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- You're crazy until you're successful
You're crazy until you're successful
Jordan Schwarzenberger
August 10, 2025
Posted a carousel on Instagram the other day about obsession that got people talking.
It was essentially quoting MrBeast about how "you're crazy until you're successful and then you're a genius."
How people think you're too obsessed, call you a weirdo, tell you to get a life and be realistic.
Then once you make it, suddenly your drive and tenacity were "great" all along.
Want to go deeper on this because I think most people fundamentally misunderstand what obsession is and why it's the ultimate advantage in the creator economy.
Being called obsessed, it's never a compliment until it works.
When MrBeast was spending well over 12 hours a day studying YouTube and reinvesting every penny back into bigger videos, people thought he was mental.
Now he's worth hundreds of millions and suddenly everyone wants to know his "secrets" and "strategies" as if there was some hidden trick beyond just caring more than humanly reasonable about making the best content possible.
The transformation is always the same: crazy becomes genius the moment it pays off.
Caveat about obsession though: There's productive obsession that compounds into expertise, and there's destructive obsession that just makes you weird at dinner parties.
Most people genuinely cannot comprehend what healthy obsession looks like because they've never experienced it themselves.
They've never cared about anything deeply enough to lose sleep over it voluntarily.
They've never found something so fascinating that learning about it feels like entertainment rather than work.
They've never experienced the peculiar joy of discovering a pattern that nobody else has noticed or solving a problem that's been nagging at them for months.
This is why they think obsession is inherently unhealthy.
To them, caring deeply about anything beyond basic survival needs seems excessive.
Spending discretionary time on work-related learning feels like you've got your priorities wrong.
Having strong opinions about business strategy or content creation or audience development suggests you need to "get a life" - as if the life you've chosen isn't valid unless it matches their definition of balanced living.
But what they're missing is that obsession, when properly channeled, isn't suffering - it's flow state on steroids.
When you're genuinely obsessed with something worthwhile, the work doesn't feel like work.
You're not forcing yourself to care - you literally cannot stop caring.
The people calling you crazy today are often the same people who'll claim they "always believed in you" once you succeed.
They'll rewrite history to position themselves as supportive from the beginning, conveniently forgetting their concerns about your priorities and suggestions that you needed more balance in your life.
This isn't malicious - I think it's just human nature.
People genuinely cannot see the value in obsession until the results become undeniable.
The transformation happens because success provides context for the behaviour.
When someone's staying up until 3am working on their business and they're still struggling financially, it looks like they can't manage their time properly.
When that same person builds a seven-figure company, those late nights become evidence of their extraordinary work ethic.
Same behaviour, completely different interpretation, all based on outcomes that weren't visible during the obsession phase.
This is why betting on your obsessions requires genuine conviction rather than external validation.
You have to be willing to look crazy for an extended period while you build something that doesn't yet make sense to anyone else.
You have to trust that your fascination with seemingly mundane details will eventually compound into expertise that others can't replicate.
And, most people can't handle this psychological pressure.
They need constant reassurance that they're on the right path.
They want other people to understand and approve of their choices.
They're uncomfortable being seen as the person who cares "too much" about things that don't seem important to anyone else.
But, my friends, you need to make peace with being misunderstood.
Accept that your level of interest in their chosen field will seem excessive to people who don't share that interest.
If you're constantly defending your choices or feeling guilty about your priorities, you'll eventually burn out or give up.
But if you've accepted that healthy obsession is just how you operate, you can sustain it indefinitely because it's not really costing you anything - it's just how you prefer to spend your mental energy.
The most successful people I know have found ways to structure their entire lives around their obsessions.
They've arranged their schedules, relationships, and environments to support rather than constrain their natural inclinations to dive deep into problems they find compelling.
They've stopped apologising for caring more than seems reasonable and started leveraging that caring as their primary competitive advantage.
To sum up…
If your obsession is genuinely making you better at something valuable, if it's teaching you things that others don't know, if it's building skills that compound over time, then that obsession IS your life - it's just not a life that makes sense to people who've never experienced the peculiar satisfaction of mastering something complex.
Wear that label as a badge of honour.
The world needs more people who care deeply about things that matter.
The economy rewards those who develop expertise through sustained attention.
The creator economy especially rewards those who understand their craft better than anyone else thinks is necessary.
Remember, the creator mindset is all you need to grow 🌱
P.S. When you’re ready, here’s three ways I can help out 👇️
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