Casey Neistat Ends His Daily Vlog, Offers Some Sage Parting Advice

Casey Neistat is one of the most prolific and successful creatives in the world at this moment, and he just demonstrated one of the most important lessons the creative person must learn: when it’s time to move on, move the heck on.

Neistat shocked and probably disappointed many of his nearly 6 million YouTube followers Saturday when he announced that he was ending his daily vlog.

He’s not giving up filmmaking or posting to YouTube, but the daily creation exercise he started 18 months ago in March of 2015 has served its purpose, and it’s time to embark on his next creative challenge—something he either hasn’t figured out yet, or is keeping secret for now.

“This vlog turned into the one thing that I didn’t want it to be when it started,” says Neistat. “The creative challenge faded away, something easier took its place, and then that easier thing was exasperated by wild success on YouTube.”

It might seem strange—especially for those still struggling to “make it” at all—that Neistat would call his wild success a problem, but it’s an important message not repeated often enough. Professional success has a way of breeding and even encouraging the kind of complacency that can ultimately kill a creative pursuit.

You get successful, so you get comfortable, so you stop taking creative risks, so you stop feeling fulfilled by or passionate about your creative career. Creative veterans like Neistat know that, when this feeling comes around, it’s time to reinvent yourself and seek out a new challenge; but it’s just as easy to fall into a slump that could last years… years of soul-crushing ‘success’ that pays the bills while it saps the joy right out of your life.

So sure, the news that Neistat is ending his vlog is huge; but more important is the message he sends along with it. Plus, he ended the whole thing with a camera drop… and that’s just awesome.

Check out the full video for yourself up top, and then head over to Casey’s channel to watch all 500 or so videos he’s posted since starting the vlog.