Ali starts on YouTube making music videos with friends, dreaming of a musical career (2016)
story · status: told 7× · last event: retold (2025-11-25) · owner: Ali
Origin known from later mentions
2016 in the title is when this began; it first appears in the videos read here in 2020, so the earlier part is known only from what is said later.
Told alongside: Ali procrastinates for seven years before starting his YouTube channel · SixMed, Ali's medical school admissions courses (2012) · Ali films his first YouTube video on his iPhone, lying in bed with no microphone
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-04-17 | told | When Ali first decided he wanted to be a YouTuber, around 2008, he wanted to do music production and be the next Kurt Schneider. | Answering your Questions 00:00:58 |
| 2024-12-27 | retold | Ali procrastinated for seven years before starting his YouTube channel, telling himself every school summer holiday that this was the year; in 2016 he made a couple of music videos, got about three views and five dislikes, and lost motivation. | My honest advice to someone who wants passive income 00:40:24 |
| 2025-01-10 | retold | Ali's first video singing to camera got five views and three dislikes, so he unlisted it; a couple of months ago he remembered it and made it public again because it is now fun. | My Honest Advice to Anyone Starting YouTube in 2026 00:16:53 |
| 2025-03-28 | retold | When Ali finally made a few music videos, they got about two views and three dislikes, and he concluded he would not make it as a music YouTuber. | Honest YouTube Advice for 45 Minutes Straight (2026) 00:01:47 |
| 2025-04-11 | retold | For years Ali procrastinated every summer holiday on making a music video with his friends; in 2016 he made a handful, still on his channel, found no one watched, but learned to use a camera and to edit. | Why Everyone Should Start a YouTube Channel 00:12:18 |
| 2025-06-13 | retold | When Ali first started his YouTube channel, Suhail played guitar and piano on the musical covers Ali sang. | He Built a $1M Business in 12 Months - Every Step Explained (Case Study) 00:01:54 |
| 2025-11-25 | retold | Without those flopped music videos, Ali says, he probably would never have built a career on YouTube. (hedged) · also in: My failed music videos taught me YouTube | How I actually started on YouTube 00:00:29 |
What is said about it
11 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2025-04-11 · Why Everyone Should Start a YouTube Channel — Ali: Since 2010 Ali wanted to be a YouTuber making music videos, inspired by Kurt Schneider and Sam Tsui, whom he still loves. — 00:11:48
- 2025-04-11 · Why Everyone Should Start a YouTube Channel — Ali: In mid-2017 Ali had the idea of using YouTube for lead generation for his business helping students get into medical school, and applied the video skills he had learned from his music videos. — 00:12:18
- 2026-03-30 · My failed music videos taught me YouTube — Ali: Those early music videos taught Ali video production, how cameras, editing and lighting work; without them, he says, he would probably never have built a career on YouTube. (hedged) — 00:00:00
- 2020-04-17 · Answering your Questions — recommendation: Ali: When starting on YouTube, Ali says, you just start making things; over time you niche down as you learn what resonates with people, so it is a case of trying a lot of things and seeing what is fun and what sticks. — 00:01:03
- 2020-04-17 · Answering your Questions — Ali: For Ali, what was fun and also stuck was tech, productivity, study tips and education, so that is what he has kept making. — 00:01:27
- 2024-12-27 · My honest advice to someone who wants passive income — Ali: No one who builds anything meaningful gets there without battling how hard it is to stay consistent, especially when things are not working, Ali says. (overstated) — 00:40:53
- 2024-12-27 · My honest advice to someone who wants passive income — Ali: Once his channel got momentum, one to three new subscribers a day or a comment a week, those signals fuelled Ali's motivation, and on days he did not feel like it he made it more fun, the principle of feel-good productivity. — 00:40:53
- 2024-12-27 · My honest advice to someone who wants passive income — Ali: Building passive income does not happen easily, Ali says: basically nobody in the UK earns £120,000 a year without doing anything, and extraordinary results require extraordinary inputs, effort and consistency. — 00:41:30
- 2024-12-27 · My honest advice to someone who wants passive income — recommendation: Ali's final advice to anyone seeking passive income: accept a journey of potentially years while it is not working, and stay consistent by finding a way to enjoy the process so you are not wedded to the outcome. — 00:42:00
- 2025-01-10 · My Honest Advice to Anyone Starting YouTube in 2026 — Ali's seven video challenge: stop watching videos and overthinking and just make your first seven videos; no one starts off perfect, and after seven you understand far better how the process works. — 00:18:05
- 2025-01-10 · My Honest Advice to Anyone Starting YouTube in 2026 — Ali: At medical school Ali spent ages reading, watching videos and talking about CPR, but nothing prepared him for being involved in a real cardiac arrest himself. — 00:19:08