Today, many young people have believed that the way to “make it in life” is through internet based businesses.

For some of them, the rest of us who work “normal jobs and earn “normal” salaries are either too lazy or too stupid.

These young people are the ones who would come and call out companies who pay a certain amount as salaries as exploiters.

The ones who make long posts (longer than mine)and Twitter threads about how employers are paying “peanuts” which they would never accept.

It is fast becoming a malady. And we all should be concerned. We need to remind our young ones about balance and process.

We have people lapping on to any person they think has the magic formula to internet-induced overnight wealth.

We have people borrowing money to pay for courses on how to “blow” on the internet.

We have people not accepting job offers because they think they can make double the salary they are offered on the internet.

We have people churning out books and courses (most of which are copy and paste) and all kinds of programmes about things that are so much deeper than they have even yet imagined.

I am a champion of youth development and empowerment.

I am about inspiring people to maximise their biggest potentials irrespective of age or social standing.

But I also believe that our young people must always be reminded about process.

If you have read me on this space, you know that I always talk about process.

I think people need to talk more about the work, and growth and processes before they talk about or show their results.

The world may have gone digital, but even that will change in a few years. Everything always changes.

The businesses that will stand the test of time will be the ones who have solid offline structures –

With a physical offline structure, you can adapt your organisation to anything that will benefit its growth and the growth of the people in it.

While you digitise your business, please understand that if you have no structure, one day soon, digital will move over and it will be something else.

Don’t be one of those who sell courses and write books about how to do something they have not done, and only make money off you who will then go on and sell the same thing to someone else who will not do it… It gets really twisted…

Please, don’t think for a minute that there is any credibility in your shiny, photoshopped photos where you are sitting in front of a laptop or standing in front of an audience looking like you’re important even though you feeling like a bloated ballon inside.

Don’t think that having your picture on a flyer for a whatsApp class or a “conference” makes you the next hot thing.

Don’t think that more than half of the people telling you about how much much money you can make on the internet have even a clue about where the money is. For some of them, the money is from you: when you buy their courses.

Dear young person,

Go back to school. Get an education. A Masters degree, if you can. And why not, a PhD even.

Accept the job. Grow in it. And also grow your digital skill – they are not mutually exclusive.

Start the business. And ensure you have physical products as well as the digital ones. They are not mutually exclusive.

Become a coach, mentor, strategist, digital marketer, author, speaker, CEO, and all of them. But also ensure that there are tangible results and products and services that are linked with you. They are not mutually exclusive.

Expose yourself to learning – practical learning.

Give yourself to research – #InquiryAndDialogue.

Engage your mind – critical thinking.

Then put your hands to the plough – work, physical tangible work.

Digital wealth is not sustainable.

If you want sustainable wealth that goes beyond money and material acquisition, please pay attention to and build through a process.

Follow your process.

Work your process.

Show your process.

There is dignity in process.

With love always.

#TME

Credit: Jane Oma