Casey Neistat has been internet famous for years, but his rise to YouTube stardom accelerated this year when he started making short films every day. Casey is a YouTuber, filmmaker, entrepreneur, producer, and many other things. But most of all, he is a storyteller (and motivational speaker in disguise).
Casey is different from other bloggers and YouTubers with big audiences. YouTube is great for entertainment. It is also a good place for education. Most channels stick with one thing. But Casey entertains people and educates them at the same time. That still doesn’t make him unique—the quality of his entertainment and education does.
He is an inspiration to people of all ages. I’ve read and heard countless stories of people who picked up their cameras for the first time in years and started shooting because they love it. Others are challenged by Casey to find their passion in life.
Casey Neistat has mastered the art of entertaining and educating an audience—a combination that everyone who aspires to become an influencer desire. But other people can learn from him as well.
I’ve made a list of 33 life lessons I learned from Casey:
- Give zero fucks what people think.
- Always ask yourself: “Am I living the life the I want?” Constantly evaluate where you are in life to make sure you are heading towards the direction you want.
- “Without a goal, you can’t score” is an awesome quote because it is true (quote is from Johan Cruyff).
- Your biggest success in life can be your biggest failure at the same time.
- It’s ok to break up and get back together.
- You can get back together more than once.
- Running a marathon without proper training results in a beatdown.
- Find your passion in life. When you’ve found out what that is—spend the rest of your life working on your passion.
- Decide what you think are the most important things in life. Then, prioritize your life according to those things.
- Take selfies with strangers.
- Go to bed when you’ve finished work—not earlier.
- Success is not a destination.
- Commit to your commitments.
- When you get bullied, success is the best revenge. Always remember the kids who bully you are losers and will remain losers.
- You never ‘make’ it. There is no end goal in life so you should enjoy the journey.
- Don’t get bored. Ever.
- Weekends are NOT for shopping.
- Keep a backlog of things you want or have to do. When you run out of tasks, pick one from your backlog.
- Get out of the city every weekend.
- Family and work are the most important things in life.
- Never get comfortable.
- If you want to get back together—surprise your girlfriend by replacing the AC unit in her apartment.
- Don’t be a slave to praise.
- Run. Every day.
- Do more work.
- Haters are losers.
- When you give a gift to your girlfriend or wife, you need to take three factors into consideration. First, your gift needs to generate a smile plus a swoon. Second, you want a shock and awe response. Third, you really have to surprise her. Only when you have all three factors right, you will get the highest appreciation that you can receive: she says, “good job.”
- Bring a skateboard when you travel.
- Film your life—you are the director, actor, producer.
- Be nice to people. It’s not cool when people are unfriendly.
- Bad times are not here to stay. Everything will pass, so will bad times.
- Challenge everything in life. Never accept the norm.
- Don’t try to fit it—you will be unhappy when you try to be something you are not.
Casey has accomplished many things in his life. One of his biggest accomplishments is that he scrubbed pans for 5 years in a seafood restaurant.
Think about it: 5 years is a long time. Most people are looking for instant results with everything in life—with jobs, relationships, health, money, learning skills. They end up hopping from job to job, and passion to passion. When you never stick with one thing, you never become good at anything.
Casey picked making films and now, 15 years later, he has mastered storytelling to a point that he has millions of views on his YouTube channel. Finally, the biggest lesson I’ve learned from Casey is that life is a constant fight—you should love the struggle.
