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3 Books that Changed my Life

2019-02-11 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 14:40 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Business and entrepreneurship (also: YouTube, writing online and creators) · mode: Review and recommendation · tags: Lesson from a book, His own products discussed, His own numbers, His medical past, Sponsor segment present

Junior doctor Ali recommends three books that changed his life: Tim Ferriss's The 4-Hour Workweek, which he says let him set up SixMed in medical school; Austin Kleon's Show Your Work, which got him past the fear of self-promotion to start a blog and then his YouTube channel; and Derek Sivers's Anything You Want, whose "Isn't that enough?" quote he rereads against the pressure to grow.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Intro: three books that changed his life

00:00:29 — The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss: mini-retirements and setting up SixMed

  • ★★ Ali says The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss tells how to quit your job, set up businesses with automated income that need no physical work, and travel the world. — 00:00:29 · The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss, passive income
  • ★★ Ali says The 4-Hour Workweek argues that the life of a rich person, travelling and living on a beach, is available cheaply: a few thousand dollars a month in places like Thailand and Argentina. — 00:01:00 · The 4-Hour Workweek
  • ★★ Ali says that in The 4-Hour Workweek Tim Ferriss asks why we work to retire in our 60s and suggests mini-retirements instead: each year take a few months off to travel while running your business remotely. — 00:01:29 · The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss
  • ★★ Ali says anyone with even a passing interest in entrepreneurship, or intrigued by travelling the world while their businesses make money, should read The 4-Hour Workweek. — 00:01:58 · The 4-Hour Workweek
  • ★★★ Ali says The 4-Hour Workweek pretty much single-handedly let him set up his company SixMed in medical school in 2013: courses for medical school applicants, then an online question bank and online courses. — 00:02:22 · The 4-Hour Workweek, 6med
  • ★★ Ali says SixMed has made six figures in revenue pretty much every year since it started in 2013, with five-figure corporation tax bills. — 00:02:22 · 6med
  • ★★ Ali credits The 4-Hour Workweek's productivity tips, such as outsourcing to remote workers, for running SixMed alongside medicine at Cambridge: they made its question banks successful and protected his mental health. — 00:02:22 · The 4-Hour Workweek, 6med, Cambridge, Mental health
  • ★ Ali recommends Tim Ferriss's podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, as absolutely wonderful. — 00:03:08 · The Tim Ferriss Show, Tim Ferriss
  • ★ Ali read Austin Kleon's small book Show Your Work in about half an hour on Kindle and bought physical copies only to show them in this video. — 00:03:08 · Kindle, show your work

00:03:17 — Show Your Work by Austin Kleon: past the fear of self-promotion to a blog and a YouTube channel

  • ★★★ Since starting medical school and SixMed, Ali had toyed with a personal blog but could not get past the fear of self-promotion: that people would think him arrogant for a blog under his own name. — 00:03:41 · 6med, aliabdaal.com
  • ★★★ Ali read Show Your Work by Austin Kleon in January 2016 and says it completely changed the game for him. — 00:03:41 · show your work
  • ★★★ Ali's lesson from Show Your Work: even if you are no expert, having done anything at all means you can write about that experience, and someone somewhere will find it helpful. — 00:04:23 · show your work
  • ★★ Ali says the main idea of Show Your Work is that sharing your work with the world helps people and is an inherent good. — 00:04:23 · show your work
  • ★★★ After reading Show Your Work, Ali started his blog and wrote a few posts in 2016; he thinks without the book he would not have set up his YouTube channel, since the blog made him comfortable putting himself out there. — 00:04:53 · aliabdaal.com, show your work
  • ★★ To the many people who ask him how to get over the fear of starting a YouTube channel, Ali says there is no way to get over it, but small steps and reading Show Your Work show there is little to fear. — 00:04:53 · show your work
  • ★★ Ali adds that sharing yourself and your work with the world is only really a good thing if the message you share is positive. — 00:05:22
  • ★★ Ali has had over 2,000 messages and comments from people inspired or taught by his content, and thinks none of it would have happened without Show Your Work. — 00:05:22 · show your work
  • ★★ Ali says anyone who makes any kind of content, such as artists, painters and writers, will really benefit from Show Your Work, which takes about half an hour to read. — 00:05:51 · show your work

00:06:16 — Anything You Want by Derek Sivers: SixMed's stagnation and the quote "Isn't that enough?"

  • ★★ Ali says pretty much everyone should read Derek Sivers's Anything You Want, a half-hour read with lessons for life as well as for entrepreneurship. — 00:06:16 · Derek Sivers
  • ★★ Ali says Derek Sivers set up CD Baby, grew it to an 18-person operation with millions in revenue, sold it for about $20 million and gave the money to a charitable trust for music education. — 00:06:16 · Derek Sivers
  • ★★ Ali praises the counterintuitive approach of Anything You Want to business and life: stop chasing growth all the time and make something you enjoy running, have fun with and that helps people. — 00:06:46
  • ★★★ Near the end of his fourth year of medical school Ali had run SixMed for about three years, growing in revenue and student numbers each year; around 2016 its growth stagnated and dipped a little. — 00:07:08 · 6med
  • ★★ SixMed's decline made Ali very sad that summer: he lay awake wondering if he had screwed up his life by throwing away the opportunity, and then came across Anything You Want. — 00:07:37 · 6med
  • ★★ Derek Sivers (quoted): In Anything You Want, Derek Sivers writes that when MBA types ask his growth rate and projections, he says he has no idea: he started his company as a hobby to help friends, there is money in the bank and he is fine. — 00:08:06 · Derek Sivers
  • ★★ Ali calls the "Isn't that enough?" line of Anything You Want his favourite quote of all time, which he returns to many times a month whenever he feels down. (hedged) — 00:08:06

  • ★★★ Derek Sivers (quoted): In Anything You Want, Derek Sivers writes: never forget why you are really doing what you do; if you help people, they are happy, you are happy and you are profitable, isn't that enough? — 00:08:35 · Derek Sivers · also in: How I Built a Million Dollar Business in Medical School - 10 Tips for Entrepreneurs

    “Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn't that enough? Question mark.”

  • ★★ Ali says trying to grow his YouTube channel, following and SixMed often plays on his mind, as it does for others doing this: when relaxing with friends or family he thinks he could be making a video. — 00:09:29 · 6med

  • ★★ Ali describes the spiral of growing a channel or company: any time you are not working you feel very guilty and cannot really enjoy life. — 00:10:03
  • ★★★ When he worries about ad revenue, Ali opens Anything You Want on his Kindle to his highlighted quote, which reminds him that revenue isn't important: his channel makes more money than he dreamed, helps people, he is happy doing it, and that is enough. — 00:10:35 · Kindle
  • ★★★ Ali says a lot of burnout among entrepreneurs, YouTubers and bloggers comes from working too hard to grow the numbers and the audience, and recommends Anything You Want to anyone stuck in that position. — 00:11:20

00:12:01 — Wrapping up: more book videos and feedback on the format

  • ★★ Ali says he wants to do more book reviews and talk more about books on the channel, and asks for feedback on the format of this, his first book video. — 00:12:01

00:12:24 — Sponsor read for Blinkist and sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked for books that build the mindset to start a business alongside medical school, the channel points to these three: The 4-Hour Workweek, Show Your Work and Anything You Want. — creator comment · The 4-Hour Workweek, show your work

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Anything You Want · leave money on the table · Show Your Work! · The 4-Hour Workweek

Also: People: Austin Kleon · Derek Sivers · Tim Ferriss

Projects: aliabdaal.com

Works: The Tim Ferriss Show

Organizations: 6med · CD Baby

Concepts: burnout · lifestyle business · Mental health · mini-retirement · passive income · show your work

Places: Argentina · Cambridge · Thailand

Products: Kindle

Also centred on Anything You Want: Music, Reading and Note-Taking - Productive Day in the Life

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