Why Your “Bad” Work Was Actually Brilliant

Ever feel like you’re your own worst critic? In this episode, we dive into the power of perspective, growth, and self-compassion—all through the lens of nostalgia. From old-school TV shows to video games that once blew our minds, we explore how our evolving perception can shape how we judge our past efforts (and how that judgment might be holding you back).

🔹 Why your younger self was actually crushing it (even if you cringe now)
🔹 The Atari Effect—and what it teaches us about business and personal growth
🔹 How MrBeast and Preston Smiles prove that rough beginnings lead to polished greatness
🔹 A game-changing mindset shift to stop tearing yourself down and start embracing your evolution

Resources Mentioned:
📺 Battle of the Network Stars
📺 CHiPs, Little House on the Prairie, Different Strokes, Battlestar Galactica, Dallas
🎮 Atari, Pong
🎥 Preston Smiles' first YouTube video vs his more recent work
 🎥 MrBeast’s early YouTube goal-setting video

 #MindsetShift #EntrepreneurLife #PersonalGrowth #BusinessEvolution #OvercomeSelfDoubt #SuccessMindset #ProgressOverPerfection #LessonsFromThePast #GrowthJourney #FromUnsureToUnstoppable

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Transcript

Hello, Hello! And welcome back to the show. I am not excited to be here today. I really didn't want to record this episode today. Okay, I'm just kidding. I'm actually kidding, you know, because I come on here every single episode I feel like. And I say, I'm super excited to be on here. But I really am. I really do love recording the podcast and I know I have shared in the past on some of the episodes where I'd kind of gone back and forth, you know, with some struggles, some challenges on doing the podcast but it's never been a situation of if I want to do it or not. It's more of a situation of what I want to talk about this week. What's going to be the most relevant topic for you what's going to connect with you the most, and what is going to help you to get to where you want to go the most in your life. That's probably more of where it comes from than anything else. because it I mean, a week goes by so much faster than we realize. And when you're having to put together consistent content, something like this, something more long form, not just something. For a couple of seconds. It's like, Okay, man, really gotta figure out what I want to share, because there is so much that I could share. But what is again going to be the most relevant for you today, and in this time to get you to where you want to be. Now, with all that being said, I'm going to talk about a topic today share with you a little bit of what's been going on in my life recently, and how what has been going on has helped give me a fresh perspective helped me kind of see things a little differently and hopefully will help. You see things a little differently and specifically. What's been going on is I have been on a really big nostalgia kick lately now, not wanting to live in the past, although there's kind of a piece of me that does really remember the past very kind, heartedly, very warm, heartedly, and certain aspects of life from yesteryear that I really wish we could bring back into today's society. But just going back and connecting with some of the things from my childhood, and I'm not sure exactly where this started, not really for sure what the flashpoint was what really began it all. The one thing that I can kind of go back to and remember a little bit in the fairly recent past was watching Youtube and seeing a video that was promoting like commercials. TV shows recapping, I believe, was something from the eighties. It was like 83, 85, some some year in the eighties. I forget exactly which one it was. but what it was it was just going through, showing some of the commercials from that time showing some of the popular television shows at that time some of the things that were just really N in the spotlight at that time, and it was really cool to go back and watch that it's like, Wow, I remember that because mid eighties, I mean, I was born 71. So mid eighties. That's my early teen years, like tween years, whatever you want to call them, right in there, but really connecting with that it was really really awesome. It was really fun just to relive some of those moments like, Oh, wow! Seeing like Alf, or seeing I forget what else was on there in that particular video. But anyway, what I think that ended up happening What that end up causing was now that you watch something like that. Then they're going to feed you. More stuff like that, and they end up having a clip of battle of the network stars. And this was even further back into my childhood. This was like 76, 77, really early age. And if you're too too old, too young. Sorry. Yeah, if you're too young to remember any of those. What those were was. This is back in the day when there were only 3 networks. There was ABC. Nbc. And Cbs. This is before Fox came along. This is before cable was really what it is today. This is long before satellite television. Even really, I mean, except for the ginormous dishes, dishes almost called disk, ginormous motherfucker. Ginormous dishes, that's what they were. They were ginormous dishes spit it out in a minute. Anyway. before those things were relevant or prevalence. Man, where am I going? This I believe us in. We're gonna leave it in, man, always telling you, always showing you that. We make mistakes. We're getting better. But to get to my point before you know, all these things were relevant. but it was ABC. Nbc. Cbs. And they would pit the stars of those current like the current television shows on those networks against each other in fun activities. It was like there was like a swimming challenge. There was a baseball throw where it's pretty much like a Dunk tank. There was an obstacle course. There was. What else was there then? A couple of different ones. They did bowling once they did golf once or twice, I think kayaking like in a pool, of course, you know, like team things running relays. All just all kinds of fun. Stuff like that had the teams, you know, go against each other and see who could be, you know, get the most points, and then ultimately, you know, win the battle of the network stars. It was really really cool, but through watching that it it's I started seeing a lot of the old stars from the TV shows. I grew up as a kid, you know, watching stuff like chips and little house on the prairie, and what else was on there? Different strokes. All the family. What else was on there? Just all these TV shows. And then, so that got me digging even further into watching stuff like Battlestar Galactica. There we go, Battlestar the Galactic was on there, Dallas. There was, you know, somebody from Dallas on there. chips, I think I said, Chips. Yeah, I think that was the very 1st one I talked about. But anyway, just going back and watching some of these old shows, and something I noticed really, really quickly, when I was watching these shows. I mean, these were shows that I loved when I was a kid. But watching them. Now I'm like, Wow, these aren't well, I don't say they weren't very good, because, Chips, I'm actually still enjoying. I'm still enjoying it. But the quality of the acting on there is not the best. The quality of the special effects is absolutely terrible, especially if I go back to Battlestar Galactica, because I started watching some of that as well. You know. If you watch these things. you see that now by today's standards these things are terrible which reminds me of something that just happened yesterday, literally like 2 days ago. I ended up going out on a little bit of a nostalgic kick. This is a whole nother story. But I was looking for a VCR Vhs player, and I went to the local goodwill, because sometimes you can find those there pretty cheap. Unfortunately they didn't have one. I was very disappointed, but I'm there. I'm looking around, and I see they've got one of those game controllers that has those like. It's like a game console, and it looks like an atari joystick, but it has atari games loaded onto it. You just plug it into your TV, and you can play it. And I was like, Oh, man, that's that's pretty cool. And I walked away from it. But then I end up going back like that's 8 bucks, man buy the damn thing. So I bought it, brought it home, plug it up. It only had 10 games a little disappointed. But I'm playing it. And I'm like, holy shit man. these games suck. They're terrible. But to circle back to the same with the TV shows. And this atari thing. I judge them as terrible now. But based on when I was a kid, these things were amazing. Those TV shows were awesome. Those graphics in Battlestar Galactica were the most amazing thing I'd ever seen at the time. although that was right around the same time as Star Wars. So you. But you still, you still look at it like, Wow, this is awesome. This is great. This is amazing. And these TV shows it all seemed really, really, really cool at the time. and atari like, see? That was something else, I mean, that was a little bit later, you know, from my childhood. But I remember watching, I remember, when Pong came out. You know Pong was on this little console before Atari. Even you just had this paddle, and you had a little knob on it, and you would turn the dial, and it would move your little guy up or down, and you literally. There's a little blip that go back and forth across the screen, and you would play with somebody else they'd be on. They'd be using a second control on the other side of the screen to go back and forth. It was the most amazing thing in the world, but if you look at it now, it's so archaic, it's so ancient, it's so basic. It’s so lousy from today's perspective. And that's really what I'm trying to get around to. And what I want to talk to you about today is looking at things in our past from the eyes of today and judging them and saying, Oh, that's bad! That's terrible! And looking at your life, and whether this you know, whether, talking about 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 50 years ago, depending on how old you are, you know, or if we're talking like just yesterday. anything that you're looking at in your past, and you're judging and saying that sucks. That's not very good. Well, it's because now you have the hindsight to look at and say, Oh, here's what we could have done better, or they could have done better, you know, if we're looking at the TV shows and talking about those with today's graphics and today's equipment that they can use, of course they could make something better, but in that time that was the absolute best that they could come up with. That was the absolute best that they could do. It was cutting edge. Same with Atari. That's my thing. I'm looking at it now. Going. Oh, my God, this is bad! But at that time that was cutting edge. That was amazing. So look at your life. Look at the things you're creating. Look at the things that you're doing, and ask yourself, am I judging my life based on my perspective from today? Or am I giving myself grace and looking at it from where I was at at the time that I did it. Because, let's say, yesterday. you know, if we're going to talk about social media, let's say, yesterday you put up a post. You created a post, and you loved it, and you thought it was awesome, and it went out, and it got no likes, no love, no anything. And so today you're like, Oh, that sucks. It's not very good. Well, number one, we can go down a whole different conversation, and I would challenge you not to worry about what each individual post does, because there's a lot of things outside of our control. But if, for whatever reason you do feel like, it's not very good. And you're analyzing it today. Going well, I could have used a different picture. I could have used this different opening line. I could use this different hook could use this different call to action. I could use this different, whatever. It's really easy for you to judge that now. But you wouldn't have the information that you have now, had you not put that post out? Or if you had not released a program 6 months ago, or if you had not started a new job or got into a new relationship a year or 2 years ago, or 5 years ago, or whatever it happens to be in your life, you have to go through these moments of trial and error to learn what's good, what's not good. But I also want you to remember what you look at now and look back on and say, is not very good, was really good in that moment. It was the best that you could possibly do. So. Give yourself that, Grace. You know I have the situation with my daughter. God love her! You know she's an artist, and she is incredibly talented. I don't just say that because I'm her father. It just. It's a fucking natural fact. If you go look at her, art, you'll look at it and just be blown away by what she can do but her in her mind. She looks at all of it, and just sees the flaw. She when this is not all the time, but she looks at it most of the time, and she sees the flaw. She sees what she wanted to do. She sees what she had in her mind not necessarily would end up on the piece of paper or the piece of digital art, and so she can't look at it from the same perspective that you could or I could. And when we look at it from a maybe not as not as talented, talented of an artistic ability person, I think it's a really hard way of saying I can't draw, or I'm not very good at it. If I'm that person, and I'm looking at what she does to me. I'm like, holy shit! That's fucking Amazing! That's incredible. Wow! But her having that talent having that perspective of her, what she wants to do and what she's capable of doing, especially now she's gotten even better and better and better. She looks at us like, oh, this sucks! This is terrible! It's not that great? So we have to give ourselves credit. That's 1 of the things I work with her. A lot on is, hey? Give yourself credit for where you were, you know we look back at some of her old art from when she was in like 8th grade or 3rd grade, or even in kindergarten, and she is embarrassed by she's like, Oh, my God! I can't believe I drew that I'm like. Yeah, but remember where you're at. There were things you didn't know there were things that you had to learn along the way that you had to be taught, and you wouldn't have known that like you didn't know any of that stuff in kindergarten in 3rd grade, in 5th grade, or whatever. These are all things that you've learned along the way. So now, looking at it through today's standards. Yeah, that's not very good, because you are so much better. But give yourself Grace, for where you were at, you know you being a person, and I say you, as in like all of us, you know, you being a person who is a growth oriented person, who's always trying to stretch themselves, always trying to evolve and become the better version of yourself. You're always going to be challenging yourself, and you're always going to be pushing yourself to your limits and trying to get better and better and better and better. So you but you have to give it your best effort to what you have today, and don't judge that on what is going to happen a year from now, 5 years from now, or where you want to be. Just give yourself credit for what you're doing today. Don't timestamp the things that you do today. So if you released a program, if you released a new offer if you put a new product out, if you did, whatever. Don't put this timestamp on it emotionally, mentally, that okay, I sucked at that because I tried really, really hard, but it's not what I wanted it to be. It was the best that you could do at that time. Allow yourself, when time passes to look back at it and say, Okay. this was something that I put out. This was something that maybe didn't turn out exactly like I wanted, maybe didn't turn out perfect quote unquote, perfect. But it was the best that I could do at the time, and then just allow yourself to look at it neutrally and say, Okay. if I could do that today, here's what I would do differently. Here's how I would change this. Here's how what I would do with today's tools and with today's knowledge and go at it from that perspective. Don't don't beat yourself up constantly over and over and over about how things could have been or should have been, or just continually getting down on yourself. Because if you're constantly looking back at the things that you did in the past and saying, Well, that sucked and that sucked, and that sucked. And look back at that that was terrible. That's going to bleed into who you are today. You're going to start judging yourself harshly when you don't deserve to when you don't need to. You are a product of everything that came before you, and even though by today's standards you may look back on that, not be thrilled with it. Not be super happy with it. It's what helped you to evolve and grow step by step by step by step, to get to where you are and to where you're going, where you're going is going to take more of that action, more of those trial and error, moments more of those steps after step after steps. to get better and better and better and better, and it's only when you take that next step and that next step next step, then you can look back. Say, okay, here's what I could have done differently, and take the next step. That next step, that next step. Okay, here's what I could have done differently, but again remaining neutral about it, remaining neutral about all of that, and not judging yourself on it, and not criticizing yourself on it, just allowing it to be part of the process. Part of the evolution. A couple of things that I've seen that I love is very famous people, or very successful people who have left up some of their earliest work instead of taking it down, because this is something I see sometimes, too, is, people will put something out. And then, a year or 2 later, or 5 years later, or whatever they're kind of embarrassed by where they started, and they don't want people to see that they want people to see the polished version of them. You know, this is the world we lived in. People need to see the perfect version of me. and when these people leave up the older work. or allow people to see where the they had started. I think it's extremely refreshing. I love it because that allows people to see the evolution that allows people to see the growth from where they were to where they are now, and understand they didn't just land here on the top of the mountain. One day they decided, I'm going to be a coach. I decided to be a business owner. I'm going to be whatever I am. And then they were on the top of the world, no man. They went through some struggles, they went through some challenges, they went through some hard times and some growth, and some learning and some stumbles. So who I'm going to share with you in these examples? I don't think I've shared Preston smiles on here before, but if I have. Maybe you haven't heard that episode. but there's a gentleman out there by the name of Preston Smiles. He's 1 of mine that I go back to a lot in terms of sharing with people who struggle, especially if you're getting onto Youtube. If you're doing reels on Instagram. If you're doing anything with video performance. He's an example I love to give, because he has a video that he has left up. As far as I know, it's still up. I haven't checked it lately, but I'm going to go ahead and drop in the show notes if it's still available. and I'll show you. I'll link you up with also one of his more current videos. But this guy he is in the I don't know exactly what he is. He uses a mindset. I don't know if you'd be a mindset coach, but he would be an influencer in personal growth, personal development. Inspirational figure, kind of thing. But he has a Youtube channel. And he's done coaching. He's done all kinds of things like this. But he has a video up from when he very 1st started, like his very 1st Youtube video. He's left it up. And it's it's pretty bad. It is pretty bad. I mean, he's sitting on his floor in his living room. He's doesn't have very good lighting. He's kind of mumbling. He's kind of wandering here and there and all over the place. There's no real structure to what he's trying to say. It's just more of an open, free flow of thoughts. Just kind of sharing, hey? Here's what I'm thinking. Don't really know what I'm going to talk about today. But I just wanted to talk and get this thing started and something like that, you know, and it's not. It's not that good it really really isn't. And if you see him now, this dude is so fucking, polished, he is so charismatic, he has such a presence that he brings to his videos that you are just completely enraptured by him the moment that he starts talking the moment you see him on video, and he starts just sharing his wisdom, and his knowledge is like, Wow, man, this guy is awesome. But you would never guess that if you looked back at his very 1st video. And so I love that he's been willing to leave that up so people can see he, hey, hey, man, this is where I started. I'm here now. Yeah, but you don't start here. You start over here and you get to here and you can shrink that window by getting mentors by getting into programs by doing things to help you get there faster. You don't have to go through maybe the 5 years 10 years that I took to get there. But you all have to start somewhere. You have to start where you're at, and I love that. And there's another example that I recently discovered, like just in the last year or 2. I can't remember what his last name is. But Jimmy something, anyway, you might know him more so by Mr. Beast. You know he is literally the most famous youtuber on the planet. He has more downloads, more views like I said, views, not downloads. He has more views than any youtuber on the planet. Guy just constantly creates content. and is the most popular Youtube ever known to man and woman and everything in between. But what he has is, he has a video that he posted what he did when he was younger. I forget he was like 1213, 1415, something like that when he was wanting to become A Youtuber, Youtube was still pretty young. It's pretty early in infancy, and he wanted to become a youtuber full time. That was what his goal was. He created Video in his bedroom one night he recorded it. And it's just basically him setting some goals for himself, he said, you know, in 6 months this is where I want to be. I want to have this many subscribers. I want to have this many, whatever. I don't remember the exact specific goals that he had set up, but he he had a very specific list of items that he wanted to hit by 6 months out. And then I think he did. Maybe like a year out, 5 years out, 10 years out he did multiple videos, and he uploaded them and then set them like an auto release date. So that, would they? That way? They would just post. He forgot about them, didn't even think anything more about him. Just kind of went on and did his business. and luckily, I guess, or happily for him, you know, when these videos dropped he was well beyond where he wanted to be in terms of his goals and his aspirations with his Youtube Channel, and what he was doing and where things were going with that. But what's cool is you can still find those videos online. And I love the fact that you can go there now and see what Mr. Beast started out as because if you watch him now again very similar to Preston, smiles. If you watch him on screen now you can see this polish this amazing, this incredibly in I don't want you the same words, but this guy grabs your attention, man. He can pull you in in a heartbeat. He knows how to push your buttons and get you to watch these videos and be engaged in these videos and really paying attention to them. But if you were to watch his very 1st video, it's this really shy, really quiet kid in his bedroom, and you would never make the guess that this is what this guy's going to end up like, because you just that's that's not where he was at the time. So to kind of wrap this up to kind of put a bow on it. You have to start where you're at, and when you look back at the things you've done in the past, don't judge them too harshly. That's what we're talking about before. Don't judge them too harshly. Allow them to be what they were. They were the stepping stones that allowed you to get to where you are now, and what you're doing now is going to be the stepping stone to get you to where you want to be. There's going to be these steps. There's going to be this growth. There's going to be this evolution. There's going to be these up levels are going to keep happening, and when you look back, if you keep looking back in judgment, if you keep looking back and knocking yourself, or degrading yourself, or feeling bad, or just not giving yourself credit for what you have done. and allowing it to just be what it is which was growth. Then you're going to be missing out on some of the best lessons that you can get, and some of the best resources you can get, because when you can look back at that and say, Oh. this was something I did, and maybe here's how I'd want to do it differently. And I'm going to go ahead and do that differently. Versus. Oh, here's something I did, and that sucked, and that's terrible. That means I suck, and that means I'm terrible. And that means I'm not going to get any better. I mean, the difference is going to be night and day on the trajectory of your life, and where you're going to go in your business, in your relationships and everything. Because when you can look back at that, and you can say it's just, it's part of my evolution. It's part of who I am. It's part of my progress and part of my process to get to where I want to go and learn from it and adjust your actions based on it. You can. You can go to anywhere you can go to anywhere you can do anything. But you've got to allow yourself that, Grace. Gotta allow yourself that space and allow yourself that love and support and recognition of who you are, who you've been and where you're going. Yeah, I think I'll just wrap it up right there. So with all that, get out there, have an amazing fucking day. I'll see you next time.