Believing that writing as a KOL can make you rich is like believing that studying Chinese in university will make you a writer after graduation.

Believing that studying trading can make you rich is like believing that studying finance in university will make you a speculator after graduation.

The value of an activity depends on how much leverage it can leverage.

“Working for others” itself does not leverage any leverage; it is merely a piece-rate payment model. “Trading” itself does not leverage any leverage; having your own funds to trade is often an illusion, whereas becoming a fund provides leverage.

“Writing” gives the illusion that it can leverage influence, but honestly, how many people's writing is already enough to reach a level of influence that provides significant leverage? “Writing for the masses” and “writing for elites” are two different things; the former brings commercial value through sales, while the latter brings trust and consulting value. Ray Dalio's career began with providing risk exposure and asset management consulting for companies, as well as writing research reports. How does your writing compare to Ray's?

From my experience, “writing for the masses” is akin to piecework, and KOL Agency is like a labor market middleman. When your income entirely depends on how many ads you take, this business model has no network effect; it cannot expand based on fixed costs, so it lacks leverage and is merely a more自由 form of working.

If you must write, then write for elites, for decision-makers, to build your credit. To do this, a qualified writer must continuously learn and understand that content output for external audiences is not the ultimate goal. The real purpose is to establish corresponding credit during the process and turn ideas into reality with like-minded partners.

Digital nomads, KOLs, independent traders, content creators—these fancy words are just temptations for young people to choose the easier path. These people are no freer than internet big-company white-collar workers or factory blue-collar workers; they merely choose another form of gig economy “work.” Economic growth can mask the foolishness of this choice, but the arrival of a “bear market” will make freelancers struggle.

The most important and difficult thing for a person is to be honest with themselves. Many choices are disguised as trendy things with fancy words, but the real world will not pity you for being young or naive.