Believing that writing can make you rich through KOL (Key Opinion Leader) is like believing that studying Chinese literature in university will make you a writer.
Believing that studying trading can make you rich is like believing that studying finance in university will make you a speculative investor.
The value of something depends on the leverage it can generate.
"Working" itself doesn't leverage anything; it's merely a piece-rate payment model. "Trading" itself doesn't leverage anything; the idea that you can grow your own capital is mostly an illusion. Becoming a fund, however, does provide leverage.
"Writing" gives the illusion of leveraging influence, but honestly, how many people's writing actually reaches a level that achieves sufficient leverage? "Writing for the masses" and "writing for elites" are two different things. The former brings commercial value through product sales, while the latter brings trust and consulting value. Ray Dalio's career began with providing consulting services on risk exposure and asset management for companies, as well as writing research reports. How does your writing compare to Ray's? In my experience, "writing for the masses" is akin to piecework, while KOL agencies are like labor brokers. When your income depends entirely on the number of advertisements you receive, this business model lacks network effects. It cannot scale based on fixed costs, therefore it lacks leverage and is merely a more flexible form of employment.
If you must write, write for the elite, for decision-makers, to build your credibility. To achieve this, a qualified writer must continuously learn and understand that simply outputting content is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to build credibility and bring ideas to life with like-minded partners.
Fancy words like "digital nomad," "KOL," "independent trader," and "content creator" merely tempt young people to choose the easy path. These individuals are no freer than white-collar workers in internet giants or blue-collar workers in factories; they simply choose another form of "employment" in the form of the gig economy. Economic growth may mask the folly of this choice, but a bear market will make life extremely difficult for freelancers.
The most important and most difficult thing for a person to do is to be true to themselves. Many choices are disguised as trendy things with fancy words, but the real world will not pity you just because you are young and foolish.
