Ali Abdaal

[hollowcrown]

i wonder why he never talks about how studying for the USMLE is going? Or literally anything regarding his future medical career? I'm starting my 6 year medical degree this autumn and I want to work in the U.S so I know just how difficult the USMLE is. Like it requires months of solid 8+ hour study days to get an impressive score. How does he even have time for that considering all he focuses on is his scammy courses and "hustling" and what not....it doesn't seem like he's even serious about being a doctor anymore. He should've gone for a business degree imo

I think he doesn't want to be a Doctor at all now. Read Adam Kay's book "This Is Going To Hurt" about being a Doctor/Junior Doctor in the UK. Hours are tit, pay is not amazing, it puts a lot of strain on your personal life, lots of hard work and you have to deal with some devastating things like death on a monthly basis.

Meanwhile as an influencer/business owner he's already building up property, working only a few hours a day, got a flash fancy car, calling himself a CEO and a boss, bleeping about with all his tech stuff and hiring people he wants to spend time with to hang around with him all day. Pretty cushy life.

I think as oldest child he was pressued to go into one of the "traditional" career paths for people of his culture and ended up falling into doctor. In videos in why he decided he wanted to be a doctor he doesn't say he thinks medicine is interesting, or he wants to help people or improve their lives, he talks about how he thinks it would be more interesting to be a doctor that codes instead of a straight up coder. His passion is clearly in coding and building a business.

His younger brother was allowed to go and study software engineering and go into the start up work life and seems to be doing pretty well out of it, living in London and having his own start up business dealing with investments etc. Ali is clearly very insecure and wants to live that lifestyle so is going in on the London business side of things. In his latest video he says he's hiring 8 more people to get his staff up to 20 (why?) and looking at getting an office space in London (why?).

TLDR: was pushed into being a doctor by cultural expectations, wants to be a coder/entrepeneur and always has done, is insecure and jealous of his brother living the lifestyle he wants. Also being a doctor in the UK can be pretty tit at times.

https://apply.workable.com/aliabdaal/

Check out what kind of roles he is hiring. Doesn't seem very sustainable to me especially with London costs but who knows. Also paying £19k for Central London is pretty scummy. He seems absolutely idiotic to be searching for a Central London office location so more evidence that it's all about the lifestyle and feels for him rather than what is best for his employees.

 

[aidil]

Ali Abdaal

Our mission is to create inspirational and educational content that helps people do more of what matters to them. In 6 years, the YouTube channel's grown to 3M subscribers, with hundreds of thousands of followers on our other platforms. Our content...

apply.workable.com

Gosh, the state of this advert! So he basically wants to pay someone to write “in his voice”. Regular phone calls with him where they convert his ideas into something that sounds as though it’s been written by him… The cringe is off the charts! Hate this odious little twerp.

 

[hollowcrown]

True to his vision of "outsource everything" he is now outsourcing his one job to someone else.

 

[athenacore]

I think he doesn't want to be a Doctor at all now. Read Adam Kay's book "This Is Going To Hurt" about being a Doctor/Junior Doctor in the UK. Hours are tit, pay is not amazing, it puts a lot of strain on your personal life, lots of hard work and you have to deal with some devastating things like death on a monthly basis.

Meanwhile as an influencer/business owner he's already building up property, working only a few hours a day, got a flash fancy car, calling himself a CEO and a boss, bleeping about with all his tech stuff and hiring people he wants to spend time with to hang around with him all day. Pretty cushy life.

I think as oldest child he was pressued to go into one of the "traditional" career paths for people of his culture and ended up falling into doctor. In videos in why he decided he wanted to be a doctor he doesn't say he thinks medicine is interesting, or he wants to help people or improve their lives, he talks about how he thinks it would be more interesting to be a doctor that codes instead of a straight up coder. His passion is clearly in coding and building a business.

His younger brother was allowed to go and study software engineering and go into the start up work life and seems to be doing pretty well out of it, living in London and having his own start up business dealing with investments etc. Ali is clearly very insecure and wants to live that lifestyle so is going in on the London business side of things. In his latest video he says he's hiring 8 more people to get his staff up to 20 (why?) and looking at getting an office space in London (why?).

TLDR: was pushed into being a doctor by cultural expectations, wants to be a coder/entrepeneur and always has done, is insecure and jealous of his brother living the lifestyle he wants. Also being a doctor in the UK can be pretty tit at times.

https://apply.workable.com/aliabdaal/

Check out what kind of roles he is hiring. Doesn't seem very sustainable to me especially with London costs but who knows. Also paying £19k for Central London is pretty scummy. He seems absolutely idiotic to be searching for a Central London office location so more evidence that it's all about the lifestyle and feels for him rather than what is best for his employees.

I'm from the same culture as him so I totally understand what you mean about family expectations. It's a shame. I am glad I don't live in the UK anymore though as junior doctors are treated like tit, so I can't really blame him for losing his passion for medicine. Anyway I think the US lifestyle (Silicon Valley) would suit him way more than London

 

[Hasanah123]

The jobs are a joke

The content writer is basically him saying you are my scribe, i'll tell you what I want you to write and you'll go and do it, even called this person his 'knowledge manager'

So errr are you going to be doing Ali if everyone is doing your job for you?!?!

 

[JohnMasters]

The jobs are a joke

The content writer is basically him saying you are my scribe, i'll tell you what I want you to write and you'll go and do it, even called this person his 'knowledge manager'

So errr are you going to be doing Ali if everyone is doing your job for you?!?!

I'm hoping that at some point his moronic audience realises that whatever content they're consuming, be it newsletters or videos, are actually created and thought up by some random worker on a salary, and Ali is literally just slapping his name on it and isn't actually intellectually or "emotionally" involved with any of it. Maybe I'm the weird one, but if someone was serving me content that they had nothing to do with, I'd stop watching in a second. Kind of beats the entire point of YouTube being a personality based platform where you watch people whom you resonate with. Who's gonna resonate with employee #18 in Ali Abdaal Corporation that's gonna be responsible for all his stories and scripts? At least in a news agency, they present facts (or they used to) and nobody actually cares about personal anecdotes from the anchors but the only reason people watch HIM and not someone else is to hear HIS words, not some bleeping random's. This is reaching some serious levels of ridiculousness.

Someone who doesn't have such a dedicated fanbase of brainlets from India could never get away with this. He could post self-own after self-own and still get 98.7% likes just cause he's perceived as an idol by that demographic. More likes, bigger ego, more people signing up to his stupid course, more clones. Will this ever end?

 

[Machtc99]

I've said it earlier and will say it now.
He thinks that reading this bsh books is a way of improving his life. No, it isn't. You can read 1-2 books and pick something up from them, but you cannot create the whole life with a mindset that I will read a book and it will change my life. A lot of our life experience is based on our life, our choices, our behaviour, people we meet, places we go. No just based on the books we read.

I don't know what his chanel is about. He is not a productivity guy. Maybe a book reviewer? Or a finance advisor?

I know that India and Pakistan have a lot of people, but still cannot understand the way his chanel grows. He puts the same content with different subtitles and slightly changed wording, and yet his comments section is always full of praise for him.

 

[hollowcrown]

I've said it earlier and will say it now.
He thinks that reading this bsh books is a way of improving his life. No, it isn't. You can read 1-2 books and pick something up from them, but you cannot create the whole life with a mindset that I will read a book and it will change my life. A lot of our life experience is based on our life, our choices, our behaviour, people we meet, places we go. No just based on the books we read.

I don't know what his chanel is about. He is not a productivity guy. Maybe a book reviewer? Or a finance advisor?

He wants to be the knowledge and life long learning guy so basically it's a "regurgitate anything mentioned in my last book I read". He's already spun off the vlogsi nto another channel so this will be the centrepiece of his "learning" channel. I suspect he's planning to eventually build his own "platform" for learning like Skillshare. That's the holy grail for him because it means that he can profit off other peoples work. That's probably what his YouTube academy thing is building towards, having other people post money on his platform for free and taking a cut of their profit or revenues. It's the ultimate "passive income" source so he's probably absolutely slobbering for it, greedy bastard that he is.

I know that India and Pakistan have a lot of people, but still cannot understand the way his chanel grows. He puts the same content with different subtitles and slightly changed wording, and yet his comments section is always full of praise for him.

Outside of the Asians, some of it will just be other YouTubers in the productivity bubble and their circle engaging in the whole parasocial relationship thing that's so common. "Woah X YouTuber watches Ali and has commented on it woah better comment on this". Some of it will just also be all of the people who have given them £4000 for his course and are probably directed to comment on Ali's videos to "build engagement" which feeds the algorithm.

 

[TheTatler]

Can I just say how much I hate the term "ghostwriter"? It implies that they can use somebody's work without even crediting them. I have worked in the Digital Marketing field and this is so common and normal that I cannot stand it. Some companies do not even allow you to put the work in your portfolio because they are afraid of the competition. I hate how unethical the media is becoming. What is the point of working so hard if I cannot boast it on my resume?

Ali Abdaal

Our mission is to create inspirational and educational content that helps people do more of what matters to them. In 6 years, the YouTube channel's grown to 3M subscribers, with hundreds of thousands of followers on our other platforms. Our content...

apply.workable.com

Gosh, the state of this advert! So he basically wants to pay someone to write “in his voice”. Regular phone calls with him where they convert his ideas into something that sounds as though it’s been written by him… The cringe is off the charts! Hate this odious little twerp.

the above rant is WRT this stupid advert

 

[bubbles21]

I think he doesn't want to be a Doctor at all now. Read Adam Kay's book "This Is Going To Hurt" about being a Doctor/Junior Doctor in the UK. Hours are tit, pay is not amazing, it puts a lot of strain on your personal life, lots of hard work and you have to deal with some devastating things like death on a monthly basis.

Tbh I imagine it was about money. Making money from the videos he made about it, making money from being involved with Liberty medics. Has the feel of being a set up just to promote that company more than anything else to me. I might be cynical, but I doubt he had any intentions of going anywhere.

 

[nyawakes]

Tbh I imagine it was about money. Making money from the videos he made about it, making money from being involved with Liberty medics. Has the feel of being a set up just to promote that company more than anything else to me. I might be cynical, but I doubt he had any intentions of going anywhere.

I always thought that being involved with liberty medics was a scam. Specially because he stopped working as a doctor to "focus on other things" a.k.a making more money. Once or twice he posted about the usmle exam, but mostly videos with the other couple that run that course simply for promotion and to make a quick buck. I mean, if you look at liberty medics webpage the "about us" section hasn't been updated since they started the company, given that Usama is already an attending and shirin is on her second year as a resident and well, Ali, we all know that story. Another example of money grabbing behaviour, as they probably have Ali there to act as the poster boy due to his popularity but in reality he doesn't have a clue how the process works nor has he gone through the steps to be a doctor in the US as he's not even interested in it.

 

[TheTatler]

Tbh I imagine it was about money. Making money from the videos he made about it, making money from being involved with Liberty medics. Has the feel of being a set up just to promote that company more than anything else to me. I might be cynical, but I doubt he had any intentions of going anywhere.

I think he talks about medicine in his recent 2M Q&A video? I don't remember specifically but he mentioned how Doctor Mike, in one of his videos, said that he will never give up medicine, he is a physician first and a youtuber later and all that, and Ali talks about how he is not that invested like Doctor Mike.

 

[hollowcrown]

I think he talks about medicine in his recent 2M Q&A video? I don't remember specifically but he mentioned how Doctor Mike, in one of his videos, said that he will never give up medicine, he is a physician first and a youtuber later and all that, and Ali talks about how he is not that invested like Doctor Mike.

He'll probably move back to medicine content after his "moving to London" entrepenuer content starts drying up to keep his channel fresh.

Still find it funny how he thinks in several years time he's still going to be working one day a week as a Doctor. Stick to your "business" mate.

 

[JohnMasters]

If I heard my doctor is only doing this gig one day a week as something "fun" he can brag about to his shithead audience on YouTube, I'd reject any form of interaction with him and request another medic who actually takes his job seriously.

I wonder if that's why he was planning on doing emergency medicine. Someone coming in from a car crash or stabbed in a riot probably wouldn't have much to say as to who their doctor is. I'm hoping patients at whatever hospital he works at become aware of what a fraud he is and reject treatment from him. One can only hope this will act as a wake-up call but with Ali's track record, I'm fairly certain he's gonna brush it off as just haters being haters and continue to believe he's optimized his life for fun, as he so likes to parrot nowadays.

 

[aitchH]

I just came across this thread today. I’ve read plenty of posts on here, but not read every single post of this thread. So glad I’m not the only one who sees through Ali’s BS.

What success has Ali really achieved in his life? Let me list it - he got through A levels, got selected and finished at a prestigious medical school and then slogged through F1 and F2. These are absolutely great achievements, and he did these by actually working hard. Going through the jobs even if he didn’t enjoy them whilst having the end-goal in mind, and he simply dedicated his time for studying and working. These are the achievements that really matter, and he should teach his young audience about how the time he took out to study and work was worth it. Hard work = success

After this, he has been lucky to get the YT views and money from his investments and skill-sharing businesses. He clearly worked really hard initially setting up his Youtube and dedicating time to it whilst studying and working. I agree with others on here that now it just feels like a soulless money-making gambit, and he’ll be really lucky if his YT success continues to build unless he revamps his style. He just seems to have a really formulaic approach to success. Reading 100 self-help books and applying all the tricks will mean more money and YT views, without really connecting any more to his audience who helped build his platform or really giving something of value to the world. Just teaching others to chase money isn't that great.

Ali is too early in his career to start shouting out about his success. YouTube is known for its peaks and troughs - you can be very successful one year with more than a million subscribers, and the next year struggle to even get 100k views. Given that he hasn’t got something particularly unique except his branding, I don’t think his shelf-life will be that long unless he starts giving something new and interesting. All the talk about studying and productivity has gotten boring, especially as he is living in his own bubble without the daily struggles of an employed life or study course. And don't get me started on talking about making money online ad infinitum as talking about it is the only way to keep making money.

It’s all about what energy we give out to the world. I prefer watching Graham Stephen who says he would rather make his coffee at home for 20 cents than pay $3 to Starbucks. Whereas for Ali, it’s like he comes across as “I’m too important to make my coffee”. It is just BS excuse for just saying “I can’t be asked, I’m too rich.” So if everyone lived like Ali, there would be so much wastage, and classes of people employed to use their time and energy to serve those who are too intellectual to waste their time to make food. (I believe there is a blessing in working hard and not being wasteful, and I much prefer Graham Stephen’s ethos to financial success.) Ali reminds me of those type A personalities who quickly make success but then end up having stress-related health problems once they reach 40 and they're lucky if their marriages last.

Anyway Ali will keep making videos about how successful he is and how to become successful. I think the reason he causes such strong emotions is that as a society we assume that doctors and Cambridge graduates are a step above us, as well as people with high net incomes. But we can all see from Ali’s videos that his life just seems depressing and there is a lot of negative energy being put into the world by the message he sends out.

Ali needs to sit back, relax and enjoy the things he has, value the relationships he has, and not see money-making as the be-all-and-end-all, or if it is for him, then he should come with a health warning for his young audience that continuing to live in such a way will likely mess with your health and future relationships.

 

[Hasanah123]

So according to the Steven Bartlett podcast, Abdaal is a creator, entrepreneur, came first at Cambridge and is a productivity expert

Steven did not even say he was a doctor!

 

[hollowcrown]

Ali is too early in his career to start shouting out about his success. YouTube is known for its peaks and troughs - you can be very successful one year with more than a million subscribers, and the next year struggle to even get 100k views. Given that he hasn’t got something particularly unique except his branding, I don’t think his shelf-life will be that long unless he starts giving something new and interesting. All the talk about studying and productivity has gotten boring, especially as he is living in his own bubble without the daily struggles of an employed life or study course. And don't get me started on talking about making money online ad infinitum as talking about it is the only way to keep making money.

This is a really good point. They key really.

Ali is basing the growth of his businesses so much on the value of his personal brand which is tied to his YouTube channel. He's openly saying that the future success of his book is what is going to kick his business onto the next level. That seems a pretty stupid way to predict growth of your business. What if you can't finish the book or what if it doesn't sell? What if people get bored of your productivity content after you've hired a videographer to film your entire life for you?

With lockdowns ending and COVID being defeated there is the very real danger channels like Ali's will stagnate and people will want to get out in the world rather than being stuck at home being "productive" which could have a real big knock-on in terms of revenue of his ventures like Part Time YouTuber academy.

His next pivot for content is clearly going to be "Life of a startup CEO living in London" but it's a big risk and I don't think he realises that it might not pay off and cause his business to crash down.

 

[aitchH]

So according to the Steven Bartlett podcast, Abdaal is a creator, entrepreneur, came first at Cambridge and is a productivity expert

I watched that interview. It's a shame because there is a lot of good stuff about Ali where he can teach others about what he has learnt.
I just wish he was nicer, able to care for people and not justify everything he does. Rather than saying "it's fine for me to drop out being a doctor during pandemic because XYZ saving lives this way". I'd appreciate it more if he was just honest and said that it's hard work and he didn't enjoy it as much and would rather do the business. Ali dropping out of medicine does make a difference as it is 1 less Cambridge-educated NHS doctor than there would have been. It'd be nicer if he was honest with himself and others and just took that on the chin, and could say "Yeh I feel bad I haven't been able to carry on but I'll try to make up for it by working extra hard in this field."
I watched a little of Dr Alex George (on same channel Diary of a CEO) and he came across as more genuine in saying that he believes he can do more good in preventative medicine where he wants to help people before they need to reach A&E in promoting health messages.
Whilst Ali saying, "it's fine, it doesn't make a difference as you're just a cog in a machine that can be replaced" feels like an insult for all of the people who do work in the health system.

Ali is basing the growth of his businesses so much on the value of his personal brand which is tied to his YouTube channel. He's openly saying that the future success of his book is what is going to kick his business onto the next level.
...
His next pivot for content is clearly going to be "Life of a startup CEO living in London" but it's a big risk and I don't think he realises that it might not pay off and cause his business to crash down.

Yeh really good point. First you live your life and really achieve something, then it becomes easy to write a book about your experiences, how you achieved success and how you got there. Those are the books that are valuable. Being offered to write a book isn't a massive academic achievement in its own right these days. I randomly googled Gemma Collins just now to see if she has a book - and she has two! You get offered a book easily because you have social media followers. But you need to live a valuable life with valuable life lessons to make that book successful and worth reading. Being really honest in your life and being able to truly self-reflect and coming from a good place will help.

I watch a lot of YouTube so honestly I've seen so many people rise and fall.
A lot of what made him successful, isn't really there anymore.
He has been quite lucky - Angus and his PA Elizabeth just randomly reached out to him, and seem like really excellent team members. But reading through his job adverts was just really funny and I don't think he will get that same calibre of people applying now. One of the job applications for writer were "hey make this audio of random thoughts I had into marketable content, how would you do that?" Another seemed to ask for an essay, another asked for free work which was make these 2 pictures of me into 4 catchy YouTube thumbnails. Before you've even stepped through the door and even got through stage 1, you're giving free work rather than just showing your own portfolio of work, so good luck in attracting people that aren't just complete sycophants.
There is so much to be said for just being a really nice person, treating people well and being humble. This egotistic self-worship where you're too important to even convert your own thoughts into an idea yourself and you need X amount of people to do every conceivable job is just ridiculous.

 

[dddddaaa1]

Our past year together - Woke Wednesday - YouTube

"This is when we read the tattle comments"
Ali: "Oh, we never released that video"

He seems really unhappy in this video

 

[hollowcrown]

Our past year together - Woke Wednesday - YouTube

"This is when we read the tattle comments"
Ali: "Oh, we never released that video"

He seems really unhappy in this video

I cannot believe how many memories with her he simply cannot remember? How bleeping weird if someone has a photo of me I can literally remember it always? Maybe I take less pictures of myself than these people do but I would find it weird if someone could not remember all of these photos?

I get the impression from these videos and also the videos with Elizabeth than he's very insecure. He's always very guarded like he's not saying much because he's not in control of the edit? Especially when in his own content he's so confident and chatty and bright. It's such a contrast from his videos with these two women, where he's just one word answers, doesn't want to talk etc.

Nice to know he's been reading this thread though. wonder why he never released it. Maybe because the Sheen comments were broadly positive in this thread, but everyone is constantly ripping on him in here.