How Too Much Advice Is Sabotaging Your Online Business Dreams

byChasMcD

41 followers

5 days ago

If you’ve ever tried to make money online, you’ve likely whispered this to yourself—maybe not out loud, but definitely in the back of your mind at 2 a.m. while scrolling through yet another “ultimate guide” thread you swore would be the last one. Information overload doesn’t hit you like a punch; it drains you slowly, like a leak in your energy tank that never quite seals. You think you’re learning, but you’re actually drowning. You think you’re moving forward, but you’re really circling the same spot over and over, convincing yourself the next YouTube video or the next Twitter thread or the next course will give you the missing piece.

And the worst part? You feel guilty for not figuring it out yet.

Because everyone else seems to be doing it.

Everyone else seems to have their “one method” that just clicked.

Everyone else seems to be sprinting while you’re still tying your shoes.

Information overload doesn’t feel like confusion. It feels like self-blame.

You tell yourself:

“If I were smarter, I’d be able to pick one path.”

“If I were more disciplined, I’d stick with something.”

“If I were more committed, I wouldn’t keep starting and stopping.”

But here’s the truth you rarely give yourself permission to believe: you’re not stuck because you’re incapable—you’re stuck because the internet is designed to overwhelm you. Every creator, every guru, every marketer is yelling for your attention. Every method claims to be the fastest, easiest, or most passive. Courses are optimized to create urgency. Creators optimize for engagement. Algorithms optimize for addiction. None of these things are built to help you decide—they’re built to keep you consuming.

And consumption feels productive… until it doesn’t.

It starts innocently. You see someone making money with affiliate marketing.

So you take notes.

Then you see someone smashing it with digital products.

So you save that, too.

Then someone says freelancing is the fastest path.

So now you’re researching that.

And suddenly you’re no longer building a business—you’re collecting business models like Pokémon cards.

Information overload has a specific emotional flavor. It’s not just too much information… it’s the fear baked into each option. The fear of picking the wrong one. The fear of wasting time. The fear of being the only person who “doesn’t get it.”

And the question that echoes through all of it is:

“How do I know which path will actually work for me?”

You don’t.

Not at first.

And that is precisely what terrifies people.

We’re taught to avoid mistakes at all costs. But when you’re trying to make money online, mistakes aren’t just part of the journey—they are the journey. You learn from building, not researching. You gain clarity from action, not options. The only reason information feels so overwhelming is that you’re trying to make a perfect decision when what you really need is a small starting point.

Think back to the last time you actually made progress in anything.

It wasn’t because you had every answer ahead of time.

It was because you chose something—even if you weren’t sure—and you figured it out as you went.

People who succeed online aren’t more intelligent than you. They aren’t luckier. They aren’t born with some digital instinct. They learned to tolerate the discomfort of choosing before they felt fully ready. They picked one thing and gave it enough time to show results instead of jumping ship the second doubt crept in.

But information overload tricks you into believing you’re not allowed to choose yet.

You need one more strategy.

One more blueprint.

One more “secret.”

And the more you consume, the more uncertain you feel.

Because each new strategy conflicts with the previous one.

Each new expert contradicts the other.

Each new success story makes you question your own timeline.

You start to think you’re doing everything wrong simply because you’re seeing a thousand different ways to do it right. And that’s the paradox: the more you try to learn everything, the less you trust yourself to do anything.

But imagine something for a moment.

Imagine if you permitted yourself to start messy.

Imagine if you let yourself be a beginner again—someone who tries, not someone who must know.

Imagine if instead of finding the perfect method, you focused on building imperfect momentum.

What would change in your life?

Maybe you’d finally create that offer instead of researching 10 more.

Maybe you’d post that first piece of content instead of rewriting it for the fifth time.

Maybe you’d take on your first client instead of researching niches for another month.

Maybe you’d realize you are capable—too many choices have just paralyzed you.

Clarity doesn’t appear before action.

Clarity is a result of action.

You don’t pick the correct method and then become consistent.

You choose something, stay consistent, and that’s what makes it the right method.

Information overload is just a sign that you’re standing in the doorway of potential, afraid to walk through because you want certainty. But certainty is earned on the other side of trying.

There will always be new strategies.

There will always be new business models.

There will always be new experts promising shortcuts.

But none of those things matter unless you give one path enough time, enough focus, and enough patience to reveal its potential.

So if you’re stuck right now, overwhelmed, paralyzed by options, whispering to yourself that you can’t afford another wrong choice, let me tell you something gently:

You’re not making the wrong choices.

You’re just not making any choices.

And that’s the only thing standing between you and the progress you want.

Start with something small.

Pick one approach.

Give it 60 days of focused effort.

Track your actions—not your overthinking.

Let the results teach you what consuming never will.

The moment you stop trying to find the perfect strategy and start building with an imperfect one is the moment everything shifts.

Because success online isn’t about knowing more.

It’s about doing more with what you know.