Actionable lessons from the world's greatest creators

The Creator Archive

“A lot of people get analysis paralysis. They’ll just sit there and plan their first video for three months… Any of you listening—especially if you have zero viewers on your channel—your first video is not going to get views, period. Your first ten are not going to get views. I can very confidently say that. So stop sitting there and thinking for months and months on end and just get to work and start uploading.”

He continues:

“All you need to do is make 100 videos and improve something every time. And then on your 101st video we’ll start talking like maybe you can get some views. But your first 100 are going to suck.”

There are always exceptions, but average people who don’t have exceptional personalities or backgrounds in filmmaking are going to have to just make a hundred videos and try to improve something each time:

“The second one put more effort into the script. The third one try to learn a new editing trick. The fourth one try to figure out a way that you can have better inflections in your voice. The fifth one study a new thumbnail tip and implement it. The sixth one try to figure out a new title.”

There are infinite ways to improve a video:

“That’s the beauty of content creation online: there’s literally infinite ways, from the coloring to the framing to the editing to the filming to the production to the jokes to the pacing. Every little thing can be improved. And they can never not be improved. There’s literally no such thing as the perfect video.”

Watch the full interview with Mr. Beast on the Lex Fridman Podcast here.

Quote of the Day

“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.”

― George R.R. Martin

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“A lot of people get analysis paralysis. They’ll just sit there and plan their first video for three months… Any of you listening—especially if you have zero viewers on your channel—your first video is not going to get views, period. Your first ten are not going to get views. I can very confidently say that. So stop sitting there and thinking for months and months on end and just get to work and start uploading.”

“All you need to do is make 100 videos and improve something every time. And then on your 101st video we’ll start talking like maybe you can get some views. But your first 100 are going to suck.”

There are always exceptions, but average people who don’t have exceptional personalities or backgrounds in filmmaking are going to have to just make a hundred videos and try to improve something each time:

“The second one put more effort into the script. The third one try to learn a new editing trick. The fourth one try to figure out a way that you can have better inflections in your voice. The fifth one study a new thumbnail tip and implement it. The sixth one try to figure out a new title.”

There are infinite ways to improve a video:

“That’s the beauty of content creation online: there’s literally infinite ways, from the coloring to the framing to the editing to the filming to the production to the jokes to the pacing. Every little thing can be improved. And they can never not be improved. There’s literally no such thing as the perfect video.”

Watch the full interview with Mr. Beast on the Lex Fridman Podcast 

“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.”

The Creator Archive

Mr. Beast on analysis paralysis and why there’s no such thing as the perfect video