It's not just enough to be gainfully employed, if you're not spinning 10 plates with business ideas and side hustles and plans for startups then you're aiming low and lacking in ambition.
And it seems to be getting more extreme as tech and AI tools emerge which allow us to do graphic design, web design, marketing etc without a background in those fields.
It should feel liberating – there's more opportunity than ever before to be your own boss – but really it just feels like there's added pressure to always be hungrily pursuing some new project.
Honestly every second profile on Instagram labels themselves as a business owner / CEO / Entrepreneur, and sure some of these businesses are nail salons with five customers operating once a month from their bedroom, but soon enough we'll end up with more captains than crew
To clarify: my point is that the current zeitgeist which is ostensibly built around empowerment of the individual seems to subject them to inflated expectations and the sense that whatever they're doing isn't ambitious enough – like a hamster being pressured to run faster on its wheel – at least that's how I see it.