Folks, We Got Trouble

I wanna be a blogger!

(Ya Got) Trouble

 -- lyrics by Meredith Willson from The Music Man (with a few changes in boldface by me) 

Folks we got Trouble--

And it starts with B and it ends with G

And its name is Blogging

Trouble, oh we got trouble,

Right here in River City!

With a capital "T"

That rhymes with "B"

And that stands for Travel Blog,

We've surely got trouble!

Right here in River City,

Right here!

Gotta figger out a way

To keep the young ones {employed} after school!

Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...

I recently had a conversation with a young man – 18 years old-- whose mother asked me to speak to him because he wants to quit school to become a travel blogger. Yes, apparently “travel blogger” is a now career path.

The mother was panicked about all this but at the same time curious if it was indeed a valid career pursuit. On the one hand-- they could save a bundle of money if he did not go to college. On the other hand-- they may end up paying more in the long run keeping him housed and fed while he “develops” his career from their home-- rent free.

She wanted him to be happy. And she was willing to let him skip school if this would bring him happiness.  Well this whole happiness concept makes my blood boil.

I know you want to give your kid everything and support them in any way you can. You want them to be happy and fulfilled. But happiness is not an inalienable right. The constitution says we are granted “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” —you are free to pursue it –but nowhere does it say you deserve it or will actually attain it. The pursuit of happiness is just that a pursuit—not a guarantee. But by all means go out and pursue it—on your own dime.

I went to college. I worked and paid my own way. I lived at home for one month after graduation and then left. Forever. It was more the expected pattern when I was a kid.

Things are different now--

So I spoke to Max (not his real name--his real name is Mark). And he wants to have a life of adventure and freedom and thinks school is a waste of time because he believes that when he graduates “there will be no jobs for [him] anyway.” And he feels it is beneath him to take any old job instead of a career position, and by his logic if he skipped school he would be years ahead of his peers in earning power. Those were his words “earning power”

But that was an interesting point. When I graduated from college it was in the midst of a recession and there were very few jobs available, so I took the retail and service sector jobs and kept looking for a break. Eventually I got a “real job” and made real money-- but what Mark said is true-- if you spin your wheels outside of a career track you are at a disadvantage and are set back in your “life long earning power” compared to peers that entered the job market at the same time and got career positions. But lucky for me the dot-com years came along and I more than made up for it. I made way more money than I ever imagined, but also gave away a huge hunk of my life for it. I don’t regret working in corporations and in startups – in a way it was very much like traveling to a foreign county with strange customs and language. It was wild. I saw the sights! And got paid handsomely for it.

I asked Mark why he thought travel blogging was the path to success and how he would make it work. He said it would cost him almost nothing to start up a blog and then all he had to do was “…go to conferences and meet the hotel and travel people who give out the free trips…”

AGGGHHHH!!!

“Where did you hear that?” I asked.

“I saw a post about it.” he said.

Yes, he did mention TBEX—all those sweet tweets about free hotels and tours and lavish parties got his attention. His mother told me he wants her to pay his way to TBEX in Toronto so he can launch his career. She had no idea what TBEX was and asked me if it was worth it for her to pay and send him. (DOUBLE AGGGH!!! )

I did not try to crush his dream (yet),  instead I suggested he write up some of his travel experiences. Mark said his only prior travel experience was with the family on a Carnival cruise – which he claimed,  “…was awesome.”

I suggested he go to Cuba and write about it.

“Cuba! You can help get me a trip there?”

“No. Just get in your car and drive to Calle Ocho ( 8^th street in Miami) and you are essentially in Cuba. Walk around Little Havana, talk to people, eat some street food and then write about it.”

“But no one speaks English there. And I don’t drive”

AGGH-- When did this no teen driving thing happen?

“Take a bus. Real travel is all about public transportation.”

“I don’t know. That’s not the kind of travel I have in mind.”

“What kind of travel do you have in mind?”

“The kind where people pay you to go and blog about it.”

Thank you Internet for creating this monster of misinformation!

Well, the conversation deteriorated from there. Oddly, Mark felt that all he needed to do was declare what he wanted to be, and it would happen. And he wanted to be a “travel blogger”. The level of entitlement he seemed to have was astounding.  

I told him his whole idea was a fantasy. I laid out the cold hard facts that “being a travel blogger” is not a real money making career save for a handful of people out there that are more about selling advertising than writing about travel.

I told him if he really wanted to see the world and get paid for it—he should join the Marines.  Of course this pissed his mother off that I suggested the military, but hey, that’s at least a real career path. 

Now if only he wanted to be a wine blogger. Because everyone knows wine blogging is the path to fame and glory!!

Folks we got Trouble ….

UPDATE:
August 2014-- Our wannabe travel blogger, Mark, is enrolled in an on-line course to study animation and currently has a job at Starbucks. He never did make it to a TBEX. He still lives at home. (sigh)