Have you noticed a trend lately?
OG YouTubers who were creating videos for 10-15 years are quitting, retiring, or just taking a break from YouTube 😶
I am talking about big names like PewDiePie, Cinecom, Matti Haapoja, Masteroogwgay, The Game Theorists, Tom Scott, Leon Hendrix…
Even in the Indian context, those 2016-2020 YouTubers have vanished – Bhuvan Bam, Ashish Chanchlani, Harsh Beniwal…
They no longer publish a new video every week like they used to do 😔
A recent survey revealed that the most desired career among teenagers today is being a ‘YouTuber’?
So it’s like the ultimate dream job, right?
Then why do content creators quit?
Reason is simple – even a dream job is still a “job” 😅
Here’s how it starts: You start casually posting content on [insert any platform here – YouTube, Insta, or anything]
Just creating content that you love – yay!
No strategies, no pressure to make money out of it
Then, as you turn your passion into a serious profession, things start to change 🫠
👉 Strategizing content based on trends, demand, what’s working and so on
👉 Dealing with technical glitches all the time
👉 Trying to appease platform algorithms
👉 Dealing with hate comments and self-doubt
👉 Hunting for brand deals to sponsor your content efforts
👉 Drowning in admin tasks like invoicing and negotiation with brands
👉 Hiring people to handle some of your workload
All this without a single holiday, week off or festive leaves!
While everyone else is enjoying holidays and festivals, you’re sweating to churn out topical content to ride the trend and get that extra reach 🐢
On top of that, analytics dashboard becomes the most frequently visited app for creators.
That’s the reality. You keep on checking it again and again, multiple times in a day.
This is a sure shot gateway to burnout.
Before you realize it, your love for creating content has turned into something else entirely 😕
Instead of creating content, your core job becomes managing people, maintaining systems and watching your creativity slowly disappear!
Take my example 👇
I love to write and share my thoughts with people like you.
But for that, I need to go through technical hassles like building and maintaining platforms and tools with its resources, managing its distributions, fixing random glitches and so on.
Even with that, something goes wrong randomly – like it happened last week.
(I shared more about it in next section “what I did this week” of this email)
So what is the conclusion? 😅
I am not really sure. Luckily I still enjoy the process of content creation – be it any format.
But…
All those internet quotes you see about leaving 9-5 slavery and working on your passion to become your own boss, are actually lies.
Yeah, they’re total bullshit ❌
No matter what you do – you’re a SLAVE – A Rat Race, as they call it 🐀
▶️ A content creator is a slave to platform algorithms, sponsors, followers, trends with almost zero creative freedom.
▶️ A sportsman is a slave of governing bodies like BCCI, sponsors, coaches and their fans who try to direct them.
▶️ A businessman is a slave of his customers (worst because they don’t give feedback verbally. They just leave you for competitors with no scope of returning back)
▶️ ▶️ See the case of Paytm right now? Do Paytm users care about the crisis that the founder is going through?
You name any profession and I will tell you who they are slaves to – if that’s what you look for!
It’s all about perspective.
If you see it as a slavery, it’s in everything 😂
But if you see it as a way to add value — to your clients, your customers, or even your employer — then suddenly, it’s not so bad 💪
If you’ve got the chance to work your dream job or turn your passion into a profession, go for it!
But if you’re just looking for an escape from the daily grind, well, your life ain’t gonna change no matter what you start doing.
✔ WHAT I DID THIS WEEK
I rarely share directly promotional posts on LinkedIn asking people to subscribe to my email course.
Last Friday was the day.
Then I realized that my email marketing tool migrated its platform and all my emails went to the spam folder because my domain was not authenticated. Wow! 0% read rate.
While trying to fix it after my office, I messed up with my website’s DNS configurations. It went offline.
Then I went on a trip for 2 days.
So my website was down for the whole 2.5 days! Shit happens 🙂
Thanks to several people who actually checked spam folder and reported me – Abhijeet Kumar, Vidhie Shah, Shubham Gupta, Pravesh Khomdram and others 💖
Enough of rant!
I visited Alibaug last week. I absolutely love having long walks besides the beach for hours and hours 🏖️
Published 2 videos this week. One of them talks about “Problem with AI Tools That No One is Talking About” 📽️
Reply to this email if you want to watch it and I will share the link.
Finished reading “Make Epic Money” by Ankur Warikoo. As mentioned in my last week’s letter – If you’ve followed his finance playlist on YouTube, you are not missing out on anything 📚
I used to recommend “Rich Dad Poor Dad” to everyone getting started with their financial journey.
Now I would recommend this book because of the Indian context and ease of language. Overall, it’s a good book structured in a nice way 👌
🌐 AROUND THE WEB
Read this article called “The Perfect Webpage – How Google perfected the web” by The Verge.
It’s about how the internet reshaped itself around Google’s search algorithms.
You’d relate with every single word if you are into digital marketing. No wonder, we are part of it 🙂
Good read even if you are not into digital marketing.
You will understand the dark side of the internet.
Interestingly, this fits perfectly well with the whole email.