Abby Ferrell feels lied to.
Ms. Ferrell is a biology grad from Illinois with a corporate job in Texas (and somewhat of a TikTok influencer) who finds her job doesn't leave her with a lot of discretionary income.
Unsurprisingly, some commenters on this video are quick to say “welcome to life” or something similar. Things are tough, they say. It stays hard forever, they say.
But it really was easier when I was that age
I've seen enough that I can't knee-jerk that kind of reaction. Looking back 25 years in my own life, I thought pretty much exactly the same thing.
I did find a job in 2000 that has provided a fairly comfortable life for me and my family thus far. Housing was quite affordable where I was, and I bought one a year after I started that job.
To be fair, I doubled down on my post high-school education by getting an advanced degree. For the job I got, though, that barely got me a year's worth of salary jump.
The anecdotes I hear from my younger colleagues echo Ms. Ferrell's laments. Rents are jumping along with everything else and it's bloody expensive.
My ability to buy a home back then was a by-product of when I was born, not because of any brilliant foresight on my part.
Being Generation X was no more in my control than being Generation Z was in hers.
I'm genuinely concerned for my daughter.
Not because of any shortcomings she has. She's a fantastic student with a quick wit (she gets that from her Mom). She's thoughtful and gives 100% to her important relationships. She's an accomplished swimmer and could break me in half right now if she wanted to.
What concerns me is that she's a first-year college student who's just declared a writing major.
There will always be a market for those who write well, but with ChatGPT and its LLM cousins getting better, faster, and cheaper at a truly alarming clip, I have no clue what the job environment will be when she graduates in 2027.
I want the very best for her. (What kind of dad would I be if I didn't?)
My struggle with explaining things like this to her, though, is that I'm still largely an employee. I have a job that I depend on to keep our lifestyle going, and as much as I grok the need for going out and making rain, I'm not doing it myself with any flair.
I'm long on theory, and short on practice. And that translates to eyes glazing over if I talk for too long. I can talk entrepreneurship and freelancing until I'm blue in the face, but it's just talk.
So I sent her to someone who was doing the thing
It was for this reason that I enlisted my friend Colin to talk to her about what he does.
He's a writer (and an editor) who quit his lucrative corporate job to freelance full-time.
What does a typical day look like for a freelancer? I would have had to guess. Colin just told her.
How does a freelancer get clients? I could explain in generalities but Colin got to specifics.
What are the pros and cons of being a freelancer? Colin explained it, with examples.
For an hour of his time, my daughter got more practical knowledge about freelancing than I could ever give her myself. Practical knowledge that at the very least lets her know that there are ways to make a living besides getting a job.
It gives her options that she might not otherwise have heard much about.
It was the classic Poor Dad sending his son (or daughter!) to learn from Rich Dad.
I hope to get there myself someday. But I'm not there yet.
As for introducing my daughter to that kind of living, that's all right, because I know people who are living it.
(header image by Aaron Burden on Unsplash)