Why I'm Not Proud of My 170,000 YouTube Subscribers

Success is an output you can't control. Here's what to focus on instead.

I have over 170,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel, but if I'm being honest, I’m not proud of that number. It’s an impressive-sounding metric.

But it’s an output. I don’t control it.

I can’t directly influence how many people click the subscribe button.

I am, however, extremely proud that I have created and published over 100 videos.

This is one of the biggest category errors we make in our careers. We become obsessed with outputs. The promotion, the bonus, the headcount, the public recognition, success.

Give me that sweet, sweet feeling of success. Just hook it up to my veins.

We spend countless hours trying to manage these outcomes, but it’s a trap. Focusing on outputs ties your sense of self-worth to things you don’t actually control, which is the exact recipe for frustration and burnout.

The secret to engineering success is simple. You have to fall in love with the inputs. You have to identify the work that leads to success and then build a system to do that work with quality and consistency.

Here’s exactly how to make that shift.

1. Escape the "Output-Obsession" Trap

We are all drawn to outputs because they are visible and easy to measure. They are the scoreboard, the kind of shiny metrics that are easy to share on social media.

The problem is that staring at the scoreboard doesn't help you play the game better.

In your career, this looks like being more concerned with your title than with the quality of your work, or worrying more about how you’re perceived in a meeting than about solving the actual problem being discussed.

When you focus on outputs, you are essentially gambling your happiness on external validation. You are giving away your power. Shifting your focus back to your inputs is how you take that power back. The input is the work itself. It is the one thing you have complete control over.

Actionable Advice: Take 10 minutes and draw two columns on a piece of paper. Label one "Outputs I Worry About" and the other "Inputs I Control." In the first column, list the career outcomes you stress about (e.g., getting promoted, getting a higher performance rating, being seen as the top expert, outward displays of success). In the second, list the actions that could lead to those outcomes (e.g., successfully leading my next project, fixing more bugs, making high-quality content). This simple act of separation is the first step to reclaiming your focus.

I wanted a successful newsletter. Today, this newsletter has 30,000 subscribers (Outputs I Worry About). All it took was two years of work, of grinding out an article every week, even when I didn’t feel like it (Inputs I Control). The input is the only thing that matters.

It’s so much easier to post this picture to social media…

…than this.

2. Identify Your High-Leverage Inputs

Once you stop obsessing over outputs, the next step is to figure out which inputs actually matter. Not all work is created equal. A high-leverage input is an action that has a disproportionately large impact on the final outcome. For a software developer, just writing more lines of code is a low-leverage input. Fixing a high-priority bug is a high-leverage input.

We should not conflate motion with progress. Success doesn’t come from doing more work. It comes from doing more of the right work. The best professionals are masters at identifying and executing on the few inputs that create the most value. They look for the bottleneck in the system and apply their effort there.

Actionable Advice: A common objection here is that it can be hard to identify what a good input metric is. The characteristic of an effective input metric is that it would be unreasonable to think that if you did this thing for a long period of time at high quality, you wouldn't be successful. To help, here are some examples across different roles that meet this bar:

• Software Developer:

  • Number of meaningful code reviews performed per week.

  • Number of complex systems clearly documented.

  • Number of junior engineers actively mentored.

• Product Manager:

  • Number of customer interviews conducted per month.

  • Number of product experiments designed and shipped.

  • Number of clear, concise product requirement documents written.

• Designer:

  • Number of user feedback sessions participated in per project.

  • Number of design variations prototyped and tested for key features.

  • Number of contributions made to the team's design system.

• Marketer:

  • Number of A/B tests launched per campaign.

  • Number of high-quality content pieces (blog posts, case studies) published.

  • Number of strategic partnerships developed.

• Personal Growth:

  • Number of hours spent per week on deliberate practice of a new skill.

  • Number of non-fiction books read in your field per quarter.

  • Number of projects completed outside of work to apply new skills.

Now, pick one major career output you desire, like "launch a successful new feature that customers love." Work backward. Ask yourself, "What are the 3-5 specific, repeatable actions that would make this outcome almost inevitable?" It might be things like "Talk to three real users every week to understand their pain points," or "Spend 30 minutes every day analyzing product usage data," or "Write one clear document per week that aligns the engineering and design teams on a user problem." Those are your high-leverage inputs.

Watch Out For Low-Leverage Inputs

My first YouTube video took nearly 100 hours to produce. That’s insane for a 4:39 video (that makes me cringe to the bone every time I see the thumbnail). The reason it took so long was I didn’t know how to use video editing software, how to make a thumbnail, or read off of a teleprompter. I also spent a lot of time learning and applying skills that didn’t make a difference. Turns out, color grading is something that takes an amazing amount of time but makes no difference to viewers for the type of video I was making. The lesson here is that sometimes, ironically, it takes a lot of effort and experience to learn something is low-leverage. If you’ve been doing something for a long time, you probably already know what's high-leverage. If you’re new, expect some false-starts.

3. Build Your System

An idea is a wish. Execution is everything. But execution without a system is just brute force. It relies on willpower, and willpower is a finite resource. A system is how you automate your good intentions. It’s the machine you build to ensure your high-leverage inputs get done consistently, whether you feel motivated or not.

My system for this newsletter isn't just a goal to "publish every week." It's a process. I’ve got an inspiration and brainstorming list. Over the weekend I glance at the list and might add some items and do some research. On Monday I firm up my choice, outline, and write a first draft. On Tuesday I do another revision. I try to stay a couple of weeks ahead of publishing so I’ll also do final fit and finish edits on the article that will be published this wee (that I’ve drafted several weeks ago).

When I wake up on a Tuesday feeling uninspired (which is surprisingly common), I don't have to decide what to do. The system has already made the decision for me. I just have to execute the next step. This is one way to beat procrastination and guarantee consistency. Making choices, even simple ones, fatigue you.

Actionable Advice: Build your own system for one of your high-leverage inputs. A good system has three parts:

1. The Trigger: A specific time or event that kicks off the action. (e.g., "Every Monday at 9 AM," or "After my morning coffee.")

2. The Routine: The small, repeatable action you will take. Make it unreasonably easy to start. (e.g., "Write for 15 minutes," not "Write a perfect article.")

3. The Record: A simple way to track your consistency and create a chain of progress. (e.g., "Put an X on a calendar," or "Move a task to 'Done' in my to-do list.")

For example, if your output is "become a better writer," your inputs might be “spend 30 minutes every weekday writing,” so your system could be: Trigger: Every weekday after my first meeting. Routine: Open a document and write for 30 minutes, no distractions. Record: Add a checkmark to a weekly note. That's it. You’ve made a simple machine designed to make you a better writer. It would be unreasonable to think you wouldn't be a better writer after doing that for a year.

Speaking of Outputs...

This philosophy of focusing on inputs isn't just a theory for me. It’s how I’m navigating my life right now.

Last week, something unexpected happened. An output arrived. I was featured in Business Insider for the second time this year. On the surface, that’s a great “success.” But if I'm being brutally honest, the biggest emotion that came with it wasn’t pride. It was anxiety.

The attention on my work is growing, and that brings a lot of judgment with it. Since quitting my corporate job last year, it’s been a roller-coaster of emotions. The truth is, putting yourself out there consistently is terrifying.

But I’m learning to reframe that feeling. The anxiety is a necessary byproduct of the input. I can’t get attention without being judged. I can’t build a following without putting myself out there. The fear has become a signal that I'm sticking to my system. It sucks sometimes, but it’s part of the process.

This is why I've decided to double down on the inputs I can control, even the scary ones.

Big News

Which brings me to my big news. I’m starting a podcast.

It's a new system for me to explore the ideas we talk about here in a more conversational way. I wanted to start with a truly high-leverage input, so I’m incredibly excited to announce my first guest will be Gergely Orosz, author of The Pragmatic Engineer, the #1 technology newsletter on Substack.

I had a fantastic time as a guest on his podcast recently, and I can’t wait to turn the tables and put him on the hot seat.

Here’s how it will work:

• Regular episodes will be available for free on my YouTube channel. I’ll add a link for published episodes in my weekly articles.

• Extended, ad-free versions of every conversation will be available for the paid subscribers of this newsletter. You will be able to access these episodes in the Podcast area of this Substack.

• This is on top of access to my archive for paid subscribers.

I want to reiterate that this newsletter will always be free, as will the ad-supported episodes of the podcast. I care too much about you, my loyal followers, to lock up my content behind a paywall. Just stay subscribed and everything will be delivered every week to your inbox.

I’ve got some amazing guests lined up, so stay tuned!

This podcast is a new input for me, and hopefully, a valuable one for you. It’s a commitment to keep doing the work, even with the anxiety that comes along with it. I’ve built up what I hope is an efficient system for keeping the content flowing regularly at high-quality based on my learnings from YouTube and this newsletter.

I hope I have inspired you to find and scale your own inputs, because at the end of the day, the work is the only part we can truly control.

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