Not long ago, we never heard about the name Khaby Lame, until suddenly his plain face kept appearing on our TikTok ‘FYP’. His reactions towards other TikTok videos really attracted millions of viewers and successfully grabbed millions of likes too. With his plain and small smile at the end of each video he reacts, the feelings that he gives to his viewer, makes him special since his reaction is almost like ours, whenever we encounter the same ‘lame’ videos. But, we’ve never predicted nor seen that Khaby Lame’s story is among the most interesting stories of a TikToker ever being told.
His originality
Khaby Lame was born in Senegal pon March 2000. He and his family migrated to Italy when he was one year old.
In his 20s, Khaby was just a normal machine operator working in Turin, Italy. He didn’t own any TikTok account until he lost his job during the Covid-19. With a very challenging moment in 2020, his father kept asking him to apply for other jobs. Being a dyslexic, Khaby felt frustrated as he thought that he might not get any job after this. For him to be hired for his previous job, he had gone through so many rejections from schools and other jobs.
Khaby with his own courage, started to download TikTok and decided to post videos on it with the account under his own name, Khaby Lame. His early TikTok videos were recorded in his bedroom with him dancing or doing any funny silly gestures.
In early 2021, he began making funny videos by reacting to life-hack videos without voice or words. The funny part of Khaby’s video is his short videos are actually featuring himself silently mocking the complicated life hacks. With his hand gestures and cynical smile has won millions of hearts. Lame’s shrug at the end of his video also became his signature. To him, “being silent was the best way to reach as many people as possible.”
In June 2022, Khaby overtook the used to No.1 TikToker Charli D’Amelio. As of October 2022, Khaby Lame is the world’s most followed TikToker with more than 2.4 billion likes & 150.6 million followers. His followers are still growing day by day.
What interesting things that we can learn from Khaby Lame until he is able to change his life just in mere two years are:
1. Simplicity
If we can refer to Khaby Lame’s TikTok video, he loves to keep things simple. He pokes fun at internet hacks and viral videos, doing so in a simple shrug that everybody around the world understands. The feeling of someone not trying too hard, it’s something authentic, according to Samir Chaudry, a founder of The Publish Press.
2. Have a Life Purpose
Since Khaby was a child, he always wanted to make people laugh. According to him, “I am passionate about entertaining and making people laugh since childhood.”
He said most creators failed because they are motivated by wealth & fame.
3. No Expensive Setup
If we can scroll back to all his videos, most of them were made without any high quality camera or even no audio at all except from the videos he reacted to. He even started his first video just using his phone. Although many TikTokers produce high-quality videos, most of Lame’s videos are shot in poor lighting.
4. Believe in Yourself
The sense of appreciation really pushed Khaby forward to make more of his TikTok videos. He is just passionate about how he wants to react to the funny silly videos, and not thinking much of making money from it. Khaby believes that if we put so much effort into doing whatever we like, someday it will pay off.
5. Be Consistent
This is always the key of any content creator around the world of any platform. Same to Khaby, he keeps consistent on putting the shrugging and his open hand gesture at the end of each of his videos. He wanted to entertain his views by putting that particular gesture. To him, his gestures represent how viewers would think towards the videos he reacted to, which is, “Are these even convenient?”. That is his signature.
After all his popular videos and his achievement in TikTok, he will soon be granted Italian citizenship, even though he has been living in Italy since he was a child. Khaby also signed a multi-year partnership with HugoBoss and will be signing with Binance to be their global brand ambassador. Khaby Lame’s net worth today has exceeded US$ 5 Million and he even would enjoy an NFT collection under his name.
Conclusion
Khaby Lame’s TikTok story is remarkable, but it also shares many similarities with the stories of other successful creators. The main difference is that Khaby Lame does not have any money or fame to his name, so he must be consistent in incorporating his own unique perspective into his videos. If you wish to read more stories like Khaby, the founder of his own legacy, you can read the next article in Bytenod telling you more about other founders in the industries.
