From NASA to 'Digital Duds': A Costumed Entrepreneur's Journey

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The chapter follows a NASA employee's evolution into an entrepreneur, starting with a patented design for a Halloween costume that led to the launch of 'digital duds'. It details the speaker's success with unique t-shirt ideas, offers from major companies, and the decision to leave NASA for a Halloween costume venture. The chapter also explores the speaker's self-improvement journey in creating YouTube videos and the choices made when faced with lucrative job offers and conflicting priorities.

As one of the most successful creators on YouTube, Mark Rober doesn’t see what he does as a business. Instead, it’s a way to celebrate science in the most joyful way possible. While working as an engineer at NASA, he made his YouTube debut with a tutorial on how to make a gory Halloween costume with two iPads and a lot of duct tape. Over time, his videos became more elaborate, including a belly flop into a pool full of Jello, and a demo of a glitter-fart bomb to get revenge on porch pirates. Within a few years, Mark was teaching online science classes and selling subscription boxes for kids. Today, his YouTube channel has 5.5 billion views, 48 million subscribers…and–astonishingly, given that audience–less than 150 videos.

This episode was produced by J.C. Howard, with music by Ramtin Arablouei

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Sam Paulson.

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