8 years ago today, I launched Noisy Pixel. At the time, I was living in my car in Oakland. After work, I’d sit in the same café and build the website, trying to create something of my own without really knowing where it would lead. Eight years later, Noisy Pixel is on Metacritic, has more than 90,000 YouTube subscribers, reaches over 500,000 readers a month, publishes hundreds of reviews every year, has its own magazine, and covers events around the world with a team of people who believed enough in the idea to help build it. And this year, we’ll be a juror for The Game Awards. There were plenty of points where none of this seemed realistic. Success is manifestation, but manifestation still requires you to do the work. Don’t get caught up in the daily drama of other people’s lives or convince yourself that someone else’s path is the only way forward. There’s still room to carve out something for yourself. It takes work. A lot of work. It takes surviving the years where nobody is watching, continuing when the numbers aren’t moving, and learning how to keep going when things don’t work. More than anything, it takes a great team of people who believe in what you’re building as much as you do. Eight years later, we’re still building.