Oh come on. You didn’t actually think I meant to use a real black swan?
Did you?
I have a question for you…do you believe that Fortune Favors the Bold? I’m going to tell you why you should.
But first…
How many times have you seen other YouTube commentators upload a random quirky video and boom it explodes with massive amounts of views?
Then your left wondering how they did it and what tools they used to figure it out. You then bust out reason after reason of intellectual explanation on why the video did well…blah blah blah.
The Power of the Black Swan
Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb…(no not the Talib that cost the Patriots the AFC title game by hurting his hip. I’m not bitter at all. Why do you ask?)
…developed the Black Swan Theory. Which is an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often wrongly rationalized afterwards with the benefit of hindsight.
It’s easy to understand. Let me explain below.
You live on a swan farm. All your life you have taken care of Swans and all your life you have only ever seen White Swans. No Black Swans exist as far as your concerned.
Based on academic research and what you know about the World around you this would lead you to believe that not only do Black Swans not exist, but that all Swans are White. You would go as far as betting the farm that all Swans are white.
Well one day when you’re doing your daily swan duties a Black Swan shows up at your door step.
All your life you have never seen a Black Swan, not only have you never seen a Black Swan, but you previously believed that all Swans were white. Everything you ever knew about Swans has officially been debunked…
…and you just lost the farm.
#FAIL
What Taleb is saying is that your past does not indicate your future. Not only that, but if you do expect your past to be a precursor to your future then you will be in for a big surprise when a Black Swan shows up on your doorstep.
He is literally saying that just because you have never seen a Black Swan before, doesn’t mean that you won’t see one tomorrow.
What This All Means To You and Your YouTube Channels
Does Fortune Favor the Bold?
You’re dang right it does.
Remember that YouTuber that uploaded that perceived “random quirky” video and saw massive subscriber growth and massive amounts of views?
It wasn’t actually random. You see they are playing with Black Swans. They are doing things that other people wouldn’t dare try and that is why they are successful.
They are introducing Black Swans into the world and the world isn’t ready for it. When they hit everyone is surprised and there videos end up getting massive amounts of subscribers and views.
Test this out for yourself. Go check out some of the most popular videos you can find. You will see that something was done in the video that introduces a shock factor to the audience.
This can be a number of things. Quick camera cuts, flashy graphics, the content itself. See for yourself. Here is a real life Black Swan YouTube Video (72 Million views and counting after only 14 days)
Tweet, tweet, tweet it up!
The problem is that as people we tend to do and believe only what we have seen and what has happened previously to us.
The Cold Hard Facts: Choo! Choo!
Here’s the deal. Most YouTubers simply look around the community and see what everyone else is doing. Then they start uploading the same old crap to their channel and expect massive amounts of subscribers and views.
By doing this they’re living in a World full of White Swans. A World that knows no Black Swans. How would they? They never really tried looking for one?
You can play it safe and believe that Black Swans don’t exist and just keep putting out the same old boring videos or you can prepare for anything and everything.
Instead what you need to do is tirelessly look for the next Black Swan. Try new things, be innovative and try to stir the pot.
The Bottom Line
We live in a World where we all want to be different, but our actions prove other wise. Look outside of your community and industry for inspiration.
One of my favorite things to do is to go to the Google and look up random topics. Literally the first thing that comes to my head. I then start reading a few of the articles that I come across.
The key here is to try and find a takeaway that you could potentially use for your up coming videos. Do this enough and you will create the next Black Swan in your community.
Don’t be surprised when everyone around you looks dumbfounded by your success wondering, “what the heck just happened.”
Do This Now
Share this article with a friend if you think they’re living in a world with no Black Swans.
I also want you to share in the comments below a time when you came across a Black Swan and it rocked your world. It can be anything, it just has to be something that, “you couldn’t believe happened”.
How have you changed because of it?
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