Content Creation is the new 9 to 5
This email from Dan Koe is revolutionary guys! Read it if you want to quit your 9 to 5 job:
The Koe Letter
October 19, 2024
Subtle reminder before we start:
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I want you to imagine the future with me.
A world where:
You're experiencing this right now.
You are currently reading a letter with information that could change your life (and wouldn't dare be taught in schools because it would break you out of their system, they wouldn't benefit from it.)
In my eyes, this is the future of education, entrepreneurship, and work as a whole.
All signs point to it.
In this letter, I want to show you a path that anyone can take to secure their future.
This is not a path where everyone does the same thing.
It is a path where people can pursue their interests and lean into the story that makes them unique. A path where everyone – within reason – gets paid to be themselves in a world where robotic jobs are being automated left and right.
If you watch the video, I'll handle most objections you have about this being a viable path for most people.
Of course, this is just a prediction, but the data is overwhelming, and predictions can come true with enough attention and effort to create that reality.
Let's take a look:
First, from Stripe, creator growth isn't stopping any time soon.
(These images are pulled from Hosun's X thread on a similar topic. This is my take on it, which we've discussed quite a few times in the past, but it hasn't been as refined as this time around.)
The way I see it, creator growth is the only logical option going into a world where AI and automation make meaningless work optional.
While social media may change, the desire to pursue your interests and get paid for being yourself remain. And if you haven't noticed, evolution is about solving problems. It's taken a lot of technology to guide evolution to this point, but we're on the verge of solving the problem of doing work you hate. Of course, the principle still remains that none of this will be given to you.
This life is reserved for the polymaths, autodidacts, and those with an unquenchable thirst to acquire a diverse set of irreplaceable skills.
Let's go further.
A graph from SignalFire illustrates that there are now 50 million content creators. Beyond that:
Corporations are beginning to opt for contractors and creators as workers and marketers.
In short, the future favors the individuals, small teams, and progressive companies who stop trying to lock people into lives they hate. People will push back full force now that they have the technology to do so.
And that's the other thing…
Technology has evolved.
You don't need a team of 10 developers to build a website now.
You have no-code drag-and-drop tools that help you build it fast.
You don't need to pay for billboards or spots on the radio. You simply post content to attract people to your creative work and business.
Most people think AI is going to replace creative workers.
If it does, maybe you deserved to be replaced and aren't as creative as you think you are.
AI only enables intelligent people to do more as an individual or team. People are building viral apps over a weekend and writing content faster than ever. The quality of those apps and content are dependent on a wide array of skills that can't be made up for by typing into ChatGPT.
This is a superpower for generalists and polymaths.
But it goes even deeper.
Smart People Shouldn't Go To College
Knowledge not found in schools is the source of money not found in employment. – The Art Of Focus
People are losing trust in the institutions and ideologies that failed to give them the secure future they promised.
Schools narrow your mind on the illusory status of a nice job and large paycheck.
Religions narrow your mind on a singular cultural perspective that fails to make sense of reality.
Jobs narrow your mind on a replaceable and repetitive string of tasks that won't be worth what you're being paid now as technology advances.
For those who value self-education and personal responsibility, you are quite possibly experiencing the most important time of your life.
For those who can't think for themselves or open their mind to new perspectives, you will probably suffer for the coming years until you hit rock bottom – which forces a perspective shift and growth.
In Ego Development Theory, a lower stage of development is the conformist stage. A stage where people can't think for themselves. They need to be accepted by the tribe. So their mind sees religion and other ideologies and institutional dogma as law. "Bible thumpers" for more than just the bible.
It seems that as new generations gain more of a collective voice, the conformist stage – mostly occupied by boomers – is slowly starting to fade out from the general population. More people are occupying higher stages of development.
This is hidden importance of social media and the internet.
Social media has set the foundation for the distribution of education, meaning, and work.
The lines have blurred. No central institution has control over one in any given culture.
Personal brands on social media teach their interests, share their belief system, and make an income doing so by providing a product or service under their brand.
Why is this such an important turning point in history?
Education shapes the future because it shapes human behavior. You become what you consume.
Education expands your perspective and allows you to spot opportunities in unknown territory.
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Education is programming. You've been educated your entire life. But you didn't choose the source of that education… until now.
In other words, we're entering a human economy.
A connected economy that finally reflects natural patterns.
A purpose economy where people can choose to learn from those with a shared vision and goals.
Why does this work?
Because people have different needs for understanding.
Many of you are here because you resonate with what I say and teach.
Others despise me, yet they get similar information from a different perspective, and that's okay. It's a difference in personality and teaching style.
The traditional student was assigned goals that left them dumb and replaceable. They were assigned a teacher. They were told to pay an outrageous amount. To take out loans that would be impossible to pay back. Drowning them in high interest that keeps their mind trapped in survival mode due to the stress. They try to solve that stress by getting a job, making their life even worse. By the time they know it, they either forget that they were meant for more or get overwhelmed by how much work it will take to dig out of that mess.
The modern student can choose their own goals, find a teacher, invest in their own education, and once they've achieved that goal, they can evolve as all things do to the next one, or they can fulfill their higher needs of becoming the teacher and passing down what they've learned.
How are you going to create anything worth distributing if you don’t become a person of value?
Yes, to join in on the new, hyper-profitable economy you will need to do something with your life.
But, conventional education won’t cut it.
The current school system is just that, a system.
A system that molds you into the workforce.
It teaches the obedience and skills necessary to work a job in the old economy.
If you want to make money in the new economy, then obviously you must seek education from those who have results in that domain.
Courses, coaching, and content from brands and creators that have created those ways of making money.
While many people think of these as scams – and many can be since the area is new and hasn't fully self-corrected per evolution – the worst thing you can do is avoid learning from those who are creating the future in front of your eyes.
New jobs are being created left and right.
The ones where boomers will tell you to “get a real job.”
Creators are forging a new path, creating value, building teams, hiring high-agency individuals.
The creator economy is the new school system. Becoming a creator is the new career path. A holistic career path that allows you to pursue and monetize any interest you deem meaningful and important.
Set a goal.
Find creators you resonate with.
Drown yourself in the information they provide.
Watch new opportunities register in your awareness.
Act on them like your life depends on it.
The One-Person Media Company – Your School System
If you understand evolution, you understand that individuals, industries, and life itself oscillate between unity and division.
Centralization and decentralization.
This is a generalized principle of reality.
Like the ocean evaporating into droplets, condensing in the clouds, and once it's heavy enough, raining back down to nourish plants, serve other beneficial ecological functions, and repeat all over again.
We are entering an era where the pendulum is swinging from institution to individual.
Entropy and wealth are two polar ends.
As uncertainty or disorder increases, the more opportunity and resources you have to build wealth. Wealth is increasing order through value creation. Like turning wood into a house (low value into high value).
All of this philosophical nonsense is to say that we live in a time of deep uncertainty and distrust for institutions' grip on our minds. But that's not a bad thing. It simply means we have more information, more ideas, more resources – like no-code tools that other value creators have birthed – and more abundance to work with as individuals.
Let's break down how this works:
1) The Future Of Entrepreneurship
Social media is where the attention is right now.
Social media is a free technology that has radically changed how we learn and acquire knowledge to improve our quality of life (for value-focused people… lower-development people focused on memes and toxicity shouldn't be your focus).
Social media is how you join the future of work.
Yes, I believe that on a long enough time scale what we do to generate wealth will evolve from physical to digital.
Physical businesses have online stores and audiences to expand their reach and provide more value.
Corporations are breeding "in-house creators" to bring more personality to their robotic company.
Individuals like Ali Abdaal – our productivity overlord – left their job as a doctor. He posted med school videos and the market told him they wanted his productivity advice. So, it was a no brainer for him to lean into what held more value – considering they did surgery on a grape – and in return makes more than 10 doctors combined.
2) Become A Value Creator
If we observe evolution's arrow, let's assume that the goal of reality is to unify consciousness.
We can assume this direction by noting patterns of increasing wholeness.
Matter to biology to psychology to spirit – each transcends and includes another.
Atom to cell to molecule to organism.
Letter to sentence to paragraph to chapter to book.
Materials to infrastructure to surface to house.
All intelligent life is moving toward higher orders of unity by creating value. Or, creating wealth to combat disorder and uncertainty from entropy.
Now, if we look at the stages of psychological development, we can note a similar direction.
As one self-develops, they move from ego-centric to socio-centric to world-centric to cosmo-centric. They expand their circle of concern. Their desires shift from selfish survival to selfless contribution.
So, who is this whole "creator business" thing for?
We go over the stages of psychological development and how to start building the business.