Mike Boyd is a popular YouTuber.
He has more than two million subscribers on his YouTube channel by the name, Mike Boyd.
Mike is famous for learning new skills and showcasing them.
Introduction-
Mike Boyd hails from Scotland, United Kingdom.
He graduated in mechanical engineering and later, he also studied a Master of Engineering (M.Eng.).
Inspiration to learn new skills-
While studying his Masters, Mike found writing thesis agonising, so he wanted to do something creative to break the monotony of thesis writing.
Later, he came across the 10,000 hour rule on a television show and that rule stated that one needs to practice for at least 10,000 hours to master a complex skill.
Mike was overwhelmed by this 10,000 hour rule and decided to challenge it by mastering a new skill within 10 hours.
Busting the 10,000 hour rule-
As Mike loved skateboarding, he decided to master kickflip within 10 hours.
So, he set up his camera on a tripod and started recording his practice and within just 5 hours and 47 minutes, he mastered kickflip.
Mike edited the footage and shortened it to around 6 minutes and published it on his YouTube channel by the name, Mike Boyd.
This video is titled- LEARN TO KICKFLIP IN 5HOURS AND 47MINS and was published on 18 August 2015.
Even though Mike created his YouTube channel on 24 October 2008, he started working on it only from August 2015.
Mastering many skills-
As people liked his first video, he was inspired to publish similar kinds of videos.
So, Mike began practising to master new skills from scratch, recorded them and published them on his YouTube channel.
Likewise, he mastered many skills like learning to unicycle, juggle, heelflip, pool trickshot, etc.
The most impressive skills that Mike mastered are solving Rubik’s Cubes blindfolded and breaking a wine glass with his voice.
He also learnt app development and developed an app by the name, Magic Calculator by Mike Boyd.
Becoming a full-time YouTuber-
Initially, Mike worked at a job and at that time, he was practising new skills after returning from work.
Later, he quit his job to become a full-time YouTuber.
Now, Mike is a very successful YouTuber and as of January 2022, he has more than two million subscribers on his YouTube channel.
In 2017, he collaborated with Alec Steele to learn to blacksmith.
In 2018, he collaborated with Chris Ramsay to learn to card spring.
On 23 May 2019, Mike delivered a TEDx Talk.
A change of mindset-
At school, Mike was good at maths, average at literature and not very good at creative writing, sports and art.
As in school, he was good only in maths, he and the people surrounding him believed that he couldn’t be good in other subjects or skills.
Mike formed a belief that as he was good in maths, his mental resources were completely used for maths and so, there weren’t resources left for him to become skilful in other subjects or skills.
His poor performance in poetry, writing and sports further confirmed this theory.
Mike feared that learning new skills outside of his specialisation would be very daunting and time-consuming.
But he disproved the above theory after becoming a YouTuber because his YouTube channel forces him to learn new skills unrelated to each other in a short period of time.
A regular guy like Mike learning so many skills inspires people to try their hands to learn new skills.
A quitter-
Even though now Mike appears very determined to master skills with perseverance, this wasn’t the case earlier.
While growing up, he tried many different things but didn’t stick to them for long.
At a young age, Mike tried learning many things and becoming good at many sports but his fickle nature didn’t allow him to do so.
He tried to learn kydex Lego and normal Lego, he tried his hand at rollerblade, hockey, football, cycling, golf, band, electronic music, snowboarding, paintball, photography but gave up all of them.
But since Mike started making YouTube videos, he found his real passion in filmmaking and so, he has been continuing it.
Personal life-
In 2018, Mike married Kim Norrie (Kim Boyd).
Kim Boyd is a textile designer and also, she helps him by editing his YouTube videos.
Sometimes, she also helps Mike by taking part in video production.
He is an ailurophile.
So, how are you inspired by the success story of Mike Boyd?
Share with me in the comment section below.
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