This is my letter to Charlie
Charlie
You don't know me, for starters I live in Australia on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD from you and for follow-up I'm twice your age and for these reasons, and probably more, we are not acquainted in any way. However, I watch you on You Tube (not in the stalker way although I don't post comments). I watch you because you make wonder little videos that often get inside my head for days.
There is also another reason I watch you. You are doing what I know I would have wanted to do if things like You Tube existed when I was your age (and younger). I understand your need for acceptance and people to "like" you. I have done many things in my life to "be that guy" to have people like me and want me to be around them.
I have played in bands, been on stage, worked on film and videos to be someone and to be something, yet I have now realized that I need to do these for me first and everyone else second. I've gotten older, yes, but I have also become more comfortable with me and doing things for me.
For years I would be the fall guy for anything that needed to be done. "Oh you need someone to act/play/direct/stand in/hold that/do that...? Sure I will do it!" I was always ready to be there and do what needed to be done, no matter what that did to me and those around me. I found I was often burning candles at both ends, working 60 hours a week, doing university and acting in a play because I felt I needed to be needed... That has changed.
I'm not saying that those things don't matter to me, I still love and want to be on stage, in the limelight and play music, act, direct and be involved in things. I want to do it because I want to do it. Not because I'm doing what someone else expects me to do and certainly not to make people like me. I love getting the praise and adulation (hey I'm an extrovert and I love the attention) it's just that now I will do it because I want to.
There comes a point in life when you can spend the time to sit and think things through for a bit, it's then that you realise that it's not what you do that makes people like you it's who you are. Holding yourself up for criticism from the masses is not helping to create you, it's breaking you apart.
Charlie, some of your best video's are when you are you and you are being you... that's what brings people back that's what makes you a better person. Sure you can always do better, and that is a great place to be at, mediocrity is breed from complacency, innovation comes from striving forward. However, there is nothing wrong with doing the best you can TODAY even if tomorrow could be better.
When we recorded our EP it captured our music for that day, that instant, that moment. Sure about six months later, after playing a few gigs and not being in the stressful setting of a studio costing us money, our songs got better. We were tighter as a band, the songs become part of us as a unit and not individuals we kicked arse! Do I still listen to the CD? HELL YEAH and I love it! It is and will forever be THAT moment in time, that was the best we could have been, THEN. I accept that.
What it all comes down to is you being happy and confident with yourself. The You Tube masses are not the important people here, I'm not (remember I don't know you), your friends, family, girl-friend... are the ones that really count and the most important person in your life is... YOU. Love yourself, believe in yourself and BE yourself.
Ask yourself why did you really start on You Tube? Was it really to get people to like you? Or was it to get you to like you?
Cheers
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