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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........

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