This is why people do not want to do things on
their own. This is one of the main dominant reasons
why people either fail or do not want to go their
own path and why they want to follow the safer
guaranteed spoon -fed path. And it's because
you have to create your own direction. In school,
I grew up in the American education system during
the 2000s, early 2000s. And basically, I didn't
realize it at the time, but reflecting on it,
I realized that a group of people literally get
together and come up with the entire rubric.
They decide everything that you learn during
that class and then they also decide what classes
are available and they decide in what order basically
the entire your entire worldview your entire
knowledge base everything that you learn into
like everything you learn all throughout school
has been finally crafted and extreme in meticulously
selected so that you learn exactly what they
deem necessary or they deem worthwhile and that's
like a one -size -fits -all situation everyone
learns the same thing everyone learns exactly
what somebody else decided for them there is
no Individual direction like you don't choose
your own. Yeah, sure. You can argue that you
choose your own classes you choose your own school
well, I mean your parents probably choose that
but Or actually, I don't even know but basically
You could argue that you choose your own classes,
but you don't choose like that The exact subjects
you don't choose To learn this or that you are
spoon -fed exactly what you need. And then in
real life, like once you get a job, then, and
that's such a weird statement, real life, like,
oh, wait until you get to the real world. Maybe
I've never experienced the real world because
I'm still living in my parents' basement, but
that is such a weird statement, like, oh, once
you go out into the real world, you'll... things
are going to be different. I don't know. It just
seems weird to me, because it's almost implying
that the education system is an artificially
constructed cell. It's not organic. It's deliberately
crafted in such a way to where it's not. Raw
or wild But then they say once you get to the
real world things are different But are they
really because when you go to a job, I've never
gotten a job but from like movies and from hearing
stories and just just general life experience
I assume that once you get a job your boss basically
tells you what to do or at least you Learn the
direction like they tell you the direction they
tell you your general goal and maybe you have
to figure out some things on your own but for
the most part the general direction is laid out
for you and That's one of the reasons why people
Don't want to go their own path and sure not
everyone it's going your own path is not for
everyone but It's also is it really not for everyone
because There is no like same human being Maybe
that statement that going your own path is not
for everyone is actually just compensating for
the fact that there is that everyone went through
a system that Basically tried to create ever
the same human being like the same exact person
And so people have been conditioned to not want
to go their own path because when you go through
a system like that, you don't practice the skills
of creating your own direction. And so when the
time comes, for example, for me, this is the
one of the biggest struggles that I experience.
I can do work. I can go down. I can block off
everything and just focus on the task at hand
for Months I've proven that I spent two and a
half months Teaching myself entirely how to play
the piano how to read and write music how to
compose how to produce music and then how to
score Videos like how to score media like how
to actually write music and produce music for
videos I did that I spent two months learning
that the issue is not like the effort or the
willpower or the work ethic a lot of times every
once in a while maybe every six months or every
three months I don't know how often but not infrequently
I am sit here I'm sat here with no direction
like I have no idea where I'm headed yeah I have
like general ideas, general concepts, but basically
how I operate. And I just wrote a book that talked
about this. It's called The Dip. And basically
how I operate is I have a general strategy, my
general strategy and general way to achieve that,
which is YouTube. And then I also have my niche
that I selected, which is my viewer, the specific
person that I'm making videos for, which is basically
my younger self, in a nutshell. And that doesn't
change. That doesn't change, usually. However,
what does change is the tactic that I'm experimenting
with to try and achieve that goal. to achieve
the overarching goal. And the tactic changes
because if it doesn't change, then you're never
going to achieve the goal. You have to keep experimenting
until something actually works. And usually,
you experiment for a certain amount of time until
you realize that it's a dead end, and then you
switch. And I spent the last three months experimenting
with this new tactic like I changed my tactic
from self -improvement videos to like entertainment
based but still like transformative they're story
based videos so just me doing like crazy challenges
like doing a push -up every single minute for
the entire day or learning how to solve the Rubik's
Cube in under 60 seconds those types of videos
That was me changing the tactic. I was still
making videos for the same person I was still
on YouTube that was like the general strategy
did not change but the tactic changed and every
once in a while That I realized that it's a dead
end like or I realized that I don't want to be
doing this like a very Reflective question a
very telling question that tells me if this is
the right path to continue down towards is Is
this the type of video that I want my channel
to blow up with? So very frequently like usually
what I've what I've observed in YouTube is It's
usually not a gradual build -up like you usually
don't For example in a career like you would
gradually Make more and more money like you would
start you'd make $15 an hour and then after a
couple weeks you get a raise and then after a
couple weeks get a raise you're at $15 and 25
cents and then $15 50 cents and then after like
it's kind of more linear, but what I've seen
pretty much every single case study every single
person's YouTube channel that I've Like studied
it's not linear it is breakthrough like it's
usually just like one video blows up and then
in like another year another video blows up and
like it's it's like one video blows up and the
channel gets a huge lift and then kind of like
incrementally improves but then in another year
another video blows up and then the channel gets
another huge lift and it's like it's like staircase
it's like a staircase where you make massive
progress but then you don't really make as much
progress it's like you like plateau basically
it's like a stagnant period and this is Okay,
and in order to achieve like that one video to
blow up it's usually an experiment like you're
usually experimenting with something new and
It may not happen like the first time you experiment
with that new concept might happen after like
four or five tries But essentially what I do
is what I noticed in my like the past six months
at least I noticed that I do like I have 90 days,
like I have three months of trying out a new
style. So my most recent style, I posted I think
five videos of the more entertainment, but story
transformation videos like challenge based videos.
That was the past three months. And then before
that I did like 60 second videos, which were
self improvement and 60 second self -improvement
very scripted. So the words were scripted, but
also every single shot was scripted. It was almost
produced like a movie. In movies, they have the
actual script and then they create the shot list.
I think, I don't even know how they do movies,
but what I assume they do is they start with
a script and then they go through each scene
and create a shot list, which is the actual shots
like the video that's going to show on screen
while the dialogue is happening and that's basically
how I Produced those and I also scored them myself
like I made the music and then before that I
don't even know what I was doing but Like I have
periods of 90 days on average. Maybe it's two
months one time maybe it's three months and Where
I basically just experiment or I go through a
deep learning and that is like how you you experiment
enough times and you that's how you get better
in the first place but and that's how you create
your own style but that's also how you get those
breakthroughs where you have your channel blow
up and so the reflective question that I found
is super powerful to tell if I am continuing
if this is the path that I should continue down
Is this the type of video I want my channel to
blow up on? So, I'm at the point where I actually
do believe that my videos have potential. Like,
I think that they could blow up. In theory, they
could blow up. But, is this what I want people
to get their first impression on me by? And if
the answer is no, then I should stop making those
videos. And it was very telling because I just
spent the past, or I spent like 10 days locked
in my basement learning how to code. Like my
next video, I really think that it was gonna
blow up. And the reason why is because, There
is a very popular concept of viral video idea
concept of the three panels Where the thumbnail
shows a series of progression? Where on the left
it's like Worst in the middle. It's like middle
and on the right It's like the best and it could
be time quality Whatever it is and my idea was
30 the title was gonna be 30 days ago. I didn't
know how to code And the picture, the thumbnail
was going to be a picture just like photoshopped
on the left panel. The farthest left was going
to say day zero. And it was going to have just
like one line of code. And I was going to have
two variations. One variation was binary code,
just ones and zeros. And then the other variation
was going to be just like code, like some coding
language like Python or something. And then in
the middle panel of the thumbnail was gonna be
day seven, and it was gonna have three lines
of code, or binary, or Python, whatever, in the
two different styles, like the AB test, where
you can test different thumbnail options, it's
gonna have that. And then the last, the farthest
right was gonna be day 30, and it was just gonna
be like matrix code, like. the entire screen
zoomed out with just so much code, like ones
and zeros, just like matrix, green code. And
the other option was just like zoomed out, lots
of code. And I really think that that video checks
all the boxes on a viral video idea. You spend
30 days doing it, so it's high value, like you
put a lot of time into it. And the thumbnail
is just great. You can see progression visually.
And people like progression. People like comparison
and like contrasting in thumbnails. Those are
very, very powerful concepts to incorporate into
a thumbnail. I really think that that video has
virality potential. And now obviously I'm a rookie.
I have barely any experience in this. I've never
gotten a viral video, so. My judgment is not
very credible. But I still think that of all
my videos, that's the one that could blow up.
And so I started working on it. I was locking
myself in my basement for 30 days. And 10 days
in, I actually made extreme progress. Even though
I didn't spend the entire day like when I was
Learning how to make music like when I was learning
how to make learn the play the piano for the
first time I Spend the entire day like I focus
the entire day just on that But for the first
like four or five days of learning the code I
was I just spent like three hours in the morning
and then the rest of the day I was working on
like the video that I was making which was I
became a musician for ten dollars I was editing
that video and making the music for that video,
just finishing it up. And I still made tremendous
progress on Python. I was learning how to code
Python. And I started having ideas because while
I was learning, I also had an idea on the next
phase for my channel. And it was to make this
AI software that would actually help my videos
tremendously. And it's not just video software.
It's not create a music, create a song. It's
not like that. I don't want to say it because
I actually might pursue that idea still in the
future if I decide to. was getting ideas on that
and so I started learning like how to make AI
and how to program an AI artificial intelligence
generative AI and One day I sit on day 10. I
was sitting there and I was like, yeah, I do
not want to be doing this there's a Like you
cannot be doing everything you really time is
so Precious that you really should be spending
all your time on your unique value, which is
the thing that you are uniquely built to do.
And we'll get into what I believe mine is in
a moment. But on day 10, I decided not to continue
working on that video because I didn't want to
spend 30 days doing something that I was not
really inspired to do. Seven or eight days. I
was inspired to do it and Then I decided not
and I was gonna change the video To ten days
ago. I did not know how to code But then I realized
that I just don't want to make this type of video
anymore like I literally have The thumbnail concept
I have the title all I have to do to produce
this video is just edit the I did the footage.
I already have all the footage. It's like 400
gigabytes of footage, by the way. It's crazy,
because I recorded the entire thing, not in time
lapse, in like actual 1x speed. And so I have
like 400 gigabytes of footage of me just sitting
in the chair in my basement, just coding. And
I decided to scrap the entire thing. Like, I
didn't delete the footage. I might use it in
the future, but. decided not to work on this
video because I asked myself that reflective
question is this the type of video I want to
blow up on and Like I wouldn't mind blowing up
on that But I want it to feel more Powerful like
these types of videos are like they're fine.
I think they still Expand people's worldviews,
but I think that I can do better I For my unique
value. I don't know like entirely what it is,
but what I've noticed is that When I go through
these periods where I feel like I have no direction
like I lost all my direction and I'm like in
a transition I usually sit down at my journal
and list like I do like reflective exercises.
And one of the exercises I came up with was I
listed all of the tasks that I do. So idea generation,
thumbnails, editing, filming, making the music,
Photoshop, like all of those tasks I listed.
And then I asked myself, which ones do I enjoy
the most? Like which ones, when I look back,
and watch my old videos, which ones are most
appealing to me? And it was pretty obvious. Scripted
words, scripted shots, and music, like making
my own music. Like those, I did that concept
in the 60 second. videos for self -improvement,
but I do not Like the idea of giving advice and
here's why I sat there with my journal is like
But why don't why don't I make those like why
don't I want to make those? those types of videos
I Want to make those types of videos? simply
because I like that concept of the scripted and
also the produce your music, but I don't like
the idea of people asking me for advice whenever
I would read like comments of people commenting
on my videos and They would ask me for advice
or in real life people would text me and like
they would ask me for advice I Would always get
this really weird feeling in my gut like like
this was not right like I don't want people asking
me for advice And I was reflecting last night
like why is that? And I'm pretty sure it's because
my old philosophy on advice, the reason why I
stopped making the self -improvement videos was
that people don't need advice. They will create
their own advice. But last night while I was
reflecting, I actually expanded on that philosophy
and I updated it. People don't need advice. But
they need perspective. And when you give them
perspective, they can create their own advice.
And that holds true for my experience, at least,
where whenever I need advice, I usually go online
and hear a bunch of stories or read books and
hear a bunch of stories. And that gives me a
wider perspective or a different perspective.
And then I'm able to create my own advice. And
I think the reason why I don't want people asking
me for advice, like direct advice, is because
then it creates dependencies. I don't know much
about it, but my current belief is that when
people ask for direct advice and not necessarily
perspective, because you can Advice can give
perspective, but it doesn't have to. You can
give advice. For example, dogma may not give
perspective, but it's advice. And when people
are dependent on advice, that's what I imagine
like a cult. Following like how cults and like
religions become people become dependent on their
particular leader, and they're not like self
-sufficient and That may not necessarily be bad,
but in my experience. It's it leads like to Just
negative things not not good and leadership is
good like you Following someone is not a bad
thing, but it's like the blind following that's
how that's how like all the bad like mass genocides
like all the mass negative religious movements
like that's how a lot of the bad things happen
that stem from like dogma and doctrine and all
that stuff it's because people are dependent
on advice and they they receive advice without
the perspective But when you get perspective,
you can create your own advice. And so that's
kind of my new philosophy on advice at this current
moment. I'm only 19 years old, so everything
is subject to change. But currently, I actually
think that that's pretty valid. And how this
applies to my current situation is with my old
self -improvement YouTube videos, it would be
advice. And then I started to realize, oh. Maybe
I should get more perspective based. And so I
started focusing on like story. And that's where
my 60 second YouTube videos were. Where it was
more like perspective based and impact. Trying
to like create an impact. And then I cut out
advice altogether with my challenge based videos.
Which was just trying to be perspective. Just
trying to give someone a wider perspective. But
I actually think that there is a better way to
do it because in or maybe not a better way but
a better way for me to do it because I have my
own unique like value that I can bring to the
table and it's I Believe currently the unique
gift that I have with YouTube creation like the
unique skills that I have are Creating those
scripted videos with music And I really like
those types of videos. And also, if you look
at like the trends, maybe this is just like me
confirmation bias, looking for something to prove
my suspicion. But if you look at those 60 second
videos, those were the videos that got like the
best comments. Those were the videos that got
the most support. Those were the videos that
got the most views. Now, not all of them. only
like two or three of them got that and here's
why it's because the ones that didn't get that
had just terrible thumbnails just not good thumbnails
and if you don't have a good thumbnail if you're
someone who knows how to come up with a good
thumbnail idea and the thumbnail does not have
a good thumbnail idea simply because it Okay,
I'm I can come up with a good thumbnail or I
can come up with a decent looking thumbnail idea
Now if the idea the actual idea is bad Then the
thumbnail is gonna be bad and you're not gonna
come up with a good visual way to show it which
also means that it should not be a video like
Video is a visual visual platform and so you
have to try and figure out yeah You should only
create videos that are visual that makes sense
or else they should just be like Articles and
so if you can't come up with a good thumbnail
concept like a visual way to Describe the video
in one picture, then it just shouldn't be a video
because their Video is supposed to be a visual
Thing and if you can't visually describe it,
then you have no video. I hope that makes sense
and That's that was the issue that I had with
the 60 second self improvement videos I I got
a lot of views early on with those when I first
started making them there was 60 seconds getting
out of a rut in 60 seconds and then there was
like watch this 60 seconds before bed and then
there was like I don't know, but those two had
the best thumbnails. They just looked the best.
Like if you scroll back down and you compare
all the thumbnails of the 60 second videos, it's
obvious that those two are the best. And then
all the rest had not as good thumbnails and they
didn't do as good simply because they should
not have been videos. If you can't come up with
a visual Package like if you can't come up with
a package or a visual description Then it just
shouldn't be a video like people say that YouTube
is a video sharing platform, and it shouldn't
emphasize thumbnail and packaging so much, but
that just kind of defeats like that that just
represents a misunderstanding in my opinion of
what a thumbnail is a thumbnail is a visual representation
of the video and so if you are unable to visually
describe a video and video is a visual medium
also like Anyways, if you can't visually describe
something that is visual then it should not be
something that's visual it should just be text
I Hope that makes sense And so that's why I'm
grateful that I like all of these periods where
I go through 90 days of like testing a new philosophy
I'm grateful that I've gone through every single
one because for each and every one I internalize
a very valuable lesson for example the when I
started making music The lesson that I internalized
was there's no point in working on an idea if
I think it's bad because there's no way I'm going
to spend 100 hours on something and it not get
that much results. So that was kind of the lesson
that I internalized there. Like just get better
ideas. Like make sure my ideas are way better.
And like the titles. Spent a lot of time on the
titles. That's what I internalized and then for
my most recent Era or like season which was the
story based challenge videos like my most recent
one I became a musician for ten dollars the lesson
I internalized there was Don't make a video unless
I can come up with a excellent thumbnail Title
like excellent packaging, which was a mistake.
I made with the most recent one. I became a musician
for $10 I spent so long like I that I actually
came up with that idea that title Probably two
months ago or maybe like a month ago And I loved
that title so much like it just hits in my opinion
like it just seems like such a good title but
then I sat down like a month ago and tried to
come up with thumbnails, and I just couldn't
come up with anything visually appealing or very
good. And so I decided not to make that video.
But then I was in a drought for ideas, and I
decided to make... Long story short, I basically
decided to... Make the $10 video the $10 musician
video and with a not so great thumbnail It's
just it was the original thumbnail or not the
original but the thumbnail that I decided to
make the the final one was just a picture of
an Ocarina, which is just a blue plastic Musical
instrument. It's like imagine like a toy Just
that in a yellow background, like very bright.
And it was good color contrasting, but it just
was just a trash thumbnail. I got way too obsessed
with the colors. That was another lesson that
I internalized in this season, which was pay
a lot of attention to the colors for the thumbnail.
The concept. Yes is important, but also the colors
make it pop and that's something that I was very
intentional about practicing and learning was
Being able to come up with a thumbnail concept.
Yes, but also Create like to turn that concept
into vibrant colors that pop Like know what?
be able to figure out what the background should
be, what color, like intentionally decide where
I should take the picture. Like should it be
in the grass so I can have a green background
or should it be like in the basement in front
of my blue carpet so I can have a blue background
or like basically just be very intentional about
the colors and that's something that I really
focused on recently too. So I'm very grateful
for that because this most recent season I just
focus on making my thumbnails pop like making
them so good just the picture But now I'm ready
to Go to the next era and the next era I Don't
I don't have fully mapped out yet Because I don't
actually know how to execute it. I want to make
scripted Videos scripted text scripted image
like strict scripted video. Every single shot
is taken like a movie. I Want that and I also
want to create the music at the end after everything
is put together However, I don't know what to
talk about because the thing that worked so well
with the 60 second self -improvement videos was
I had a foundation I had something to build everything
on top of, which was the actual script, like
giving advice. However, I don't want to like
do self -improvement advice anymore. I'm fine
with self -improvement, I just don't want to
give advice. At least right now, I don't want
to give advice. Maybe that will change in the
future, but with my, I attempted to do the scripted
videos. but with no script. And that was me.
That was actually the first iteration of the,
I became a musician for $10. The video that I
was gonna post was actually, I made a song in
60 seconds. Spoiler alert, it took me a lot longer
than 60 seconds to make, but it was just a 60
second long video. And. Then I realized I didn't
really like how it turned out But I didn't want
to like waste all that work because it's decent
and so I actually turned it into I became a musician
for $10 and I added in all the other stuff because
I also Started working on that. I don't it's
a long story but or not long story just complicated
but and irrelevant Essentially Want to make scripted
videos, but I don't know what to talk about and
I was trying to figure out what to talk about
and I want to I want to give perspective I want
to Share stories that give perspective and one
idea I had was literally just sharing my own
stories like Coming up Figuring out a problem
that I had in the past for example right now.
I my big problem is not having any direction
and creating a title and thumbnail around that
and then creating a story like creating a script
and Recreating it with film. It's like visual
storytelling but the issue is I can't I I'm having
a hard time figuring out how to Visually make
a good thumbnail the guy I immediately got ideas
like having a bullseye and then a dart on a board
next to it obviously missing the bullseye or
like those trail marker path signs where it says
like this way to Connecticut and that way to
Virginia or something like that but they don't
have any text on it like having no direction
or like a compass that's empty or something like
that I don't know But I don't want to do those
because my best thumbnails are ones that have
me in it And it's like a close -up with me and
like a an object or something like that, and
it's like or in a weird obscure position or something
like that and I wasn't able to come up with that
which means that it probably should not be a
video and I really want I'm having another issue
because I want a mentor. I want someone to give
me a wider perspective like I've been talking
about. And I don't know how to find one. I have
some ideas, but a lot of them that I found online
cost money. And I don't have any money. I have
like $100. I don't know. Maybe I should just
email them and see what happens. Or I actually
have emailed people in the past like Like hey,
I want to buy your thing, but I don't have any
money That's such a dumb way. That's like just
me taking I'm reading books all about that. Don't
don't take always give I Don't know but another
issue is I have no idea what I can give people
Especially if they have the skill that I want
I don't know what I could give them It's It's
a mess. So basically what I do when I have periods
of no direction. It's I literally just stop everything
and just read There's no point in continuing
on even if I'm guaranteed my next video to blow
up. I don't necessarily want to Blow up on a
video that I don't want to make in the first
place Does that make sense? Because then that
means that I might be stuck making those types
of videos or it also will mean that the next
types of videos that I make won't get as good
traction and so it'll be like negative progress.
It'll be a mess if I blow up. So that's why there's
no point in making the next video because I don't
want to make it. Like I have limited time so
what I do is I just drop everything and read.
It's funny because I follow patterns. or I don't
follow patterns, but if you look back at my journals,
or like I look back at my journals infrequently
and I look backwards past many, many months,
and I notice a pattern where whenever I experience
a period of like no... of I'm about to enter
a period of no direction. It's because I realized
that my current path is kind of like leading
to a dead end. And so I need to figure something
out. So I make the last video and then I'm kind
of like, I spent a lot of time reflecting and
then I eventually just like drop everything and
just start reading. That's what I did with my
last one. Right before I figured out my new direction
of learning how to make music back in September
of 2024. I actually just dropped everything for
like a week or two and just finished reading
this book that I was reading. And then I started
reading this book called Reality Transurfing
and I was able to find direction. And like 10
days later, I was the first day that I started
working or learning how to play the piano. I'm
pretty sure it's all about just getting a wider
perspective, especially when you're trying to
get direction or when you need a device. It's
all about having a wider perspective. So that's
basically everything that I wanted to talk about
this month. So I don't know. The future is unknown.
And I was actually at the park the other day.
where I want, or it was yesterday actually, I
was trying to figure out my next video style.
Like I wanna make scripted videos, but I don't
know what to talk about. And so I was just thinking,
thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, kind
of borderline stressing too, because this is
like my future, I don't know like where I'm going,
I don't know what to do. It's all unknowns, lots
of unknowns. And then all of a sudden, like I
got like, wave hit me where I just became like
aware and awake in my mind and I realized what
if I'm just okay with it what if I'm just okay
moving forward without knowing like what if I
just accept that I don't know and then the idea
will come to me naturally and I was like oh yeah
that's good idea and so I accepted it And then
like five minutes later, I caught I kept thinking
about it but Maybe I just should Let it happen
naturally, which is kind of what I'm doing. I'm
just reading. I'm I'm reading a lot. All right.
Goodbye