Build What Matters, Not What Trends.
There are two ways to think about creating content.
Before you hit publish, ask yourself one question:
What is the goal?
For most creators, the answer falls into one of two categories:
Chasing dopamine
Creating lasting impact
1. Chasing dopamine
When your goal is to go viral, you're constantly chasing the next trend, the next algorithm boost, or the next big moment.
Even if you go viral, the feeling is temporary.
That spike of views and attention creates a high that you naturally want to experience again. When your next post doesn't perform as well, it's easy to feel discouraged. Your motivation drops, your confidence takes a hit, and you start questioning your work.
Over time, this cycle becomes exhausting. You end up creating for the algorithm instead of creating with purpose, which often leads to burnout.
2. Creating impact
A different approach is to create content that genuinely helps, inspires, or connects with people.
Instead of trying to reach everyone, you focus on reaching the right people.
This approach compounds over time.
Meaningful content builds trust. Trust builds community. Community creates engagement, loyal followers, opportunities for monetization, and people who continue coming back because they believe in what you're creating, not because you happened to go viral.
The difference:
Virality is temporary.
Meaning is lasting.
One is driven by short-term attention. The other is driven by long-term value.
MrBeast optimizes for massive attention. His videos are designed to be highly clickable, entertaining, and shareable. He has mastered virality but it's worth noting that his success isn't only because he chased trends. He built systems, constantly studied retention, and reinvested into making better videos.
Ali Abdaal optimizes for value. His videos about productivity, learning, and business don't always become the biggest videos on YouTube, but they consistently help a specific audience. That trust has allowed him to build courses, a business, a newsletter, books, and a loyal community that follows him beyond any single platform.
If your goal is to build a career, a brand, or a community, don't optimize for the biggest spike in attention.
Optimize for making a meaningful impact on the people you want to serve.
Ironically, the creators who make the biggest impact are often the ones who become viral, not because they chased it, but because they created something worth sharing.
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