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In these Deep Dive Snippets, I'll be sharing some of my favourite moments from past episodes of the podcast.
There's this common myth that your 20s is the time you should be getting ahead in life, but in this snippet I talk to Creator and Sex Educator Hannah Witton about the fact it's really not a race to the finish line - Reid Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn at 35, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in his 40s, Margaret Atwood published her first book at 32.
Listen to the full episode here ๐ https://open.spotify.com/episode/6yxcBgR7GG6J7poWEikYLo?si=0zDgFsxvQRaVw5YyMEGk3g
Dr Ali Abdaal is the worldโs most followed productivity expert and author of Feel-Good Productivity, the brand new book that reveals why the secret to productivity isnโt discipline, itโs joy. In his podcast, Deep Dive, Ali sits down with inspiring creators, thinkers, entrepreneurs and high performers to help listeners build lives that they love.
Aliโs cheerful style, positive approach, and well-researched content have made him a trusted voice when it comes to productivity. The internet means that we have access to more knowledge and information than ever before - but it can also be overwhelming. So, Ali and his expert guests focus on simple, scientifically proven, and actionable steps you can take to make real changes in your life.
Aliโs a firm believer that happiness isnโt the result of success - in fact, happiness is the key to success in the first place. Ali made this discovery while working as a doctor in a chaotic hospital ward. In the past, hard work had been the answer to every obstacle in his life. But no amount of hard work was going to combat panic and burnout.
So, Ali dedicated himself to figuring out a new approach to productivity - one that focuses on enjoying the journey and working towards truly meaningful goals. Deep Dive, with its authentic and engaging conversations, will give you all the insights you need to do just that.
Ali Abdaal 0:00
So there's this common myth that goes around the internet that when you're in your 20s, you should be spending that time trying to get ahead. And as someone in their 20s, where most of my friends are in our 20s, I often, like hear a bunch of an end feel a bunch of existential career risk, angst around or whatever. Like, I haven't really figured out what to do with my life. I haven't figured out what my career path is going to be for the next 50 years. Maybe I'm kind of doing things wrong, because I'm exploring this YouTube thing rather than doing medicine. Anyway, we're about to hear is a little snippet from a conversation that I had on the deep dive podcast with Hannah Witton, where we talk about this idea of getting ahead in your 20s. And I think Hannah gives some amazing advice to every 20 year old needs to hear were you concerned at all about the YouTube thing not being a quote, real job? And what what is your career gonna look like? 10 years down the line suddenly making videos like all of those fears that people have as they switch from a, quote, proper job to a quote, like, not proper job.
Hannah Witton 0:53
I don't know because I never, I don't really ever feel like I had a proper job. Because even what I was doing for that charity, like I was a freelancer, and I was making YouTube videos, but just for somebody else, which if anything, was proof, very early days for me that like this is a skill that other people also want, because like, and we'll pay you for. But I think I have more of those fears about like the longevity of it now than I did then. Like at the beginning, I was just like, I'm riding this wave, like, this is going well, let's not like freak out. Let's just keep going like build on this momentum. But also, it was just me then. Whereas now it's like, I rent a studio space, I have a team, there's definitely a lot more of like the business element to it. Now as well. And maybe you can relate to, to this as well. At the beginning, I was like in my early 20s had no dependents had savings. So I was just kind of like your early 20s is when you move to London and you take risks. That's what you're supposed to do. Right? So it didn't, I didn't feel any fear there. Because I was just like, if this all goes tits up, like, that's normal. I'm 23. Like, who cares? Whereas now it's like, oh, I'm about to turn 30 I'm about to have a baby. I have a mortgage, I have a team, I have a business that has a lot of overhead costs a lot more fears about the longevity now than then for sure. Yeah. So
Ali Abdaal 2:23
on the point about your 20s being for experimentation, that itself is kind of a novel thing, I guess, for medicine, in particular, your 20s or for setting yourself up for success in banking, and consulting and law, your 20s are like, Hey, let's hustle, hustle, hustle so that when I'm 30, I'll have a partner at McKinsey or whatever people do. And a friend of mine, who's also was also medic in my year, who recently quit medicine to pursue a job in tech put out a tweet that went viral the other day, which basically like, you know, when I left medicine at 26, I was really scared because for the last 10 years, I had a very clear path. And now it feels like all this uncertainty. But then I realised actually my 20s were for experimentation. That tweet went viral and people like was, I think the idea that you can actually just like, screw around doing stuff in your 20s. And it's actually okay, yeah, is actually fairly novel to a lot of people. Well, we
Hannah Witton 3:14
put a lot of pressure on, on people to make a decision about the next 10 years of their life really early like, and you'll know this, like, from doing medicine or uni. So like, at some point you decide you want to become a doctor, okay? You have to do medicine at university. Okay? In order to get into uni to do medicine, I need these eight levels. In order to get into college to do those A levels. I need these GCSEs At what age you're making decision, or what GCSEs you're doing, you're 14, yeah, you're 14 and you made like all of those decisions for the next 10 years of your life. Like we specialise real early in the UK, in terms of like, those decisions that we're making about our studies and our work and career and stuff. I didn't have that because I went the humanities route. But yeah, I do think that there is a lot of pressure to like, know what you want to do. And then also, like, as a culture, we idolise and like look up to people who are really successful, very young, were like, Oh, my God, look at what they've achieved. And they're only 21. Like, isn't that incredible? But then you find yourself actually comparing yourself to a lot of these people who had great success and whatever it is, they're doing. Super young.
Ali Abdaal 4:29
Yeah, there's a bunch of examples in tech in particular, that get thrown around that yes, there are some you know, 19 year olds find funding stripe or Facebook or whatever. But actually, the guy who founded LinkedIn was in his 40s Jeff Bezos was in his 30s when he started Amazon, like there are people in their 50s starting these companies as well. And like it's it's not a race. This is one thing that I find a lot of people do in our in our YouTube or Academy where, especially if it's older people comparing themselves to the younger kids. And it's like, if you're, you know, if you're in your 40s, and you've got a family and a mortgage and a job, there's just no way You can give the amount of time to YouTube as like a 19 year old at uni studying psychology who has one lecture a week. It's just the content. If you're
Hannah Witton 5:07
over 60, and you're retired, maybe you've got loads of time to dedicate to YouTube, like amazing. Chelsea Fagan, who's the CEO and co founder of the Financial Diet, she like often talks about how I think on her instagram or like on social media in general, she basically only follows influencers who are over 50 Because she's just like, we're a youth obsessed culture and for her like she's in her early 30s. And she just wants to see older women thriving because we also as a culture, kind of like you know, you're a woman and it gets to a certain age and suddenly you become completely invisible to the world. And so for her, she like, is actively seeking out these like positive examples of older women just like thriving and like doing their thing and I love that that was brilliant.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai