Why I Disappeared (What Happened)
Summary
TLDRIn this reflective video, the creator announces his departure from YouTube after eight years, sharing personal insights and reasons behind his decision. He discusses his journey starting a channel in 2016, focusing on personal finance content when it was scarce, and the satisfaction of building an audience. The creator reveals his early goal of financial freedom by age 25, which he achieved through various forms of leverage. He also touches on the pressures of constant content creation and his desire for privacy. Looking forward, he shares three personal goals for the next five years, including starting a family, scaling his businesses to $100 million in annual revenue, and purchasing a large farm in Pennsylvania. The video serves as a heartfelt farewell and a testament to his growth and the transformative power of content creation.
Takeaways
- 😀 The creator has not posted on the channel for almost a year and shares personal reasons for the hiatus and future plans.
- 🎥 This video is likely one of the last to be created on the platform, indicating a departure from regular content creation.
- 🚀 The channel started in 2016 focusing on personal finance content when it was not widely available on YouTube, and the creator grew with the niche.
- 💡 The motivation to start the channel was to fill a content gap and the creator enjoyed building and growing the channel as a tangible achievement.
- 💰 Financial freedom by age 25 was a goal set early on, and the creator believes they have achieved this through various means of leverage, including social media.
- 🔧 The creator learned about leveraging human capital early on through a firewood business, realizing the potential of employing others to grow the business.
- 💼 The power of money as a form of leverage is highlighted, with the example of earning interest on a large sum to achieve financial stability.
- 📈 Social media is recognized as a powerful tool for leverage, allowing one-to-many communication with minimal effort.
- 🏠 A strong desire for freedom and minimal obligations in life is expressed, including the experience of living in a truck for freedom.
- 🔚 The creator stopped posting because they felt they had said everything they wanted to on their channel and did not want to produce repetitive content.
- 🔄 The 'creator hamster wheel' is described as the pressure to constantly create content, which the creator found unfulfilling and chose to step away from.
- 🤫 Privacy is valued by the creator, who has always tried to keep many personal aspects off the platform despite sharing quite a bit over the years.
- 💡 The creator is at a point where they no longer feel the need to monetize their channel or continue creating content for the sake of maintaining an online presence.
- 👨👩👧👦 A goal for the next five years is to start a family, which the creator acknowledges requires work and is not yet a priority.
- 💼 Another goal is to scale the family business to reach $100 million in annual revenue by the time the creator is 30.
- 🏡 The third goal is to purchase a large farm in Pennsylvania, ideally 500 acres or more, by the age of 30.
- 🙏 The creator expresses gratitude to the audience for their support over the years and hints that the channel may not see much more content in the future.
Q & A
Why did the creator decide to stop posting on the channel?
-The creator felt they had said everything they needed to say and made all the videos they wanted to make. They didn't want to create repetitive content or regurgitate the same ideas every year.
What was the creator's initial motivation for starting the YouTube channel in 2016?
-The creator started the channel because they were looking for personal finance content on YouTube and found that it didn't exist in 2016. They wanted to fill that gap in the market and grow a channel in a niche that was developing on the platform.
What is the creator's view on the idea of 'Creator hamster wheel'?
-The creator describes the 'Creator hamster wheel' as the constant pressure to create content and keep people updated. They felt this pressure to always post, even if they didn't want to, which contributed to their decision to stop creating content.
Why did the creator choose to make personal finance content?
-The creator chose to make personal finance content because it was a topic they were passionate about and there was a lack of such content on YouTube at the time. They also enjoyed the process of building and growing something, which in this case was their YouTube channel.
What was the creator's goal when they were 14 or 15 years old?
-The creator's goal when they were 14 or 15 years old was to retire by age 25 or at least achieve financial freedom, so they could do whatever they wanted for the rest of their life.
What does the creator value in life?
-The creator values total freedom in life, the ability to make their own decisions without obligations, and the opportunity to grow and build things, such as their YouTube channel and their businesses.
What is the creator's opinion on using social media as a form of leverage?
-The creator believes that social media is the ultimate form of leverage because it allows one to reach millions of people with the same effort it takes to have a single conversation.
What are the creator's future goals for the next five years?
-The creator's future goals include starting a family, scaling their companies to reach $100 million a year in revenue, and buying a large farm in Pennsylvania, preferably 500 acres or more.
Why did the creator feel the need to share this video?
-The creator felt the need to share this video to provide closure to their audience, explain why they stopped posting, and share their future plans. They also wanted to reflect on their journey and have a record to look back on in the future.
How does the creator feel about the potential money left on the table by not continuing the channel?
-The creator does not feel the need to continue the channel for monetary gain. They believe they have said everything they wanted to say and are not motivated by the potential money that could be made.
What was the creator's experience living in their truck?
-The creator had a fun experience living in their truck and recommends it to others as a way to experience total freedom, being able to decide where to go and what to do each day.
Outlines
📹 Reflections on a YouTube Journey
The speaker reflects on their nearly one-year hiatus from posting on their YouTube channel. They announce this will likely be one of their last videos on the platform, emphasizing it's not clickbait and that they've been contemplating their absence. The video is personal and meant for closure, addressing concerns about their well-being and the future of their channel. They recount their start on YouTube in 2016, driven by a gap in personal finance content and a desire to build and grow something tangible. The speaker also shares their early goal of financial freedom by age 25, which they believe they've achieved, and hints at sharing insights gained from their eight-year journey on YouTube.
🚀 Early Pursuits and the Power of Leverage
The speaker delves into their early ventures, such as a firewood business with their brother, which taught them about leveraging human capital. They discuss the concept of compressing a 40-year work life into a shorter period to achieve early retirement. They explore different forms of leverage, like money and social media, which they believe can lead to massive value creation in a short time. The speaker credits social media, and specifically YouTube, as a powerful tool for reaching millions with minimal effort. They also express their appreciation for the freedom they've crafted in their life, including the ability to live abroad or travel without obligations.
🛑 The Decision to Stop Content Creation
The speaker explains their decision to stop creating content on their YouTube channel. They feel they have said everything they wanted to say and made all the videos they intended to make. The speaker didn't want to produce repetitive content and was not interested in creating different types of content. They discuss the pressure of the 'creator hamster wheel' and the fear of becoming obsolete if content creation stops. The speaker also mentions their desire for privacy and the struggle to balance sharing personal life online with maintaining personal boundaries. They express a lack of interest in monetizing the channel further, prioritizing personal fulfillment over potential financial gain.
🏡 Future Goals and Personal Aspirations
The speaker outlines their goals for the next five years, which include starting a family, scaling their companies to reach $100 million in annual revenue, and purchasing a large farm in Pennsylvania. They acknowledge being single and the need to work towards starting a family, emphasizing that they won't rush the process. The speaker also shares their passion for growing their businesses and setting a clear financial target for their companies. Lastly, they express a desire to own a significant piece of land, reflecting their love for nature and the outdoors.
🙏 Gratitude and Farewell to the YouTube Channel
In the concluding part of the video, the speaker expresses gratitude to their audience for their support over the years. They reminisce about specific types of content they've created and hope that their videos have provided value to their viewers. The speaker clarifies that they did not monetize the channel to its full potential and that their primary goal was to help others. They announce that this is likely the end of their YouTube journey, with only a slim chance of returning for personal updates in the future. The speaker thanks their audience one final time and bids them farewell.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Personal Finance
💡Content Creation
💡YouTube Channel
💡Financial Freedom
💡Leverage
💡Freedom
💡Creator Burnout
💡Privacy
💡Life Goals
💡Content Monetization
Highlights
The creator discusses why they stopped posting on their channel and shares future plans.
Announces this will likely be one of the last videos created on the platform.
Reflects on the personal nature of the video and its intended purpose for self-reflection and closure.
Recollects starting the YouTube channel in 2016 to fill a gap in personal finance content.
Mentions the growth of the channel alongside the niche on YouTube.
Shares the early doubt about starting a YouTube channel in 2016 and the subsequent success.
Expresses the joy of building and growing a YouTube channel as a tangible achievement.
Reveals early financial goals to retire or achieve financial freedom by age 25.
Details the concept of value creation through leverage, such as human capital and money.
Explains social media as the ultimate form of leverage, influencing the decision to start the channel.
Talks about the importance of freedom in life and how it has shaped personal and professional choices.
Describes the experience of living in a truck as an embodiment of freedom.
Discusses the reasons for ceasing content creation, including feeling repetitive and a lack of fulfillment.
Mentions the 'creator hamster wheel' and the pressure to constantly produce content.
Shares the struggle with privacy and the desire to share less about personal life over time.
Contemplates the potential waste of the channel's potential but decides against it for personal fulfillment.
Outlines three main goals for the next five years, including starting a family, scaling business, and buying a large farm.
Expresses gratitude to the audience and reflects on the journey of the channel.
Hints at the possibility of rare future videos being personal updates rather than algorithm-driven content.
Transcripts
all right so it's been almost a year
since I've posted on this channel and I
felt like I should come on here and
share with you what has happened why I
stopped posting on this channel um and
what's going to be happening in the
future uh so just for full context this
is probably one of the last videos that
I'm going to create um on the platform
uh this is not clickbait I think people
probably saw this coming for a pretty
long time considering that I really
haven't posted very much especially in
the past couple of years um there's a
lot to talk about today you know if you
normally come here for information and
to learn something this video might not
be the one for you it's going to be a
bit more on the personal side I'm really
making this video for myself and uh I
think it'll just be interesting to look
back on in 20 years uh but I thought it
would be helpful to have some type of
closure instead of me just disappearing
had some people reach out ask did did
you die are you still alive I'm still
here I'm doing well um but I just wanted
to to to create this here so where
should we start um I I think to
understand why I stopped creating
videos and my thoughts on this we need
to go back to why I started on this
platform in the first place and this was
in 2016 is when I started the channel
which is about eight years ago um so
look I grew up on YouTube I mean I
YouTube was founded in what 2005 I was I
was six or seven years old at the time
and so I spend most of my life watching
YouTube videos so you probably did as
well that's probably why you're watching
this video right now you spent a lot of
time in the platform right and and so
spending so much time on the platform uh
at some point in 2016 when I was a
freshman in college at Penn State um I
decided that I'm finally going to start
making videos and it's it's not
something that I generally wanted to do
like I've never been drawn to creating
content per se uh it was more so that
there was nobody making personal finance
content on YouTube in 2016 and I know
it's kind of difficult to like think
about now because there's so many videos
on personal finance and investing um or
productivity and all these different
topics but it really didn't exist in
2016 I was just talking to Graham Stefan
about this when he started his channel
around the same time in 2016 um and I
think I was in a really lucky position
to start that Channel at the time that I
did uh and I kind of grew with the niche
as the niche grew on this platform um
and I remember people saying in 2016 it
was too late to start on YouTube and I
almost didn't create the channel because
I thought it was too late YouTube was
too mature of a platform um and looking
back on that now it's kind of funny
thinking about it it was actually pretty
early 2016 um to to create a channel but
you know I've I've lived and breathed
YouTube for for so long for almost eight
years and I've learned a lot over that
time period and I think there's a couple
of things that I could share about that
um but the reason why I started was
because I was looking for that content I
couldn't find it and I thought someone
should create it you know there was a
bit of a gap in the market there um and
so I started to just create videos and
just started pumping them out one after
another and one of my favorite things to
do in life is is to to build something
to to grow something um and so growing a
YouTube channel was a really easy like T
like tangible quantifiable thing to do
was to grow a channel and so I had so
much fun doing that you know along the
way connected with so many people um and
then there were also some byproducts of
that as well like making money I never
sold any online courses or anything like
that on this channel but you know
certainly made a decent amount of money
from this channel just sort of as a
byproduct of sharing ideas and creating
content for this platform and I think
that was also a really great bonus um to
to everything all right so when I was uh
14 or 15 years old I set this goal that
I wanted to retire by age 25 um or at
least have Financial Freedom by age 25
so that I could do whatever I want for
the rest of my life um and I'm not sure
why I hit this phase like this this
phase of my life at an really early age
like most teenagers I think were just
having fun and and doing cool things
with their friends I was pretty weird um
and I don't regret that I mean like
that's just how I was so um but yeah I I
didn't spend a lot lot of time hanging
out with friends I didn't have many
friends I was just obsessive over this
um and so I guess it has worked out in a
sense but I think I have hit that that
goal of Financial Freedom by by 25 and
so kind of looking over the past 10
years of how I got to that point um and
reflecting on that quite a bit so when I
was younger what I was trying to do was
find a way to have massive value
Creation in a very compressed period of
time so like let's say that like for
example
um most people are going to work 40
years in their life say from age 22 to
62 they're going to work about 40 years
and I wanted to find a way to compress
that into a five or 10 year span of work
up front like basically front load it at
an early age so then you could then
cruise for the rest of your life and
hopefully this is making sense uh as I
say it aloud here but um and so in order
to do that I I realized that there's
like a couple of different forms of
Leverage that you could use to get to
massive value Creation in a in a very
compressed period of time and so one of
those one of the first ones that I
learned was human capital right and so
this was uh one of the first businesses
that I started with my brother Mike I
was 14 he was 16 we started a firewood
business he got his driver's license and
we'd go around cutting up trees selling
firewood and um the first like
realization that I could potentially
retire at a much earlier age was when I
started to hire some of our friends in
the firewood business and basically make
a spread on their work and you know I'd
pay them $8 an hour and they would make
us an extra5 or $6 an hour uh profit for
basically doing nothing from just hiring
them and so making a spread on labor I
guess you could say was like one of the
first realizations that I had of maybe I
can find a way to do this in a much
shorter period of time um there's
there's other forms of Leverage as well
like money for example this is why they
say that the the rich stay Rich right or
the rich get
um and it's it's very true like if you
have $10 million in the bank and you're
getting 5% interest on that bank account
that's $500,000 a year in free money
just for having money so um this is why
rich people generally stay rich and so
uh if you can get to a point of a large
sum of money at an early age you could
probably cruise on that indefinitely
this is why people talk about like the
rule of 72 and they talk about the 4%
rule you can withdraw 4% per year
compound interest you've probably heard
a lot of that already so I won't go too
into the Weeds on that point um but
money is an excellent form of Leverage
and so if you can get to it at an
earlier point of life uh that can be
extremely valuable and I think one of
the big epiphanies that I had when I was
um going into college when I was about
18 the reason why I started this Channel
or one of them was realizing that social
media was like the ultimate form of
Leverage and maybe I spent too much time
watching Gary vaynerchuk uh in my
teenage years uh cuz he was always just
screaming about content um but it's it's
true I mean you can you can spend time
talking to one person about an idea or
using YouTube you can speak to Millions
tens of millions hundreds of millions of
people with the same effort that it
takes to have one conversation with
someone um and I think having that
realization is really the reason why I
forced myself to just start creating
videos and you know that sounds kind of
selfish of like one of the reasons why I
started but it it's true you know it's
because
um I realized that there was quite a bit
of Leverage there from social media I
think I also have really valued having
total freedom uh in in my life as well
and you know tomorrow if I wanted to I
could go fly to Japan and live there for
a month and I don't really have many
obligations and i' I've kind of crafted
my life in in that way um and it's it's
good and bad I mean I've always liked to
do that have total free
uh where I don't have to clock into work
tomorrow it's it's really even with the
people that work for us it's it's very
much automated that's just how I have
set everything up in my life so far um
and that's something that I value a lot
I think at some point I'm going to have
to um give up quite a bit of that
freedom just as I go through my life and
you know start a family and other things
that I I will willingly give up a lot of
that freedom because it's it's worth it
uh to to do that but um you know for
examp example I spent a couple years
living in my truck that was such a fun
experience I'd recommend uh anyone and
everyone who is capable of doing that
even if it's just for uh a couple of
weeks in the summer just go out on some
government land live in your car do some
camping uh it's just one of the best
experiences uh having that freedom of
you know waking up tomorrow and just
deciding where you're going to go and
and that's something that I've always
really try to prioritize and try to find
a way to get to um but yeah I would
definitely recommend it's kind of a
sidebar living in your car for some
period of time just just because I think
it's really fun um and and that really
truly is like total freedom all right so
I think we should just get into um what
happened and why I decided to officially
stop creating content on this channel
and then what's going to be happening
going forward in the future and some of
the goals and things that I'm I'm
looking forward to um and so there's a
handful of reasons why I stopped posting
content on this channel uh and the
biggest one is because I felt like I had
said everything that I needed to say
I've made all the videos that I wanted
to make and and and and the thoughts
that I wanted to share I feel like 95%
of those I've already done and so it got
to the point where I had to I basically
reached the crossroads of do I want to
make repetitive content and do I want to
create the same type of content
regurgitate the same stuff every year um
or should I not do that I and you know
sure I guess I could find other types of
content to create but I really didn't
want to and so I look at someone like
Dave Ramsey for example which I have a
lot of respect for um but he he goes
into the office every day for the past
40 years and he says the same thing
every day and to me that is not
fulfilling personally um and like I said
no no no hate towards Dave uh he has
some really great advice um but that's
not something that like I looked in the
mirror and said I I don't want to do
that I don't want to to say the same
thing every day
um and I really don't like repeating
myself because it felt like it wouldn't
be growth or it wouldn't be as
fulfilling to do that and so that was
one of the big reasons why I ended the
channel and you know people would say
well why don't you just make other types
of content uh and I didn't want to I
wanted to create personal finance
content or minimalism or productivity
content and the things that I really
genuinely wanted to share with you as an
audience and so I think there's this
this pressure of basically you could
call it like the Creator hamster wheel
um where there's this pressure to
constantly create content and keep
people updated and keep it going because
if you stop posting there's this fear
that you'll kind of fall off or become
Obsolete and people will forget about
you and so you have to keep stoking the
fire continuously and I did that for
about seven years I kept posting I
really didn't take much time off maybe I
took a few weeks off here and there but
it was this constant pressure of always
needing to post even if I didn't want to
and I think a lot of creators and
influencers uh can relate to this in in
some way um and I really didn't like
that that hamster wheel feeling now I'm
also a very private person and although
I've shared a lot of things over the
past seven or so years on this channel
I've also kept a lot of things private
and I've always tried to do that because
I just don't like airing out all of my
life online um and so as we went through
from 2016 to 2024 each year I wanted to
share less and less about my life uh and
I think that's just because I'm a very
private person um the only reason why
I've really had social media in the past
few years especially was just because I
felt like some obligation to update
people on what was happening um in my
life and I don't know if that's the
right right way to do it and I I think
I've I've realized that um I shouldn't
be guilted in into feeling like I I have
to create content uh I don't even know
if that's right to to say that but
that's that's just how I feel um and
so I think the only other reason why I
struggled to to end this Channel or why
it took so long to stop creating content
was because uh there was also this
Factor especially this came from other
influencers where you know you don't
want to waste the potential of the
channel that you've built um and maybe
we're getting a little bit into the
weeds here but I'm just speaking my mind
here um and so there's this idea of you
know you've built up this this YouTube
channel
where I could make a video every week
and get a sponsor they could pay a
pretty decent amount of money and I
could probably you know squeeze a few
more million dollars out out of this
channel pretty easily by just making
videos every week and automating it have
a script writer and doing all that and
so that was like something that was
difficult to to let that go and say you
know what I really don't I don't need
the money from this either like that's
not the reason why I created this
Channel I didn't do it to make money um
and so I don't need to do that going
forward either I don't care if I'm
leaving money on the table or potential
on the table in any way because it's
just not really something that I feel
like doing anymore um so so yeah that's
that's that's basically what happened
that's why I don't post anymore it's
just because I genuinely feel like I've
said everything that I wanted to say and
shared everything that I wanted to share
all right so going forward um three goal
that I have for the next 5 years uh I
just feel like it'd be fun to share
these and uh look back on this video
when I turn 30 and and and see where
we're at so uh goal number one it'd be
really great to start a family um have
to work on that you know not not very
far along there uh still single so need
to figure that out um and I think
actually from like 18 to 24 I really
didn't Focus too much on on dating I was
just focused on um other areas of life I
think if I had to prioritize from 18 to
24 I would say my priorities were my
family uh my businesses and then
priority three was like dating or
relationships that was from 18 to 24 I
think it's probably going to shift quite
a bit as I prioritize um starting a
family uh at some point hopefully in the
next 5 years maybe 10 years I'm not
going to rush it because I don't think
that's something that you can really uh
plan that easily um definitely don't
want to rush that uh but yeah that's
that's something that I would really
love to get to buy age 30 at least to
kind of work towards it incrementally uh
in in some fashion uh goal number two
would be really great to get to $100
million a year from our companies um I
don't really share a lot of this but my
brother and I have um some companies
holding company with some other
companies and and uh you know it's it's
it's doing okay uh but I would love to
really scale that up and grow it more
and like I said earlier I really just
love growing things and so what I did
with my YouTube channel I would love to
continue to do with our company and uh
that's just something that I want to be
able to wake up every day and have
something to work towards and that's
what I've been doing the past uh year
and a half two years with my brother
that we've really been trying to scale
this um and it's been working quite well
uh but yeah $100 million by $100 million
per year by ag30 uh is the goal and I
honestly think that it's achievable um
but yeah we'll see how this video ages
of course that's kind of why I'm making
this and then uh goal number three would
be to just buy a very large farm
somewhere in Pennsylvania uh at least 50
acres but hopefully more like 500 Acres
this is kind of difficult to come by to
get like a really large farm uh there's
not that many that come up on the market
the ones that I want um and so that's
just a goal that I would I would love to
get to uh by age 30 as well those are my
three goals for the next 5 years all
right so I think that is going to wrap
up the video um I I sincerely appreciate
everyone who has watched this channel
over the years whether it was like an
apartment tour in 2019 or uh an
investing video in 2017 or something
more recent on on my Channel about you
know phone addiction for example um all
those videos were something that I I
really hope were helpful to you that you
found some value in that's always been
my goal um like I said I I didn't really
try to monetize this channel I I didn't
really try to you know like I didn't
squeeze as much juice out of this
channel as I probably could have as some
people told me to um and I I've I've
enjoyed this process uh it's been such
an incredible journey for myself and I I
appreciate each and every one of you for
supporting me so I just want to thank
you one last time before I sign off here
um I probably won't be making any more
content on this channel there's a very
rare 5% chance that I will and if I do
make any future videos uh it's it's not
going to be for the algorithm it's going
to be just kind of personal videos maybe
a life update every few years but that's
probably about it so I think for the
most part this channel is is um kind of
closing the chapter here so uh I
appreciate all of you thank you and uh I
guess that's it
Voir Plus de Vidéos Connexes
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)