Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2015. It gives a 2015 picture of the platforms: Amazon self-publishing, print-on-demand intermediaries and YouTube monetisation terms have changed since, and YouTube tightened its Partner Program eligibility in 2018.
A few days ago I was explaining something curious to someone. I had never thought about or set out to give lectures or talks. In fact, I’m sure that if I had tried hard to make a career of it, I wouldn’t have found a way, and every door would have been closed to me.
For some reason, these days it’s a rare week when a school or a company doesn’t get in touch with me to request this kind of “service”. And again, without my even looking for it. This happens thanks to the internet and what is now called your digital image or personal brand online. I put it more simply: people getting to know you.
Meanwhile, I keep seeing people who don’t go out and pursue their dream or goal, because they’re still asking for permission in an age when there’s no longer any need to ask for permission. It’s simply a matter of doing it. Technology and the web are yours (they belong to everyone, but to you too), and for the first time you can show how good you are at the thing you say you’re good at.
In the past, if you wanted to be a writer, you had to go to a publisher, and someone at that publisher told you whether you were a good or bad writer, whether your book was good or, on the contrary, garbage. Ironically, some authors of huge bestsellers were rejected by numerous publishers, including J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter.
But today it’s a very simple process. Do you want to write a book? Don’t ask for permission; write it. On Amazon you can self-publish your book for free (at least in digital format), and you’ll also find intermediary services online with no upfront cost that, if you want to distribute your book in print, will print it on demand and take a commission for doing so.
It will be the readers themselves who decide whether your book is good or bad, whether you’re a good writer or a terrible one.
The same goes for anyone who dreams of being a singer. Nobody has to give you their approval to be a singer anymore. Today you can record a song yourself, several songs or a whole album, and upload it to social media and YouTube, among others. In other words, you can take your song straight to listeners without going through a record label. And if you’re tremendously good, the record label will come to you.
But the best thing about doing it this way is that while you’re turning into a music star or a musical flop, at least for the whole time you’re trying, you can monetise those songs through views on the channels. Anything from a few cents to hundreds or thousands of euros (depending on how good you are and how many people you manage to attract).
The same happens if you want to be a comedian or do stand-up. Don’t ask for permission; start a channel. If you’re good, people will recognise it. Plenty of young people have made their YouTube channels more watched than some television shows, and turned that into a very profitable business.
See also: Earning more than $100,000 with a YouTube channel is possible. These young people do it
But let’s go even further: even if you want to be a film director, today you no longer need anyone’s approval or permission to raise funds. You have financing options such as crowdfunding platforms, where, if people like your idea, they themselves will fund your film.
Do you want to show what you know about a particular subject? Do you want to make a name for yourself as a professional in a specific field? You can create your own website and blog, and the readers themselves will raise you up or knock you down. And in the meantime, you’ll earn some money.
Models’ paradise
Have you spent years working on your body, do you consider yourself genuinely attractive, and is your dream to become a professional model, but every door gets closed on you?
Lots of new models are being signed through Instagram, where a picture and thousands of likes are worth much more than the opinion of one person telling you what you can or can’t be. So today you can be a model whenever you want (good or bad, but you can be one), and in the end it will be the users who decide whether or not the camera likes you.
You can become a journalist without going to journalism school, and you can even create your own newspaper in a matter of hours.
A piece of paper saying you have knowledge of something no longer matters so much. On the internet, that piece of paper isn’t worth much. What counts is what you do and how well you do it. It will be the web and its users who appreciate or criticise your work.
You can compete with anyone on their own turf, even if you start at a disadvantage.
It’s easy to get your business’s products out there
Small business owners often see a company like Amazon as their biggest threat, when in reality it can be their biggest distributor. Don’t try to compete with a giant like that, because it will destroy you. What’s more, Amazon can be your seller and take your product to corners of the world that would otherwise require a lot of investment to reach.
But be very careful
Put this way, it may sound really easy, but it’s also true that a terrible singer or writer can be very successful online, while an excellent writer or singer may never make it.
In the end, everything will depend on your ability to make yourself known, on the synergies you manage to create online. So if you have an idea, a project or a dream, nobody can promise you whether or not you’ll succeed, but one thing is clear: today, nothing is stopping you from fighting for it.
As someone once put it: “Better to ask for forgiveness afterwards than for permission beforehand.”
Further reading
- Ideas for earning extra money from home or online
- 18 business ideas you can start with almost no money
Featured image: Subhashish Panigrahi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
