You Do Not Have to Be the Best

In General, Off-Topic | 8 comments | permalink

Do you have to be the best to make money? Do you have to be VERY good?

I want to share with you a quick story  that challenges these beliefs..

I should have been working, but decided to check one of my favourite online distraction sites (reddit.com) instead…

One of the areas I like to check is the “AMA” section, which means “Ask Me Anything”…

This particular day there was a guy who was making a fulltime living by playing Startcraft2 (a popular video game)… WOW, I thought, this guy must be one of the best in the world to actual be making a good living.

It turns out this guy is not one of the best in the world, in fact, he doesn’t even play the tournaments (yes, there are actual tournaments)… instead, he simply plays the games, and streams them live via Justin.tv and then puts the videos on Youtube.

So in a nutshell, he does the thing he loves the most, and allows others to watch him doing it.

He gets many viewers, and says he makes around $3,500 per month in ad revenue… he has also started teaching others how to play, which nets him about $1,500 a month.

Pretty cool huh?

There are a few lessons to take from this:

1) You don’t have to be the best… this guy is clearly quite entertaining in his videos, so people check out the videos for his passion and sense of humour an fun.

2) Isn’t it awesome that we live in a world where we can make a fulltime living by simply doing the things we love!

3) Live streaming and then putting the highlights on Youtube is a great combination.

4) Many people don’t like to share with the world “until they are an expert”…. don’t wait for that to happen, just get out there and start generating content today.

Enjoy.

Dean

Sources:

The actual AMA thread on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/g7q91/iam_destiny_i_quit_my_job_to_play_starcraft_2_for/

His Justin.tv channel: http://www.justin.tv/steven_bonnell_ii

His Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/remembertomorrow0

All the above may contain adult language.

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8 COMMENTS

  • http://rcLazy.com Simon Crabb

    It’s true! We can indeed earn from doing what we enjoy. I’ve relatively recently turned my hobby of model car racing into a business. I started just by doing videos and a blog about what I was doing, and before I knew it I had a following. Then I found a few products to sell, and now we run a fully fledged shop, and the sales are flocking in – people buy from people they know, and like. And am I an expert? Well, I’m very experienced, for sure, but I’m very far from being an expert at it, just like the guy above.

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  • http://www.theprofitshare.com Wayne Lambert

    I love the fact that we can leverage a multi-billion dollar infrastructure with tools that come to us for free to create an income stream out of our passion.

    Viva la entrepreneur revolution!

    BTW, you need to update your CommentLuv plugin

    Wayne

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  • http://www.jugsinstantscreeninfo.com/ jugs instant screen

    Hi Dean, this makes me want to laugh and cry, it’s brilliant the off the wall ideas that some people find to make money so I guess we’ll being hearing from you a little less now :-)

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  • http://www.facebook.com/angusfraserdubai Angus Fraser

    Time well spent, Dean!

    I would want to be regarded as an “expert” (even be it a novice expert!) in the market that I find most enjoyment in, & would hope to add this to my online business activities in the near future. Helping to make money for the business owners in their “leisure” based businesses with more high-paying clients & customers would be the result, besides a residual income stream for me!

    Taking action NOW rather than continually preparing for the venture & waiting to be “great” at it (& so never doing it!), is the hurdle that your post encourages me to overcome.

    Many thanks

    Angus

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  • http://www.automatedsocialnetworking.com Nicole

    I love this post… I totally agree with it… Just to add up, when you do something you love it will really be as easy as 123… Love the points you have here… Thanks for sharing…

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  • http://www.tinalindgren.com Tina Lindgren

    Nice articles with some very important points!

    I believe that the minute you decide to be yourself, NOt an expert, NOt a milion dollar smart guy ( with nothing to show for)you becme “real” to your readers and customers.

    The great side effect of being “just you” is that you loose your writing block, things starts to flow more easy and you can look yourself in the mirror.

    I love the example in your article :-)

    cheers
    Tina

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  • Nir

    In a sense this guy is one of the best in what he does , only it’s not gaming but rather creative business development

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  • http://let.allenbg.com LET light

    Great post.Thanks for sharing this with all of us.

    Current score: 0