One of my favorite creators is Anthony Fantano. He is a music critic, who made it "big" with his channel theneedledrop on YouTube.

I recently came across this video, which is a bit of a behind the scenes on his life.

I really look up to the life that he's built. He went from making pizza to slowly building a sustainable income from reviewing music on YouTube. His audience is massive, but also extremely engaged.

It's admirable how he has never "caved" or sold out to the music industry. In this video:

This is how I feel about startups as well. He says he has no interest in "rubbing elbows" with the who's who of the industry. 

He has turned down lucrative offers to join the industry and stay independent.

His "come up" has always been predicated on hard work. He's not interested in "going viral", like most YouTubers, but instead he builds his business around putting out great content every day.

He says he enjoys the grind, working hard, and living a quiet life in Connecticut. Although he has a wildly popular public persona, he's very quiet about his personal life, which allows him to "turn it off" when he needs.

I'd recommend watching that video. I learned a lot.