It is but there is a huge upside to it: no bosses breathing down your neck (even if they are nice and hands-off, you still have to do what they tell you), no 9-5, no nauseating business corporate language, no commuting, interacting with coworkers, etc. I am a content creator myself, get paid way less than I could at a 9-5 job, and would never go back simply because there's nothing better than doing exactly what you love without having to waste time doing what other people want you to do.
Assuming your time is worth minimum wage - you haven't even broken even yet.
This is a very, very long term play.
You have to bank on YouTube still being a dominate market, not getting too greedy with it's algorithms or revenue sharing, and your old videos continuing to attract a large number of views.
If any one of those goes wrong - you're basically working for below minimum wage.
I always wonder what his returns would be if he just stopped posting but kept the old videos up.
I realize it probably declines faster than you'd think - but imagine over the course of 5 years he'd prob still hit 100k in residual value. Which must be a nice safety blanket to have.
