The Lie of Doing What You’re Told
We were taught to follow rules for security. We got debt, burnout, and disappointment instead.
From the moment we can walk, most of us are told the same story:
Do what you’re told and everything will work out.
Be a good student. Don’t question the teacher. Get the right grades, the right degree, the right job. Keep your head down, follow the process, and the system will reward you with security.
It’s one of the biggest lies we’ve ever been sold.
And now the cracks are too wide to ignore.
Where the Lie Came From
This wasn’t an accident. Obedience wasn’t just encouraged — it was engineered.
During the Industrial Revolution (late 1700s to early 1800s), economies were shifting from farms to factories. For the first time, cities filled with smokestacks, conveyor belts, and assembly lines. Capitalists and governments didn’t just need bodies. They needed compliant bodies. Workers who showed up on time, obeyed foremen, and performed repetitive tasks without protest.
So they built a system to produce them.
The Prussian Model
In early 19th century Prussia, the government created the first compulsory education system. Its purpose wasn’t to foster curiosity or invention. It was to create disciplined soldiers and obedient factory workers.
Bells signaled the start and end of the day. Children were arranged in rows. The teacher’s authority was absolute. Standardized lessons ensured uniformity.
This model spread across Europe and into the United States. It looked modern compared to the patchwork of religious and local schooling that came before, but its DNA was industrial. It wasn’t built to ask, What do children love to learn? It asked, What does industry need?
America Adopts It
By the late 1800s, American industrialists — men like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie — funded schools based on this Prussian model.
Rockefeller once said:
“I don’t want a nation of thinkers. I want a nation of workers.”
And that’s exactly what the system delivered: punctual, obedient, standardized people who could slot neatly into factories and offices.
The factory-school symbiosis was complete. Bells at school matched bells at work. Report cards mirrored performance reviews. Raise your hand to speak, wait for permission, color inside the lines.
We were conditioned to equate obedience with safety.
Obedience as Survival
For much of the 20th century, the bargain worked.
You went to school.
You got a job.
You stayed for 40 years.
You retired with a pension.
And for many, it was enough. Post–World War II America, especially, was booming. The GI Bill gave veterans education and housing benefits. Wages rose with productivity. A single salary could support a family of four, a house in the suburbs, two cars, and maybe even a vacation.
In that world, obedience did equal survival. Following the rules got you stability. A job at IBM or GE or Ford really could last a lifetime.
The Cracks in the Bargain
But starting in the late 20th century, the system began to unravel.
1970s–80s: Wages flatlined while productivity kept climbing. The value workers created didn’t translate into paychecks.
1980s–90s: Globalization and automation hollowed out manufacturing jobs. The “safe” jobs disappeared overseas or into machines.
2000s: College became the new baseline requirement. Student debt exploded, trapping millions in a system that no longer guaranteed a payoff.
2008 Financial Crisis: Millions lost jobs, homes, and savings overnight. The illusion of corporate stability evaporated.
2020 Pandemic: Entire industries collapsed in weeks. People discovered their full-time jobs could be done in three hours a day — or not at all.
The message was clear: doing what you’re told no longer guaranteed security.
How the Lie Has Fucked Us
The cost of obedience isn’t just economic. It’s creative, psychological, and generational.
1. Creativity Crushed
Studies show children’s creativity scores drop dramatically after the age of 6. By the time they’re 12, most test at average levels and not because they’re less imaginative, but because the system has trained them to look for “right answers” instead of possibilities.
We’ve created generations of adults who struggle to innovate because they were rewarded for compliance, not curiosity.
2. Financial Fragility
Millennials are the most educated generation in history and also the most indebted. We did what we were told: went to college, took on loans, got jobs. In return, we got:
Crushing student debt
Stagnant wages
Skyrocketing housing costs
We played by the rules and got punished for it.
3. Learned Helplessness
Obedience teaches people to wait for directions. When the system collapses, they’re left stranded. That’s why so many people feel stuck even when opportunities are everywhere online. They’ve been trained not to take initiative.
4. Generational Burnout
Boomers worked within a system that paid off. Millennials and Gen Z inherited one that doesn’t. That mismatch is why burnout is epidemic. We were told to hustle harder for rewards that no longer exist.
Obedience is no longer survival. It’s a trap.
The Flip: The Internet Breaks the Lie
The internet was the wrecking ball.
For the first time in history, the tools to build, publish, and monetize aren’t locked in corporate offices or publishing houses. They’re in your pocket.
Anyone can publish.
Anyone can sell.
Anyone can build an audience.
The gatekeepers are gone.
And that’s why rule-followers are struggling. The internet doesn’t reward people who wait for instructions. It rewards people who ship.
The kids who hacked video games instead of doing homework? They’re running startups.
The employees who questioned processes instead of following them? They’re creators making six figures online.
The people who broke the rules? They’re free.
The Future Belongs to Builders
Look around. The old system is collapsing:
College degrees don’t guarantee jobs.
Jobs don’t guarantee stability.
Following the rules doesn’t guarantee anything but exhaustion.
Meanwhile:
Creators are building newsletters worth $100K+ a year from their kitchens.
Developers are automating their jobs and using the extra hours to launch businesses.
Writers are bypassing publishers and going straight to readers.
The future doesn’t belong to the obedient. It belongs to the builders.
And building doesn’t mean waiting until you feel “ready.” It means starting messy, experimenting, publishing, learning. It means writing your own rules instead of following someone else’s.
So What Do We Do Once We Know It’s a Lie?
When you see the lie clearly, you have two choices:
Keep playing. Keep waiting for instructions. Keep hoping the company, the government, or the system will deliver security.
Write your own playbook. Stop waiting. Start building. Publish. Sell. Experiment.
The first path leads to frustration. The second path is harder, scarier, but it’s the only one that leads to freedom.
Writing Your Own Playbook
So what does this look like in practice?
Start something small and simple. A Substack. A digital product. A service.
Publish consistently. Once a week is enough.
Treat your job (if you still have one) as a platform, a funding mechanism, not your identity.
Stop waiting for permission. No one’s going to grant it.
Invest in skills that compound: writing, storytelling, audience-building.
That’s exactly what I did. I started one of my newsletters in January 2024. By December, it was at nearly $500k in annualized revenue.
Not because I followed directions. Because I stopped waiting for them.
And here’s the thing: there’s no secret I’m keeping from you. What worked for me is replicable. That’s why I built Substack Bestseller Academy — to give people the playbook I wish I had when I started. It’s where I show you how to pick your niche, grow your list, monetize early, and scale — step by step.
If you’re serious about writing your own playbook, this is where you’ll find the tools to do it.
The Lie Is Dead
The old story “do what you’re told and everything will work out” is finished.
✅ It worked in 1900 for factory workers.
✅ It worked in 1950 for corporate employees.
❌ It doesn’t work in 2025.
The truth is harsher and better: nobody’s coming to save you, but you don’t need saving. You have the tools. You have the access. You have the chance to build something real.
Your Next Chapter
Don’t just follow directions. Don’t just wait your turn.
Write your own playbook.
Because the future won’t be written by the ones who colored inside the lines. It will be written by the ones who drew new ones.