It doesn't feel like anything to be very honest. Fair warning, this entire post is going to be a weird flex and I highly advise you to stop reading if you're in a deep FOMO / grass is greener on the other side spiral, because this post is certainly not going to help.
After hitting one of my most profitable months through content creation since my peak investment banking days during COVID - where I would literally record the lowest quality video with no script and just make money solely based on what my job was, I did a reflection on making money in the age of the internet. TLDR, it'll make you feel bad and people are making money way too easily.
Before I splurge into my cynical thoughts, I will note that: I have built up a five year "career" in condensing information for public digestion, on a similar note know how to speak into a camera, and have 26 years of experience being Korean (and 20 being American) - all of which make my current TikTok creation process quite easy.
It takes me, at most, 2 minutes for each video I make on TikTok from ideation to upload. And some of my one minute clips have been accruing $100 of dollars.
The content is truly endless and I actually enjoy what I'm talking about (I didn't really enjoy talking about careers and there's a limit to how many times you can talk about regretting investment banking). The sources (for Korean news and culture) are around me 24/7 (me, a Korean) and Korea happens to be a "hot" country. I happen to speak English in an English-dominated world, and I'd like to believe my Batman voice certainly helps. I have no need for a script, zero editing costs, and my minor takes come naturally to me.
This is really all to say that "success" or "hacking life" (in my opinion, for now) many times comes at a proper alignment of timing and "accrued skills" - which may be viewed as either luck or well-deserved accomplishment. I'm not entirely sure which side I'm on.
As a Christian, it's also a dilemma - I could argue that God's given me said talents, but would argue back and say nothing I do on TikTok is adding to the expansion of His Kingdom (I'm thinking through this a bit) and on the other end could admit that nothing is due to my own works, but His plans (which in a secular view could be defined as privilege, luck, unfairness, etc). In this case, I'd slightly lean towards the former, with a need for me to think about how I can use this influence for His good.
To give myself a little credit, I do think I excel at consistency and the mere ability to try, which most individuals I've met that said "I wanna do content" fail at. In my 5 years of doing content for fun, I have yet to see someone last more than a month in posting content. Perhaps that's what sets me a bit apart. Granted, I've tasted relatively significant success across Youtube, Twitter, TikTok, and now Instagram - which I think is hard to note as just luck. Then again, I've never really put in effort (you may argue the consistency is effort, except I've never spent more than an hour on content a week) especially compared to the ROI.
I hope this post didn't offend you and if it did I highly advise you to make some content around it. If you need help thinking of what to post, my DMs are open.
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