Andre Agassi's autobiography is one reason I came back to doing daily ICP and crypto videos. You all asked about this one, so I'll explain it right now.
Andre Agassi hated tennis, and that's how I feel about crypto videos
Andre Agassi wrote an autobiography called Open. He was one of the best tennis players of all time, winning Grand Slam titles and all kinds of championships. And I was really surprised listening to his book. Andre said that for a lot of his career, he hated playing tennis. Now, you'd think one of the best tennis players in the world loved playing tennis. But for a lot of his career, especially the beginning in his childhood and when he started winning championships, he hated playing tennis.
And that's exactly how I feel about crypto videos. I hate making crypto videos. They disgust me. I want to make music. There are so many other things I'd rather do than make crypto videos. But nothing else I do, will you all actually watch?
Maybe I'll just use my crypto channel again. Because I apparently am very good at making crypto videos, and you all really like them, just like Andre is very good at playing tennis, so people wanted to watch him play tennis.
It's a crime to be good at something and refuse to do it
I realized that it's kind of a crime if you have somebody who is really good at playing tennis who won't play just because they hate it. Like, so what? Get out there and play for the people. And like Andre Agassi, tennis paid him really good.
And just like that, I'm doing crypto videos. There's nothing else I can do in 30 minutes or an hour a day that pays nearly as much money as crypto. I can make a video in an hour or less a day. In my experience, I can make a full-time income, thousands of dollars a month, even while being honest, which is the real trick.
I'd rather keep my integrity than chase the easy money
I've come to believe that if I was dishonest, I could make hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. But I'll settle for a few thousand dollars a month and my integrity intact, because my integrity is not worth a hundred-plus thousand. If I was willing to be dishonest, I could make a full-time income many times over, which I wish you could say for most of the rest of crypto YouTube. But I guess that's why you all like my videos: because I'm disgusted with what's happening on the rest of crypto YouTube so much that I won't even watch it.
When I was doing music and quit crypto for a couple of months, it was amazing how few people reached out. But the moment I do some crypto videos, everyone wants to talk. And like Andre, I want to be useful. I like making money. I don't want to ask my wife for money as I grind away on music or try and do something in person that nobody seems to want, and then leave the crypto videos on the table.
So I thought: so what if you hate doing crypto? Everybody hates doing their job sometimes. As a content creator, though, I keep telling myself I have to do what's fun, that I can't afford to be out here not having fun. But Andre Agassi playing tennis and not even liking it, oddly enough, was still better than most people playing their absolute best, and he'd still beat them. So I can make better crypto videos than most people even though I hate doing them, because there are a lot of things I'd rather do with my time than go on for the thousandth time about why some altcoin is a fraud and why ICP is the real deal. But hey, that's what y'all want to watch, so I'll be happy to keep making it. If you want to follow the coin side of this, that's all in my ICP Crypto playlist.
Why I quit, and why I deleted my channels
I want to be self-supporting financially and not depending on my wife for money. And I just hate making music videos that then nobody even wants to watch, and then I'm like, why did I waste my time doing that? So I'm setting the intention going forward: I'll put one crypto video out a day, and I'm going to rely on you, because I hate watching crypto videos. There's no rule that says I have to watch anybody else's videos. If you think there's something I should make a video about, tell me, and I'm going to make a video about it.
I'm going to meet you halfway. So half my effort, half my videos: I'll put a crypto video out every day.
Many of you have asked, well, why did you quit in the first place? I deleted all my other YouTube channels. I'm also disgusted with, and honestly I hate, YouTube as a platform. It's encouraging sensational clickbait BS content, and it's pushing some of the most dishonest, lying, cheating people, especially in crypto. Their videos are not good. I make a real, honest review of something, and YouTube's like, no, we better not show that to anybody, because people don't want to handle the truth. People don't want to see that the stupid coin they bought sucks and that it's provably false, because then people feel stupid. And when people watch my videos, we want you all to feel smart. The same belief about chasing views instead of value is why I think most YouTube advice is built for views, not income. I keep these honest conversations going with everyone inside the Jerry Banfield Family.
Andre's book pulled me out of a really low day
I'd been feeling really depressed today, and the first thought that made me feel better was: why don't you think about Andre Agassi's book? So what if you hate making crypto videos? Get out there and make the video anyway. So I filmed four crypto videos today.
There's no point in saying what I'm going to do in the future anymore, because clearly I just change. I thought I was quitting. I nearly deleted my crypto channel today. But I'm sad to say I would like to have some money for next month, and I don't know what I'm going to do next month for money. I sold about 600 of my ICP, although I still have 4,000 staked and hundreds more ICP liquid. I don't know what I'm going to do for money besides ask my wife, and that's lame.
So instead of deleting my channel today, I figured I'll just start doing videos on it again and see if I feel a little bit better. Next time I think about deleting this channel, I'll remember Andre's book: I can get out here and play, and I can play with some of the best of them. So let's do it. And the big difference this time? I'm actually glad I quit for a month. The break clarified what I'm good at and what people actually want from me. This whole question of how the audience keeps me going is something I dug into more in how viewers help me not quit YouTube, and you can find my newest crypto and creator videos in my YouTube Coaching playlist.
Anyway, that's why I'm back.