I was scrolling through my TikTok feed when I came across one where this guy sitting in his car tells us (the viewers) that our Dungeons & Dragons show will fail and no one will watch it. He then tells us to “just stop” making these shows; no matter how quippy the title can be, it won’t compare to the high-production shows that Critical Role offers. After that, he sends us a grinning smile with the expression most people could refer to as “sorry, not sorry.”

At first, you think, “Alright, who the hell do you think you are telling us we can’t?” Because the video alone is him condescendingly telling us that we aren’t good enough and will fail. Gatekeeping the community around Dungeons & Dragons shows, ensuring no new ones come out because they won’t be as good as the best of the best. And the comments seem to go with the same reception: “Where does he get the nerve to say that?”

Turns out, that’s not the point he was trying to make.

On video alone, he’s saying not to bother, or else you’ll fail. His TikTok caption for the video is saying, “If you’re going to film a Dungeons & Dragons show. Do it for yourself; no one will watch it.” Yeah, this could be worded better, but I get the message he was trying to say because this could be said about anything. If you’re going to start something, do it for yourself because if you have this idea that the audience and money will come to you right away, you will be discouraged and, more than not, quit.

So, with the tactless video and his caption and comments, I kind of agree with him. Yeah, his wording and tone could have been better, but the message I got out of it was that anything I want to try should be for selfless reasons. You can find many people who have grown a successful following or career out of what you’re looking to do, and most of them will tell you that they were doing this for fun and for themselves. Everything followed after.

This video was another way of reminding you that the audience isn’t there, and if you’re expecting people to come to you right away, you’re in for a rough reality. I’ve been guilty of thinking like that before. There will be times in the future I will think that again. Whoever this guy was, he reminded me of what to expect when starting anything. I do not expect hundreds of people to huddle around and read my blog. While that would be amazing, I’m not expecting that following for only writing here for over a year. I’m not consistent with it; some people want consistency in whatever content they follow.

To stop going around in circles with the topic, I took the TikTok video as a reminder that anything I do is for selfless reasons. If it’s for myself or for somebody else, keep that in mind, and have fun with it!