My serendipitous meet up with Ali Abdaal - a former doctor-turned multi-millionaire entrepreneur

Today I’d like to share the impact that 5 seconds of courage can have on one’s life, and how having an inspiring person can really impact the direction of your life.

The totally random encounter

I am still processing the serendipitous and totally random encounter I had last week with a former doctor, who is now an online entrepreneur, YouTuber and who runs a multi-million pound business. His name is Ali Abdaal, and by total coincidence, I happened to spot him when I was at St Pancras International train station in London last week. Without thinking, I summoned the courage to go up to him and say hello. I apologised for disturbing him, and then told him I’d been following him on YouTube for around 5 years, and how much of an inspiration he had been for me thus far. He was lovely and took the time to chat to me and say hello. I had to rush off as my family was waiting for me, so our encounter was disappointingly brief.

I couldn’t stop thinking about my unlikely encounter, and I thought I had nothing to lose if I messaged him on Instagram, in the far-off hope that he may accept to meet me for a coffee. To my absolute amazement, he promptly replied with a ‘let’s do it!’

The background story

Before going any further with the story, let me share HIS story in a nutshell. He started a YouTube channel in his 5^th year of Med School at Cambridge, around 5 years ago, sharing tips on how to get into Med School and how to revise for exams. His channel gradually grew, but he had very little traction the first 2 ½ years. However, he continued diligently posting videos 2-3 times per week, gradually increasing his audience, and going from talking about medicine, to talking about productivity, lifestyle design and other related topics. When I discovered him, his channel had about 200k subscribers, no small feat, and since then I’ve seen him grow and develop over the years. His YouTube channel now has close to 3.5 million subscribers, and his YouTube business now makes him several million pounds per year, which he actually explains and breaks down transparently in one of his videos. He quit medicine around 1 year ago, a decision he found very difficult to make, despite already having achieved huge success in business. He is now a full-time creative entrepreneur and continues to grow his YouTube channel.

Breakfast in Central London with Ali Abdaal

So me and Ali shared a lovely breakfast in central London last Thursday, and it was an absolutely unforgettable experience. There is so much I took away from this encounter, that I wanted to share the golden nuggets with you all. We had a deep and meaningful conversation, swapping life stories, and sharing about our own experiences. As well as engaging in a wonderful conversation with a very intelligent, kind and generous person, Ali also took the time to coach me! He asked me some really thought- provoking questions to help me gain clarity into my current situation and to start looking at the reasons/excuses why I wasn’t taking action in certain areas of my life.

He asked me:

What is your biggest challenge right now?

So I openly shared my current biggest challenge with him. He then asked:

What are the reasons why you are not taking action on the challenge?

This really made me think. Once spoken out loud, my particular challenge did not seem unrealistic. Rather, I’d been making excuses in my mind, and procrastinating, mostly out of fear.

Then he asked:

What can you do to start taking action to overcome this challenge?

When I mentioned that I would start taking action by next week, he challenged me again and asked me to commit to taking action that same morning! Which I did – and it gave me tremendous momentum!

Inspiring conversations lead to massive action 

As a coach myself, I found it really insightful to experience coaching being done on me, by someone who is at the level of success that he is at. His questions allowed me to see my particular situation from a clearer perspective, with 0 excuses, and he also got me to take immediate action. Since our meet up, I’ve been working diligently on overcoming the challenge I discussed with him, and I’ve made more progress with it this past week than I have done in many months! All thanks for a short conversation with someone asking me powerful questions.

I have always looked up to Ali as a source of inspiration, especially when I felt trapped and burnt out in full time medicine – he reminded me that I too could find something that made me a lot happier. So having him coach me in person had tremendous impact, because he has walked the path that I am walking, and so he understands me and my inner challenges, and he has found a path to a happier, more fulfilled life.

I feel so grateful for the chance to have shared a lovely breakfast with this inspiring young man. He shared with me that even now with his level of success (running a multi-million pound online business) he continues to have fears, self-doubt, imposter syndrome and automatic negative thoughts – those never fully go away. However, we have a choice in how much we listen to these inner voices, and how much we choose to believe them. The important thing is to not allow fear to rule our lives. He had to make and publish around 70 videos before he saw the first bit of money from his YouTube channel. It then took him dozens upon dozens of videos to get his channel to take off. He had to learn to overcome his fear of putting himself out there, of being criticised, of being laughed at. He persisted and just followed his intuition and continued to do something he enjoyed a lot and found a creative passion in. HE KEPT GOING.

He openly shared with me that he never ever thought his business would become what it is today. He has diary entries from less than 3 years ago where he writes about having the ultimate goal of making £25,000/year with YouTube – a big dream back then. Now, he makes around £300,000/month with this business, a figure he himself still finds hard to believe at times.

Key insights from my meet up with Ali Abdaal 

He shared some key insights with me that I’d like to share with you below: 

• Despite having a hugely successful YouTube channel, with several income streams, he found it really challenging to leave medicine, as he had been conditioned to believe that medicine is the safer option and that business is riskier. Now, however, he can see that relying solely on one income stream, and one that is tied to political agenda and bound to change (such as the NHS), is far riskier and ultimately not what made him happy. He now sees that the perception of safety from a single employment is an illusion. We are far safer creating income for ourselves and developing the belief in our own abilities.
• The inner critic never goes away. The self-doubt, imposter syndrome, fears, insecurities, etc, they continue to be there whether you are making £20,000/year or £4 million per year. The key is in learning to manage how we respond to the inner critic, how we respond to negative thoughts, and whether we choose to believe them. Success, in large part, is a mindset game. Ali shared that he has grown tremendously thanks to constantly challenging himself, his beliefs, and finding new and more empowering ways to develop as a person.
• Doing something he loves much more than medicine has given him a sense of fulfilment he never found in medicine. He told me he actually did enjoy working as a doctor, but ultimately felt that medicine did not give him much creative space, tied him up to regular hours, and didn’t give him the freedom that his online business now gives him.
• Consistency wins, every time – he didn’t make a single penny for the first 70 videos or so that he published. However, he continued making videos, learning lots and most importantly, enjoying the journey. Yes he had the goal of monetising his YouTube channel at some point, but he did not get discouraged when he saw no progress at the start. So what’s the lesson here – keep going! If something feels right, it is something you enjoy, and something that can bring value to others, keep going! Most people give up too soon, before they get the fruits of their labour.
• There is a life to be found outside of medicine! I already knew this one, but he is at an entirely different level than me. I know so many doctors who want to potentially cut down on their hours or even quit medicine altogether, but they have this self limiting belief that if they don’t work as a doctor, they will never be able to earn a decent salary or even find employment! This is definitely not the case, and it is a limiting belief that needs to be challenged massively. Ali is one of many doctors who have successfully carved new career paths, and made a success of this. If he can do it, so can you.

There is so much more I could share with you regarding this encounter with the lovely Ali. I guess the final thing I’d like to say is that he is a genuinely lovely down to earth guy, who really did not have any reason to have breakfast with me, given that I am a total stranger. However, he has not allowed his massive success to change who he is. He is a nice guy, who wants to have a positive impact on the world, and is quite happy to go for breakfast with a a person that randomly approaches him at a train station, and give them really empowering advice. Definitely a guy to get inspired by!

I hope you found this article helpful. For me, it’s about showing me what is possible. My meet up with Ali emphasised that we can achieve happiness and success, and that it can happen for us all.

So I’d like you to ask yourself these questions:

What is my own version of success? What does success and happiness look like for me?

Then:

What am I doing in my life that is helping me get one step closer to my idea of success?

And:

What else can I start doing today to get me one step closer to my idea of success?

Take time to think about your life, what you want out of it, and whether your current direction is in line with your ultimate vision. If Ali can do it, so can you!

Marcela Aguirre