if the reason why you’re doing anything
creative is to make a living then you’re
doing it wrong I don’t really like the
word inspiration I like the word
motivation it’s not how you tell it it’s
what you tell life shrinks and expands
in direct proportion to one’s
willingness to take on a risk when you
don’t know the way is that you have to
find the way one of my most watched
videos that was shot terribly on a
mobile phone there will always be
someone who’s better at whatever you’re
doing them with what you then you are I
always do my best to operate without
fear and the irony here is that this
video is like huge this is before
YouTube this is when viral meant like
chlamydia in a frat house you only get
like a nugget of time to really pursue
the things you care about he’s an
American film director producer designer
and popular YouTube creator he’s the
co-founder of a social media company
called beam he and his brother are the
founders of the HBO series the nice
stack brothers he’s casing I said and
here is top 10 rules for success I
always made a living so I could make
movies I never made movies to try and
make a living and I think that’s a big
mistake that a lot of newcomers do is
that they focus on how can my passion
pain
and I think that’s a terrible place to
start if the reason why you’re doing
anything creative is to make a living
that you’re doing it wrong you get into
it because it’s a true passion it’s
something you really believe in or don’t
get into it at all what inspires me you
know I don’t really like the word
inspiration I like the word motivation
because I think the working part always
matters more than the inspiration part
work is always more important than the
idea and as far as motivation you know
I’m motivated by everything around me
I’m motivated by my kid I’m motivated by
by other people’s work I’m motivated by
the people that I work with I’m like a
sponge I absorb the motivation to do my
work from everything around it well I
think the key to blogging well and I
think this is true to writing to
filmmaking to any sort of creative
capacity any sort of field in the
creative capacity is that it’s not how
you tell it it’s what you tell so it
never has anything to do with a camera
you shoot on it doesn’t matter like it
doesn’t have to do with camera tricks or
high production or low production it’s
what you’re saying that is the only
thing that anyone will ever respond to
so the advice I give to to newcomers or
to aspiring filmmakers or youtubers is
that shift all of your focus from how to
do it to what you’re doing what is it
that you want to communicate what drives
you and if that’s what your focus is I
think you’ll be a much more effective
sort of communicator and creator than if
you’re someone who obsesses over what
lens they should be she done yeah when I
look back at my career I see all these
tangents in the chant the tangents that
have always yielded success were the
ones where there was no established path
no defined route for me to take but I
went down in anyways and through that
kind of exploration I always discovered
something new and those those new things
those new entities whether they be
movies or ideas or things in my personal
life have always proven to be the most
rewarding for me life shrinks and
expands in direct proportion to one’s
willingness to take on risk
and I think when it comes to exploring
the act of exploration is the act of
assuming risk the greater risk takers
the greater Explorer I never went to
film school I never sort of apprenticed
under a filmmaker I was never taught and
I read a mentor I never anybody that I
followed and the interesting thing that
happens when you don’t know the way is
that you have to find the way and I
always get to the destination which were
these finished movies but the path with
which I employ is radically different
from what’s the norm and again that’s
not some I don’t take credit for that as
some genius stylistic move it’s just I
don’t know like I still don’t know how
to do proper titles titling like my
assistant editor did those titles which
is why most of the movies on my youtube
channel all the titles are just hand
written on paper and then the piece of
paper is filmed because I don’t know how
to do it right I don’t know how to do
After Effects so all my animation is
like be stopped frame and now sort of in
success I have the opportunities to use
all of the tools that were always so
elusive to me so now it’s a much more
conscious decision to maintain this sort
of handmade aesthetic I think now that
so much media is consumed on mobile
the cinematography the cinematic aspects
are being marginalized and what’s taking
its place is sort of a more relatable
story
I think people one of my most watched
videos that were shot terribly on a
mobile phone but the story is so
poignant that 13 or 14 million people
selected to see it so I think there will
always be a place in an appreciation for
really high quality cinematic production
appeal but there’s a new place that’s
being presented that Mobile is
presenting that will forgive
shortcomings in production provided that
the stories they’re provided the content
is something that people care about
there are two rules that I always adhere
to and that is to work hard and be brave
and I think the essence of hard work is
one that’s pretty straightforward is
that you’ll never be the best-looking
you’ll never be the tallest most
talented most capable you’ll never have
the most money there will always be
someone who’s better at whatever you’re
doing them with what you than you are
but you can always be the hardest
working person in the room and I think
the hardest working person will always
win right after the HBO show aired I
produce two feature films that were that
were big hip it premiered at like Cannes
Film Festival and Sundance and I got an
award that Natalie Portman gave me on TV
that my dad watched and it was like a
big big deal and I just like I remember
having this moment where I realized that
like I was so deep into this thing that
wasn’t really it didn’t feel right to me
and it’s different trying to trying to
find opportunities when you are in a
place of success when you’re in a place
of comfort like I was no longer starving
I wasn’t hungry anymore I had some
recognition but something didn’t feel
right and that was when I took this big
pivot and that pivot was to like you
know what it’s not the politics it’s not
the Natalie Portman giving me the award
about the schmoozing then I love I love
telling stories telling stories is my
passion and that was when I decided to
sort of walk away from TV even walk away
from movies I just wanted to make
youtube videos and I remember like my
big Hollywood agent when I sort of told
that to him it was like Casey no you
know this is four years ago YouTube five
years you know YouTube was not
it was something that was silly it was
like a really great place to go and
watch cats play the piano and I wanted
to like parlay my career as a very
successful filmmaker into into that and
I can’t tell you the opportunities that
were birthed from that it’s given me
what I have today that’s opportunity
those are opportunities those are
opportunities that in the moment I
couldn’t have told you were
opportunities I didn’t know what they
were there was something that just felt
right there was something that looked
right I did my best calculations I took
my best guess it wasn’t reckless I never
operate recklessly and this is an
important differentiation between
recklessness and fearlessness I always
do my best to operate without fear don’t
not do something don’t skip something
because I’m afraid to do it but make
sure it’s a smart decision and then part
two of that is is is obligation I feel
obliged to embrace opportunities like
that I felt obliged to quit my job I
felt obliged to walk away from HBO and
the obligation was because there was
something in me there was a truth that I
wanted and the obligation was to embrace
that the first movie we made that
anybody saw was in 2003 and this is a
good story for Eddie Lampert who talked
yesterday about biting the hand that
feeds you so in 2002 I think a Polly
Matt with the iPod and in 2003 my iPod
battery died and I called up and I was
like dead broke at the time I was a
president I called up Apple to fix it
and they’re like and just buy a new one
and it really pissed me off so I called
them back when I recorded the phone call
and and this is at the time I know this
is at the time when when Apple had those
like awesome like those silhouette with
the colors posters all over New York
City I mean the whole city was covered
in them so I recorded the phone call and
then my brother van and I went around
with this stencil and we spray-painted
iPods unreplaceable battery lasts only
18 months on every one of these in New
York City
and we didn’t agree I’m sure we were
wise asses but we just thought we’d
educate the masses like if Apple wasn’t
going to do it we thought we would and
the irony here is that this video is
like huge this is before YouTube this is
when viral meant like chlamydia in a
frat house like this was this thing was
huge like this was emailed all over the
place
millions of views Steve Jobs sending me
hate mail and then like a week later
Apple change the policy and they’re like
yeah we were going to do it anyways
which is great but again this video
brought a lot of eyeballs out to my
brother and me and people got to see all
these other little stupid videos that
we’ve been making for years and I try to
like find some press for you guys this
is seven years ago so I couldn’t really
find but this is some of that and anyhow
brought a lot of attention to us and if
anything it drove home the point that
like you don’t need any of that
understood infrastructure this was just
like us being pissed off and that was
enough motivation so we made this movie
and now we had all this attention and we
drove that home for I stuck with that
for a really long time and now you know
I made sort of serious movies I just
shot a documentary a feature-length
document is golf movies and this summer
is a good one I just want to tell this
story but this summer I was riding my
bike through New York City and I was
pulled over in the pouring rain by a
police officer for riding my bike
outside of the bike lane I just come on
man that’s like right so I filmed him
the cop of my iPhone naturally and then
I made a movie of me going around trying
to show the officer why you can’t always
ride in the bike lanes and I crashed
into everything I found so the videos
just me arguing with a cop for like 30
seconds then me crashing my bike for
another two minutes and this thing was
huge I mean this thing was bigger than
the iPod movie this was gigantic like I
was on every news outlet and Bloomberg
had to answer to it in a in a press
conference and what is this The Guardian
called me a warrior which is awesome
and and it was huge and and this again
is another good exemplification of the
idea that it’s just embraced the
resources that you have available to you
and this is what I try to talk to young
kids about this what I try to reinforce
is that like let go of all the
pretensions that is filmmaking and
embrace what you have available to you I
want to talk about risk as a guiding
principle life shrinks and life expands
in direct proportion to your willingness
to assume risk yeah I like I’ve made
some really stupid decisions in my
career for my entire career on a broad
plane they’ve all worked out every time
I’ve quit my jobs which I’ve done every
time I’ve had a job people that I trust
most people that I love all advised
against it my dad told me not to move to
New York City because it was such a risk
and every time I every time I took these
bigger risks the opportunity for a
larger payout was always there life is
like this super temporary mega fragile
thing you only get like a nugget of time
to really pursue the things you care
about
and like I’m thirty thirty and my rule
is that the right time is always right
now to put a little meat on these bones
this new company that I don’t really
talk about this new company is the
biggest risk I’ve ever taken I took five
years of my life to build my advertising
career and I made like a lot of money
I’ve been doing really great look at my
youtube channel go all the way back the
last branded content thing you’ll see
was in February of 2014 I ditched it all
to pursue something I knew nothing about
this huge risk and I did it at a time
when my wife was pregnant and there was
all of this vulnerability and all the
scariness in my life and even now at 33
my dad’s at 34 my dad said Casey that’s
crazy you’ve got a good thing don’t let
it go but I know that like someday I
won’t be able to do this I know that the
time is now the time the right time is
always now so I had to do it that’s how
I feel about risk in general and that’s
what the struggle has always been for me
is like identifying risk identifying
fear and then just smashing through it
because a fear is looking
and wishing that I had done these things
the most dangerous thing you can do in
your career the most dangerous thing you
can do in life is play it safe
thank you guys so much for watching I
hope you enjoyed I’d love to know which
of Casey’s top ten rules had the biggest
impact on you leave it in the comments
below and we’re going to join in the
discussion and we’d also love to know
who are your favorite entrepreneurs that
you want us to feature on this channel
leave that in the comments below thank
you guys for watching continue to
believe and I will see you soon
I don’t think in terms of like
retrospectively retro actively looking
at what I did and how I got to where I
am instead it’s much more of a focus on
what do I want to do that easy because I
think that if you try to consider a
cater to your audience too much you will
invariably end up making something
that’s much yeah because I don’t know
that the audience knows what they want
to see I know that I don’t know what’s
gonna pique my interest if I knew how to
describe the perfect movie blog
television show I would just do it I
want to see something that surprises me
and what I think of my own work that’s
exactly right like I put my head down
and I try to ignore the world and I try
to make something that I think is really
good and if people like it great if they
don’t I don’t care as long as I like it
so I think like if I had one thing to
attribute all this growth to it’s that
I’m making work that I feel embodies the
same level of integrity of anything else
that would invest myself into my advice
to young people that want to be
filmmakers or want to do anything the
creative world is always the same and
that’s do the work ideas are cheap I
think inspiration is cheap i discount
all of those those mean very little to
me all I care about is the work because
when I started filmmaking I wasn’t much
of a filmmaker I had a really junky
point-and-shoot camera and I had an
iMovie that I’ve never learned the
technicalities of filmmaking it’s only
through doing that I learned how to
create well you know I think fulfillment
it fulfillment is fulfillment YouTube
producer kind of two different things I
think fulfillment in general as a
filmmaker for me comes from creating and
that’s why you know in 2010 they put the
soundtrack on for this story so I’ll try
to make a sound of style too
I left like the mainstream meet the
mainstream sort of universe because I
wanted to create more so for me
fulfillment comes in creation and I
always say that like I’m a little bit of
a junkie and my drug is uploading
because if I haven’t posted a movie in
like a month or month enough I get like
seriously depressed and the only thing
that like makes me happy is to get a new
move
out there that answers your question
right yeah
creative is to make a living then you’re
doing it wrong I don’t really like the
word inspiration I like the word
motivation it’s not how you tell it it’s
what you tell life shrinks and expands
in direct proportion to one’s
willingness to take on a risk when you
don’t know the way is that you have to
find the way one of my most watched
videos that was shot terribly on a
mobile phone there will always be
someone who’s better at whatever you’re
doing them with what you then you are I
always do my best to operate without
fear and the irony here is that this
video is like huge this is before
YouTube this is when viral meant like
chlamydia in a frat house you only get
like a nugget of time to really pursue
the things you care about he’s an
American film director producer designer
and popular YouTube creator he’s the
co-founder of a social media company
called beam he and his brother are the
founders of the HBO series the nice
stack brothers he’s casing I said and
here is top 10 rules for success I
always made a living so I could make
movies I never made movies to try and
make a living and I think that’s a big
mistake that a lot of newcomers do is
that they focus on how can my passion
pain
and I think that’s a terrible place to
start if the reason why you’re doing
anything creative is to make a living
that you’re doing it wrong you get into
it because it’s a true passion it’s
something you really believe in or don’t
get into it at all what inspires me you
know I don’t really like the word
inspiration I like the word motivation
because I think the working part always
matters more than the inspiration part
work is always more important than the
idea and as far as motivation you know
I’m motivated by everything around me
I’m motivated by my kid I’m motivated by
by other people’s work I’m motivated by
the people that I work with I’m like a
sponge I absorb the motivation to do my
work from everything around it well I
think the key to blogging well and I
think this is true to writing to
filmmaking to any sort of creative
capacity any sort of field in the
creative capacity is that it’s not how
you tell it it’s what you tell so it
never has anything to do with a camera
you shoot on it doesn’t matter like it
doesn’t have to do with camera tricks or
high production or low production it’s
what you’re saying that is the only
thing that anyone will ever respond to
so the advice I give to to newcomers or
to aspiring filmmakers or youtubers is
that shift all of your focus from how to
do it to what you’re doing what is it
that you want to communicate what drives
you and if that’s what your focus is I
think you’ll be a much more effective
sort of communicator and creator than if
you’re someone who obsesses over what
lens they should be she done yeah when I
look back at my career I see all these
tangents in the chant the tangents that
have always yielded success were the
ones where there was no established path
no defined route for me to take but I
went down in anyways and through that
kind of exploration I always discovered
something new and those those new things
those new entities whether they be
movies or ideas or things in my personal
life have always proven to be the most
rewarding for me life shrinks and
expands in direct proportion to one’s
willingness to take on risk
and I think when it comes to exploring
the act of exploration is the act of
assuming risk the greater risk takers
the greater Explorer I never went to
film school I never sort of apprenticed
under a filmmaker I was never taught and
I read a mentor I never anybody that I
followed and the interesting thing that
happens when you don’t know the way is
that you have to find the way and I
always get to the destination which were
these finished movies but the path with
which I employ is radically different
from what’s the norm and again that’s
not some I don’t take credit for that as
some genius stylistic move it’s just I
don’t know like I still don’t know how
to do proper titles titling like my
assistant editor did those titles which
is why most of the movies on my youtube
channel all the titles are just hand
written on paper and then the piece of
paper is filmed because I don’t know how
to do it right I don’t know how to do
After Effects so all my animation is
like be stopped frame and now sort of in
success I have the opportunities to use
all of the tools that were always so
elusive to me so now it’s a much more
conscious decision to maintain this sort
of handmade aesthetic I think now that
so much media is consumed on mobile
the cinematography the cinematic aspects
are being marginalized and what’s taking
its place is sort of a more relatable
story
I think people one of my most watched
videos that were shot terribly on a
mobile phone but the story is so
poignant that 13 or 14 million people
selected to see it so I think there will
always be a place in an appreciation for
really high quality cinematic production
appeal but there’s a new place that’s
being presented that Mobile is
presenting that will forgive
shortcomings in production provided that
the stories they’re provided the content
is something that people care about
there are two rules that I always adhere
to and that is to work hard and be brave
and I think the essence of hard work is
one that’s pretty straightforward is
that you’ll never be the best-looking
you’ll never be the tallest most
talented most capable you’ll never have
the most money there will always be
someone who’s better at whatever you’re
doing them with what you than you are
but you can always be the hardest
working person in the room and I think
the hardest working person will always
win right after the HBO show aired I
produce two feature films that were that
were big hip it premiered at like Cannes
Film Festival and Sundance and I got an
award that Natalie Portman gave me on TV
that my dad watched and it was like a
big big deal and I just like I remember
having this moment where I realized that
like I was so deep into this thing that
wasn’t really it didn’t feel right to me
and it’s different trying to trying to
find opportunities when you are in a
place of success when you’re in a place
of comfort like I was no longer starving
I wasn’t hungry anymore I had some
recognition but something didn’t feel
right and that was when I took this big
pivot and that pivot was to like you
know what it’s not the politics it’s not
the Natalie Portman giving me the award
about the schmoozing then I love I love
telling stories telling stories is my
passion and that was when I decided to
sort of walk away from TV even walk away
from movies I just wanted to make
youtube videos and I remember like my
big Hollywood agent when I sort of told
that to him it was like Casey no you
know this is four years ago YouTube five
years you know YouTube was not
it was something that was silly it was
like a really great place to go and
watch cats play the piano and I wanted
to like parlay my career as a very
successful filmmaker into into that and
I can’t tell you the opportunities that
were birthed from that it’s given me
what I have today that’s opportunity
those are opportunities those are
opportunities that in the moment I
couldn’t have told you were
opportunities I didn’t know what they
were there was something that just felt
right there was something that looked
right I did my best calculations I took
my best guess it wasn’t reckless I never
operate recklessly and this is an
important differentiation between
recklessness and fearlessness I always
do my best to operate without fear don’t
not do something don’t skip something
because I’m afraid to do it but make
sure it’s a smart decision and then part
two of that is is is obligation I feel
obliged to embrace opportunities like
that I felt obliged to quit my job I
felt obliged to walk away from HBO and
the obligation was because there was
something in me there was a truth that I
wanted and the obligation was to embrace
that the first movie we made that
anybody saw was in 2003 and this is a
good story for Eddie Lampert who talked
yesterday about biting the hand that
feeds you so in 2002 I think a Polly
Matt with the iPod and in 2003 my iPod
battery died and I called up and I was
like dead broke at the time I was a
president I called up Apple to fix it
and they’re like and just buy a new one
and it really pissed me off so I called
them back when I recorded the phone call
and and this is at the time I know this
is at the time when when Apple had those
like awesome like those silhouette with
the colors posters all over New York
City I mean the whole city was covered
in them so I recorded the phone call and
then my brother van and I went around
with this stencil and we spray-painted
iPods unreplaceable battery lasts only
18 months on every one of these in New
York City
and we didn’t agree I’m sure we were
wise asses but we just thought we’d
educate the masses like if Apple wasn’t
going to do it we thought we would and
the irony here is that this video is
like huge this is before YouTube this is
when viral meant like chlamydia in a
frat house like this was this thing was
huge like this was emailed all over the
place
millions of views Steve Jobs sending me
hate mail and then like a week later
Apple change the policy and they’re like
yeah we were going to do it anyways
which is great but again this video
brought a lot of eyeballs out to my
brother and me and people got to see all
these other little stupid videos that
we’ve been making for years and I try to
like find some press for you guys this
is seven years ago so I couldn’t really
find but this is some of that and anyhow
brought a lot of attention to us and if
anything it drove home the point that
like you don’t need any of that
understood infrastructure this was just
like us being pissed off and that was
enough motivation so we made this movie
and now we had all this attention and we
drove that home for I stuck with that
for a really long time and now you know
I made sort of serious movies I just
shot a documentary a feature-length
document is golf movies and this summer
is a good one I just want to tell this
story but this summer I was riding my
bike through New York City and I was
pulled over in the pouring rain by a
police officer for riding my bike
outside of the bike lane I just come on
man that’s like right so I filmed him
the cop of my iPhone naturally and then
I made a movie of me going around trying
to show the officer why you can’t always
ride in the bike lanes and I crashed
into everything I found so the videos
just me arguing with a cop for like 30
seconds then me crashing my bike for
another two minutes and this thing was
huge I mean this thing was bigger than
the iPod movie this was gigantic like I
was on every news outlet and Bloomberg
had to answer to it in a in a press
conference and what is this The Guardian
called me a warrior which is awesome
and and it was huge and and this again
is another good exemplification of the
idea that it’s just embraced the
resources that you have available to you
and this is what I try to talk to young
kids about this what I try to reinforce
is that like let go of all the
pretensions that is filmmaking and
embrace what you have available to you I
want to talk about risk as a guiding
principle life shrinks and life expands
in direct proportion to your willingness
to assume risk yeah I like I’ve made
some really stupid decisions in my
career for my entire career on a broad
plane they’ve all worked out every time
I’ve quit my jobs which I’ve done every
time I’ve had a job people that I trust
most people that I love all advised
against it my dad told me not to move to
New York City because it was such a risk
and every time I every time I took these
bigger risks the opportunity for a
larger payout was always there life is
like this super temporary mega fragile
thing you only get like a nugget of time
to really pursue the things you care
about
and like I’m thirty thirty and my rule
is that the right time is always right
now to put a little meat on these bones
this new company that I don’t really
talk about this new company is the
biggest risk I’ve ever taken I took five
years of my life to build my advertising
career and I made like a lot of money
I’ve been doing really great look at my
youtube channel go all the way back the
last branded content thing you’ll see
was in February of 2014 I ditched it all
to pursue something I knew nothing about
this huge risk and I did it at a time
when my wife was pregnant and there was
all of this vulnerability and all the
scariness in my life and even now at 33
my dad’s at 34 my dad said Casey that’s
crazy you’ve got a good thing don’t let
it go but I know that like someday I
won’t be able to do this I know that the
time is now the time the right time is
always now so I had to do it that’s how
I feel about risk in general and that’s
what the struggle has always been for me
is like identifying risk identifying
fear and then just smashing through it
because a fear is looking
and wishing that I had done these things
the most dangerous thing you can do in
your career the most dangerous thing you
can do in life is play it safe
thank you guys so much for watching I
hope you enjoyed I’d love to know which
of Casey’s top ten rules had the biggest
impact on you leave it in the comments
below and we’re going to join in the
discussion and we’d also love to know
who are your favorite entrepreneurs that
you want us to feature on this channel
leave that in the comments below thank
you guys for watching continue to
believe and I will see you soon
I don’t think in terms of like
retrospectively retro actively looking
at what I did and how I got to where I
am instead it’s much more of a focus on
what do I want to do that easy because I
think that if you try to consider a
cater to your audience too much you will
invariably end up making something
that’s much yeah because I don’t know
that the audience knows what they want
to see I know that I don’t know what’s
gonna pique my interest if I knew how to
describe the perfect movie blog
television show I would just do it I
want to see something that surprises me
and what I think of my own work that’s
exactly right like I put my head down
and I try to ignore the world and I try
to make something that I think is really
good and if people like it great if they
don’t I don’t care as long as I like it
so I think like if I had one thing to
attribute all this growth to it’s that
I’m making work that I feel embodies the
same level of integrity of anything else
that would invest myself into my advice
to young people that want to be
filmmakers or want to do anything the
creative world is always the same and
that’s do the work ideas are cheap I
think inspiration is cheap i discount
all of those those mean very little to
me all I care about is the work because
when I started filmmaking I wasn’t much
of a filmmaker I had a really junky
point-and-shoot camera and I had an
iMovie that I’ve never learned the
technicalities of filmmaking it’s only
through doing that I learned how to
create well you know I think fulfillment
it fulfillment is fulfillment YouTube
producer kind of two different things I
think fulfillment in general as a
filmmaker for me comes from creating and
that’s why you know in 2010 they put the
soundtrack on for this story so I’ll try
to make a sound of style too
I left like the mainstream meet the
mainstream sort of universe because I
wanted to create more so for me
fulfillment comes in creation and I
always say that like I’m a little bit of
a junkie and my drug is uploading
because if I haven’t posted a movie in
like a month or month enough I get like
seriously depressed and the only thing
that like makes me happy is to get a new
move
out there that answers your question
right yeah
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