Dr Alex George: My Hardest Day in A&E, Family Suicide & Finding TRUE Purpose. | E89

I've gone from 200 followers on Instagram to one million in, in nine weeks. I just had tasted the failure so much that I wanted that success. One of the biggest things was going back to, to work. You know, I went back to A&E. I am working in a position where I'm in the resus department of a very busy hospital in A&E in London. The mortality rate with COVID is around 1%. I am seeing that percentage of people who are the sickest who are in the hospital. I could hear in his voice instantly that something really bad happened. And I just said straightaway, like, "Who's, who's died?" It was weird. The whole world, like, closed in. And I can't explain, and it sounds really dramatic, but it was like almost a spotlight came onto me in that moment and I was like, "No. It can't be." I just couldn't believe it. That's the thing about suicide or, you know, when these things happen, it can happen o- out of nowhere and for everyone around that person, it is that guilt that you carry, I think, forever. Ask yourself honestly when is the last time you genuinely sat down and thought about what you want to do in life? What actually is your purpose? What makes you happy? And if you haven't done it in the last year or so, do it. We had a phone call again and she said, "It's back." And I went, "What do you mean?" And she said, "The cancer's back." What do you say to someone who is dying in the next couple of weeks? What can you say? A lot of it's non-verbal. You have a hug and you just share that moment, don't you? But when you walk out of that room, it's like, "Wow, like, I'm not seeing her again." (piano music)

(instrumental music) Dr. Alex George. You may know him from Love Island. You may know him as one of the most well-known A&E doctors in our country, or you may know him as a government advisor to youth mental health, appointed by Boris Johnson last year. Alex knows a whole lot about happiness, about the things that make us unhappy, and about how we should be living if you want to live a truly fulfilling life. In this conversation, you'll come to realize that we are so far away from how we should be living, and that in order to get there, we might have to redesign the entirety of the society we live in. That's a belief that I have. This conversation energized me, it inspired me, it brought tears to my eyes. It gave me absolutely everything. And again, if there's a reason why I started this podcast, it's this conversation. 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) Alex, I, um, read a ton about you over the last, uh, couple of weeks, months, um, since you've sort of risen into the, the public eye. And, uh, one of the things that I really wanted to understand before, and I, I tend to start here with most of my guests, is I want to understand what it was from your childhood that made you the man you are today and what those significant moments were in your view.