Being Yelled at is an Honor
How to turn the ordinary Extraordinary
Oh thank you.
Thank you so much.
Please, keep it going. I am emotionally fragile and thrive on encouragement.
I’m genuinely happy to be here.
I want to start with an impression, if that’s okay. I promise it’s the only one I’m going to do. It’s the only one I know how to do. But I think I might be the best in the world at it.
These are examples of how we process reality when it’s sitting directly in front of us.
Someone introduces you to a person that is old, senile, has diabetes and probably seen better day then you see that same person announced as
“The two-billion-dollar lottery winner.”
Your brain can’t comprehend
Receive a call from someone who sounds very famous and you hang the phone up thinking it’s AI.
You’re in demand, but not that much
And my last example:
Your wife yells at you for being a lousy driver. Just horrible. And always late.
Probably put you in a bad mood.
But what if that person why Martin Scorsese? And he was talking about your acting chops.
It’s not as bad as it looks. Because he’s taking the time to criticize after probably hiring you so you can improve.
By the legendary director.
And you’re wife is legendary as well for putting up with your crap for another year. So take it as a compliment.
If no one has time for you then you’re not important.
What am I saying bluntly?
We see extraordinary things and immediately reduce them to whatever makes them easiest to ignore.
We don’t overlook winners because they’re hidden.
We overlook them because they’re obvious.
And obvious things are annoying.
Obvious things don’t feel like insight.
They don’t make us feel clever for noticing them.
They don’t come with swelling music or a documentary narrator explaining why this moment matters.
Life does not announce winners the way movies do.
There’s no montage.
No score.
No Scorsese leaning in to whisper,
“This is the take.”
Most of the time, the “winner” is just a person in front of you saying something mildly inconvenient like,
“Hey, this isn’t working,”
or
“You might want to look at this differently,”
or
“Why do you keep doing it that way?”
And instead of reframing the moment, we critique the delivery.
Tone.
Timing.
Facial expression.
Whether it preserved our self-image.
Meanwhile, Scorsese is somewhere behind the camera quietly saying,
“No no… that was it. You missed it.”
(Many directors are mad and theatric for your information)
This is also why the internet crowns the weirdest winners.
People love to complain about influencers.
“Why is this famous?”
“Why does this have 40 million views?”
“I could’ve made that.”
No you couldn’t.
And more importantly, you wouldn’t have.
Because what those fans see isn’t polish.
It’s potential velocity.
MrBeast didn’t start as MrBeast.
He started as a guy making videos that felt repetitive, awkward, and frankly a little dumb.
Which is exactly why it worked.
Most people look at early YouTube and think,
“This is bad content.”
What he saw was,
“This scales.”
That’s the Macabeats effect. Or is it MisterBeast?
(AI get your act together)
Raw.
Loopable.
Almost annoying.
You thought it was sloppy.
He saw something that could compound.
Same thing with older creators who “shouldn’t” be online but are successful.
We assume the internet belongs to youth, speed, aesthetics, and perfect lighting.
But when an older person shows up—unfiltered, unslick, clearly not chasing approval—it hits differently.
Because authenticity travels faster than talent.
Experience reads as confidence.
Confidence reads as trust.
Trust beats production every single time.
And “crappy” YouTube?
That’s just YouTube that hasn’t been reframed yet.
We confuse polish with value.
We confuse editing with insight.
We confuse novelty with leverage.
The winners don’t.
They look at something clumsy and ask,
“Can this repeat?”
“Can this scale?”
“Can this survive my boredom?”
That’s it.
Most people watch content like critics.
The winners watch like engineers.
Which is uncomfortable.
Because it means the thing you dismissed as stupid, basic, or beneath you
might actually be the exact vehicle you’re supposed to be using.
You just didn’t want to be seen driving it.
And that’s fair.
It’s not a cool car.
But it gets you there.
Anyway.
Thank you so much.
You’ve been a wonderful audience.
I’ll be here all week—mostly rereading this email and realizing my wife was right about the driving thing.
And yes, I also thought Macabeats was MrBeast for longer than I’d like to admit.
Make it a powerful day
Eric
PS. Inherently, precious metals are boring. Not much story to it. Shortages. Potential uses. NVDA was boring as well, until it wasn’t. Have a look and Google the name.
