Don't follow your dreams (it's a scam)!

hey guys how's it going my name is thomas brush and i make video games for a living i also start a lot of projects and a lot of those projects fail some of them succeed so one of them i'm working on right now is called fulltimegamedev.com and it's a place where you guys can learn to make video games so if you're interested in that click the link below to at least sign up for potentially getting in the beta program um so that's always cool or you can just get free assets um so feel free to click the link below so anyway you know there's this mentality going around in a lot of industries um in my industry the indie game industry um which is you know pursuing your dreams is actually you know it's a fraud it's not real you can't actually achieve joy and happiness by pursuing your dreams uh it's fake and a lot of people blame

things like the indie game documentary uh which sort of imply that if you work really really hard um you can achieve your dreams and yay life is fun right i've had some friends in the indie game industry completely collapse emotionally because things don't pan out the way they want um and i think this is the i think the root of the problem is that people believe that there's an end to the equation so you work really hard five years of hard work you know watching a bunch of motivational videos really getting up early trying to make things happen and then at the end of the equation you output success and success is defined by a maybe a bag of cash or you feel really good about yourself or you get a trophy like this right you work really hard you build a youtube channel

you get a trophy right i should have that back there on that wall right like most youtubers there's a reason i don't though this thing is not on that wall because that's not what this channel is about i know that sounds pretentious but i specifically with intention i make that not part of my motivation i don't look at entrepreneurship or creativity making a video game or you know some of you maybe want to be a screenwriter or a director or start a company i don't look at that as here's the equation and then at the end of the equation output cash success and then i'm done that's that's not the mind of an entrepreneur if you think that way i would argue that you're not at least by default you're not an entrepreneur an entrepreneur looks at the output as a means to another equation okay

so you shouldn't make video games you shouldn't be a creative person you shouldn't be an entrepreneur quote unquote only to get something in return and then be happy with that and then be done that's not how this works so here's an example i spent five years of my life making an indie game called pinstripe and i worked my butt off on that game i finished the game i released it on pretty much every platform except for mobile and uh i didn't like it i didn't like the game because it didn't make me enough money it didn't make me enough money it didn't make me enough of an income to actually support my family so it was really really difficult because me and my wife realized with a baby on the way we realized that that game was not going to be able to pay our bills so i had to scramble and find other income sources and youtube being one of them and i actually really really like youtube and i hope

that you really really like youtube enough to click the like button that would really mean a lot to me and help support this studio support the channel that really mean a lot and subscribe if you haven't but yeah like this channel was one of the reasons one of the reasons why i started this channel is because pinstripe was not enough so i had to scramble to find all these income sources okay so does that make pinstripe a failure of a game it depends on what the purpose of that the result was okay what was the equations point why did i spend all that time to output a product what was the product's point it was not to make money and then be done the point was to create something that helps me create something else not create more right a lot of people think i'm gonna make games so that it'll fund the next game that's not what i'm talking about i don't think that that's an entrepreneur's mindset the proper mindset is

i'm going to create something like a video game and that video game is going to allow me to exponentially make something quicker faster and better and then i'm gonna take that and do it again and again and it's going to exponentially increase productivity okay there's this really cool meme or comic or something that i saw on instagram yesterday and it's kind of what spurred on this video it's this guy and man i used to feel this way and maybe a lot of you feel this way it's this guy on a bicycle and he's pushing the bike up a hill and that's monday and at the top of the hill he's finally like able to sit on the bike and it's it's friday and he rides down the hill and that's saturday and sunday and he does it over and over and over again that's really depressing like if that's maybe it's not depressing for some people it's depressing for me and i know a lot of you who watch this channel

you do have an entrepreneur entrepreneurial spirit an entrepreneur doesn't he if he's on that hill he's going to get off he's he's not going to be a part of that hill he's going to go find a hill that never ends and it keeps going up and up and up and up and up because he enjoys going up that hill an entrepreneur i think what defines an entrepreneur at the base level the mentality is i'm gonna pursue progress so in this case getting higher and higher on this hill is just enjoyable it's just fun why go down the hill just keep going up if you if you guys want to make video games or make companies or be creative and make products solely for the purpose of a leisurely relaxing result so maybe drinking mojito in your uh yacht at the bahamas if that's your goal

don't be an entrepreneur you know go find go find a way to build wealth somewhere else entrepreneurship requires you to enjoy the process so the second part of this video that i wanted to discuss was instead of your output of the entrepreneurial equation if instead of the output output being a bag of cash that makes life easy for you the output should rather be a brick and i'm trying to make the metaphor as unglamorous as possible because a brick if you're if you're not willing to accept be receiving the brick just a concrete brick after you complete your project if if you're not okay with receiving something as seemingly boring as that brick then you shouldn't be an entrepreneur an entrepreneur when they see like for me personally this maybe i sound a little bit egotistical but when i get a brick a very solid boring

looking concrete brick after i complete a project it excites me and the reason why is because i know that i can use that brick to build a foundation and then a wall and an entire structure through my career what is that structure and i think a lot of you might not like this but i think the majority of you might appreciate this metaphor the structure is what i'm calling a wealth generation machine now obviously guys let's just clarify when i say wealth i don't mean building a lot of cash building a machine that makes a lot of cash and then you can live a wealthy lifestyle what i mean by a wealth generation machine is something that produces freedom uh to be creative produces freedom to enjoy life and have fun and and spread that joy to your family and your children and your grandchildren that's what i mean by a wealth generation machine it produces freedom now cash kind of kind of equals freedom in a lot of ways

so let's just make sure that we before i get started on this point let's think of the wealth generation machine as amoral it just it doesn't you can screw up by building a wealth generation machine that's all about you so the problem is you if you're obsessed in a workaholic if that's the reason you're building this machine in your life then that's that's your problem so let's just talk about the machine as being amoral you can use it for good or bad so let's just talk about this machine building the wealth generation machine brick by brick by brick is a slow process and it's a creative process and if you don't enjoy building these bricks for this wealth generation machine for this structure then you probably shouldn't be an entrepreneur there are so many people who when they receive a brick at the end of their pursuit they're like wait what this is all i got so let me explain maybe what this boring

concrete brick might look like in the case of pinstripe the boring concrete brick that i received was it's not valuable i mean it's not providing a ton of revenue it still provides you know a couple hundred bucks a month which is cool now we we have some sales and those sales will bring in maybe two thousand dollars but overall at this point you know three years later it's boring brick but what makes it solid what makes it different than just sand that collapses the reason why it's a solid brick is one thing it's actually two things let's get the first one out of the way the first reason why this is a solid brick that is going to to be a foundation for my career for the rest of my life the reason why one of the reasons why is it's you know this is a pretentious one but it's it's made me into who i am i've

learned a ton i've built a thicker skin and i'm a i'm a better person for it so that's obvious let's get that out of the way the second reason why it's solid and it's foundational to my career is a few things but one of the primary things that came out of this and this is specific one it's not abstract at all it's actually very clear-cut one of the reasons why this is a solid brick is because of a review from time magazine from matt peckham he gave me a five out of five for that game i can use that single review to establish credibility wherever i go so even even though the game didn't make a lot of money i now have credibility and that single brick maybe we can expand it a little bit that single foundation that solid slab of a foundation it's boring it's cold it doesn't look very pretty that single slab is a foundation that i can use

whenever i want to get in contact with anybody or establish credibility with my audience or customers i could say look time magazine loves me can i at least start a conversation with you so believe it or not guys i use that review in my signature and my emails to send to people especially to industry leaders and i'll even use it in my subject lines that credibility is huge so let's say you guys make a game and it doesn't make a lot of money okay are there any reviews that came out for that game is there anything about that game that you can use as a foundation for creating the next brick so think about that think about does this brick provide me a lot of value in establishing credibility as i pursue my future projects now what do those future projects need

to look like if we're going to go with the brick metaphor hopefully the next brick that you build is a little bit better than the previous one so maybe you start with a very you know ugly looking excuse me maybe you start with a really ugly looking clay brick well what's the what's the next layer of bricks that you put on top of that well i think it needs to be something that's a little bit better it needs to be concrete or maybe you can i don't know make a granite brick and then maybe after that it's gold and maybe by the end of your career it's these diamond bricks and it's built this robust beautiful structure to generate wealth and freedom and joy for your family and your grandchildren how do you do that well you cannot i don't think you can create beautiful

granite or golden bricks i don't think you can make that out of thin air you have to start from the ground and go up from there you have to be humble and you have to be willing to say you know i don't really know what i'm doing here i don't know where to find the gold bricks or the material for the golden bricks i don't know where the diamonds are uh or the obsidian i have no idea right i have no idea where that is i'm kind of a fool so i'm gonna be willing to one learn from my own mistakes but two be willing to reach out to people who are obviously smarter than me and ask them where they are finding their materials and how they're putting together their structure because it seems to be working for them you know the odd thing is as an entrepreneur half of his half of his body needs to be incredibly humble and then the other half needs to be incredibly

confident it sounds like a paradox but let me explain how i try and achieve i'm not perfect but i try and achieve this the way that i do it is i pull myself out of my body and i'm not this isn't metaphysical and i'm not saying it's some spiritual magic it's more of just a metaphor i i think of my body as not my body and that includes my brain in the chemical structure and all of the previous predispositions and talents that i was given when i was born or lack of talent i try and pull myself out of my body and look at my body as it as an avatar okay so suddenly my spirit looks at my body again this is just a metaphor my spirit looks at my body maybe from the corner of the room and i'm looking down at myself sitting in my studio and i say that's thomas and he he doesn't know a lot of things there's a lot of things he's confused by

uh he's not the smartest guy and believe me i know that i'm not the smartest guy and there's a lot of weaknesses he has but the part of me that's separated myself away from my flaws says yeah but i know that i can do everything in my power to take all of the flaws that thomas has and pursue the answers to those flaws the answers there's no better time there's no better time in human history than to be able to find the answers to your flaws so you can confidently pursue answers to your flaws so you can be both confident and flawed at the same time it's kind of like if you're if you're if you are a really rusty broken down car and you're driving that car if you commit to getting from point a to

point b and that is let's say you want to make a video game or you may want to make a film just because the car is rusty and sucks doesn't mean you can't slowly make progress towards the completion of that project there's going to be a lot of breakdowns on the way there's going to be a lot of help that you need to seek out and maybe you need to soup up that car as you're making progress through your journey but you can do it it's just probably gonna take a little bit more work and it you know it might be unfair that's the thing it might be unfair but you can still make progress and get from point a to point b whether it's starting a company writing a film script or making a video game you can get from point a to point b and you can do it confidently while also recognizing that the vehicle that you might be using in this case it might be your lack of talent or you know lack of

personality there's there's a lot of flaws that we all have you could still be confident in your journey even though you don't have what what currently you don't have what it takes it's a weird balance but again that end result should be just a simple brick and you can use that brick to build your career build out that wealth generation machine so i think my rambling uh i guess what i'm trying to say is if you don't enjoy playing the game of building this machine maybe maybe entrepreneurship isn't for you and that's okay it's not it's not for everybody but if you like it if you enjoy the process of being on this strange wild journey and the cars breaking down and things aren't working out if you enjoy that then just keep doing it and it's okay if you know the output isn't what you thought it would be because you know that you can

just keep doing it all right so that's my little ramble or rant if you guys enjoyed this video please leave a like and consider checking out fulltankgamedev.com and hey one final thing i want to thank our sponsor for this video guys i uh i've been using squarespace for six years and um i don't think i don't think it's possible to even start with a foundation for your career if you don't have a website and a brand um it could be a personal one or a corporate one but you cannot achieve any of that without creating a website squarespace is the answer it's so easy it's so quick so let's roll the squarespace ad this video is brought to you by squarespace believe it or not i've been wanting squarespace as a sponsor for so long mainly because squarespace is awesome i've been using squarespace for i think six years both my websites thomasbrush.com and

atmosgames.com where i host my games in my portfolio my resume all that cool stuff is hosted on squarespace it was created with squarespace squarespace is cool because you can look amazing you can have custom designs and pretty much do anything you need to do for your business or your own personal brand all with squarespace and you don't have to know how to code so if you guys are interested in creating a website with squarespace click the link below squarespace.com thomasbrush and use the promo code thomas brush for 10 off yay yay i love squarespace i really do thanks squarespace