TIL If you're failing, you just suck. It's that simple.

[marble]

Very assertive title from someone who's made basically no money. I know. However, I've been on the sidelines a long time now and learning.

The one thing I've noticed time and time again is, if you execute well, you succeed. It's just that. That's it. Do it well and it works.

Now this has been theory in my mind this entire time, until now. After a tough breakup as well as a few other realizations, I am crawling out of my shell.

To prove to myself I am not incapable, and everyone who said "he just needs to apply himself" was right, I decided to do a little passion engineering project. Great! Nothing special but it is without doubt an improvement over my old life of sitting at home all day watching Youtube (seriously).

I decided to post a quick video of it on tiktok, just to gauge my possibility of having some sort of social media presense. I mean, why not? I've never posted on tiktok or anything but I've always had the backseat driver thought that "if you just make something worth watching, people will watch it. simple as."

So I posted a short little video with a couple cuts and some music of my project. First video ever. 900 views and 28 likes after a day. Now you see, tiktok realized my 'hustle' and decided it would start recommending me videos on my for you page of other creators. What did I see?

"My views never reach above 100", "Guys if you try this one trick you will pass the 300 view barrier", "I've been doing tiktok for 3 years and this is how you escape the 200 view jail", "I tried all these methods and views went from 300 to 80".

All these comments have hundreds of likes usually. The average content creator is failing beyond belief, and every SINGLE one of them have convinced themselves it's all part of the process. Every. Single. One. They don't comment about how their videos are shit and no one wants to watch them, they instead complain how tiktok's algorithm is bad. They must be 'shadowbanned'.

Well you see, I thought my 900 views were absolute shit. I thought my video was even shitter. It didn't display the project well at all. It wasn't very eye catchy. It was just beyond mid according to my own standards. Despite all that, I still surpassed the average tiktok "content creator" on my first try.

But then it was time for round 2. I recorded a better intro, had a better sense of direction. I played director in my head, imagined the perfect sequence, and brought it to life. Then I came home and found out tiktok had not saved my final clip. Oh well, my last video had something similar, so I, with shame, just cut it from there and pasted it to the end. It was subpar according to my standards, but I thought the beginning still made up for it.

A little bit of editing later, some little tweaks and perfections to maximize attention according to my complete intuition of how it works, and I was done. I had done no research on content creation, I was simply following what I thought "worked" based off of my own years of CONSUMING content.

I post the video. Four hours later I had achieved 800 views and 36 likes, but then it slowed down. I guess I wasn't meant to be a tiktok creator after all. I uninstall tiktok and go to sleep.

Then I wake up, and just feel like "ugh I wonder how it did overnight." So I shamelessly reinstall, and I instantly notice I have hundreds of notifications.

My second video is now at 11,000 views and almost 200 likes. I have a dozen comments all engaging. Tons of people saving the video to their favorites.

Is it beginners luck? Or is it really that simple? I think it is that simple. I created a video that I would at least watch myself. I created something that I thought was "meh, decent" on a scale of no views to a million. On my second try, I had achieved 5 figure views. 5 figure views is by no means anything special, but it usually takes normal people tens or even hundreds of videos before getting that, and it is completely random to them. They have no idea why one video got 30 views and another got 30,000. All they can say is, "blessed by the algorithm".

So no, I haven't made a million dollars yet. I haven't even made a hundred. But I put something out there of my own, did something that no one else does, and I achieved honestly more success than I even anticipated from this video. It is very niche, and it is very specific. It has a very small audience to begin with. I never expected millions of views in the first place.

At the present moment of writing this it is sitting at 14,700 views and 301 likes and slowly rising, but I don't think it will go much further. It might top out at 16k or 17k views before being dropped entirely, and I think it was a good run considering the circumstances.

So while all the wannabe tiktok influencers post endless slop that they themselves would scroll by instantly, and then complain about being 'shadowbanned', the people who just make good content win.

I am a but a mere child with no experience, only 19 years of living, but simply based off of my observations, and now first time in my life concrete firsthand evidence, I think it is safe to say that most of the time, if you happen to failing, you or your product just suck.

Thank you for your time. I hope my next post does involve some actual money made. Until then.

 

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[Jordan®]

Vjev’t hsiev. Xjev’t vji ipf huem?

 

[FierceRacoon]

Tadditt ot xjip qsiqesevoup niivt madl.

Nommoupt ug qiuqmi fof e quus wofiu epf huv puxjisi -- pu qsiqesevoup.
Vjuatepft ug qiuqmi fof e civvis wofiu vjep zua fof epf tvomm huv puxjisi -- pu madl.

Og zua ettani vjev epz voni zua fu e huuf wofiu, zua'f hiv 10L woixt, vjev ot puv vsai ev emm. Tu, og zua esi opvisitvif op tudoem nifoe epf xepv vu howi ov e vsz,
HU GUS OV PUX.
Miesp iwiszvjoph zua dep epf dunnov 10Y nusi iggusv, epf dunnov gus ev mietv e gix nupvjt iwip og zuas tidupf wofiu fuitp'v gmz.


Fu puv ettani vjev zua dep fu ov piyv tannis xjip zua jewi voni us xjeviwis; uqqusvapovz fuitp'v xeov. Xi fup'v lpux xjz vjisi ot ep uqqusvapovz, cav dmiesmz vjisi ot upi.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Vji nusi upi foht, vji nusi molimz vjiz xomm tvsoli humf.

 

[Jaywalker]

O en e cav e nisi djomf xovj pu iyqisoipdi, upmz 19 ziest ug mowoph, cav tonqmz cetif ugg ug nz uctiswevoupt, epf pux gostv voni op nz mogi dupdsivi gostvjepf iwofipdi, O vjopl ov ot tegi vu tez vjev nutv ug vji voni, og zua jeqqip vu geomoph, zua us zuas qsufadv katv tadl.

Zua'wi velip vji gostv tviq epf edvaemmz tvesvif qsufadoph tunivjoph. Duphsevt! Vji tjiis enuapv ug uqqusvapovz uav vjisi op vji xusmf sohjv pux ot apgevjunecmi. Xi xisi cusp opvu vji xiemvjoitv nutv vidjpumuhodemmz efwepdif dowomobevoup op janep jotvusz. Vji mogi iyqidvepdz cigusi 1900 xet esuapf 35. Tiobi vji fez epf mowi zuas citv mogi! Liiq huoph zua dep fu ov!