From ecommerce, to gig economy, to YouTube, and Instagram fame money is at our fingertips like never before with most not needing to contribute anything of much value. We’ve lived in a decade of fame and riches advertised to be easily obtained with little effort and I believe this notion is causing many to self-destruct in their desires of obtaining financial freedom and peer recognition for success.
I’ve always been in business for myself since a teenager on some level. Whether selling cigarettes on campus, babysitting, to life-coaching and resume building I always looked to earn income on the side and grow a business of some sorts, from my early teenage years throughout my adulthood. I loosely say I’ve been an entrepreneur my entire life because a large portion of me being in business for myself I’ve always had the protection of a traditional job looming in the background, hence clouding my true responsibility of managing and scaling my side businesses. It wasn’t until I went full-time entrepreneur and embracing the gig economy that I gain true perspective of business ownership.
In my observation of business owners, which began with myself I quickly seen I had been a fake, playing the role of a boss, a business woman, when in fact I knew nothing of running a business, especially one to be self-sustaining. Now, almost three years of gig hopping, freelancing, and entrepreneurship has taught me more than than any business school or mentorship program in my opinion. It has truly been trial and error for me, constant investing in thousands of hours of university YouTube, reading numerous books, partaking in online classes, and working alongside those that did not run their businesses right, but learning from their wrongs! I am still learning how to articulate all that I have learned, but one thing is certain my keen ability to see those that are lack luster and not true to their business dealings.
The Pretenders. These individuals are not easy to identify from the surface, but to true business owners you’ll identify them in minutes; in just by asking a few questions they easily reveal themselves without their own knowing. Us business owners tend to be smooth talkers, a-whole-lot of talk and very little actions. We are the kings and queens of procrastination, we live in the clouds and rarely come down to the valley of reality. We have a good game plan, but never execute them, we have all the answers for others, but when we have the answers for ourselves we fail to adhere to them. The Pretenders, can be the worse types, they like the idea of success and often they have everything they need to be successful, but lack implementing the hard work and self-investments required to acquire success.
How to quickly identify “The Pretenders”
- All talk no fruit of their labor.
- Lacks consistency in their endeavors.
- Quickly switching earning options.
- Fail to invest in higher education i.e. online courses, workshops, etc.
- Have the ability to make money, but half-ass complete opportunities.
- Lacks advertising their services through various media outlets.
- Slow to move on changes required of them to level-up.
- They tend to piggyback or rather lurk in the background of others success somewhat posing it off as their own.
- Looks to obtaining clients through mere existence and no true connective approach.
- Actually lazy! The lazy part seems hard to identify because they come off highly motivated and active, but in fact they’re just good at moving around looking busy.
Pretenders look for help and even welcome it, but once instructions are given they’re slow to move upon suggestions and actions. Pretenders are often highly skilled and gifted individuals, but the problem I believe is they lack from a variation of work ethics. Remember when I opened up in the beginning of the blog with the worker types from this past decade, a bunch of individuals with money at their fingertips with an high expectation of gaining income /clients with little effort. This seems to be the new playbook of ecommerce and business, due less make more, provide little effort and value but inflate costs and make it big! There’s only one major factor, many aren’t being profitable in their approach, and instead of becoming cognizant of the needed change they’ll double down on their methods continuing to earn less to little with this inflated fallacy of business success. Us as entrepreneurs are constant dreamers, creators, of grand ideas for making money, but that execution part and commitment to constant investing is faint.
I have a business that tagline is “Driving to Fund our Dreams”, those there at the CEO DriveHer understand that often we must invest our time diligently elsewhere to make our dreams a reality elsewhere. We’re committed to investing/funding our businesses through learning, earning, and planning; nothing is given all is earned! So I ask you, are you pretending, are you acting like a boss or are you a boss, do you understand that business ownership is not glamorous, nor easy, and when done for earning income you must actually have passion and skill to consistently scale your business for permanent growth. You sir or mam constantly throwing darts in the dark masked as a “boss” or “business owner” will be short lived if you continue to pretend while in your endeavors.
For more blogs and vlogs checkout my website at http://www.ceodriveher.shop where I provide media content on IG and YouTube, also be sure to checkout my services if you need help in the gig economy or business consulting for entry level business owners.
THE CEO DRIVEHER 