Celebrities can say crazy things all day long on social media and while they may be ridiculed, the moral and financial hazard is not present if they are wealthy.

Are you wealthy? If not, then don’t say crazy things like Kanye. Anywhere. On any site. With any people. To your family. And never at work.

Here’s the problem with regular people “self-publishing” their every thought. A lot of thoughts are really bad. They shouldn’t be published. Period. Now society has given people the means to publish their worst selves.

Kanye is a self-made multimillionaire. He can afford to sound crazy. But if you are a working professional, even a hint of crazy in your public posting is career suicide.  Mixing politics and public posting is a risky proposition.

Employers don’t want to hire controversial people. They want working professionals who will be inclined to respect rules, boundaries, diversity and company values. When you go to work, you are bringing your “curated” self that is work appropriate. That is not selling out. It’s strategy. If you want to have a normal life, then consider the financial disaster of letting it all hang out on Twitter.

As far as I’m concerned, Twitter has been a disaster for average people who need to protect their employability.  The average person thinks they have some undefined right to unrestrained free speech and cannot fathom the impact a horrifying tweet or video can do to destroy their employability.

Kanye isn’t you. He says crazy, odd, disturbing and says controversial things all day long. It’s a game for him. You aren’t in that game. If you need a roof over your head, to feed your kids and ensure that you aren’t homeless. Know the game you are in. That’s trading restraint and lack of controversy for continued employability.

Can you afford to support yourself for the rest of your career and that means paying for your own benefits coverage? If you are early in your career, this could mean 50 years of self-employment and entrepreneurship and if you are later career, it could mean that or forced early retirement.

If you are a parent, it’s really essential that you take these steps to protect your children’s future employability before they have even begun their careers. It’s crazy but people will go back years in a young person’s Twitter feed. Look at the recent sports stars with offensive tweets from many years back when they were in high school.

If your kid used even slightly inappropriate judgment in their feed, I’d tweet delete the whole thing before they hit college. That is if you aren’t rich, need them to work and don’t want some embarrassing tweet from when your son was 15 to resurface during his interviews 8 years later.

If you have daughters, and once again, you aren’t wealthy, need them to work and have employability, then look at their images and videos too. Ensure that they did not post anything that will come back years later to haunt them. The judgment of a 16 year old isn’t up to the test of social media.

Public shaming is getting worse, not better. Even more reason to increase your vigilance when it comes to any public posting of any type. The internet and social media was the Wild West and so much fun. For a minute. Then all of the horrible people and things joined in. And now it’s not that great for regular people. It’s great if you don’t care, don’t have to make a living at a regular job or are just really wealthy and seek drama.

So learn from Kanye. You aren’t Kanye. Keep your head down and focus on no controversy online. Don’t say crazy things and remember, everything you post is forever.