Should I Start Youtube?
I’ve been thinking about this for months. Now, I have decided to start. Why?
What-If
If I create content on YouTube consistently from January 2022 and upload new videos every two weeks. What will happen in the next 5 years?
In January 2027, the total video published will be 130 videos. How about the number of subscribers? Ali Abdaal mentions in his video that the average number of uploads for a channel with 1,000–10,000 subscribers is 152. So, most likely, the number of the following will be range between those numbers. He recommends that we should not consider quitting before we reach 152 uploads.
But, after all those 5 years of effort, is it worth it?
What if I calculate again with a bit more optimistic number. Suppose I upload new videos each week, which is the minimum frequency that most experienced YouTubers suggest. In that case, the total number of videos published will be 260. In comparison, Peter McKinnon has uploaded 560 videos, Ali Abdaal has 419 videos, Matt D’Avella has 327, and Yes Theory has 343 videos published so far. So I should have more than 10,000 subscribers in the next 5 years, right?
Remember, this is the average statistics. The average statistic is unable to consider the content quality and the upload frequency in the calculation. But, we still need to trust the average. If I can produce a slightly better or slightly different from the average, I assume the growth will be faster.
I also observed that most YouTubers started to gain a following because of a few viral videos (relative to their average channel view). So, with extensive learning, trial and error, and a bit of luck, I am pretty confident that more audiences will watch my content.
Now, I imagine myself in 2027. What will happen to me if I start Youtube?
If you are currently considering whether to start YouTube or not, let’s imagine. What will happen to us in the next 5 years? Will it change our life? Will it open new opportunities? Will it benefit us?
I love creating stuff, I choose photography as my hobby, and I enjoy working on a laptop by myself. I can imagine myself in the future working on my home office, with a dream desk setup, sitting in front of the 49-inch ultrawide monitor, working on any project I’m interested in, and still have enough income to support my life and my family. That’s my dream. I can foresee myself closer to my goal than I am now if I decide to start Youtube.
Will I Regret Not Doing This?
After months or even years of only thinking and wondering, this single tweet inspires me to take action. But, not to press record and upload, it still scares me. So instead, I start taking action on building the strategy.
I found a thread on Twitter by Sahil Bloom. He curated 20 helpful frameworks that can be applied to pretty much anything in life. One of them is The Regret Minimization Framework.
After projecting myself in the future, I look back and think again…
Yes, I will regret not doing this. That would be my biggest regret for not trying. It’s a bit cliché, though, but it’s true. I can’t justify what caused me to not achieve my dream because I am not even trying. So if someday I fail to achieve my goal, at least I know why and the regret will not haunt me. And I can choose a different method to get closer to my dream or even chase another dream. So, I decided that the regret of not trying is worst than the regret of failing.
Now I have motivation. Then, what’s next?
What Stopping Me?
I start identifying what exactly is stopping me from not doing this and write it down. The goal is to have a structured understanding of what stages I am in and the challenges I will be facing. So, I can better plan on how to resolve it.
These are the challenges for me, ranked from my top concern:
1. Afraid of what other people will think (family, friend, colleagues)
2. I am not confident in front of the camera.
3. Can I be consistent?
4. I have a full-time job, I don’t have time.
5. I don’t have many ideas to create hundreds of videos
6. Can I make good quality content?
7. I don’t have the urgency to start.
8. I don’t have the perfect tools.
These are primary concerns on people for starting a Youtube channel. Most people will have the same list like this. So, the tips and advice on tackling this issue are pretty much anywhere on Youtube.
But the thing is, everyone’s condition is different. So, the practical solution may vary from person to person. Therefore, I need to actively identify and research to develop a practical solution that fits me.
What Can I Do Now?
Listing my obstacles to starting YouTube help me identify a practical solution that I can follow. I don’t have the answer to all of the obstacles as of now. But this is the progress,
Afraid of what other people think
Most YouTubers will suggest that this will never be the issue in the long run. However, it is pretty common for every person, including me, to feel uncomfortable. The excellent answer that I could find is that this condition is called The Spotlight Effect in psychology. In summary, every person is overthinking what other people think for themself. This condition applies to most people, including any prominent YouTubers you can think of.
This theory may be supported by academic research. But, somehow, it’s not fully answering my concern. I am pretty sure that I cannot avoid and eliminate these overthinking stages. This is inevitable. I should face this, except if I create content anonymously. But that’s what not I am aiming for, at least for now.
Currently, the best solution for me is to make good quality content and not use any topic that may embarrass my family, my friend, and the company that I am working in. After that, just face the inevitable and believe that it can be worth it in the long run.
My solution has a drawback, though. Creating perfect content may causing in slowing down the rate of uploading video. I even need another month to start my first one. I want to have more time to learn and research before I start. But, I target myself at the maximum of 31st December to publish my first video, whatever the result. Let’s see how it goes. Maybe I can gain confidence over time and accept the imperfections in my content along the way.
Start From Writing
To answer my doubt on finding new content ideas and test my consistency, I started writing. Writing has fewer barriers to start than Youtube.
It has been a month as of now. I set up a personal blog and write as many as I can using my native language. I also try to publish stories on Medium in English at least once a week.
So far, the key takeaway for doing this in a month is that the ideas may come if we start producing. I don’t have a lot of inspiration at the start. I just document my journey and share my stories or tutorial along the way in my personal blog. But, once I created one, more ideas came to mind. Even when I consume content, either story on Medium or videos from YouTube, my mind start thinking of new content ideas that I can make. So, I guess it works. Ideas will come if we start producing. And writing can be the perfect first step for us to become a creator.
This month, I also learned that consistency is, indeed, hard. A lot of people say that Consistency is Key. At some point, I think it’s accurate. Passion is not enough without determination in the long run. Enthusiasm leads to nowhere if we can’t make consistent output over a long period of time. Some also say that consistency is one thing that differentiates between the successful content creator and the failed one.
I know, I can’t conclude anything about consistency with only a month of experience. Nevertheless, now I discover another obstacle that needs to be addressed. One thing that can break my consistency is I have limited time. Sometimes, my full-time job takes a lot of time. So I need to build a system that can make this works efficiently. And I’m still figuring it out right now.
Why I Don’t Start Now?
If you have read until this point, you know why I haven’t started.
The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago. The second best time is now! — Chinese Proverb
The standard advice for YouTube content creators is to start now. Grab a phone and start recording. But, I didn’t do that, and I think it’s ok.
I target myself to write 20 posts on my personal blog, 4 stories on Medium each month until December 2021, and publish the first Youtube video. If I fail to do that, I need to buy my wife an expensive, unnecessary thing she wants. That’s our agreement.
I have a decent full-time job that I like. The company treats me well. And I am grateful for having that. But, because of that, at this moment, I don’t have the urgency to take YouTube seriously. So, that’s why I set up my own target and a deadline.
A deadline without consequences means nothing. When we don’t finish an assignment for school in time, we will receive a bad score or some form of punishment from our teacher. The same goes for every task at my job. But, I don’t have any real impact if I don’t start YouTube. So, I create my own consequences.
Let’s See How It Goes
There’s a lot of resources from successful content creators on starting a YouTube channel. If I need to pick one YouTuber’s advice for building a YouTube channel would be a video by Ali Abdaal. But there are not many stories from someone that’s just started or struggling to start. That’s why I share this story. I hope it helps!
Let’s see how it goes. I hope everything will be easier along the way, and I can begin to create a video consistently.
When I decided to start producing content, I learn a lot from various resources. One of many things I learn is how we present numbers in our content. How to tell a story with numbers that make a significant impact.
