Your Best Work Isn’t Your Best Work

Today, I published a video that I think may be my best one ever. Not only was it fun to make, it’s objectively the highest production quality video I’ve made (using a nice camera and mics). I’m also proud of the story and pacing and how I took over an hour of raw video and compressed it into just 8 minutes.

But, viewers don’t agree.

Youtube gave it tons of impressions but it’s currently getting the lowest click-through rate of any recent video I’ve posted. And worse, those who click aren’t watching for long.

Now, I’ve been on Youtube long enough to know that day one isn’t everything. Who knows, maybe I swap out the thumbnail and suddenly it goes viral. Maybe I do nothing and six months from now that topic is in the news and it rides a wave. Things like that happen.

But it’s still discouraging when after so many thousands of hours of making videos, studying thumbnails, and making something I thought people would enjoy, it flops.

The lesson that I’ve learned repeatedly from years on social media is that the thing you think is going to do great, won’t. In other words, the thing I think is my best work, isn’t my best work according to the market. Conversely, the thing I’m almost too embarrassed to publish is the one that gets attention.

The takeaway is to hit publish without expectation of an external outcome. Make work you’re proud of and keep shipping and improving.

Evenutally, the market will notice.