Take it from Mr. Beast and Stephen King — You Will Find Success If You Are Obsessed
What is success?
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When I talk or write about it, I always add the caveat that success means different things to different people. For some, money is the true sign of success, while others just want fulfillment.
For me, it’s a combination of the two because I feel like fulfillment will come when my needs and wants are met with the right amount of money. I don’t need to be a billionaire, and the chances of that ever happening this late in my life are slim. But I would like my family and me to be comfortable, knowing we aren’t living check to check anymore.
Along with money, there is a part of me that wants recognition. Do I need to be famous? No, but I would like to be known as a great writer. I would like to have a popular YouTube channel and be known as a good creator.
Is that necessary? No, being known is a want and not a need, but on my Wishlist, those two things would be high up in the rankings.
There are times when I feel like I am spinning my wheels. I’ve been a full-time writer on Medium and elsewhere since 2018, so the fact that I haven’t broken through yet sometimes upsets me. 4 years of hustling and grinding and I feel like something should have happened by now.
But then I think about other writers and creators. How long did Stephen King write continuously until he made it? Carrie got 30 rejections before it was published by Doubleday. Mr. Beast wasn’t an overnight success on YouTube — he struggled and obsessed for 10 years before he made it to the top. In Variety, he said, “I’ve been making videos since I was 11 years old. This number [100 million subscribers] in a way represents everything I’ve ever done in my life and I’m so grateful to everyone who’s ever watched a video. I hope to do YouTube until the day I die.”
What did they have in common? Mr. Beast has said, “All I want is to make the best videos possible and help as many people as I can while doing it.” For him, it was an obsession. He worked every day since he was 11 years old — living and breathing the YouTube algorithm until he found the secret and made it to the top. And do you think King would have kept going after 30 rejections if he wasn’t obsessed…
