A part of me longs for the return of the era on YouTube where it’s content felt a lot more real and raw.
No click bait thumbnails, no influencers, no “Like the video, leave a comment and subscribe” closing every damn video.
Today is not one of those days.
As I perform the early morning wakeup ritual with my 4 year old, I’ve just witnessed the most cringeworthy embarrassing video to be posted on the platform.
It wasn’t bad in the condescending way an adult may view all content made for children as being tedious, annoying and repetitive, but bad as just being terrible.
Imagine a film that’s been made with a camera that’s been retrieved from a skip, the sound quality that makes you think you’ve developed tinnitus, and filmed in the darkest, dingiest living room and you’re half way to understanding how awful this video was.
Despite being an 8 minute long turd of kids being forced to perform the three little pigs in front of camera, and adults doing the most demeaning over acting, this thing had received over 41 million views!
Let me repeat that – 41 million times this thing had been viewed, which if you think about it means it has been watched more times than a lot of quality content made by the professionals!
This made me consider how much low-quality stuff is out there online.
As a content creator this puts a lot into perspective about my own doubts sharing my work – If they can do that, so can I.
Motivated by mediocrity
If they can do it so can you – this has made me realise how much in life you can be motivated by the mediocrity of others.
One of the biggest breakthroughs in my own career success was witnessing a junior colleague who was awful at their job – end up obtaining a promotion where they were now my senior!
If they could leapfrog on the career ladder – why couldn’t I?
This made me realise how much I had been holding myself back because of my limiting beliefs – I hadn’t been aiming high enough – if someone who was about to undergo a performance review could advance to a management position, then why couldn’t I?
If they can do it – so can you
A lot of personal development literature talks about surrounding yourself with positive role models, but truthfully I’ve been driven just as much by talentless hacks, whose main strength is that they don’t fear rejection.
As someone who put a lot of value in humility, these people helped me realise it doesn’t pay off to be a diligent hardworker, hoping to get noticed – you have to put yourself out there if you want success!
Mediocrity is the norm, and there are thousands of people achieving who are nowhere near as talented as you achieving everything you want because they aren’t afraid to be told they are not good enough.
Get comfortable taking the risks and self-promoting yourself – remember doing so doesn’t make you a bragger (as long as you’re not talking about your success all the time).
What we can learn from a bad three little pigs video…
From the perspective of being a content creator, the bar for quality content online is pretty low – 99.9% of stuff you see online is “low quality”.
Although I have contributed more than my fair share to this number, I don’t let this stop me striving.
If someone can get 41 million viewers from a video recorded on a cloudy cellphone camera there is nothing stopping you from finding success online and offline to express yourself as a creative, or whatever your goals are in life.
If they can make money online – so can you.
If they can create content online – so can you.
If they can make someone else’s life better – so can you.
Wishing you the best in your success
James @Perfect Manifesto
Next post: Aim Higher
Perfect Manifesto 
James, the same goes for some low-quality blog posts that get loads of likes. However, in many cases, I’ve seen those low-quality blog posts get little if any engagement, which brings me to why I dislike the ‘like’ button so much. They had hundreds of ‘likes’ but hardly any engagement.
Earlier this year, I also asked bloggers what they thought made a blog post successful. Some said the number of hits posts get, but when I asked how they knew how many of those hits were people who read the whole post, nobody could answer my question.
Forty-one million hits are huge, but I wonder how much engagement the YouTube video had?
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It’s a good question I know YouTube stopped comments on kids videos a couple of years ago, though my daughters feedback was “Don’t like this” so there probably is a fair few clicks that are turning off after a minute!
Page views are a difficult success factor to ignore, even though I’ve said to not base success on it, I do look at as a way of showing my growth and particularly ones that get a lot of search engine attention where I am improving at SEO.
I like engagement on my posts the best and look forward to my posts coming out and seeing what comments I get.
I don’t even look at or measure my success on how many likes I get anymore. If someone wants me to notice them, best to leave a high quality comment that shows they are an interesting writer.
Thanks Hugh for your comment.
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I agree about search results from search engines. Over the years, I’ve been delighted with the number of referrals to my blog from search engines. If you’re getting lots of hits from search engines, then you’re certainly improving your blog’s SEO rating.
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You make so many points that I can relate to:
“One of the biggest breakthroughs in my own career success was witnessing a junior colleague who was awful at their job – end up obtaining a promotion where they were now my senior! ”
“As someone who put a lot of value in humility, these people helped me realise it doesn’t pay off to be a diligent hard worker, hoping to get noticed – you have to put yourself out there if you want success! ”
Dare I say it – I dare. Work can be such a man’s world, and so many ‘-ism’s’ are at play. I feel I have made a few silly mistakes when working. I worked hard and believed that would be seen. But, as you said about the junior becoming the senior! The game of politics and the game of going to the pub, socialising and other stuff.
We can do anything we set out mind and heart to for sure. But, for me it always has to be aligned to my heart, mind and values. I am not a cut throat and I cant be. But I can be savvy-er.
I was listening to something or reading something about introverts and extroverts. How extroverts are all the rage at work, and you are nothing if you arent an extrovert. It all stems from the days when men went to work and the jobs back in the day well selling – door to door. It like the those rules back then apply today. I don’t like to say it is a man’s world – but sometimes work is a man’s world when I reflect on it. It is not fair at all.
Sorry i have got all upset. Just show you have written a great post as always.
All the best
Bella
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Thanks for your comment Bella, I hope you are okay.
I get doing things aligning to the heart, mind and values, I worked in roles I’ve not enjoyed where people have said “keep doing it for the money” but I can’t do that, at least not if I want to be happy.
I’ve read something similar, though it was talking about how introverts can use working from home to their advantage- I guess if your lucky enough to have a job that allows it.
Have you ever thought about working for the NHS, Bella? There quite good with a balance and diverse range of staff and it’s quite rewarding. I will admit its not totally equal- there still is a bit of a boys club in some areas, it’s just the closest thing to fair I’ve ever worked at.
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I am fine. I have had really great jibs, Don’t get me wrong. Omg work for NHS-eek. I am not working at all my mum needs my support. Complete life change!
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Interesting point about introverts. I think wfh is a great thing and helps with work life balance. I also see the need to go into office.
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I went to the office yesterday and its been such a lifestyle change that I don’t know how I had time to commute!
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😀 funny how we get used to things and un-use to things!!
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