Young Success Is
Causing Success Addiction

Million by 25 or your broke af' with no ambition?

Young entrepreneurs have glamorized the role of the founder.

When you hop online you would think owning a business or having motion was almost second nature for anyone under 30.

Everywhere you look, twenty somethings are flaunting seven-figure businesses, luxury lifestyles, and “financial freedom” they supposedly built in months, not years.

It makes you question, are you doing enough?

This is much deeper than the hustle culture narrative that was pushed a few years back.

Hustle culture simply demanded more hours, today’s glamorization of being wealthy young and becoming an entrepreneur has created something more insidious: unrealistic expectations tied directly to your self-worth.

So according to the young “millionaires”, status is a measuring stick. If you are not a millionaire by 25 then you are broke af with no ambition.

The sad part is that the majority of these money-making online gurus leave impressions on young adults that the road to wealth is easy. You just need to know how to navigate it. And conveniently, they have the map.

That’s when the course pop up window appears asking for thousands of dollars to get the sauce (their secret formula) in an already saturated market.

Unfortunately when you are young and impressionable you aren’t aware of what’s happening under the surface level:

So what is really happening here?

These money-making influencers are strategically targeting “wantrepreneurs” – beginners who have no clue where to go but are desperately interested in leveling up their lives.

These beginners hop online, watch surface-level content designed to hook them emotionally, and end up purchasing courses from their favorite creator promising rags to riches in record time.

I know this because, generally speaking, we were all at that stage once or are there currently. The beginner stage. Level 1. The prologue. Whatever you want to call it – everyone has to start somewhere.

The rich and successful feed off your most vulnerable state. And you, as the beginner, feed into it because you’ve bought into the lifestyle they’re selling rather than understanding the actual path to results.

You are sold on success, not the path to it.

That obviously does not have a high success rate. Wantrepreneurs are already addicted to success through constant dopamine hits on social media — so their concept of what it takes to become successful is distorted.

So then, how should a young person or wantrepreneur navigate the entrepreneurial journey? How do we find our way to our North Star without falling into the info-product bubble? What skills can we develop to succeed over the next decade?

I aim to answer those questions and more in this essay.

Understand The Illusion

First we must understand a few things.

The economy in 2025 is putting a ton of pressure on young adults and folks that are not content with what they are currently doing. Right now in the US we have a ton of issues:

• Inflation
• The Rise of AI and the impact on job market
• The uncertainty around school and post grad education
• Climbing the corporate ladder
• Rising cost of living (housing, rental market, etc)

This is all happening while every time you open your phone, you see someone your same age bouncing out of a lamb truck due to success online. This is of course to paint the picture that the creator is above you and you are inadequate.

Realize that these successful creators are doing nothing more than creating an illusion that they are the North Star. They aim to appear as the version of you that worked hard and made yourself into something. So naturally you follow all their advice, eat up their content, and constantly compare your situation to theirs.

But here’s what’s actually happening: comparison has become the ultimate thief – not just of joy, but of originality and authentic growth.

When you constantly measure your progress against someone else’s highlight reel, two dangerous things happen.

• First, you start judging your behind-the-scenes reality against their carefully curated moments.
• Second, you begin mimicking their path instead of creating your own.

Look at how this plays out in real time: You want to start a side hustle alongside your day job. You see everyone doing drop shipping or selling digital products online. They’re all using the same marketing tactics, the same Instagram aesthetics, the same fonts, the same logic, the same everything. Your desire to achieve their lifestyle leads you to become a follower rather than a creator.

The constant comparison destroys your ability to think originally. You start believing there’s only one path to success – their path. And when your results don’t match theirs in the timeframe they claim, you don’t question their timeline – you question your worth.

This creates a perfect storm where your brain is simultaneously processing real economic pressure and fabricated social pressure. While you’re struggling with inflation and housing costs, your feeds showcase supposed peers living their dream lives after “just six months of hard work.” The psychological gap between these realities is where your anxiety, doubt, and vulnerability live.

And the creators with millions of followers? They know this. They understand that if they have what you want, you’ll do almost anything they say to achieve it. They can claim “I built this seven-figure company and it was easy,” knowing full well you’ll believe it and buy their course to replicate their results.

This is why I’ve always maintained: don’t believe everything you hear online. Having a million followers doesn’t make someone correct – it often just means they’ve been consistently creating content for a very long time.

Success online is less about revolutionary ideas and more about doing very boring things repeatedly for a long time.

The comparison trap doesn’t just make you miserable – it makes you predictable.

It makes you an easy target for those selling the illusion of quick success. And worst of all, it disconnects you from the authentic journey you actually need to take in order to sustain growth.

So before we talk about solutions, let’s acknowledge something crucial: your path will never look exactly like theirs.

Not because you’re doing something wrong, but because authentic success isn’t a carbon copy of someone else’s journey.

It’s about building something that aligns with your unique abilities, circumstances, and vision.

In case you need more.

Solutions

Now that we understand how comparison hijacks our potential, let’s talk about creating our own authentic journey.

So instead of searching the vast internet for some secret sauce that probably doesn’t exist, we need to create our own. This isn’t about finding the perfect course or strategy – it’s about building something uniquely yours.

The “growth mindset,” based on Carol Dweck’s research, supports continuous improvement and learning from failures, which is essential in refining one’s approach and achieving success. It’s about embracing the idea that your abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work – brains and talent are just the starting point.

This mindset directly counters the comparison trap we just discussed. Instead of measuring yourself against others, you measure yourself against your previous self.

Many of these products or guarantees influencers make offer tips for success, but they often feel random and don’t show how to actually become successful. They’re selling the destination without mapping the journey. They show you the penthouse but not the stairs you’ll need to climb to get there.

This is because there are so many problems and micro hiccups that come throughout the process there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

What worked for them won’t work exactly the same for you – not because you’re doing something wrong, but because circumstances, timing, and individual strengths all vary from human to human.

So to fix this and get up to speed, you gotta fail fast. You need to just jump in and get started. This approach is the exact opposite of passively consuming more content in hopes of finding that magical shortcut. It’s about creating rather than consuming.

Now get started on what? That’s for you to decide my boy.

The term “getting started” usually involves a goal, project or vision you are trying to bring forward to reality. This could be literally anything: losing weight, publishing content, financial goals – saving money, paying off debt.

You just want to focus on something that is causing a pain point in your life and work towards the solution of that pain point. This ties directly back to our discussion of authenticity – your journey needs to start with your actual problems, not someone else’s manufactured solution.

If you don’t know what project goal or vision you should be working on then check out Starting A Business From Nothing.

Focusing all your energy into creating through your project or goal allows you to solve a bunch of problems that are just slightly too hard for you to solve currently. This area, the area that forces you to operate just outside of your comfort zone, is what truly improves you.

It’s where growth actually happens. Not in the comfort of watching another success story on your phone.

Accountability

What I’m starting to realize too is that it’s not that people don’t want to grow or get better in areas. It’s just they lack the accountability to do so. And this is precisely why those quick-fix solutions are so appealing – they promise results without the discomfort of sustained effort and accountability.

Half of life is discipline — doing things even when you don’t want to. The more accountability there is in relation to things you don’t want to do, the easier it is to have discipline.

For example, you’ll wake that ass up everyday to go clock in so you can pay your bills. There’s clear accountability there – don’t show up, don’t get paid, can’t pay rent. Simple.

But if I told you wake up at 5AM and write a 3000 word newsletter that will propel you into the life you want – you probably wouldn’t do it. And if you did, it probably wouldn’t be for as long as you would need to do it in order to see some success. The accountability is less immediate, the payoff less certain.

Instant Gratification is dooming you.

This again goes back to why being on the wantrepreneur level is so hard. You’re searching endlessly for some secret level-up that will propel you to the North Star. Meanwhile, those flashy successes you’re comparing yourself to are the result of people who stuck with boring, consistent action long enough for compound results to kick in.

They delayed gratification. The inverse of instant gratification.

So, instead of chasing the outcome, I’d much rather focus on attainable skills.

No matter what happens, whether you meet the goal or not, whether your project becomes successful or not.

The skills you learn along the way can be carried with you forever. Unlike the temporary dopamine hit from buying another course, skills appreciate in value over time.

I understand that this begs the question of what skills then? You see that question all over social media.

People online ask, “If you had $1000 what would you do?”

Online Guru responds, “I’d invest in more skills” – but rarely specifies which ones or why.

• Writing (everything stems from writing) – Forces you to clarify your own thinking rather than regurgitating someone else’s
• Teaching Others (understand something enough to relay it to someone who doesn’t) – Deepens your understanding beyond surface-level knowledge
• Speech (being able to talk and weave ideas cohesively) – Helps you articulate your unique perspective rather than parroting influencers
• Financial Literacy (create a budget and stick to it – save money) – Gives you control over your resources instead of spending them on promised shortcuts
• Sales / Copywriting (a good idea to know how to get money in exchange for something) – Teaches you how value is actually created and exchanged

These are foundational elements that if you give time to, you can nurture and grow. These things are also great pain points to start a business from.

You master Financial Literacy for beginners? Congrats, you have a business. Educate folks on how to get better at doing finances when they have no clue where to start.

That’s the sauce. Not some secret formula, but developing skills that deliver actual value to others.

You develop a skill, then another one and another one until your unique skillset positions you as a thought leader in whatever those skills support.

Iman Gadhzi, Alex Hormozi, Deya, Garys Economics, thewizardliz, Dan Koe.

These are examples of people that have a culmination of high leverage skills that when combined into content has allowed them to not only make a ton of money but provide genuine value. They didn’t get there by following someone else’s exact path – they built their own, skill by skill.

So start the agency, do digital marketing, create websites for people, create content, mow lawns, take internships. These things will propel you by giving you transferable skills. When it’s your turn to win, these skills will all combine together and give you that competitive advantage needed.

Yes, for some it may not be as long. That’s luck. Just set out on your vision and let the pieces fall where they may.

By focusing on skill development rather than outcome chasing, you’re playing a different game entirely.

One where you win regardless of how quickly the external markers of success appear.

That’s all for me. If you want me to cover a specific topic. Let me know in the comments.

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