How To Build A Following Of 10 Million: Mrwhosetheboss | E95

I was just this lanky, Asian nerd who played chess.

Arun Maini, he's one of the UK's most successful ever YouTubers. (static)

I was getting some sort of sick thrill out of seeing the numbers go up, so I made one video every single day for at least six months. It drove me to the point where I, one time, I just broke down crying on camera. Um, I never published that, but I have a, I have a photo which I sometimes look back on to remind of, like, wha- what it took. (static) (instrumental music plays) Th- th- there's, there's some things about you that you can't fix, and I think you just have to be very mechanical about them and be, like, "This is me. I have good things and I have bad things, but the bad things I can't change. I'm gonna lean on the things that are good about me, fix the things I can fix, and the rest is life." (static) Emotionally, physically, just exhaustion, I think, is how I would put it. Very, very tired. It was actually a bit of a pivot point in my career, because I sat down, like, "This isn't actually what I wanted." It, it was a realization that I've actually... You know, my channel's growing. All these metrics are looking up, but, but this isn't, you know? Uh, my brain. Uh, not many people know this actually, but... (instrumental music plays)

Arun Maini, he's a creator and entrepreneur with over eight million subscribers. His story is unconventional. A young kid from the UK that was bullied in school and his path to escape that reality would turn out to become his dream, his purpose, his meaning. But as Arun will tell you, he made the critical mistake so many of us make when we're chasing our dreams. He became obsessive. He sacrificed too much, things that mattered more. And at some point, that would lead to him having a breakdown, and that breakdown was a moment of inflection. And he's figured out that all important balance of striving while knowing that you are already enough at the same time. And that, I guess, is the ultimate goal of all of our lives. So without further ado, I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is The Diary of a CEO. I hope nobody's listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. (instrumental music plays) Arun, tens of millions of followers and subscribers later, um, when I read through your story and your journey, I could see this real sort of fundamental, obsessive, um, ambitious guy under there. And it made me wonder as I was reading through about how obsessed you were with the growth and the, the scaling of your channel, it made me hypothesize that there must've been something happened in your early years that did that to you, that gave you that bug, that insatiable desire to be successful or, or something. Have you identified what that is?