In our household of three teenagers, TikTok is a mecca for online fame and fortune. A successful YouTube channel exudes more status than owning a Rolls Royce. Influencers are idols on par with sports stars. And the conversation in our humble abode frequently revolves around the exorbitant amounts of money these young and innovative entrepreneurs are raking in. “Logan Paul makes over 11 million a year! Dude Perfect’s net worth is 50 million!”

Inevitably, an edge of resentment always creeps in during these enjoyable discussions (read: SO not enjoyable!). “They get all that for just making videos about computer games?!” Or, “They don’t deserve it.” Or, “How come I can’t do that?”

(Sigh… such is the pleasure of dealing with a generation of young people who are accustomed to instant gratification.)

As is always the case, my response as Wise and All-Knowing Mom is: “Because they worked for it and you didn’t. You want it, too? Find something, stick with it, and put in the legwork!” One can easily understand, with me being a content writer and all, why I have no patience and even less sympathy for such adolescent why-not-me whine-athons.

All this is said in exasperated good humour, of course. Interestingly, the topic for this post came up when I was presented with an article by one of my teens… I say presented, but it was more like having an iPhone shoved in my face with a single headline dominating the finger-smudged screen. The post: “A 20-year-old TikToker earning $33,000 a month explains how she got her start as a money influencer.”

As I’m reading this, I come to realize that Taylor Price’s story is no different than that of anyone else who has achieved online success. She landed on an idea, and put in the work to grow it. There was a blog, an app, daily chats, marketing lessons, daily insights, social media platforms, virtual assistants and contract writers. Her hard graft dates all the way back to 2018, in fact. No wonder my answer to this particular presentation was, “You didn’t read that article, did you?”

Oh, how I relished the stuttering confession and the sheepish grin that followed.

What our lamentatious teens don’t see when they’re oggling the net worth of their TikTok and YouTube idols is all the long, hard hours they put into planning, producing, editing and promoting their content. Our teens only see the end product which they then consume in a matter of minutes—sometimes less. In a “What I Eat in a Day” vlog from 2017 on his YouTube channel, vegan bodybuilder Nimai Delgado says, “I just spent the last 30 minutes to an hour on social media creating posts, answering emails… edited some pictures. I don’t think you guys realize how long that takes and how much of a process it is to post on a schedule. It’s like a full-time job. But if you want to grow your social media, if you want to get more followers and reach more people, then you have to do it.”

Of course, as a freelance writer, I tie all this back to content marketing, branding and online influencing. What I do online… that’s my job! It’s a career. It’s an investment of time, energy, networking and brain power to pull it off with any degree of success. For every one article that I write, there are a ton of pitches that never get off the ground. Each blog post I upload onto my personal website took a good couple of hours to research, noodle, write, re-write, edit, create images for, create shareable links for, and promote. One cold-call from a prospective client, which may or may not end up moving forward depending on their needs, is the result of mega time spent on social media posting and sharing and liking and commenting and getting name “out there” without any expectation that it will lead to anything at all.

If you’re an online entrepreneur at the start of your journey—especially if you’re in the freelance writing business like me—you’re probably looking at other freelancers in your field and their well-padded portfolios wondering how they got to be so successful. Well, the simple answer is: hard graft and consistency. Whatever it is that you do, whether it’s your side hustle or your main source of income, it’s your career.

Treat it like a career, and get comfortable with the idea that you’re in it for the long haul. And yes… I did just make up the word lamentatious!