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Such a prestigious designation… and still bargaining for every dime!
Dark side of creative career, maybe the only side!
Let’s get the basics out of the way.
A blue-collar job usually involves manual work construction, delivery, factory work, transport, etc. You’re working with your hands.
A white-collar job, on the other hand, usually means working in an office, using your brain, doing tasks that involve thinking, planning, managing, and strategizing. often sitting at a desk with a laptop.
Let’s talk about India. The way I have seen people perceive jobs, if you’re in the sun, in uniform, doing labor, you’re “lower status,” and if you’re in an office, wearing formals and sending emails, you’ve “made it.”
Jobs should not have any status to be honest. Immoral and illegal should generally be. How an average person makes money should not have a status attached. The point of my mentioning and explaining this is, if society perceives your work at a level, why this bargain for basic survival?
Get Freedom at ₹2,999/-
I was scrolling through one of my WhatsApp groups, looking for leads, freelance gigs, anything interesting. And then I saw this:
“Looking for clients in social media marketing - ₹3,000/month.”
I figured, okay, maybe this is just someone offering a few Canva festival posts, but then I read further.
The offer included 15 social media posts & 2 reels. Hold up! We’re not just talking design now. This is strategy, video, content planning, execution… everything!!!!! for ₹3,000?
I was like
“Mar jayega post banate banate.” (You will die designing posts)
A few folks agreed and tried explaining, but the guy? He is high on 3k! says:
“This is without Meta ads.”
Now bro thinks that 5k is already a lot for social media management, and to get more, he needs to increase the number of services. He thinks to earn ₹5,000/month, he needs to do all this:
- Design
- Make reels
- Write captions
- Plan and schedule content
- Deal with Insta bugs
- Get client approvals
- Post stories daily
And obviously repeat this for several clients… Good life? We are not even talking about mere survival!
I don’t blame him. I recently left my job and have been freelancing since! The level of bargaining I have to go through every day with clients is horrendous!
The Hidden Cost of Your Work
Let’s break it down. When you offer all this for peanuts, you’re not just undercharging, you’re killing your sustainability.
You’re paying for:
- Tools: Adobe? Stock websites? AI? (Let’s assume the guy is a born pirate, no cost here, uses free alternatives!)
- Time: Planning, feedback loops, revisions. (How are you going to manage all these?)
- Resources: WiFi, electricity, device maintenance (This alone gets more than 3k of spend)
- Basic needs: Morning coffee, hot shower, good food (Let’s not talk about good food here T_T)
If you can’t even cover these, how will you grow? Forget compounding, you’re just burning out!
A Business that doesn’t make a profit is also a loss-making business, ’cause money is everywhere! You need it everywhere! Spends are always ongoing!
Tragedy
You know what happens next? After the guy is able to get 2–3 clients in the same month?
- Gets overwhelmed
- Misses deadlines
- Soon, drops out or loses clients!
Truths So Deep, They’re Practically from the Navel
(Pardon my “not so-deep” joke)
There’s a quote from “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant” by Eric Jorgenson:
“If you’re looking toward the long-term, the best jobs are the ones that pay you to think and learn.”
This is the truth. The goal isn’t just to make money now.
The goal is to build a career that compounds. Where your mind becomes the tool. Not your hands. Not your hours. You can’t do that while running yourself into the ground for ₹3K/month.
How to actually be an expert?
Might write more in detail on this later, but every world-class expert from Magnus Carlsen to Roger Federer. Follow these four things:
- Fair Environment
(This is why you can’t master gambling, there’s no Fair Environment.) - Many Repetitions
(You have to be consistent in your deliverables. You need to be efficient. Whatever it may be, the problems, hurdles, or the task itself! Repetition helps you here!) - Timely Feedback
(As soon as you make a mistake or as soon as you complete a task. There should be feedback on it. You can’t be an expert without it.) - Deliberate Practice
(Your job gives you experience. But learning requires intentional practice. You can’t hone skills you haven’t built yet.)
So Again, The Real Question…
Such a prestigious designation… and still bargain for every dime
Why?…
