with it scot-free. These are such easy words to use to scam people into buying their products.
These fake influencers are preying on poorer people, making money out of their courses rather than their main business.
I’ve watched testimonials from the people who fell into this trap, swiping their cards to buy their courses one after another. There were many who fell into debt because of these scammers, and it was in the middle of the pandemic, where everyone was trying to conserve their money to survive this recession.
These are true predators.
Not only have these fake gurus done this, but influencers are also starting to do this stuff as well.
The Truth About Entrepreneurs
Perhaps everyone knows the part where creating a business is very difficult, and it’s because of this that what most entrepreneurs don’t say is that they don’t want competition.
If entrepreneurs can monopolize their business, they do it in a heartbeat. It’s why some of these business people acquire certain businesses: They don't want anyone getting in the way of their profit maximization.
And this is what most influencers and fake gurus fail to mention: No one loves competition.
Now, if these influencers and “gurus” are trying to “teach” people how to create a business of any sort like them, then they are creating competition among themselves. A competitor is a business person’s worst nightmare.
Influencers and “Gurus” Are the Reason I Took a Break From Social Media
I hate that I followed these people a lot in the past and now my social media algorithm is filled with people flexing their Ferraris and putting out ridiculous life-motivating words that have nothing to do with the picture at all.
And their products have nothing to do with the picture. I’m pretty sure they are spending more time making content than doing the actual work.
The lesson from this experience is that if you see anyone boasting about their “success,” it’s most probably a lie. Because if it were the truth, we’d see a lot of that stuff on Mark Cuban’s or Bill Gate’s Instagram pages.
