Effort

If there is one thing I can respect it is effort. I believe that almost anything can be accomplished through sheer force of will. That if you work hard enough, you will eventually get there. The challenge I find is in our finite lifespans. We only have so much time. We can't perfect everything. We don't even really have time to perfect one thing. So how do we decide to spend our effort.

In my mind there are four categories of effort. Those that have a lot of effort or don't, and those that succeed or don't.

Those that have a lot of effort and succeed are the rewarding stories. Stories that uplift others and make them want to work their hardest. A wonderful example would be CorridorDigital's channel. They spend large amounts of time meticulously animating their videos, and were rightfully rewarded for their work with fame and money. A perfect and inspiring story that makes you want to spend time and effort on something.

On the other side of the spectrum is those that put in a lot of effort and yet don't succeed. These are the nightmare stories. People who put years of work into something that resulted in nothing. Sticking along the lines of animation, the one example that comes to mind is "The Thief and the Cobbler". A movie that was completely hand-animated, in which every single frame was drawn by hand. The production of the movie took 30 entire years and was intricately detailed, as well as containing twice as many frames per second than needed just to make it look smoother. Yet right before it was released, a CGI movie with a similar story stole all of it's success and many thought that "The Thief and the Cobbler" was a ripoff. What movie did they think it was a ripoff of. You may know it, Disney's "Aladdin". Please watch this video to pay tribute to the incredible amount of work that went in. A link to one of the scenes is at the bottom.

Some people post very lazily and don't succeed. They deserve it. It's not impressive or inspiring or teaches a lesson. It merely occupies space and is possibly the worst of the four categories. I don't feel like posting an example because that is encouraging the creation of more.

Then there are the lucky ones. The ones you wish you could be yet at the exact same time you hate for being so successful with so little effort. Sometimes it's the unpolished nature that makes it so good like Sir Fedora or the off-the-wall antics in NigaHiga's ADHD posts, that seem very friendly and real. Sometimes the Youtuber just somehow strikes a chord that resonates with a large amount of people for some strange reason, such as NyanCat. They are like a needle in haystack and are very hard to predict most of the times. They can be extremely enjoyable yet probably not something you should place your hopes on.

Effort is tough and taxing. It is hard to constantly expend effort, even when you love what you are doing. But it is rewarding and I encourage everyone to find something and give 110% on it.

Corridor Digital's channel- https://www.youtube.com/user/CorridorDigital
Thief and the Cobbler- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdJbo-4rg1k#t=33
Nyan Cat- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4