Kai Cenat pursued passion despite pushback. We should follow suit.
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About eight months ago, online personality Kai Cenat posted a documentary-style video on YouTube titled “I Quit.”
Through conversations with designers, musicians and family members, Cenat announced he was quitting streaming. He wanted to step away to learn the craft of fashion design and build his clothing brand, VIVET.
His announcement wasn’t received well.
Cenat’s audience called him performative, suggesting he wasn’t living by his original ambitions.
“Mfs cut their dreads and become philosophers,” read one of the top comments under the video.
The comment has more than 44,000 likes.
Cenat discussed his passion for VIVET, how he hoped the brand would carry on his legacy and his desire to be remembered for more than just streaming — he wanted to be taken more seriously. Yet people reduced his ambition to a joke.
There’s nothing embarrassing about wanting more for yourself, even when you aren’t immediately good at what you’re pursuing. Too often, we allow the fears of looking performative, public failure or being bad at something stop us from ever trying.
Cenat could’ve stayed comfortable. At the 2025 Streamer Awards, he led all creators with four wins. Instead, Cenat chose to step outside what had already made him successful and become a beginner again.
Being a beginner is hard. It’s not fun. But being a novice shouldn’t stop you from wanting to pursue your passions.
For our generation, hobbies can come with the pressure to convert them into a side gig. A 2025 survey found that 34% of adults with a side hustle were part of Gen Z, a higher percentage than any other generation. This pressure to thrive can make trying something feel pointless unless we feel we can eventually become good at it, profit from it or receive recognition.
But not everything we try needs to become something.
We should be allowed to struggle.
College is the perfect place to embrace this struggle. Especially at Syracuse University, where there are over 300 student-run organizations on campus. With that many clubs, there’s a lot to immerse yourself in.
Even if all your interests don’t make sense in the moment, they may later lead to something greater.
Nobody’s an expert the first time they pick up a camera, write a story or design a piece of clothing. Being a beginner allows us to experiment without already knowing what the finished product is supposed to look like. We should embrace this process.
Being a beginner allows us to experiment without already knowing what the finished product is supposed to look like,Trayson Blain, Columnist
The first time I pursued writing, I wrote hilariously bad poetry. A year or two later, I released a poetry book. That doesn’t make me a master poet — but I’m undoubtedly a better writer than when I started.
When I revisit my old work, I can tell my creative eye has evolved. The stories weren’t all bad, but I notice which ideas could’ve been fleshed out, where sentences drag and why some stories never reached their full potential. My instincts have become more ruthless. I couldn’t see those flaws when I started because I hadn’t written enough to recognize them yet.
Eight months after Cenat was clowned for his ambitions, VIVET debuted its first collection at New York Fashion Week.
This doesn’t mean Cenat became a master designer.
The collection faced criticism, with some comparing its aesthetic to the work of Yeezy and Rick Owens.
VIVET shouldn’t be exempt from criticism. Being new at something doesn’t require everyone else to pretend you’re already great at it. Criticism is part of improving. But there’s a difference between criticizing someone’s work and ridiculing them for believing they could create it in the first place.
Cenat didn’t need to become one of the world’s greatest designers in eight months for his experiment to be worthwhile.
He needed to be willing to try long enough to discover what he could become.
Think about all the times we tell ourselves that we aren’t something: “I’m not a writer,” “I’m not a reader,” “I’m not a gym person.”
We treat these activities like they must be fixed to our identity, without realizing that we can grow into them.
Research on identity-based motivation suggests that people are more likely to pursue behaviors that feel consistent with who they believe they are. When something feels like it isn’t for you, the struggle that comes with learning can become a reason to quit, rather than an inspiration to improve.
Saying “I’m not a writer” feels definitive. Saying “I haven’t written much yet” leaves room for change. The difference seems small, but one describes an identity trait, while the other describes a temporary lack of experience.
Sometimes, embracing the struggle means acting like the person you want to become before you feel like them.
Eight months after “I Quit,” Cenat posted another documentary-style video: “Don’t Quit.”
The video documents the months leading up to Cenat’s New York Fashion Week debut. He shows the conversations, his uncertainty and moments when his lack of experience became obvious. The finished collection matters, but so does everything that came before it.
Cenat wasn’t a fashion designer when he started. He was a streamer willing to become one.
We should take a page out of Cenat’s book.
Be willing to stay bad at something long enough to find out who you could become.
Trayson Blain is a senior majoring in psychology. He can be reached at tblain@syr.edu.
