It was MY fault the Neistat Brothers broke up.
Published September 02, 2024 · 14:34 · 221,113 views
About This Video
In the summer of 2010, Van packed his things from 368 Broadway and moved to Los Angeles, ending a ten-year collaboration that culminated in an HBO series. This video is structured around three words: mistakes, failure, regret. The chief mistake was arrogance. Van thought the success of getting a series on HBO was due to his creative efforts alone, that concentrating solely on the art absolved him from the business. He treated Casey like his agent. Casey was always on the hustle, on the phone, taking meetings. Van was inclined to smoke pot all day and disappear into his own little world.
The self-diagnosis is unflinching. All the archive footage where Van is wearing sunglasses inside means he was stoned. He reduced his role from partner to employee through his own arrogance, then blamed Casey and their executive producer Tom Scott for years. But it was his fault. The video maps mistakes to failure to regret to acceptance to wisdom, following the structure of a recovery share. Fourteen minutes, and Van names every part of it without flinching.
Transcript
undefined undefined this episode is about looking at mistakes failure and regret without carrying it with you and thank you
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help rewind I'm fine I'm fine damn did we have [Music] fun could have bur your face off in the summer of 2010 I packed my
things from 368 Broadway and moved to Los Angeles ending a 10-year collaboration
that culminated in an HBO series short stories about the lives of two filmmakers the season premiere of the
HBO late night series and ni Brothers next on [Music] HL and when I go through the archive footage now I'm reminded of
mistakes failure and regret mistakes I made that led us to
the failure to get a second season of the HBO series among other things and the regret that led to the acceptance
that led to the wisdom about my role in the failure I think in the end the
breakup was mostly my fault undefined undefined mistakes a mistake f is an error made out of immaturity ignorance or carelessness the chief mistake I made that led to the
breakup was one of arrogance I thought the success of getting a series on HBO
was due to my creative efforts that if I concentrated solely on the work or on the artistic side of the work then I was
absolved from concentrating on the business side of the work and look at this thing so cool I stole this design from
Vivian kubra this was a mistake I later learned that half the job of the artist is to make the work and the other half is to get the work out into the world probably
why artists pay art galleries half the money from the sale of the art I treated
Casey like my agent or my art dealer I was the creative genius and he was to
sell my Wares this is a production meeting for a project to help Finance the studio but am I participating in the meeting no I'm
filming it whereas Casey was always on the hustle on the phone taking meetings
developing and executing plans I was inclined to smoke pot all day immerse
myself into this project or that and disappear into my own little
world and maybe you can get away with forsaking the world for your work if
you're an apex predator Rockstar genius artist but that ain't me
I got an emergency email from Casey about a meeting that went down in Los Angeles on Friday which is not only 3
days ago it's also three hours ago you know we have an extra three hours because they're on the west coast so he's just sending me
this and he and he tells the big story and this is the big story okay so what ended up happening was that by ignoring
the business and concentrating solely on my art projects I not only turned my
agency in shaping the business over to Casey and our executive
producer I had through my own arrogance reduced my role in the partnership to
that of basically an employee and when I realized what I had done that I had become an employee and not a partner
I blamed Casey and our executive producer Tom Scott the guy who financed the whole HBO show to begin with and I
resented them for years but it was my fault it was my fault that I had become an employee and sort of dissolved my
role in the partnership I just drugged myself into a false reality where
I I was King and all the old Studio footage when I'm wearing sunglasses
inside it means I was stoned and there's hours of sunglasses footage from from
those days undefined undefined failure here I am again HBO trying to sell season 2 trying to pitch season 2
pitching season 2 trying to get seon season [Music] 2 not quite as exciting as the last time we left the building could have been much worse could have been much worse
nobody knows whether we're getting season to um this is when I found out that our
network is not buying a season two of our show failure
is either running out of time or quitting before you're successful and in
a way failure is the good news failure is education and failure is part of the process of achieving success what allowed me to pack up and leave the
studio and leave New York was us failing to get season 2 of the niist St Brothers
HBO series when you're trying to earn a living from your creativity it's mostly
failure it took hundreds of micro failures to get the show in the first
place in the pursuit of a meaningful goal we experience entire phases of failure
Cycles in the hero with a thousand faces Joseph Campbell calls it the Road of
Trials you know failure Edison striking out over and over and over again trying to figure out what the hell to make the
light bulb filament out of thousands of different materials until
tungsten failure means that you just haven't earned it yet baby you must suffer and cry for a longer time
[Music] undefined undefined regret for a while maybe until last Monday when I looked back on my life from about 2001 to 2012 I've regretted not getting sober at
a younger age I thought man I should have gotten sober in October 2001
September 2001 living in Manhattan traumatized okay I drank but I look back and think about
the trail of Destruction my drinking and drugging left in its wake for another 11
years until I got sober and entered the program and so much of my ability to
think truthfully about the world and so much of my maturity in becoming a man I
credit to the lessons I've learned and the support I've received from my
12-step program now regret if carried too long can become a
self-inflicted tragedy regret can destroy your life if you don't get past it for a while I looked back
thinking man I could have saved myself and the world a lot of trouble had I
gotten sober at 26 instead of at 37 and you know my relationships with
people my relationship to the world I guess so in putting this episode
together I called a college friend who's known me and Casey through all of this
she was there during that September 11th 2001 era come on come on there's a phase in
the hero's journey called meeting with the goddess it occurs after the hero has done all the
difficult stuff after he's slayed the dragons or blown up the death star or what have you after his Road of
[Music] Trials the goddess unites the good and the bad the meeting with the goddess articulates and illuminates the wisdom that the hero has acquired on
his Adventure in a three-hour conversation Nina helped me understand that I didn't actually regret not getting sober in
2001 I don't carry it with me and let it destroy my future no my regret is more
of a thought exercise that occasionally floats in and out of my Consciousness it's probably not actually
regret it's more like imagine what would what would have happened or could have happened had I gotten sober in October
2001 instead of September 2012 but I had to go through it all to understand the
significance of going through it all and nice ladies and
gentlemen holy the night Step Brothers breakup for forced me to grow up the truth is I
always wanted my own kingdom and not a partnership with my work I mean my
heading off to Los Angeles was the beginning of another hero's journey and on that hero's journey I got sober and
began another hero's journey where all of us each one of us undefined undefined
were on some kind of hero's journey and tragically some of us get stuck at the Call to
Adventure make the mistake of refusing The Call to Adventure fail to see our adventure
through and regret not having taken the adventure or not having completed the adventure
others um some of us who are blessed repeat the heroes Journey cycle
again and again and gain the wisdom that comes with each
adventure maybe it's because I'm a Storyteller that I sometimes experience life's events through the lens of the hero's journey usually when I find
myself on the road of Trials grinding it out but maybe my meeting with the goddess my meeting with nah hints that I
might be about to reach the end of one cycle and on the verge of beginning a
new one I had to go through it all to understand the significance of going through it all this week on the patreon a conversation with one of my peers the link is right there undefined undefined
Products & Tools Mentioned
- BetterHelp recommends — sponsor of the episode, online therapy platform
People Referenced
Casey Neistat, Tom Scott, Vivian Kubrick, Joseph Campbell, Cornel West
Books Mentioned
- hero's journey framework used to interpret career arc and breakup (by Joseph Campbell)
Films & Media Referenced
- HBO series; failure to get season 2 discussed as pivotal event