Skip to content

Everything's Changing - Life Update

2023-12-08 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 44:31 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Goals, purpose and life design (also: Business and entrepreneurship, Relationships and personal life, Mindset, motivation and happiness) · mode: Reflection and life update · tags: His own products discussed, His own numbers, His medical past, Lesson from a book, Feel-Good Productivity thesis

In a long life update filmed in Tulum, Ali says he has become a digital nomad for at least a year, retraces his channel's growth from 2017, and concludes that once basic needs are met it is okay to leave money on the table: he will film only when he feels like it, even if his business and book sell less.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Why he is making a rambly life update

  • ★★★ Ali plans to travel around the world as a digital nomad for at least the next 12 months: he has moved out of his place in London and condensed his belongings to a single suitcase and a backpack. — 00:00:33 · London

00:01:00 — Personal update: a year as a digital nomad, the travels so far and the book tour

  • ★★ Ali films this video in Tulum, Mexico; in the month or so before, he had been to New York, Toronto, Austin, Colorado, Los Angeles, Morocco and Cabo. — 00:01:08
  • ★★ Ali meant to travel slowly as a digital nomad, a month or more in each place, as other nomads advise, but invitations kept coming: Spotify asked his team to New York to film with its CEO Daniel Ek, then a retreat in Colorado, a team retreat in Morocco and a mastermind in Cabo. — 00:01:47 · Spotify
  • ★★★ Ali's book Feel-Good Productivity launches on 26 December 2023 in the US and 28 December around the world; ahead of the launch he has been doing interviews on other people's podcasts in the US and the UK. — 00:02:31 · Feel-Good Productivity (book), United States, United Kingdom

00:03:00 — The journey in numbers, 2017 to 2023, and leaving medicine

  • ★★ Ali started his YouTube channel in 2017 as a final-year medical student at Cambridge; from June to December 2017 it grew to about 2,381 subscribers and made no money, in fact losing money on camera gear. — 00:03:00 · University of Cambridge, Cambridge
  • ★★ By the end of 2018, six months at university and six months working as a doctor, Ali's channel had 125,000 subscribers and made about $24,000 of revenue that year. — 00:03:52
  • ★★ While Ali still worked full-time as a doctor, his channel grew to 488,996 subscribers by the end of 2019 and made about $130,000 of revenue that year. — 00:04:22
  • ★★ Ali's salary as a doctor in 2019 was about £34,000 (about $40,000), so by the end of 2019 his YouTube channel was making three times his salary. — 00:04:43
  • ★★★ Towards the end of 2020 Ali took a break from full-time medicine meaning to do emergency medicine in Australia; when Australia closed its borders in the pandemic, he accidentally became a full-time YouTuber for the last months of 2020. — 00:04:43
  • ★★ By the end of 2020 Ali's channel had 1.3 million subscribers and his business had crossed a million dollars a year, with about $1.2 million of revenue in 2020. — 00:05:07
  • ★★ In 2020 Ali's business started hiring: he had an editor, a part-time assistant and Angus, who did some writing. — 00:05:07 · Angus
  • ★★★ Ali began to think seriously about leaving medicine for good: part-time shifts as a doctor were less fun and less fulfilling, paid much less, and every half hour in the hospital he asked himself why he was there. — 00:05:37
  • ★★★ Ali realised that what brings him fulfilment is fundamentally teaching, and that his YouTube channel and the book he started writing in 2020 are teaching at scale. — 00:05:37 · Feel-Good Productivity (book)
  • ★★★ Ali decided to give full-time YouTube a go because he could always go back to medicine if he wanted or needed to, and would massively regret not taking the opportunity. — 00:06:21
  • ★★ After becoming a full-time YouTuber Ali launched the Part-Time YouTuber Academy; by the end of 2021 his channel had 2.5 million subscribers and the business made $4 million that year, which he puts down to the pandemic, when live cohort courses were all the craze. — 00:06:21 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★ In 2021 Ali decided to move from Cambridge to London; his business got an office and a proper studio and hired a lot of people. — 00:07:09 · Cambridge, London
  • ★★ In 2022 Ali's channel grew to 3.7 million subscribers and his business made $4.6 million of revenue. — 00:07:09
  • ★★★ Ali's business lost profitability in 2022 by over-hiring and spending too much, "thinking money grows on trees"; his lesson is to keep the team fairly lean and expenses fairly reasonable. — 00:07:09
  • ★★ In 2022 Ali's business made $500,000 more revenue than in 2021 but $500,000 less profit, because its costs rose by about a million dollars. — 00:07:38
  • ★★ Near the end of 2023 Ali's channel has 4.9 million subscribers and his business is on track for 5-point-something million of revenue for the year. — 00:07:38
  • ★★★ Ali plans to stop his videos breaking down how much money his channel makes from this year (2023), because so few people are at his stage of running a YouTube channel with a business around it, and those who are he talks to anyway. (hedged) — 00:07:38
  • ★★ Ali hopes to get married soon and have a family in the next couple of years, and is coming to value personal privacy much more than when he was single. (hedged) — 00:08:08

00:08:36 — How long it takes to succeed: a year is a really short time

  • ★★★ The fellow entrepreneurs Ali spent the last few days with, who sold companies for tens or hundreds of millions, had each worked on that business for seven to ten years, after years of trying things that did not work: it is a very long-term game. — 00:09:03
  • ★★ A founder who sold a company for tens of millions told Ali he is brand new to creating content on LinkedIn, having posted only five times a week for one year; Ali contrasts this with most people, who would call that a pro. — 00:09:41 · LinkedIn
  • ★★★ A year is a really short time, Ali says: building a remarkable career doing what you love, with location, time and calendar freedom, takes far longer than 12, 24 or even 36 months. — 00:10:50
  • ★★ If you can enjoy the journey, the whole message of Feel-Good Productivity, Ali says, you do not really care how long success takes, because you are having fun along the way. — 00:11:19 · feel-good productivity (concept), Feel-Good Productivity (book)
  • ★★ Ali says the only way to make money is to add value to the world and capture a small percentage of that value. — 00:11:19

00:11:45 — Thoughts on happiness and fulfilment: the journey is the destination

  • ★★ In Cabo Ali spent a few days with six entrepreneurs at least 10 to 100 times wealthier than him, talking about money, happiness and fulfilment. — 00:11:45
  • ★★★ The entrepreneurs Ali met in Cabo all said selling a company does not really change your life beyond a nicer house or car; all were happier building than after selling, and every one started another business. — 00:12:11
  • ★★★ Beyond making enough to pay the bills, Ali says, a bigger business, whether a million, ten million or a billion dollars, will not make you any happier or more fulfilled. — 00:12:40
  • ★★ People Ali knows with big businesses say they had the most fun and were most fulfilled when their business was much smaller, with somewhere between 10 and 20 people. — 00:13:20

  • ★★★ Ali's advice to anyone building something, and to his younger self: the journey is the destination; people with more money than they could ever spend are unhappy when they are not working on something interesting. — 00:13:47 · journey before destination

    “really the journey is the destination”

  • ★★ Ali is rereading Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now, which he calls a great book about enjoying the present moment and the journey. — 00:14:11

  • ★★★ In a YouTube or creative career, Ali says, the biggest risk is to stop doing the thing: do it for a very long time and there is basically no world in which you do not succeed. — 00:14:38
  • ★★ Marques Brownlee (quoted): Asked in a Y Combinator interview what he attributes his YouTube success to, Marques Brownlee says that if you do something for 10 years you will probably succeed at it, adding consistency and tech staying interesting. (hedged) — 00:15:06 · Marques Brownlee
  • ★★ Ali cites a big investor's talk at Stanford Business School: to live life on your own terms, find something you enjoy and do it for decades. — 00:15:32
  • ★★ Ali has been writing his first book for three years and hopes to write many more books in his career. — 00:16:09 · Feel-Good Productivity (book)

  • ★★★ Someone Ali respects told him that no achievement he could reach will make him any happier than he is right now, and Ali says this is probably true of his viewers too. — 00:16:48

    “there is no achievement that you can possibly achieve that will make you any happier than you are right now”

00:17:23 — Business update: a team of 13 that keeps levelling up

  • ★★ Ali's team is now 13 people including himself, full time, with freelancers on top; most have been with him for over two years. — 00:17:28
  • ★★ Ali sees his team members get better the longer they settle into their roles; one of his business's core values is to always level up. — 00:17:28
  • ★★ Ali is levelling up as a leader and Angus as CEO, with much less drama in the team than before, though Ali changes his mind a lot, which destabilises the team. — 00:17:58 · Angus
  • ★★ Ali's advice to his former self: when you hire people, recognise that the longer they stay with you, the better they will be. — 00:18:25

00:18:53 — What would you do if money were no object?

  • ★★★ A close friend's health scare a few months ago gave Ali a new appreciation of mortality: even if you are young and healthy, bad things can happen at any time. — 00:18:53
  • ★★ Alan Watts (quoted): Alan Watts asks people seeking advice on their life or career what they would do if money were no object, and tells them to go and do that: they will have more fun, and money increasingly accrues to people who do what they enjoy, for a long time and well. — 00:19:30
  • ★★★ Asking himself how he would spend his time if he did not care about making money, Ali found he would keep doing YouTube, the business, books and podcasts, but all of it part-time and on his own terms. — 00:20:31
  • ★★ When Ali asked senior doctors whether they would keep practising medicine if they won the lottery, about half said they would leave, and the other half would continue because it is fun but go part-time. — 00:21:23
  • ★★ Ali enjoyed working as a doctor, but says it is not fun six or even five days a week; it would be really fun at about one and a half to three days a week. — 00:21:23
  • ★★ Asked what stopped them going part-time, the doctors always answered money: the mortgage, the kids, private school. — 00:21:50
  • ★★ From the doctors' answers Ali concluded he needed to make money on the side, so that any medicine he did would be for fun and fulfilment rather than money; he went on to build a business that let him quit his day job. — 00:22:18
  • ★★ As a full-time entrepreneur Ali works more than 60 hours a week, writing, making videos and working with his team. — 00:23:11
  • ★★ If money were no object, Ali would make videos only on his own terms: no sponsored videos ever again, probably no online courses (he would release them for free on YouTube) and seminars in person. (hypothetical) — 00:23:11
  • ★★ If money were no object, Ali would keep writing books but would not take a book deal until a book is written, because he does not like deadlines. (hypothetical) — 00:23:47
  • ★★★ Having gained the freedom he chased for over ten years, Ali still puts himself in a cage, often doing things for the money rather than for joy; like his doctor friends, what stops him going part-time is money. — 00:24:26
  • ★★ Chasing money makes Ali choose videos that get views, such as productivity tips or passive income, over topics he feels called to, such as spirituality books. — 00:25:01
  • ★★ Ali has made more than enough money for his basic needs and could probably still make reasonable money making videos when he feels like it and writing books on his own terms. (hedged) — 00:25:44

00:26:10 — It's okay to leave money on the table: filming only when he feels like it

  • ★★★ A friend who sold a company for over $100 million told Ali that the big realisation among post-exit founders is that it is okay to leave money on the table: a life you love often costs you money. — 00:26:13 · leave money on the table

  • ★★ Frank Ocean (quoted): In a story Ali thinks Aziz Ansari told, a musician Ali thinks was Frank Ocean, asked how he makes music only when he wants and barely tours, says you just have to be comfortable making less money. (hedged) — 00:26:43

    “you just gotta be comfortable making less money”

  • ★★★ Almost no one is so aligned that what they would do for fun also makes them money most efficiently, so everyone faces a trade-off between making more money and enjoying life more. — 00:27:27

  • ★★★ Working part-time means making less money but probably enjoying life more, with time for health, relationships, family, home, kids and hobbies. (hedged) — 00:28:11
  • ★★★ Before you reach financial freedom or security, Ali says, you have to choose the more-money option: someone working several jobs to feed a family cannot leave money on the table. — 00:28:11 · leave money on the table
  • ★★★ Once family needs are met, Ali says, making more money is about status, power and keeping up with the Joneses, and beyond a point more money still buys happiness but nowhere near as much. — 00:29:00
  • ★★ Ali calls Bill Perkins's book Die With Zero very good; he spent some time with Perkins in Austin about six months earlier. — 00:29:28
  • ★★★ Bill Perkins (quoted): Bill Perkins, author of Die With Zero, says the only point of money is to convert it into experiences that bring you and your family fulfilment and joy, and calls rich people who keep working for money dumb. — 00:29:28
  • ★★ Bill Perkins (quoted): Asked by Ali about people who enjoy their jobs, Bill Perkins compares them to addicts: a money addict claims to enjoy their job. (overstated) — 00:30:06

  • ★★★ Ali's big realisation after months of soul-searching: once you have enough money for your basic needs, it is okay to leave money on the table and make less for balance, health, relationships, family and hobbies. — 00:30:54 · leave money on the table

    “at that point, it's okay to leave money on the table”

  • ★★ April Perry (quoted): April Perry, an entrepreneur who replied to Ali's newsletter, says people never mention the mental and emotional costs of chasing more money, and once her family's financial needs are covered, money is the first thing she will leave on the table. — 00:31:23 · leave money on the table

  • ★★★ Ali's decision for his business: from now on he will film videos only when he feels like it, even if uploads become less frequent and the videos suit most of the audience less. — 00:32:16
  • ★★ Ali wants to make videos like this one, 44 minutes of recording made without thought for retention or the algorithm, because he enjoys learning things and sharing them. — 00:32:50
  • ★★★ In 2024 Ali plans live events, workshops, seminars and lectures, including a Feel-Good Productivity lecture tour of cities around the world. — 00:33:37 · feel-good productivity (concept), Feel-Good Productivity (book)
  • ★★★ Ali has told his team he will film whatever he wants whenever he wants, keep his calendar almost empty and limit his time on the business and its operations to about three hours a week. — 00:34:08
  • ★★ Ali expects that filming only when he wants will probably mean his business makes less money, and says that is fine. (hedged) — 00:34:08
  • ★★★ Ali makes a public pledge that he is now officially okay with leaving money on the table. — 00:34:35 · leave money on the table
  • ★★ Ali's business now grows along two strands: flexible output, with no upload schedule, and assets that help people and make money without relying on him. — 00:34:35
  • ★★ The Part-Time YouTuber Accelerator, about $5,000 a year, helps people grow their channels; it needs about two hours a month of Ali's time for a live Q&A, while his team runs weekly office hours, support groups and customer support. — 00:35:04
  • ★★ Although the Part-Time YouTuber Accelerator makes a lot of money and helps many people, Ali would stop it if it needed more and more of his time on work he did not enjoy. — 00:35:29

00:35:51 — Book update: pre-orders, the New York Times list and authenticity

  • ★★ The pre-order campaign for Feel-Good Productivity began around June or July 2023, and since then the book has been mentioned only casually in videos. (hedged) — 00:35:51 · Feel-Good Productivity (book)
  • ★★★ Feel-Good Productivity is not on track, in US hardback pre-orders, to hit the New York Times bestseller list, a goal that was always in the back of Ali's mind. — 00:36:18 · Feel-Good Productivity (book), United States
  • ★★ Feel-Good Productivity has about 4,000 US hardback pre-orders at the time of recording; Ali thinks it needs about 12,000 to hit the New York Times list. (hedged) — 00:36:42 · Feel-Good Productivity (book), United States
  • ★★ If Feel-Good Productivity does not hit the New York Times list Ali will be disappointed, but he calls it a good exercise in detachment and ego, since he has had no real failures for several years. — 00:37:03 · Feel-Good Productivity (book)
  • ★★ Authors who hit the New York Times list told Ali to go on more big podcasts, but he has not tried very hard to get interviewed on them. — 00:37:03
  • ★★★ Ali does not want his first contact with big podcasters to be asking to come on their show: in work relationships he cares more about giving more value than he takes and becoming friends than about getting something out of it. — 00:38:16 · WhatsApp
  • ★★★ Ali will not spam social media with pre-order pushes or do anything that feels bad, even for more sales, profit or revenue: his is a feel-good business. — 00:39:09
  • ★★ Feel-Good Productivity has translation deals in about 15 countries. — 00:39:48 · Feel-Good Productivity (book)
  • ★★ Recording the audiobook of Feel-Good Productivity a couple of months ago, Ali found the book good and realised he was not following its advice, especially the final chapters on burnout, alignment and taking breaks. — 00:39:48 · Feel-Good Productivity (book)

00:40:52 — What is changing, thanks to viewers and the plan for 2024

  • ★★★ Ali does not want to do things that do not feel good or authentic, which probably means a smaller business and fewer book sales than other people, and he says that is okay. (hedged) — 00:40:52
  • ★★ Ali's decision to film only what he wants makes it harder for several of his team, whose jobs rely on him filming, podcasting or recording social media, and he thanks them for rolling with it. — 00:41:38
  • ★★ Thanks to his viewers Ali got a book deal with Penguin and Macmillan, and the book is now done. — 00:42:59 · Feel-Good Productivity (book)
  • ★★ Ali's plan for 2024 is more live events and a lecture tour that is not meant to make money: he would be happy if it broke even. — 00:43:28

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In a reply to a viewer asking about his bag and travel tech as a nomad, Ali says he is working on a big video about his travel tech. — creator comment
  • ★★ Answering a viewer who says business is about serving people and the money follows, Ali says that is a good point and where his thoughts were going a few weeks after filming. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: digital nomad · Feel-Good Productivity (book) · journey before destination · leave money on the table

Also: People: Alan Watts · Angus · April Perry · Aziz Ansari · Bill Perkins · Daniel Ek · Eckhart Tolle · Frank Ocean · Marques Brownlee

Projects: Part-Time YouTuber Academy · Part-Time YouTuber Accelerator

Works: Die With Zero · The Power of Now

Organizations: LinkedIn · Macmillan Publishers · Penguin UK · Stanford University · The New York Times · University of Cambridge · Y Combinator

Concepts: 10-year rule · arrival fallacy · core values · Emergency medicine · feel-good business model · feel-good productivity (concept)

Places: Austin · Australia · Cabo · Cambridge · Colorado · London · Los Angeles · Mexico · Morocco · New York · Toronto · Tulum · United Kingdom · United States

Products: Spotify · WhatsApp

Also centred on digital nomad: How to Become a Digital Nomad · My Productivity Desk Setup (Portable) · I'll definitely be bringing this travelling @WHOOP #ad

Replied to by

← Previous: One of the most embarrassing moments of my life 😳 · Next → How to actually beat procrastination