Can Only Be Great at One Thing - Builder’s Console Log (ep 5)
My Builder’s Console Log📅 2025-07-23
Transcript
[00:00] Welcome to builder console log number five. We're doing this in an Indonesian rice field. I got another video coming up here pretty soon. It's completely dedicated to that. But this topic I want to go over in this video has to do with priorities and specifically the idea that you can only really be good at one thing. Now, a lot of this has to do the fact that we're limited as humans, but let me give you some stories that I've experienced pretty recently myself when it came to learning about this lesson. For me personally, the big one, if you know, you might not, is the wandering channel. So, I originally was going to
[00:30] create a whole separate channel on YouTube dedicated to traveling, cost associated, Excel sheets, really diving into deep what it means to be a digital nomad and working remote. But I found myself in a position where I quite literally couldn't do it with the amount of priorities that were in front of me with the main YouTube channel, the software I'm developing, and now a new emergence of a new opportunity of writing a script. So that put me in a position and conceptually I knew from my past of running the first channel how much would be required of my time to
[01:02] even entertain making the wandering channel successful. Therefore I had to stick my foot down and I had to essentially say you know what we're going to have to put the wandering channel on the burner focus back on the main channel and the software. But here is one trick that I learned when it came to prioritizing things in life and how you can do multiple things but still go with the underlying philosophy that you can only be really good at one thing. Now the way I translated this was creating content around artificial intelligence, software, coding, everything like this. I translated that
[01:32] into the software company I'm running. So if I learn a new skill in the software company, I can bring that to the YouTube channel and teach it there. If I learn a new thing in teaching on YouTube, I can bring that skill to the software company. So both are working in parallel rather than separate. Another good example of this is the editor I'm working with. Good friend of mine. He was in a position where he's really good at editing, hard skill. He also had a YouTube channel that was dedicated towards NFL football. And when I say football, I'm talking like the American football. Throw it with your hands, not your feet, unless you're a kicker. But his situation was he was really going to
[02:04] go to editing and then also found himself having to completely pivot his brain to create football oriented content. This is not an effective way to manage your time because of the fact that these are two separate routes. So you get really good at the football content and creating football oriented content is not necessarily as transferable of a skill to just editing content, media video. So what we came to a conclusion in that context was well if you're really good at editing videos, transfer the knowledge there into a YouTube channel that is dedicated into
[02:36] showing how to edit videos. So therefore, you get really good at editing videos. You learn a new skill while editing video on your workflow. you can transfer that skill into a YouTube video that is now evergreen or compound. So, how do we translate that for other contexts? I think the first thing you need to understand is that prioritization is fundamentally extremely important. You're not going to be amazing at anything. No one's good at anything. This new style of content I'm doing pretty soon that's going to show up on my channel, I already released a video. It was me creating an app on the
[03:06] beach. The video did not do good at all. And it's because I'm learning how to create this style content still. So give yourself grace and realize that whatever you're trying to learn and focus, prioritize one thing or possibly two things that work in parallel, but really lock in and understand you probably won't see a return on investment till 6 months, 8 months in. Personally, I didn't see a return on investment till 8 months in. But once you realize that you've prioritized that skill and you get really good at it, every incremental increase of knowledge around that skill becomes extremely easy and you'll be
[03:37] doing things that would have taken you 3 weeks before now in a day or even less. An example of that for me personally was I created a video showing you how to download a local AI model that I open source to code and I created that in two hours. If I were to approach coding completely again of AI, it would have taken me two to three weeks because I would have not known how to upload source code. I would have not known how to create a React UI so fast. There's just skills that you learn at a faster rate. So when you reapproach them later on, you're a lot better, a lot more effective. But the overarching idea here
[04:09] and the whole point of this builder console log from my past experience of having to put the wandering channel on the back burner having to pivot more into this style content and really focusing on this is that you are just one person. Therefore, for you to be great, you got to do one thing and one thing good. You can't do everything in your mind. There's a ton of opportunities. Maybe even in front of you, there's a ton of opportunities, but really got to focus on one and just become good at that one thing. The worst thing you could do is focus on one thing for two months, think you suck at it, and then pivot, and then you keep
[04:40] pivoting. Too much pivoting is a bad thing. You won't see ROI on whatever you're focusing on until you've gone at least 6 months, head in the dirt. Boom, boom, boom, boom. That's it. That's all you are. And that's all I was for the first year of YouTube. I was just Zapier Automations. That's me. That's it. That's my identity. Just Zapier, Automations, AI. That's it. Oh, but I want to do this. I want to do this. No, can't. you only can do one thing, one thing good and then slowly can branch out. So, I guess I'll end this video with the nuance to this idea of becoming really good at one thing. The nuance is
[05:11] that as you go down that journey to become better and better and better and really bolster that skill, it does therefore lead to branch out and allows you to take more risk creativity-wise. Great example of that this is this channel and what I plan on doing in this channel very soon here. this style of content. If I started my YouTube channel of this kind of content that you're about to see of me building an app anywhere, it would have just absolutely flopped. But because of the fact that I've honed in on this skill for the last two and a half years, you just learned fundamentally when approaching new things within the same ecosystem how to
[05:43] effectively do it. And the biggest lesson there is that you're not going to be perfect at anything in the beginning. So, of course, it's going to suck. Of course, you're going to suck when you learn a new skill. No one is naturally talented at anything they do. It requires work. It requires effort. Therefore, if you find yourself wanting to start a business, if you find yourself wanting doing a new entrepreneurial journey, if you find yourself wanting to learn a new skill, you got to give yourself a ton of room to really focus on that skill. A ton of room to hone in, lock in. Nothing matters. Oh, but I want to do this, this, this. No, no, no. Corbin, your
[06:14] first year of YouTube. What were you? Zap your AI automation. That's it. That's your identity. Put it in the corner. Luxury of expanding your identity past that or past the thing you're focused on is afforded to you down the road, but it takes years. So that wraps up builder console log here, but this is episode 5, Indonesian rice field. These episodes might get a little bit more crazy as we keep going down here. I am learning how to do the skill better. So as you get better at a skill, the content increases. So without further ado, I'll see you in the next builder console log.