I've accomplished a lot, but failed. What do I do

[GlobalWealth]

And that I'm getting to old to try again.

BWhahahahahahahah.....takes a deep breath.....bwhahahahahahahahahahaha

23

You're F*cking 23

......bwhahahahahaahahahahah

Shut up and go fail again. That's what the rest of us do.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I dunno what to do.

You become a legend in baseball by failing 66% of time, or batting .333 ... entrepreneurship is the same way. Sounds like you didn't hit and miss, but just fouled the ball off. You don't win by going back to the dug out after a few swings, keep swinging.

And BTW, you're freaking 23. That number and "too old" should never be in any sentence. It really reeks of delusion.

 

[Get Right]

Tommy - I know you don't understand yet but "failure" is part of the entrepreneurial process. You simply haven't gone through a whole rotation of the process (failure is absolutely a stop on the process train). The process is what will make you successful, not an event like "failure". You are simply at the "failure" state of your process. The next phase of your process (if you choose not to give up) is to asses what went wrong and use that knowledge to form a better "next business".

You will repeat this process over and over until you decide to stop entrepreneurial pursuits. It's how it works.

Personal example - I went through another "failure" cycle a few months ago. Probably cost me 100k. But I didn't blink an eye because I know it's just a part of the process. Fast forward a few months. I took that lesson, made some tweaks to my business and I am now knocking on the door of an offer 10X that loss. And if you want me to predict the future - I will have a 1M "failure" that will teach me what I need to know to make a 10M gain.

You have to commit to the whole process.

I hope you stick with it but it's your choice.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Choate]

I don't even see failure here like yourself and others are alluding to. This is a massive SUCCESS. Why has anything failed?

You veered off the path, tried to introduce something different and they didn't like it. Big deal, go back to what you were doing.

I see that your problem is not that your niche is too small. You have 40,000 subscribers! That my friend is a huge accomplishment.

40,000 contacts is enough to make any man rich.

Unfortunately, the path you are on is racing to get more subscribers, planting more seeds, instead of farming your current crops.

It is not too late. The seeds you have planted have not died yet. It is still in season. Water them, give them sunshine, give them what they want, and watch them grow.

What value are you offering for your 40,000 beyond your YouTube channel? Secondly, what option are you giving them to put money in YOUR pocket? You can't make money if they don't have the option to give it to you. Do you have a funnel, a product, info product, seminar, conference, where your subscribers can get more involved, open their wallets?

Or are you USING your 40,000 and TAKING from them so that you can create advertising revenue for YOURSELF through YouTube ads?

You took away what they wanted thinking you could give something to someone else you haven't met yet. And that someone else was in much greater quantity. Well, that someone else never came through for you. Go back to your fans, they miss you. Give them what they want and then more.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[The-J]

You guys laugh, but when you spend 2 years building something, it's hard to just let it go. I don't know why I'm always the butt of the joke, but for once this is a serious thread

You're the butt of the joke because your posts are ridiculous. The shit you say is ridiculous and I can't understand where you get it in your head that it's a good idea to say.

You turned a serious inquiry (my business failed after 2 years of solid success, how can I turn this around) to a boo hoo woe is me thread.

Now, for the serious part of your post: Should you keep going with Youtube or try something bigger?

You changed something and the fans didn't like it. Change back, dammit! Give the people what they want! Forget about YOU and YOUR desires for a second and put yourself in the shoes of the fans. What do they want to see? Read the comments, take suggestions, engage your audience!

If they say they want to see you do a Twitch stream, then do it. If they say they want to see you play a video game or do a challenge, do it. If they say they want to see you naked... well maybe not that. But if you're comfortable with it, why the F*ck not?

You didn't fail, you hit a bump. Change your tires and keep going.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AllenCrawley]

I'm 23 and have no idea what to do. When I was 20 and started the channel, I could've never pictured myself here. I feel pathetic. And that I'm getting to old to try again.

And BTW, you're freaking 23. That number and "too old" should never be in any sentence. It really reeks of delusion.

23 is nothing man. Most people have barley landed their first real job at that age, yet alone done anything entrepreneurial.

Herein lies the problem with reading about all the mega successes of young treps on yahoo and the like. You fail to understand that those stories are extremely rare and as a result you compare your successes/failures to them. Those mega success stories get all the publicity. To quote @MJ DeMarco "Your knowledge of them gives the illusion that they are more common than they actually are. It's called a frequency illusion."

Whether you are open to it or not, you've received some great input here. Now, what will you do?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Waisec]

You guys laugh, but when you spend 2 years building something, it's hard to just let it go. I don't know why I'm always the butt of the joke, but for once this is a serious thread

Alright, no memes for a change:

You're being laughed at because you're being ridiculous and one day you'll read this thread again and see it for yourself

Almost everyone on this forum could give you their own sob stories. Any true entrepreneur/hustler has failed at least once, usually much, much more than that. What did you expect when you made this thread? Pity? Pity is a useless F*cking emotion.

Learn from your mistakes. Toughen up. Start over.

 

[GlobalWealth]

You guys laugh, but when you spend 2 years building something, it's hard to just let it go

I don't give a shit if you spent your lifetime building something. The market decides what it wants to pay form.

I don't know why I'm always the butt of the joke, but for once this is a serious thread

You make an assumption that me, or anyone else on this forum knows who you are or pays attention to your posts.

Suck it up buttercup.

 

[GlobalWealth]

Almost everyone on this forum could give you their own sob stories. Any true entrepreneur/hustler has failed at least once, usually much, much more than that. What did you expect when you made this thread? Pity? Pity is a useless F*cking emotion.

This ^

Would you care to hear my story of how my biggest client (>$1mm in revenue and ~70% of the business) fired me 2 days after christmas one year?

Of course not because you don't give a shit. Neither did my market. That's why I sat at home punching holes in the drywall for a couple of days after firing 2/3 of my employees, then spent the next 3 months killing myself to get new clients and make sure I was never susceptible to the whims of one client again.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Veloce Grey]

What do I do? I've done this for 2 years. Is it my time to finally move past youtube and take a shot at the actual entertainment industry, or do I start over with my lessons learned? I'm 23 and have no idea what to do. When I was 20 and started the channel, I could've never pictured myself here. I feel pathetic. And that I'm getting to old to try again.

1-Go visit a hospital, plenty of lonely sick (and often old) people in there suffering with nobody to talk to.
2-Visit any store where people are making minimum wage doing boring tasks and often destined to an entire life of it because that's all they can see themselves doing.
3-Check Youtube to see how many people the world "work" long hours in awful factory conditions, or sorting through rubbish at the dump for something to sell, or far away from their family in another country in ridiculous heat while kept in labour camps like animals.
4-Be thankful you apparently have your health and youth unlike those in 1, you have enough insight to see the potential for something more than those in 2, and however bad your youtube career turns out at least you're not in 3.

 

[biophase]

When you put effort into something that doesn't feel like it's paid off, it's hard to take the same risk again without totally doubting yourself.

You are only 23. This shit will happen many many many more times in your life. If you can't get over this one simple fact, you are going to have a tough time.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[M&A]

I was in a similar predicament spend 3 years and thousands of hours building a content based website. It got over a million visits and several million page views ........... made about 300$ cost me about $3000 for the content and Facebook ads. One day I decided to just delete all of it, never looked back.

I learned a valuable lesson that you are either making money or your not, Its either growing or its not, never delude or lie to myself again.

Too many people have pie in the sky ideas about growing at a massive scale, getting X visits/subscribers/views and making X Million.

When in reality their business makes less money than a job. Its a fascinating human protective mechanism, delusion to make oneself feel hope where there is none.

Good thing about the fastlane is you can strike out 99 times and hit a home run on number 100 and change your life. Move on to the next project while your still young.

 

[biophase]

When you put effort into something that doesn't feel like it's paid off, it's hard to take the same risk again without totally doubting yourself.

You are only 23. This shit will happen many many many more times in your life. If you can't get over this one simple fact, you are going to have a tough time.

...as an employee or entrepreneur.

As part of everyday life...

You ask a girl out... she says no
You train a year for a race... you lose
You wait in line for tickets to a show... the show gets sold out one person before you
You do everything right as best as you could possibly do... you still fail due to outside circumstances
You have a deal all set up, last minute that person changes their mind... deal falls through

 

[Ninjakid]

I'm 23

I'm getting to old to try again.

this is a serious thread

this is a serious thread

this is a serious thread

 

[Digamma]

This is the first time failure in a larger scale has happened to me. I came here to ask how to deal with it. I will look back in laugh, but now I'm in the present and feel a little lost.

Take a day to recharge, than start something new or try to recover what you have. If you need emotional uplifting, you need to grow thicker skin. There is no other way to go, that's the job.

 

[GlobalWealth]

Sometimes it feels like people haven't really been through failure when you say it with such ease. It seems like you'd have more emotions toward it. It's easy to post motivational quotes, but there is a rough side to it that can't be remedied with such ease.

I appreciate the post, but hopefully that makes sense. It's VERY tough to just "KEEP GOING!". When you put effort into something that doesn't feel like it's paid off, it's hard to take the same risk again without totally doubting yourself.

Then you should quit. Live that 9-5 life you've always dreamed of with that safe and consistent paycheck.

You are exactly the kind of person I hire.

 

[Tommy92l]

You guys laugh, but when you spend 2 years building something, it's hard to just let it go. I don't know why I'm always the butt of the joke, but for once this is a serious thread

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kingmaker]

I poured my heart and soul into countless hours of work. So I guess when you're in my shoes it hits harder.

Your customers honestly don't give a shit. When you buy something at the store do you care if "countless hours" were spent on it or mere minutes as long as it provides you VALUE? Focus on that.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Polarbeans]

A champion wrestler was asked, “How did you become the champion?”

He said, “When I was practicing, I became so exhausted that I wanted to give up.

But then I pictured what my opponent would be doing.

He must be still practicing so I went back into more practice.

And a point came when I wanted to give up again.

I pictured what my opponent would be doing.He must be still practicing so I went back into more practice.

And then a point came when I could not lift myself anymore.

And I pictured that he could not lift himself anymore either.

I pictured him in the shower, guess what I did.

I went back into more practice.

Till now we were at par.

This practice would be my winning edge.”

So, the important thing is to put in the extra effort even when it hurts.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Ronnie]

Failure is apart of the game. I started when I was 24 and I'm now 26. I understand your panic, I too felt the same but realized I'm not even close to being old.

I keep my projects private because I'm a pretty private person, I come here for inspiration and to hang around guys and gals with the similar mindset I have. I have like 2 friends, outside of my football team, and that's still only about 3 close people plus my girlfriend. I've failed countless times.

Keep with coming up with ideas and taking action. That's what I'm doing. Remember, it only takes 1 success to change your life. Even if that means you had 6,000 failures.

 

[theag]

So you spent 2 years on a project that violated all of CENTS because it was your passion.

What did you expect?

Get up, wipe your chin, reread TMF (!) and then build a BUSINESS, not a hobby.

The experience will help you.

 

[Bila]

Sorry to hear your story, i am sure that if you reached once 50 000 people and won them with your humour, you can do it again, better this time and reach 100 000 or maybe more. Learn from your mistakes, keep believing....This is what makes a difference.
Wish you luck ( hug )

 

[GuestUser113]

This ^

Would you care to hear my story of how my biggest client (>$1mm in revenue and ~70% of the business) fired me 2 days after christmas one year?

Of course not because you don't give a shit. Neither did my market. That's why I sat at home punching holes in the drywall for a couple of days after firing 2/3 of my employees, then spent the next 3 months killing myself to get new clients and make sure I was never susceptible to the whims of one client again.

I hate Walmart.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Mattie]

You guys laugh, but when you spend 2 years building something, it's hard to just let it go. I don't know why I'm always the butt of the joke, but for once this is a serious thread

I wrote on hubpages for three years. It was a beginning platform. You can only learn so much on one platform, and then you must move on to the next level. It's kind of like being in kindergarten, you don't stay there your whole life. You may have loved the teacher, the lessons, the fun and games, no responsibility, but fortunately, you don't get to the top by staying on the same platform.

I would say you have an emotional attachment to what you've done, and don't want to let go of it. I can say I loved college, learned a lot, loved my professors, and of course when it time to graduate, they talked about the feelings and emotions you have by leaving. There's always times you have to let go of somethings in life to re-invent yourself and move on.

Emotional attachments are tied to materialism, money, relationships, projects, but for healthy growth and development, you must cut your apron strings to fly. And of course, there is probably fear mixed in their and uncertainty. Yes, you must re-invent yourself.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Tommy92l]

I had a youtube channel that reached 50k subs. It reached it's peak because my humor was unique and I had basically filled the niche.'i tried to expand to other types of humor and games to bring in more viewers and my fans turned on me.... Bad. Like, from 30-40k views a video to 2,000.

Now for a long time I though "it will get bigger, it will grow". But then it hits you. You're filling a small niche, you're not hitting that sweet spot that is = humor that entertains the masses.


No matter what I did, my fans wanted the old stuff. Last night I finally threw in the towel.

Picture this- Colgate at one time tried to sell a microwaveable food. No one bought it because Colgate will always be related with toothpaste.


Before anyone says - dude you should've kept going.

I did, and I can't stress enough that it was the end. I'm all for faith, but I'm just as much for reality. I was type casted as one type if humor that filled a small niche and I couldn't get past it.


What do I do? I've done this for 2 years. Is it my time to finally move past youtube and take a shot at the actual entertainment industry, or do I start over with my lessons learned? I'm 23 and have no idea what to do. When I was 20 and started the channel, I could've never pictured myself here. I feel pathetic. And that I'm getting to old to try again.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GlobalWealth]

I came here to ask how to deal with it.

We're telling you how to deal with it. You just need to listen.

 

[RogueInnovation]

Gaming has a picky audience. Lets say you were playing some minecraft thing and then started doing something totally different like playing destiny. Guys will get p#ssed at you.

Its a gamer thing. You can't manipulate your market like a pet dog, tell it to sit and stay, they won't listen.

You have to look at the market and see what its capable of and what its not BEFORE you get set on "how it must change and they must follow".

You don't see it, but its a d#ck move to tell an audience their tastes must change to suit your attempt to scale.


Lets take music as an example, lets say I'm a hip hop guy, and I have a small loyal following, and then I start pretending to be Eminem to get a bigger audience. Do you think the hip hop guys are going to be happy?


I would recommend doing what you were doing longer, posting bonus content, back to the old stuff and then to think LONGER and harder on how to appeal to two audiences in the right way.




You got slapped, HARD, but you made a BIG mistake. Now its up to you to eat humble pie.
And to try to do it right, by getting back up on the horse.

 

[jon.a]

What did you expect?

 

[Tommy92l]

I mean it's not like I'm all talk. I poured my heart and soul into countless hours of work. So I guess when you're in my shoes it hits harder. It wasn't an effortless attempt. I dunno what to do.

 

[ZCP]

Listen to the customer. Give them what they want. Cash checks.

Meanwhile use the money to build what you want to give them and ram it down their throats like Apple commercials...... start a new paradigm ........