Software Development: Drawing inspiration from a really good YouTuber

Bald and Bankrupt YouTube Channel: Drawing inspiration from one of the best YouTubers.

When you are talented, you have the luxury of being original. Of the handful of YouTube channels I’ve subscribed to (in single digits) and regularly watch, this is one of them.

https://www.youtube.com/c/baldandbankrupt

I’ve enjoyed every one of his videos thoroughly but that can’t be news to you if I am sharing the channel here. That’s the obvious part.

Let’s get to the not so obvious part.

A little bit about Benjamin for those of you who may not have watched it (I highly recommend that you do).

• He speaks a fair number of languages, all of them more fluently than any one language I speak. English is one of them. Of course. He’s a Brit. And then, Russian. Plenty of Hindi. Some Spanish. And a few others that I recall hearing him speak. A true polyglot.

• I don’t know what he did in his past life but it’s got to have been something difficult and interesting, and certainly something that needed a man of immense skill.

• His content spans the spectrum ranging from a hair cut in a not so fancy barber shop in a small town in India, to some real Jason Bourne like chase and discovery in what was previously USSR. So, it’s likely you will guess what’s coming next.

• He doesn’t follow a “recommended” YouTube routine. No videos every Friday. No consistency, necessarily (and in a good way). No predictable rules. No cliches. He does what he wants to do.

• I’ve generally not seen ADs in his videos (at least, in 99.99% of his videos) so you get to enjoy some uninterrupted, high quality content.

• I am guessing (and I have a feeling I am not wrong here) he has a variety of skills, with each of them having nothing to do with each other. I would hardly be surprised if I ran into him in an Architecture meeting that had to do with Carbon programming. (If you are wondering why someone would invite me to that meeting, you are not alone).

• I don’t know how he does what he does when it comes to video content. Is it scripted? If so, how much of it? How much time does he spend editing? Is he a one man army or does he have a crew? If it’s the former, how does he pull it off?

• What inspires him? (I seriously doubt it is money). What makes him so good at what he does? Is it commitment? Passion? Diligence? All of it put together in general proportions?

I don’t know the answers to most of the questions above but I can tell you why he inspires me.

1. He is original. I couldn’t be more convinced that he doesn’t copy anyone or anything. He doesn’t need to, and I doubt there is anyone or anything he could even copy from even if he wanted to. I love it that he is so original.

2. He loves what he does. You can’t produce the quality of content he does unless you love what you do. Seeing someone love what they do makes us want to love what we do a bit more.

3. He is courageous. I don’t see any fear in him. He’s not afraid of anyone, or anything. I would love to borrow his courage and relish it even if it’s for a day.

4. He is very good at what he does. It’s one thing to want to do something but it’s yet another to be good at it. And it’s completely another to be really, really good at that thing. While I don’t know if it is innate intelligence, or if it is something that was acquired over time through hard work(likely both), I want to believe it’s the latter so I feel I have a shot at getting better as well.

5. He doesn’t seem to do it for the money. When you do something with a singular objective of monetizing, you are bound to make some compromises that would ultimately result in your quality suffering. He doesn’t have that problem. I don’t see him do any of this for the money. It’s probably just a bonus.

6. He’s consistent. Consistency in this context doesn’t mean a video a week, or anything along those lines. Consistency here means he is working with a purpose in mind, and he’s relentlessly delivering to help achieve those purposes. The goal may be a moving target but he’s consistently marching towards those goals.

7. He’s got phenomenal marketing skills. No, it’s not the in-your-face marketing but he has undeniably mastered the subtle forms of it. At the end of every videos, you eagerly wait for him to drop the next video. And during the course of a video, you wait for the ending. Sometimes, you wait for the beginning. Other times, you wait for the middle. I always find myself waiting. It’s like a Nolan movie minus all the budget. (It’s surely a coincidence that they are both British).

8. He’s creative. Being original doesn’t make one creative, and when you are both, you are going to give any competition a run for their money. This part, some of us can only be inspired by without being able to convert it to actions. Unfortunately. Creativity hardly comes by hard work in my opinion.

9. He doesn’t follow a trend. He creates one. And another. And a third.

10. He doesn’t compete. And that might explain the serenity in his videos, and in himself. A life where you don’t need to compete, or emulate (anyone else but yourself) is perhaps the most blessed one.

I am so happy I stumbled into Benjamin (I am referring to his videos, of course), much like his millions of other subscribers. No matter how popular he is, I think he is still an unsung hero.

Keep doing what you do, Ben. We love you. And no matter what do you, you will continue to inspire us, and make us be a better version of ourselves. Thank you.

#snowpal #projectmanagement

Whatever it is about Ben that inspires you, put that to use by improving yourself. And if you need a bit of help in doing that, check out https://snowpal.com.