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The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

joanwestenberg.com

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Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#181

Post by chii »

phil21 wrote: post #171
icedchai wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way to escape is through consistent, long term investing in the stock market. You get a regular job and live below your means, investing the difference. Buy and hold. Invest regularly. Not day trading, long term. The problem is most people don’t have the patience, the right temperament, to do this.

This is not what people mean by passive income. Yeah, if you have a few million dollars of capital already you can easily just toss it in the market and collect 4% every year indefinitely. Pretty much one of the only truly passive income streams there is. The problem is how long and what you have to do to get that 3-5 million number. No one who is drawn to the “passive income” hustle is thinking “work a normal job fo…

one word from the parent post sums up everything you said: patience. Or lack thereof (two words).

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#182

Post by margalabargala »

dasil003 wrote: post #166
jimbokun wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I note neither your post or the one you replied to contain any quantitative data about how many profitable solo businesses there are.

This is such a middlebrow dismissal. Like yeah, people are speculating based personal experience and knowledge, so what? If you have a different viewpoint or something specific you'd like to see data on call it out and engage in the discussion. Don't just be the "data or GTFO" guy because that's a super bland and pointless take.

"Oh yeah, you think you know something about entrepreneurs? Name every business."

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#183

Post by Ekaros »

nemomarx wrote: post #126
brunoborges wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The more someone is making at their solo business, the less they want to blab about it and attract competitors. Exactly! And this is why every time I see someone selling a course while bragging about making a lot of money, I know for sure they are _not_ making money.

Well you never know, maybe selling the course is the profitable part?

I have always felt that online courses selling on how to sell online courses are underserved market... You do not hear too much about those, not that I have looked.

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#184

Post by thaumasiotes »

nemomarx wrote: post #126
brunoborges wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The more someone is making at their solo business, the less they want to blab about it and attract competitors. Exactly! And this is why every time I see someone selling a course while bragging about making a lot of money, I know for sure they are _not_ making money.

Well you never know, maybe selling the course is the profitable part?

There are a lot of people out there hawking a lot of different schemes that they say will get you where you want to go. “Build relationships,” they’ll say, or “work smarter, not harder,” or “first, decide what it is you really want.” And it sort of seems like they must know what they’re talking about, because aren’t they successful themselves? Don’t they have trophy spouses and expensive haircuts and mansions on the coast? Surely they’re in possession of some secret system for achieving one’s dreams!

Well, yeah, they’ve got a system. Their system is selling hope to schmucks like you. Their seminars, their self-help books, their crazy diets and exercise plans? That stuff doesn’t help you. It helps them.

This text can currently be found in the blurb for a shirt at https://shirt.woot.com/offers/steamworks-operatica .

It's possible that's where I found it originally, but my memory suggests to me that I found it somewhere else, on a blog, and that the continuation was different.

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#186

Post by littlexsparkee »

phil21 wrote: post #171
icedchai wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way to escape is through consistent, long term investing in the stock market. You get a regular job and live below your means, investing the difference. Buy and hold. Invest regularly. Not day trading, long term. The problem is most people don’t have the patience, the right temperament, to do this.

This is not what people mean by passive income. Yeah, if you have a few million dollars of capital already you can easily just toss it in the market and collect 4% every year indefinitely. Pretty much one of the only truly passive income streams there is. The problem is how long and what you have to do to get that 3-5 million number. No one who is drawn to the “passive income” hustle is thinking “work a normal job fo…

You don't need millions - if things go modestly well and you have a high savings rate, you can get out in 5-10 and draw enough to cover modest means. I do agree that people eying passive income maybe have a different patience / willingness to sacrifice & self-teach threshold but the calculus of grinding for a few years to escape has its adherents.

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#187

Post by Ekaros »

icedchai wrote: post #158
NordStreamYacht wrote: post #108

Running an online store isn't "passive income." Passive income is from rental properties, mutual funds and (my dream) a rich uncle's trust fund.

I’d argue that unless you’re using a property manager, rental property isn’t really passive, either. Do you want that call at 3 am to fix a flood?

At that point I wonder why not just invest in REIT. And then look at how those compare to other possible companies... And then figure out nothing makes much sense.

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#188

Post by trick-or-treat »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #74

This article really felt like a misdiagnosis to me. Sure, a lot of these people were just buying hype from these "get rich from drop shipping!" influencers, just like a million other suckers who got dollar signs in their eyes with real estate schemes, pyramid sale schemes, yada yada, a tale as old as time. I don't think this "passive income" trap is really anything new, and I don't think it was some unique thing that…

> You rarely see anything more than a couple hundred bucks a month

From my perspective, you have to take a lot of shots, I did around 20 side hustle ideas last year and 2 are making over $100/mo. The other 18 I dropped. The only note I will give is that the 2 that succeeded really played to my strengths.

About me: I once had a hustle that did around $6k/month but that was many years ago and I decided I would be happier as a hired gun coder. The rise of AI made me rethink this so I'm clawing my back to providing services.

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#189

Post by bombcar »

Ekaros wrote: post #183
nemomarx wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you never know, maybe selling the course is the profitable part?

I have always felt that online courses selling on how to sell online courses are underserved market... You do not hear too much about those, not that I have looked.

They do exist if you dig - for example: https://johntreed.com/products/how-to-write-publish-and-sell...

Re: The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

#190

Post by khriss »

jimbokun wrote: post #136
nightski wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A real business is simply one that makes money. Not some gatekeeping criteria presented by the ridiculous OP. Just because you took 7+ years to develop a business does not mean that all businesses require that or that it is the only way.

You keep telling yourself that.

Why the hate? If you believe GP is wrong, then why not outline where you think they are wrong?

HN is one of the few places left where low effort snark is thankfully below the noise floor, please don't destroy that.

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