Asking a kid what they want to do when they grow up is an important rite of passage as they start to dream about what their life could look like in the future. It also serves as an early indicator of what truly matters to that child and how they see the world. So, what feels like an innocuous question can reveal a lot more than we realize.
If you speak to a child of this generation, the most common answer tends to be a YouTuber or a streamer. It’s a testament to the impact that these media platforms have had on modern culture that such an answer is so popular. But that doesn’t mean it’s common. There are only a tiny percentage of kids that manage to find themselves creating that career for themselves. There are only a few that achieve that dream.
SideLogic is one of those rare ones.
An Early Obsession with Gaming
Like many, the gaming bug bit early. At 5 years old, SideLogic had already become completely obsessed with gaming. The ability to escape into a virtual world and engage in fantastical worlds provided adventures that enthralled and captivated him. It was such a stark contrast to real life, and it consumed him.
He would play anything that he could get his hands on. And with every hour that he played, he fell further down the rabbit hole. When he played video games he felt more alive than when he was doing anything else. It was the one thing where he would lose track of time and completely immerse himself in what he was doing. There was no stopping the flow that he experienced when he was playing a game.
Little did he know, that little kid was setting the foundations for a life he could scarcely have believed was possible.
Discovering the World of Streaming
Fast forward 6 years and SideLogic discovered the world of streaming for the first time. It’s hard to imagine it as we sit here in 2022, but back then – streaming video games was not a big deal like it is today. It had gathered a small community but it still remained a strange hobby that carried a bit of a stigma – because no one could quite see what could come of it.
Nonetheless, he started to watch YouTubers and streamers who would play games every day for a fanatical audience of fellow gamers. The early seeds of the industry were there, combining gaming excellence with personality and community building – creating a space where like-minded people could gather to share this passion. These were the early days when people were doing it purely for the love of it. No one quite knew where it would take them.
For an 11-year old SideLogic, this community became where he spent a lot of his time. Watching his idols play the games he was playing while also entertaining a large group of people was seriously inspiring. It was so much more than just the game, he got the early inkling that this was a way to connect people. He felt more a part of the online gaming community than he felt anywhere else and as a source of refuge from the drag of day-to-day life, this could not be beaten.
There was something special here. And perhaps, just then, a small kernel of a dream started to form.
Why couldn’t he do this?
Why couldn’t he build a community of his own?
Reality Hits Back
As SideLogic finished up high school, he came upon a career crossroads. It was clear by that point that the dream was to become a full-time streamer and make a living doing what he loved, but that dream was difficult to see for other people. Most specifically, his father who he was living with at the time.
His father, like so many other parents, just didn’t see the potential that was there and worried that if his kid went down this path and didn’t succeed, he would find himself in a rather precarious position. He worried that without a university degree, his choices would come back to haunt him. He didn’t understand the streaming ecosystem and desired a safer, more well-trodden path for his son.
This is completely natural, and it’s a story as old as time by now. And it characterizes so many of the streamers that we see today, who were able to take the risk of this strange-sounding career choice, against the advice of parental figures. This is the natural tension that exists when you talk about such a new industry that still remains somewhat misunderstood by the general public. It’s a difficult place to be for anyone, let alone an 18-year-old kid.
In an attempt to placate his father, SideLogic took the path offered in front of him and moved into real estate. This was seen as a path with a well-understood future that could set him for a good life. And he did really well. Applying his thirst for knowledge, his work ethic, and his resourcefulness – he very quickly become successful in the industry. He was making the sort of progress that pointed towards a long and fruitful career in real estate.
But he hated it.
There was no passion for the industry. There was no desire to go above and beyond. He didn’t feel that this was for him. It felt like he was living someone else’s life and ignoring his own dreams and ambitions. His mind wasn’t filled with real estate, it was thinking about gaming. And so, this was an experiment that was set up to fail. This was not something he could stomach long-term.
It only took 2 years for that conscience to catch up. Even after winning an award for being the top real estate performer in Melbourne, Victoria, that wasn’t enough to quell the unease he felt. As he thought about his day-to-day life and whether he could continue doing this for decades to come, the answer was very clear. This wasn’t for him.
Looking in from the outside, this might have seemed crazy to many. He was preparing himself to give up on a good life that most 20-year-olds would have done anything for. He had found early success, a path to wealth, and a promising career that could transform his life. Why would you give that up?
Well, you give it up because it’s not who you are.
You give it up to chase a dream.
Facing the Consequences
Deciding to quit the real estate job and chase the dream of becoming a streamer is not an easy decision. It doesn’t matter how ambitious you are, or what risk appetite you have – it requires something deep inside of you to make that leap. That’s because when you chase after your dream, you face the consequences of that decision. It comes with trade-offs and potentially permanent changes to your life. It’s not as simple as the success stories make it out to be.
For SideLogic, the immediate consequence that came with quitting his job was the strain it put on his relationship with his father. He was told that if he was going to pursue this dream of becoming a streamer, he needed to move out of his family home. His father vehemently disagreed with the decision and made this ultimatum as his last straw to try and redirect his son’s path.
It’s scary to leave your family home. You have to give up on a comfortable life where you have a constant support system, resources, and comforts that you just don’t have when you move out on your own. But it’s what needed to happen and the pull was so strong that SideLogic decided it was worth the risk.
He moved out and started a new chapter of his life. Little did he know just how pivotal that chapter would be.
Starting Again
Day one is always the scariest one. Whenever you’re starting something new, you arrive with plenty of dreams and a lot of hope – but no experience to draw on. It can feel like all the odds are against you and there is an insurmountable obstacle in front of you.
But that’s where everyone started. And it’s where you must start to.
If you speak to SideLogic about the early days of his streaming career, you’ll hear a similar sentiment. It’s easy to look at massive streamers with millions of fans and aspire to be them. But it’s much harder to turn on your camera for an audience of zero and start working towards that future.
The biggest reason that this is so difficult is because of how you think others will perceive you. We are social creatures after all and whenever you start something new there is a risk that you will fail at it. And none of us want to be seen as failures. So, we often avoid the discomfort and retreat to where we feel safe.
The truth though, is that we have to push through that discomfort if we are to grow and chase our dreams. You can’t let the fear of failure dominate your thinking. You have to recognize that the regret you would feel by not chasing your dreams is much worse. And SideLogic recognized that.
Having swallowed the consequences of his decision, he took on day one. And day two. And day three. Slowly, he started to build what he hoped would become a community that could support the dreams of his 11-year old self.
A Dream Realized
If you had asked SideLogic to write down his predictions for his streaming career before he started, it would have been an amazing piece of memorabilia to look back on. Because his career caught wildfire in a way that he never could have imagined.
In just 12 months, he has built a community with over 2 million followers which is a simply staggering number in that short space of time. His unique combination of gaming skills, personality, and social media marketing savvy created a force to be reckoned with in the world of online gaming. Fans immediately gravitated towards his energy and undeniable passion for the games that he plays. And in no time at all, he found himself living that dream that he wanted to chase for so long.
With the sheer scale of his reach, he quickly caught the attention of major companies that wanted to help support his career and reach his audience. That led to partnerships with companies such as Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, GFuel, Aftershock, and many more. These deals combined with the revenue he was making from streaming turned into a lucrative career that continues to grow to this day.
It’s also led to some rather insane moments such as when he was featured on ESPN for having the most liked Call of Duty video on TikTok. This one video has over 5 million likes as of the time of writing and represents a microcosm of the success he’s been able to achieve over the past 12 months.
It’s been such a whirlwind that when you talk to him he can barely believe that it’s actually real. In just a year he has been able to manifest the future that he once dreamed of as a kid. Free of the shackles of what he was ‘supposed to do’, he now gets to do what he loves on a daily basis while making over 6 figures to do so.
It sounds like a fairytale, and in some ways it is. But at the core of it, it’s a story about someone who would not give up on their dreams, even when everything was telling them to let it go. These sorts of stories can only happen when you’re willing to put things on the line and go after what you want unapologetically.
It always seems impossible until it’s done.
That’s the message of the SideLogic story. We all have dreams and if we aren’t careful, the world around us will conspire to crush them with reality checks that are imposed on us by others. Even with good intentions, these fragile futures that we hold in our heads can be used against us. And so, without realizing it, we can funnel ourselves into a life that we don’t actually want to lead.
Chasing your dreams requires the courage to fight against this and recognize the things that really bring you alive. We have to be able to break free of others’ expectations for us so that we can become the person we were meant to be. This requires sacrifice, hard work, and a willingness to go where others dare not.
But, when it works – you can unlock a life that you never thought was possible.
More Than Just Gaming
If you don’t write the script for your own life, someone else is going to write it for you.
Chase your dreams and fight for them, even when things get tough. Because that’s how you unlock your true self and give your life the adventure and joy that it deserves.
To follow SideLogic’s journey, find him on any of his social channels: Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, or Discord.
By Phemie Rosie
