Lies we told to become AI Automation Devs

Things Nobody Tells You (But You Should Know) — Automation Edition 🔵 1. “I automate because I love tech.” Truth: Most of us got into automation because we were tired of doing boring, repetitive work, or broke and wanted an extra stream of income. The “love” came after we broke 17 workflows and finally got one to work. 🔵 2. “Automation is about saving time.” Truth: It’s actually about spending hours building something that saves you 5 minutes a week. We call it “long-term ROI,” but really we’re just perfectionists in denial. 🔵 3. “I work with clients.” Truth: Half of them came from DMs saying, “Bro, can you help me fix this Zap?” or “I just need something simple.” Spoiler: it’s never simple. 🔵 4. “I’m self-taught.” Truth: We’re YouTube-taught, Reddit-thread-taught, and GPT-taught. Nobody tells you we cried over API errors at 2 a.m. or spent 3 hours debugging a missing comma. 🔵 5. “Clients love my work.” Truth: Clients love results, not workflows. They don’t care if you used 10 tools or 2,they just want leads, sales, or sanity. The real skill? Translating automation talk into business talk. 🔵 6. “I charge premium.” Truth: We googled “how much to charge for a Zapier setup,” doubled it, added ‘AI’ to the title, and prayed they’d say yes. Pricing = 90% confidence, 10% luck. 🔵 7. “I love freelancing.” Truth: We said that after being underpaid at agencies or ghosted on Upwork. Freelancing is freedom + anxiety wrapped in a Notion dashboard. 🔵 8. “I know what I’m doing.” Truth: Half the time, we’re winging it. Automation is 60% Googling, 30% testing, 10% praying. But we make it look seamless, and that’s what matters. 🔵 9. “I quit my job to follow my passion.” Truth: We quit because 9–5s paid too little for too much stress. Now we’re building bots that reply to emails while we pretend to “work from anywhere.” 🔵 10. “Automation is my life.” Truth: Automation is just the vehicle. What we really want is freedom, good clients, less stress, and money that hits without meetings. #nocode #automation #freelancing #n8n #zapier