The equation of building a successful business. ( Give more, expect less)

Online teacher October 22, 2022

Written by the YouTuber Ali Abdaal and the Fixed Life Media.

Business has a ultimately will or expectation that you have to provide value to your audience you are targeting and also try to give it a competitive prices. Also making it less worth it to you the creator. It's proven by many Successful entrepreneurs that you must first fall in love with you product or service before anybody else does it. It takes hard work for other people to accept or love or become addicted to your products or service.

So creators must not end up making things they’re not excited or passionate about.

I’ve done this a few times in the past: if you know what you’re doing, you can get lots of views from lazy, recycled content. But it can sometimes feel a little soul-destroying. Finally seeing all you have been doing as a waste of time and leading to infinity regrets and absolutely quite but when you just had to turn around the game to the things you love or like.

And viewers pick up on that negative vibe. Like Visakan Veerasamy says: “if I’m not having a good time, everything I do gets contaminated by the subtle resentment that builds up. I don’t want that.”

The solution might be what YouTuber Ryan Trahan calls Redemptive Work.

Instead of cranking out content to get maximum views, Ryan treats every video as a gift to the viewer:

Instead of toiling for profit, we’re going to create for restoration. Instead of exhausting ourselves for an extra buck, we’re going to creatively instil in this project as much as we can, so that whoever receives this receives it as a gift, and is rejuvenated by it. […]

And it’s crazy… the more we’ve been able to pour into the videos creatively to give a gift to people, the more views that we’re seeing. And also that same thing comes to business, try putting the maximum creativity to give out your best from your business to your consumers that will let you get the things that you more focusing on in the end of this like you will increase in your customers and sales, close more deals, you will receive the 5 star rating.

And I think it’s because it’s received as a gift.

It’s better for him, it’s better for the audience, and it’s way more sustainable.

When you’re in the gift-giving mindset, you’re just trying to make something fun. Something you’re proud of on an artistic level. So whatever you create will be filled with positive vibes, that’ll draw people in.

Of course, if you want to be a professional creator, there’s some strategy involved. You need to ask ‘what do people actually want’ before giving a gift. But you can do that without manipulating people into watching at all costs. If you can do good work and serve enough people, the money should take care of itself. In theory. Also comes to the business, you must not force sales or be a spam salesperson but a creative and innovative business.

Other creators have spotted that the idea of giving a gift is pretty powerful:

Austin Kleon: "When you feel as though you’ve lost or are losing your gift, the quickest way to recover is to step outside the marketplace and make gifts.”

Tiago Forte: “I believe service and pleasure can be one and the same, like two sides of the same coin. By asking yourself how you can be of service, you evolve into a more generous person who you enjoy seeing in the mirror.”

Brendon Burchard: “When you feel the drive to serve others, you sustain solid performance longer.”

When I sit down for my morning journaling session, I often wonder about my purpose as a creator: What am I doing? Why am I doing it? And it’s comforting that after thousands of words of writing, my conclusion is broadly the same as Ryan’s:

Ali, be less outcome-dependent. Do your own thing, put it out there, and think of it as a gift you’ve made for the viewer. They can take it or leave it.

Conclusion

So next time you’re doing something creative, maybe ask yourself “who am I making this for? Is this the kind of gift I’d like to give them? Was it made with love?”

Have a great day!

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