Success Has Patterns

I love geeks. Geeks or nerds have a special way of viewing the world. They are extremely focused on a particular subject and can run you through the history, motivations and reasoning behind the subject of their interest. I will listen to anyone with a deep passion for anything since true spirit shows when someone is fired up. Within passion, this is where real connections are made.

This links to gaming, which is something I enjoy during down time. Most games you probably ever heard of (called AAA/triple A games) are usually created by a massive team (+1000 employees for Grand Theft Auto V) and a whole lot of budget. 

On the flip side, there are creators that are small team of sometime 1 or 2 to create games to are widely popular such as Minecraft. 

Today, I'd like to introduce you to one of those "geeks". Edmund McMillen is the game designer and creator of the platform games "Super Meat Boy" (+1,000,000 units sold) and the dark religious themed called the "Binding of Isaac" (+2,000,000 units sold). 

Edmund McMillen

In the really interesting  interview below (1h36 worth), Edmund takes you through his history, his last 10 years (10K anyone? :), hard work, his failures and many other life lessons. You might have no interest in gaming or game developments, but if you listen to the story, you'll see patterns that are present to all very successful people that had big breakthroughs.

Video Notes : 

4:42 - School and education

13:48 - Failing school and taking what he needed from college - beginning his journey and building on what he learned non-stop

17:05 - His first big project and how he met his partner

23:02 - Big challenges and stress in the project 

31:50 - Common first project mistakes

33:00 - Money is not an objective

34:18 - Starting too big and the work that you have done that no one will ever see

37:42 - Love what you do

1h04 - Passion project (really interesting segment on his most popular game and culminating his experience and staying true to himself)

1h12 - Postpartum depression after the end of a project

1h19 - Dealing with critics/haters and using them as motivation

1h27 - how is discovered his passion through a mentor

1h28 - 10K !!!!

 

Cheers!