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How I actually started on YouTube

2025-11-25 · Short · Ali · recording, 1:13 · watch on YouTube

Topic: YouTube, writing online and creators · mode: Personal story

Ali says he started on YouTube with music videos made with friends in 2016 that flopped but taught him video production, and advises anyone thinking of creating content to start without a grand plan.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Starting with music videos, and starting without a plan

  • ★ Ali has been making YouTube videos for over eight years and has made over a thousand of them. — 00:00:00 · first in: 2023-10-26, How to Avoid Burnout 😫
  • ★★★ Ali started on YouTube with random music videos made with friends around 2016, dreaming of a musical career; they flopped, but taught him how cameras, editing and lighting work. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ To anyone thinking of starting a YouTube channel, an Instagram page or an online business, Ali says you do not need a plan or a ten-year masterpiece: just get started, build the skills and see whether you enjoy it. — 00:00:29 · Instagram
  • ★★ Without those flopped music videos, Ali says, he probably would never have built a career on YouTube. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Citing Rumi's line that the path appears as you walk it, Ali says many people are held back by feeling they need a grand master plan: strategy helps later, but at the start, take action. — 00:00:58

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Mentioned

Instagram · Rumi

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