What 8 Years on YouTube Taught Me About Life

2025-07-22 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 34:22 · watch on YouTube

Topic: YouTube, writing online and creators (also: Mindset, motivation and happiness, Productivity and time, Relationships and personal life, Business and entrepreneurship) · mode: Reflection and life update · tags: His medical past, Feel-Good Productivity thesis, Lesson from a book, His own products discussed, Family, Sponsor segment present

On his eighth anniversary on YouTube, now longer than his eight years in medicine, Ali shares five reflections: you do not need a plan to start; just get started and keep going, sustained by reasons deeper than money (connection and contribution); find ways to enjoy the process, digging new wells of enjoyment and being okay with leaving money on the table; you never know how things will go; and keep taking shots, because business outcomes are asymmetric.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Eight years on YouTube, as long as he spent in medicine

★★★ Ali marks eight years of making YouTube videos seriously, as long as his time in medicine: six years at Cambridge medical school and two as a doctor, so this month (July 2025) he has been a YouTuber longer. — 00:00:02 · University of Cambridge, Cambridge
★ From about age six Ali said he wanted to be a surgeon, neurosurgeon or gastroenterologist; now his primary occupation is YouTuber. — 00:00:02

00:00:49 — Reflection 1: no plan going in; the yellow brick road and the addiction to certainty

★★★ Ali had no plan going into YouTube and says you do not need a plan when you start something. — 00:00:49
★★ Rumi (quoted): Ali quotes a line of the poet Rumi that he likes: when you walk the way, the way will appear. — 00:01:21

“When you walk the way, the way will appear.”
★★ Had Ali felt he needed a grand plan or vision to start YouTube eight years ago, he says he would never have started. — 00:01:21
★★ Medicine has a clear "yellow brick road" of training and salary; the scariest part of YouTube, and of going full-time, was that there was no such road anymore, Ali says. — 00:02:26
★★★ A big part of what holds back professionals in high-flying careers, Ali included, is seeking the same certainty in a new path such as a YouTube channel, a personal brand, a business or a side hustle. — 00:03:22 · personal brand
★★ YouTube is scarier for Ali now than eight years ago: for its first three years (final year of med school, two years as a doctor) it was a side hustle he did not need money from; going full-time added pressure to get it right. — 00:03:22
★★ Ali says most fears about starting a business or a channel come down to ending up homeless or people laughing at you. — 00:04:08
★★ On tick-box paths such as getting into medical school, Ali says, people develop an addiction to ticking boxes that follows them into foggier domains. — 00:04:44
★★★ Told by a Part-Time YouTuber Academy student with one video that she could not choose between three or four niches, Ali repeats the course rule: no using the word niche until you have made at least seven videos. — 00:05:35 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy

“you're not allowed to use the word niche until you've made at least seven videos”
★★ Very few successful YouTubers Ali has met started with a strategy and executed it: through taking action the strategy and path become clearer, not by sitting and thinking. — 00:05:35
★ Without letting go of his addiction to certainty, Ali says, he would still be working in medicine in the UK, with far less freedom, flexibility and autonomy. — 00:06:21

00:06:30 — WeWork sponsor read

00:08:20 — Reflection 2: just get started and keep going; motivation deeper than money

★★ Ali thinks more than 80% of podcasts have fewer than three episodes recorded and under about 1% have more than 20. (hedged) — 00:08:47
★★★ Ali's second reflection: the game is to just get started and then just keep going. — 00:09:15

“The game is just get started and just keep going.”
★★ Ali's friend Chris Williamson has made three Modern Wisdom podcast episodes a week for seven years, which almost no one keeps doing. — 00:09:15
★★ To get started, Ali advises lowering the bar and taking imperfect action, minimum viable learning, rather than learning more and seeking more strategy. — 00:09:36
★★ Marques Brownlee (quoted): Asked on the Y Combinator podcast for the secret of his success, Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) said that if you pick something and do it for a decade, it is hard not to be successful. — 00:10:06
★★ Inspired by Marques Brownlee's line, seen a year or two into YouTube, Ali says doing something for a decade will probably work, but almost no one keeps going that long. (hedged) — 00:10:06
★★★ To keep going, external motivation such as money is not enough, Ali says: money motivates in the early stages, but the desire for more stops being a reliable motivation. — 00:11:12
★★ Fear of losing money becomes a negative motivator, and operating from fear and scarcity often burns people out, another big reason they quit, Ali says. — 00:11:12
★★★ More helpful than money for staying consistent, Ali has found, is shifting toward internal motivation: making the reasons for doing the thing align with your deeper self and values. — 00:11:40 · identified motivation
★★ About every three months for the last five years Ali has had a mini existential crisis about his channel, worked through with hours of journaling and talks with friends, his wife and ChatGPT. — 00:11:40 · Izzy Sealey, ChatGPT
★★ Ali's conclusions after each crisis end in the same place: realign to why you do the thing, a reason that must be deeper than money for it to stay sustainable. — 00:12:43
★★★ Ali's two Cs for staying motivated with YouTube are connection, with people around the world, and contribution, imagining his content helping a real person. — 00:12:43 · connection and contribution
★ A very big YouTuber friend told Ali that thinking about money sucks out her motivation, while connection, contribution and her videos' impact make it feel worth it. — 00:13:56 · connection and contribution
★★ A job is more manageable and sustainable when done for more than money, Ali says; bankers, consultants and corporate lawyers he knows are well paid but burnt out. — 00:13:56
★★ Ali's friends working in medicine in the UK and US feel contribution, helping people daily, but lack autonomy and flexibility, which leads many to think of quitting. — 00:14:34
★★ Daniel Pink (quoted): Daniel Pink's book Drive names three sources of intrinsic motivation: autonomy, mastery and purpose. — 00:15:00
★★ For burnt-out YouTubers and entrepreneurs, Ali says, it always circles back to intrinsic motivation; of autonomy, mastery and purpose, purpose is arguably the most important. — 00:15:29 · identified motivation
★★ When YouTube started no one did it for the money, Ali says, with no Partner Program, sponsorships or AdSense; he thinks it began to change around 2012. (hedged) — 00:15:29 · YouTube AdSense
★★ In the last five years, since the pandemic and videos like his on how much YouTube pays, many people start channels and businesses only to make money, Ali says. — 00:16:10
★★ Ali thinks Brandon Sanderson's sixth book was his first to be published and his 11th the first to become successful. (hedged) — 00:16:59 · Brandon Sanderson
★★★ People who do the work for reasons other than money have a sustainability advantage over those doing it only for money, Ali says. — 00:16:59
★★★ Ali's third reflection, the thesis of his book Feel-Good Productivity, is finding ways to enjoy the process: what you enjoy becomes far more sustainable. — 00:16:59 · Feel-Good Productivity (book), feel-good productivity (concept)

00:17:22 — Reflection 3: finding ways to enjoy the process and new wells of enjoyment

★★ Beyond doing enjoyable things, Ali says, enjoy the things you do: change your approach to the unenjoyable parts of a job, because enjoyment is efficiency. — 00:17:34 · feel-good productivity (concept)
★ Being a YouTuber or influencer seems fun but involves a lot of work, Ali says: sitting at a computer working out what to make, dealing with sponsors and emails. — 00:18:03
★★★ The key to sustaining anything is to keep injecting enjoyment into the process, Ali says; many YouTubers he knows quit within months or years because it stops being fun. — 00:18:03
★★ How fun something is, Ali says, is not a fixed property like the material of an object: you can do a lot about it. — 00:18:48
★★★ Ali recommends asking, as in his book, what this would look like if it were fun and what its most enjoyable version would be, optimising for enjoyment instead of getting it right. — 00:18:48 · Feel-Good Productivity (book)
★★ Finding ways to make YouTube fun has kept Ali consistent for eight years, though each way of making it fun eventually runs its course. — 00:19:16
★★ In his first two years editing his own videos, Ali enjoyed editing for about two months, then made it fun again by trying new animations. — 00:19:16
★★★ Ali advises looking for new wells of enjoyment: when one runs dry, find another, ideally digging several at once or in sequence so enjoyment never runs out. — 00:20:04

“you've got to keep looking out for more wells of enjoyment”
★★ In 2020 Ali started working in person with Angus, who happened to be in Cambridge, and found working with people in person really fun. — 00:20:42 · Angus (general manager), Cambridge
★★ After Ali moved to Hong Kong his team was fully remote, which sucked some enjoyment out of the work, so they kept the remote team and also hired a handful of people in person. — 00:20:42 · Hong Kong
★★★ Hiring only remote staff in the Philippines would save money, Ali says, but sacrifice enjoyment; since enjoyment keeps the work sustainable, he will probably make more money in person. (hedged) — 00:21:11
★★ Ali advises being willing to spend money and time in ways that are not sensible for the sake of enjoying your craft. — 00:21:37
★★★ Following the algorithm's incentives sucks the enjoyment out, Ali says, and no one he knows has kept doing so without burning out; sometimes you must work in an under-optimised way. — 00:22:20
★★ For this video Ali's team had prepared eight video ideas with titles and thumbnails, but he was not feeling them and made this eight-year reflection for fun and fulfilment instead. — 00:22:20

00:23:24 — Being okay with leaving money on the table; what he does for money and what for fun

★★ Sometimes you have to take a hit on the numbers to do things the fun way, Ali says, and that is hard to do. — 00:23:24
★★ Ali's business has chosen to make one product over another because it was more interesting and fun, even if less optimised, though he often sees the lost money in the accounts. — 00:24:10
★★ Being a YouTuber is emotionally taxing because the numbers are visible to everyone, Ali says, and viewers comparing his view counts conclude he has fallen off. — 00:24:40
★★ Every day Ali wonders whether his YouTube channel is dying, and other massive YouTubers he has spoken to worry about the same. — 00:25:24
★★ Every creative, Ali says, faces the balance between craft and commerce, creativity and commercial incentives. (overstated) — 00:25:46
★★ Ali is inspired by actor Robert Pattinson, who after Harry Potter and Twilight alternates artsy films with blockbusters, choosing fun and fulfilment over finances when he could make more money. — 00:26:44 · Harry Potter (book series)
★★★ You have to be okay with leaving money on the table, Ali says: making less money is what makes the work more enjoyable and sustainable, as the most fun thing rarely makes the most money. — 00:26:44 · leave money on the table

“You gotta be okay with leaving money on the table.”
★★★ To tell what he does for fun and fulfilment from what he does for money, Ali asks what he would continue, start and stop doing with $100 million in the bank. — 00:27:26
★★★ With $100 million in the bank Ali would stop sponsorships and paid online courses but keep making free YouTube videos, writing books and making apps; courses and sponsorships he does mainly for money. — 00:27:26
★★ Ali's new business with his wife, Sparkle Studios, makes apps, including VoicePal and Superfocus, with more coming. — 00:27:26 · Izzy Sealey, VoicePal
★★ Ali does not say never do anything for money: with revenue goals you must, but it is worth knowing which things those are. — 00:28:13
★★ Knowing what you do for money lets you optimise for fun within that constraint, as Ali does by improving his courses with student feedback; knowing what you do for fun lets you leave money on the table. — 00:28:41 · leave money on the table
★★★ Ali asks himself and YouTubers he advises what channel or business they would want once their financial goals are met; often they realise they could do it now. — 00:29:23
★★ The happiest people Ali knows, running online and other businesses most sustainably, are the ones okay with leaving money on the table. — 00:29:49 · leave money on the table
★★ In a story Ali tells, Apple CEO Tim Cook answered a board member asking the ROI of making the iPhone and Mac accessible to blind people that Apple does it because it is right. (hedged) — 00:30:41 · Apple, iPhone
★★★ Optimising to make as much money as possible is a recipe for quick burnout, Ali says, and optimising for any metric, views or subscribers included, sucks the joy out of the process. — 00:30:41

00:31:29 — You never know how things are going to go

★★ Ali's fourth reflection: you never know how things will go; eight years ago he had no idea where his channel would end up. — 00:31:29
★★★ YouTube gave Ali freedom, great people and a lot of money, and he would not have met his wife without it: they connected because both were YouTubers. — 00:31:58 · Izzy Sealey

00:32:14 — Taking shots: asymmetric outcomes in business, then keep going for ten years

★★ Jeff Bezos (quoted): Jeff Bezos sometimes says that while a baseball hit is capped at four points, a success in business has no limit to the points it can bring. — 00:32:28
★★★ Because business outcomes are asymmetric and one success can transform your life, Ali says you have very little to lose by taking shots on goal. — 00:32:28
★★ From 13 until he started YouTube at 23, Ali tried about eight businesses; most flopped and one was moderately successful, making six figures a year in revenue. — 00:32:50
★★★ In business, Ali advises, keep taking shots until something works, then do it for at least ten years; many never start for fear of missing, while he missed seven before one worked. — 00:33:19

In the description and comments

★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked how to define a niche and what to make seven videos about, the channel replies with a link to Ali's video Why Everyone Should Start a YouTube Channel. — creator comment

Threads in this video

restate · Should you plan things out first or just start? — Ali had no plan going into YouTube and says you do not need a plan when you start something. (00:00:49)
refine · Should you plan things out first or just start? — To get started, Ali advises lowering the bar and taking imperfect action, minimum viable learning, rather than learning more and seeking more strategy. (00:09:36)
restate · Should you pick a niche for your channel? — Told by a Part-Time YouTuber Academy student with one video that she could not choose between three or four niches, Ali repeats the course rule: no using the word niche until you have made at least seven videos. (00:05:35)
restate · How do you start a YouTube channel? — Very few successful YouTubers Ali has met started with a strategy and executed it: through taking action the strategy and path become clearer, not by sitting and thinking. (00:05:35)
refine · How do you grow a YouTube channel? — Inspired by Marques Brownlee's line, seen a year or two into YouTube, Ali says doing something for a decade will probably work, but almost no one keeps going that long. (00:10:06)
refine · Do you need motivation or discipline to get things done? — More helpful than money for staying consistent, Ali has found, is shifting toward internal motivation: making the reasons for doing the thing align with your deeper self and values. (00:11:40)
restate · What keeps you motivated once money is no longer the goal? — Ali's two Cs for staying motivated with YouTube are connection, with people around the world, and contribution, imagining his content helping a real person. (00:12:43)
restate · Should productivity be about efficiency or about enjoying the work? — Ali's third reflection, the thesis of his book Feel-Good Productivity, is finding ways to enjoy the process: what you enjoy becomes far more sustainable. (00:16:59)
refine · Should productivity be about efficiency or about enjoying the work? — Beyond doing enjoyable things, Ali says, enjoy the things you do: change your approach to the unenjoyable parts of a job, because enjoyment is efficiency. (00:17:34)
restate · How do creators keep going without burning out? — The key to sustaining anything is to keep injecting enjoyment into the process, Ali says; many YouTubers he knows quit within months or years because it stops being fun. (00:18:03)
restate · How do you make boring work more enjoyable? — Ali recommends asking, as in his book, what this would look like if it were fun and what its most enjoyable version would be, optimising for enjoyment instead of getting it right. (00:18:48)
retold · Ali outsources his video editing after two years of editing his own videos — In his first two years editing his own videos, Ali enjoyed editing for about two months, then made it fun again by trying new animations. (00:19:16)
refine · How do creators keep going without burning out? — Ali advises looking for new wells of enjoyment: when one runs dry, find another, ideally digging several at once or in sequence so enjoyment never runs out. (00:20:04)
looked back · Ali builds a team for his online business — In 2020 Ali started working in person with Angus, who happened to be in Cambridge, and found working with people in person really fun. (00:20:42)
milestone · Ali builds a team for his online business — After Ali moved to Hong Kong his team was fully remote, which sucked some enjoyment out of the work, so they kept the remote team and also hired a handful of people in person. (00:20:42)
restate · Should you work remotely or in person with a team? — Hiring only remote staff in the Philippines would save money, Ali says, but sacrifice enjoyment; since enjoyment keeps the work sustainable, he will probably make more money in person. (00:21:11)
restate · Should you follow your channel's analytics? — Following the algorithm's incentives sucks the enjoyment out, Ali says, and no one he knows has kept doing so without burning out; sometimes you must work in an under-optimised way. (00:22:20)
predicted · Ali expects his eight-years-on-YouTube video not to get a million views (2025) — Ali expects his under-optimised video on eight years on YouTube not to get a million views. (00:22:20)
restate · How big should you grow your business? — You have to be okay with leaving money on the table, Ali says: making less money is what makes the work more enjoyable and sustainable, as the most fun thing rarely makes the most money. (00:26:44)
refine · What keeps you motivated once money is no longer the goal? — To tell what he does for fun and fulfilment from what he does for money, Ali asks what he would continue, start and stop doing with $100 million in the bank. (00:27:26)
milestone · Sparkle Studios, Ali and Izzy's app company (2025) — Ali's new business with his wife, Sparkle Studios, makes apps, including VoicePal and Superfocus, with more coming. (00:27:26)
restate · How do you design the life you want? — Ali asks himself and YouTubers he advises what channel or business they would want once their financial goals are met; often they realise they could do it now. (00:29:23)
refine · How do you deal with rejection and failure? — In business, Ali advises, keep taking shots until something works, then do it for at least ten years; many never start for fear of missing, while he missed seven before one worked. (00:33:19)
milestone · Superfocus, the productivity app Ali's team is building (2025) — Ali's new business with his wife, Sparkle Studios, makes apps, including VoicePal and Superfocus, with more coming. (00:27:26)

Where the stories that moved here went next

Ali expects his eight-years-on-YouTube video not to get a million views (2025) — unresolved; last: predicted, 2025-07-22
Sparkle Studios, Ali and Izzy's app company (2025) — running; last: milestone, 2025-10-16
Ali builds a team for his online business — running; last: milestone, 2025-11-24

Mentioned

Central: connection and contribution · leave money on the table

Also: People: Angus (general manager) · Brandon Sanderson · Chris Williamson · Daniel Pink · Izzy Sealey · Jeff Bezos · Marques Brownlee · Mel Robbins · Robert Pattinson · Rumi · Steven Bartlett · Tim Cook

Projects: Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Works: Drive · Feel-Good Productivity (book) · Harry Potter (book series) · How to Get Rich · Modern Wisdom · Twilight

Organizations: Apple · Sparkle Studios · University of Cambridge · Y Combinator

Concepts: asymmetric upside · autonomy, mastery and purpose · digital nomad · feel-good productivity (concept) · identified motivation · personal brand · wells of enjoyment

Places: Cambridge · Hong Kong · Philippines

Products: ChatGPT · iPhone · Superfocus · VoicePal · YouTube AdSense · YouTube Partner Program

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