How to Get Ahead of 99% of People with 24-Year-Old Doctor & Fitness Entrepreneur | Dr. Azri Zakariya
Doctor Azry Zakaria, 24 year old, and building a business as well as going to medical school.
Speaker 2:There's more that thought in your head as to what you can possibly become and how many people you can actually help, how far I can pursue into saving more than just myself.
Speaker 1:If it doesn't pay off, what if it fail, what if I can't stick to the plan?
Speaker 2:There wasn't a second I doubted where I'm gonna go. I still don't doubt where I'm gonna go. It is all possible. Everything is possible. And the only thing that can really stop you is your own self limiting beliefs as to what's possible and the lies you tell yourself as to what you can and can't do.
Speaker 1:What do you do when you face challenges?
Speaker 2:Big challenge for me, taking that first step, and then that first step becomes easier and easier. And your baseline of work rate becomes higher and higher. So 12 hour days doesn't seem as hard anymore, 14 hour days, 16 hour days. The first step, of course, is the hardest step because that's where all the uncertainty, doubt, the fear, will this work for me? Do I have enough time to do this?
Speaker 2:It's those self limiting beliefs that do really stop people 1st place to whatever goal they have.
Speaker 1:That you don't wanna enter where all the treasures are hidden.
Speaker 2:Lot of people procrastinate and mentally masturbate around goals far more than they should do. They are obsessing over the goal instead of the action that it takes to get to that goal. You base all of your actions off of feelings instead of what you know you need to do.
Speaker 1:Eagles do not fly with pigeons. You need to look back and look at how far you've come in your climb to appreciate where you are in life.
Speaker 2:A lot of things that you think are negative in your life that you feel sorry for yourself about don't really matter when you put it into perspective. Am I really being grateful for having the ability to move and actually take the actions that I'm able to take? Am I really being grateful to be able to play the game?
Speaker 1:In a race for excellence, there is no finishing line. Greatest gift you can give someone is your time. Because no matter what you've got, you can always go and buy something. If someone a gift or give someone something, you can always go and buy something else, but you can't buy back time. Do you feel like you ever compare yourself to anybody else?
Speaker 1:Honestly? Welcome to the winning mindset podcast. My name is Wally Adesimoya, your host, and I am a 5 time world champion. I've traveled the world and trained with some of the best bodybuilders in the planet. I've trained with some of the best coaches in the planet, and I'm here with none other than doctor Azeri Zakaria.
Speaker 1:What What is your backstory? Tell the audience your backstory, those that don't know anything about you, what your backstory is.
Speaker 2:Very nice being here, firstly. Thank you very much, Molly. So I'm Azeri, 24 year old who's recently graduated medicine. I have an online coaching business with a strong team of staff around 20 now, and we've helped 100 and 100 change lives. It's something I've built over med school, and that was the longest journey for me in terms of making some serious change in personal growth.
Speaker 2:And, of course, with helping more and more people, I've built a reasonable social following from the information I've put out. I'd like to share my personal experience as to how that's actually happened.
Speaker 1:That's a very, very humble introduction. I mean, for me, anyone who have gone to medical school and got their doctorates is just an honor and a and it's amazing because it's I know how difficult it is, and I know the failure rate is so high. So that leads me to my first question. What has inspired you to put put to pursue your current success in your field, what you do with your online coaching business?
Speaker 2:It's a very good question. So initially, it started out as a personal journey, sharing my personal journey. What worked for me, I used to be £46 heavier. I lost a significant amount of excess weight. A lot of people ask me how I did that.
Speaker 2:I was through heavy research and of course implementation. But in terms of actually scaling up with the business itself, with the coaching business and helping as many people as possible, that came down to more running away from something, I guess. But it was more pursuit of being something more than myself, more than the standard, the average. Right? I guess the pursuit of significance, but it does boil down to how far I could take it to distract myself from something that was already stressful in terms of medical school and then how far I can pursue into saving more than just myself and saving as many people as possible.
Speaker 2:Deep down, that's what I feel is the real answer to it. It's something I think about a lot. It's like, why? Why am I doing this? But, you know, it gets to the very, very dark days.
Speaker 2:I guess I'll give you a little rundown. There have been extremely, extremely difficult days through the building of the business in medical school itself. You know, when finals are coming up, when you have hours and hours of sleepless nights for revision studies, and then, you know, problems with the business itself, you know, payment gateways getting shut down, Wise accounts getting shut down, the sales team getting flown out with, messaging management, IG, social media vans, and the volume that we were doing at the time as well when you are trying to handle this all yourself as well. But building it is what I liked in the pursuit of growth, the actual climb up the mountain that I feel I actually derive the joy from. When you realize it's not just about how far you can take it, I swear to God, it is that thought in your head as to what you can possibly become and how many people you can actually help.
Speaker 2:So I had big goals of building hospitals and building charities, and that's the only thing that came to my head when you are down in the dark, when relationships are breaking down around you. People do resent the fact that you're trying to grow and maybe not succeeding at that point as well? And that's something I guess it's hard to put down into one piece as to this is what it was for.
Speaker 1:I think what you just said there really interest me and intrigues me because, you know, you're at medical school, and you're trying to build a business whilst at medical school. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:That's correct.
Speaker 1:So medical school is challenging enough as it is to try and make sure you get through medical school without actually failing. So the failure rate of people to go to medical school is quite high. A lot of people that go to medical school don't pass. So you're you're here at medical school studying to be a doctor, and you're also building a business on the side. Wow.
Speaker 1:That's just unbelievable. Because the only way I can relate to that is I've been a London firefighter for the vice part of 24 years, and I've built my business whilst working. But my job, to some degree, may be challenging physically, but trying to get through medical school where your family has probably pumped 1,000 and 1,000 of pounds, dollars into you going to medical school and yourself as well, and trying to build a business on the side as well and building a business, a 7 figure business, as well as going to medical school, That to me is just unbelievable. And I think as a 24 year old, I'm sitting there as almost a 44 year old, and you're I'm 20 years your senior, And thinking of it, I'm old enough to be your dad, which is scary, really, when you think of it like that. And you've gone to medical school and build a business.
Speaker 1:So I think you have to give yourself a lot of credit for that. And, you know, when you look at the challenges that you faced along the way, it leads me on to my next questions. What challenges have you faced along the way, and what have you done to overcome those challenges for the listeners out there that are facing challenges at the moment in their everyday lives? What are the pivotal point? An example is you told me about payment payment lines getting shut down.
Speaker 1:My biggest fear is my Stripe account getting shut down. That is my biggest fear is that how am I gonna collect payment within my business? So what do you do when you face challenges, and how do you overcome those challenges?
Speaker 2:That's a very interesting question because I saw it as part of the game, and I thought this was expected because bit of a backstory, the most pivotal thing I've heard in my life, you know, the standard saying, you know, the sum of the 5 people that you surround yourself by. But I remember one time someone very, very much older than me said that that doesn't have to be just physically. So when I knew that was possible, I did absolutely everything I could very early on, when I was 19, 20 to read as many books as possible, listen to podcasts as much as possible, invest into mentorships and significant amounts into mentorships. So that was one big, big pivotal moment where I realized that investing into my own education and growth was a big, big part of it. And then I was sitting down one day when there was absolute pain in terms of what do I do?
Speaker 2:Right. I'm trying my absolute best. I've absolutely capped it in terms of hours as to what I can do, and I'm not progressing. And that was really, really painful. And then everything I made up to that point, not very much.
Speaker 2:It was, like, 8, 10 grand or whatever it was, throw it all back into a mentor back then. And that was I remember, like, literally just sat there and cried because I was like, I don't know how to handle this. I have my biggest exam coming next week. I've just immersed into a mental. There's this much stuff I didn't know that I have to do.
Speaker 2:And then I've literally just collapsed because time management is something that was really, really big for me, and that was a big challenge for me, taking that first step, and then that first step becomes easier and easier. And your baseline of work and your baseline of work rate becomes higher and higher. So 12 hour days doesn't seem as hard anymore, 14 hour days, 16 hour days. And at that point, the largest resource I had was time outside of studying. As silly as that might sound, I thought the only thing I had was time until I could build up the skills and the beliefs for me to leverage time outside myself with hiring with ads, but there were very, very big challenges.
Speaker 2:You know, as I mentioned, we were in the car already saying an 8 ad account shut down. I have my Stripe payment gateway shut down and, you know, with even random Wyze accounts getting shut down and we lost 10, 12 grand in a day. That was, at that age, it's 1. I was just like, okay, I've worked this hard to make this much. I've lost it.
Speaker 2:What do I do now? And then it was just having that figure of someone older than me saying that the end of your life, none of this is actually gonna really matter. You're gonna be happy you're able to play the game, and that's part of the game. And that was it, really. It was just I knew there was more to the journey and there was there wasn't a point where I was gonna quit.
Speaker 2:I was seeing it as, like, I have so many lives. Am I gonna die tomorrow? No. What's the worst that can possibly happen? What can I do to take absolute responsibility to learn, to grow from this so I don't make the same mistakes next time?
Speaker 2:And it was just that again and again, and then I knew that worst comes to worst. Am I gonna be homeless? Let's hope not. Right? And then we just keep learning, keep progressing forward, get back to work.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 1:I love it. I absolutely love that. I mean, just listening to you just gives me goosebumps because I think when you look at investment, the best investment you can make is in yourself physically and mentally, and you start it very early. You start to invest in in mentorship at a very early stage. You know, I was the guy that would be like, no.
Speaker 1:Thank you. I'm not giving you $10 to invest in your business mentor mentorship. I'd rather go and spend that $10 and buy a nice Rolex watch, or I'll go to Louis Vuitton and buy a nice bag for myself, than invest in the business mentorship. So I think a lot of the things that I can take and give you credit for is that you saw the benefits of investing in yourself from a very early age, which I feel like I wish I did. And a lot of people do not wanna invest in themselves.
Speaker 1:We know it as online coaches when you see when we do calls with on with potential clients. Biggest biggest thing for most people is the price to pay for the coaching service because they don't believe that that investment might not pay off. They may not be able to achieve the goal. They may not be able to stick to the plan. So they have a little bit of hesitation to make that initial investment.
Speaker 1:So if someone's listening to this podcast, they sit on the fence, and they're thinking about investing in themselves, and they're they they a bit of hesitation of investing. What advice can you give them?
Speaker 2:That's a good one. Of course, we come across this daily as well with the fear that's holding you back, that's stopping you from getting to the next level of who you know you can become. You're never gonna know what the result is until you actually take that first step into investing into yourself. I got lucky. My dad was keen on me investing in my own education.
Speaker 2:So I've, you know, personally spent over 40, $50 in business mentorship, my education into myself, even fitness coaching as well with myself. Investing into myself, I knew had the highest return on investment, and I also got lucky that I wasn't surrounding myself with these materialistic goals at the start either. When I say I surround myself with people who were in a virtual environment with podcasts, books, whatever it was, the people I looked up to were 50, 60, and none of those things mattered to them. And I thought that's what it should have been. So none of those things really interested me in the first place because those were the people who I saw as the people I wanted to become.
Speaker 2:Going back to your question, it is always, always going to be an unknown factor in terms of what's coming up, but you're only ever growing or declining. There's no place of staying the same. There is no maintaining of your life. You're either growing or you will, declining because of the rate of, let's say, competition, the other people around you who are progressing in their lives as well. And for me, I guess that was more of a competitive streak that was going on.
Speaker 2:And maybe it's not the right way to think about it, but it served me well, so I can only say from my own perspective and from the people that we've worked with as well. We haven't had a single case of, you know, this hasn't been a positive change in their life.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. I mean, honestly, like, I I can not only just say the cave that you don't wanna enter is where all the treasures are hidden.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So I know that I was very, you know, I had a bit of, oh, should I invest in this? Should I not? What if it doesn't pay off? What if it fail? What if I can't stick to the plan?
Speaker 1:There's a lot of overwhelmness when it comes with investing the business mentorship because there's a lot of things that you do not know. There's a lot of things you need to find out. You know? And I think it's important that people take into consideration that you need to invest in people that have walked the walk that you want to walk. And you talked about surrounding yourself with people that were doing the things that you wanted to do, people that were whole a lot older than you, and the materialistic things didn't really matter for you.
Speaker 1:So I always say, and I'd always reiterate this, eagles do not fly with pigeons. You know, if you surround yourself with pigeons, you're not gonna fly to the height or soar to the height that you wish to soar to. It's important that you soar you surround yourself with like minded individuals that will look at things and think you can get there. I believe in you. And give you that inspiration to get to the destination you want to get to.
Speaker 1:You know, I think it's important, and I love what you've said there in regards to the people you surround yourself with. You know? Can you elaborate a little bit more on that for me?
Speaker 2:A lot of the fear that people have around investing in themselves or getting to that next level is around the difficulty that they perceive it to be of what's coming up as to what it takes because they see the people at the top of the mountain. It's something I heard from Homer Zee recently. People try and model their actions around the people at the top of the mountain instead of the people on the climb up. So, yes, it takes more work on the climb up, but seeing the people at the top of a mountain, seeing what they do and trying to model what you need to do at that point to get there is they're completely different games. And if that's what is, stopping people in terms of fit, as in let's take fitness, for example, right?
Speaker 2:You see, let's take WALL E, for example. You see people squatting heavy weights, lifting big weights, you know, sticking to a strict diet. I'm sure if while I was, you know, £200 overweight, that probably wouldn't be what he would be doing in terms of what he needed to lose the next 30, 40, £50 to get healthier again, to be confident again, to just get a flat stomach. So it's that perceived difficulty, I think, that people build up in their heads that stops them getting started in the 1st place.
Speaker 1:I know. I think a lot of people I always say don't compare my chapter 10 to your chapter 1. Yeah. Because I've gone through those chapters to get to chapter 10, and you're looking at me at chapter 10, and you wanna be at chapter 10, but you haven't looked at chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, or chapter 5. You wanna compare my chapter 10 to your chapter 1.
Speaker 1:That's in comparison. You cannot compare those 2 together. And, also, you can't expect to get the elevator to the top floor without willing to climb the stairs. You've gotta climb the stairs and go through each and every single floor to get to the top floor and have all of the beauty and the knowledge that's on the top floor. Because if you just get elevated to top floor, you you've missed so much opportunity of growth and personal growth.
Speaker 1:I think it's important that we as we climb, we've got to climb and take into consideration what we've done along the way. Sometimes you need to look back and look at how far you've come in your climb to appreciate where you are in life. Would you say that's correct?
Speaker 2:A 1000%. I think people really do overlook the power of incremental steps and the compounding effect of the progress from incremental steps as well. If you're able to take the first step, you're most likely able to take the second and third. But if you try and jump 10 steps at a time, you're not going to get very far because you'll keep getting hit by a brick wall at a certain point trying to take a bigger leap than you should be taking when, you know, if you do take it step by step, you're going to make progress. And the first step, of course, is the hardest step because that's where all the uncertainty, doubt, the fear, will this work for me?
Speaker 2:Do I have enough time to do this? Is this actually going to work around my schedule? It's those self limiting beliefs that do really stop people, I guess, from progressing in the first place to whatever goal they have.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. You know? I'm, that I'm honestly, I'm just really, really blown away how mature you are for a 24 year old, honestly. Like, I wish I was like you at the age of 24. My life would be so much further ahead than where I am now if I was like you at the age of 24, and you should give full credit to yourself to have the mindset that you have, you know, at your age.
Speaker 1:You know? And I would love to ask you about habit, because I'm a big believer in habit. And one of the things that we try and coach our clients is habits. And one of my favorite books is Atomic Habit by James Clear. What are your sort of 3 daily habits that you do or the habits that you've done at an early stage that's helped you personally and within your business today?
Speaker 2:Very good question. So one thing I really try to implement very early on because, of course, my first mentor is making sure I don't lie to myself as to what I'm actually doing. So actually tracking my time. So the amount of people that don't actually know what they're doing in their daily life, if literally they pull up their screen time on their phone, they'll realize how much time they actually spend. So consistently tracking my time was a key, key habit because I knew I'm taking this amount of break.
Speaker 2:I know I'm doing this amount of work And you can't, at the end of the day, have everything in the spreadsheet in front of you and lie to yourself as to, you know, I feel like I worked really hard. I'm tired. And you can see you've done 3 hours of work and 8 hours of fucking around, basically. So that's where for me, I was very, very diligent on tracking my time. That was the biggest game changer for me.
Speaker 2:I always attribute that. And then, of course, blocking out tasks in my calendar. 2nd, I'm a bit hypocritical around sleep, but waking up early, as cringey as it sounds, I don't think you need to wake up early because there's also times when my taser were flipped on the other end. It was finding gaps of undistracted time to do the things that you know you need to do. So these gaps of undistracted time can be at nighttime for me.
Speaker 2:Earlier earlier in the day was good for me. Right. 3rd thing was, of course, the absolute base fitness. Like, actually moving, getting into the gym, that was just a daily habit of incremental steps once again, laying out my clothes. Right?
Speaker 2:That's as easy as it has to be for me to know that I'm committing myself to an action that's going to progress me towards maintaining my health and fitness, which compounds into productivity with progress. And for me, at the end of the day, it was a break in my day rather than anything. That's the enjoyable part, which, people very heavily overlook. They think that's the hard part. That's the
Speaker 1:We love training. We love training, and I think that's the most enjoyable part for me. And I love that.
Speaker 2:And also if, you know, we're looking at cognitive performance as well, it's probably one of the biggest factors that you can play. And you can do all your ice baths, you can do all your meditations, your affirmations in the morning. None of it really amounts to anything until you actually make the actions, do the work. And of course, health and fitness, that's one thing that does push you forward to do the actual work because you have a block in your day of, you know, I'm going to be at the gym at this time. That means I've set out time where this is going to be part of my day.
Speaker 2:Everything else has to be done before or after that. So if you're able to fit everything else within that day, you know you're actually doing something that's progressive. If you don't do that, then you are in this constant cycle of, you know, I maybe feel like doing this. You go you base all of your actions off of feelings instead of what you know you need to do. So that was a part of my day where I know, when you compress the time that you have to do the task, you're going to do a lot more in that time frame.
Speaker 1:I love it. I mean, you know, I call there's things what I call motion and I call action. Reading a book at home about fitness, that's motion. Going to the gym and actually squatting and doing a set, that's action. So a lot of people, I call it, are emotion.
Speaker 1:They'll sit there. They'll read all the fitness guides. They'll read all the all the things on Instagram or listen, watch videos on Instagram, and yet not take any actions. And the most important thing, what I can pick up from what you said, which is a habit of mine as well, is you're an action taker. So you you take action very quickly.
Speaker 1:You notice the productivity and the importance of time blocking. I think the greatest gift you can give someone is your time. Because no matter what you've got, you can always go and buy something. You can go and buy something. If you give someone a gift or give someone something, you can always go buy something else, but you can't buy back time.
Speaker 1:Time blocking is very important. I've and I think for me, it's so important. That's what a lot of people take for granted. They don't time block, and they don't take action. 2 things that you do that I think is very important, to have that winning mindset to be able to progress to that next level.
Speaker 1:Because, you know, to progress, you must be willing to learn and take action on what you've actually learned. You know? And for me, you know, I think it's very important that you maintain that winning mindset. But how do you maintain a winning mindset in the face of adversity, setbacks, you know, within your personal life and your business? Because there's a lot of stuff that you've had a lot of setbacks within business.
Speaker 1:You've had a lot of setbacks as a young man. How do you maintain focus that would have that winning mindset and that refusal to give up and say, I'm still gonna be successful. I'm still gonna take this business to where I want it to be, where I visualize this business going. How do you maintain that winning mindset?
Speaker 2:Number 1, tell yourself the truth.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Everything lies in the truth.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Growth comes from the truth. As soon as you start lying to yourself as to who you are and what you can become, then you get to a point of never ending circles that you can run around.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Number 2, I do have to put it down to religion as well. I would consider myself attempting to be more and more religious and, of course always be better, when you know there is greater purpose above yourself, and when you know that regardless of how dark it gets, you're never really alone. That's probably one of the biggest things sewing with them, and that's one of the biggest things that I feel did actually hold me back because I ask myself that a lot as well. When it comes to the darkest of the dark days, what is it that you actually fall back on? And for me, that was a baseline of my actual life, and I would say that's helped me grow more than anything else because realistically, when you're trying to maintain a level that you perceive yourself as in your head and when you have something that you've tied your identity to in terms of growth, in terms of winning, and then you fall so far below, there's only so much you can fall into.
Speaker 2:Right? You can fall into a spiraling circle of darkness where most people, I understand they can't take their way out of that. I understand it's very, very difficult. And when you know that there is a place that you're going to go and when you know that you're going to get there regardless, There wasn't a second I doubted where I'm gonna go. I still don't doubt where I'm gonna go.
Speaker 2:I know exactly where I wanna be financially. I know exactly where I wanna be physically. I know exactly where I wanna be in terms of relationships and my personal life. There is not a second where I wake up and I doubt that that is going to be there at some point in my life. I don't care when, if it's 5 years down the line, if it's 10 years down the line.
Speaker 2:Till then, I'm very happy that I'm able to play the game.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. That's just phenomenal. Like, playing the game, I love it. That's that's, like, the 3rd or 4th time you've mentioned playing a game. Because when we look at it all as a game, the game goes on no matter what.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. You know, you may lose, but you could turn up the next week to play the game again. It's just I love football, and I follow soccer. Unfortunately, I'm a Chelsea fan. They're doing absolutely terrible this season, but they still got to turn up week in, week out and continue playing.
Speaker 1:And when you look at life and look at business as a game, it makes life a lot easier. It makes the business a lot easier where you think, well, I'm not doing so well. There's a lot of changes that I need to make, but I've gotta continue playing the game. And as long as I'm in the game, I still have a chance of winning.
Speaker 2:I agree. And, you know, referring back to, I believe, Simon Sinek's with finite infinite games, everything in terms of what we're doing is an infinite game. Health, you don't exactly win at health. You don't get to a point where, you know, you're like, okay. That's it.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna stop going to gym. I'm gonna stop eating healthy because I'm in shape. Mhmm. Don't win at business. You don't get to a point where, you know, like, I've made a certain amount of money.
Speaker 2:I quit because I know every single person that's able to make that amount of money or whatever it is doesn't stop for a good reason, and it's because they were more invested in the game than the outcome. And even in marriage, you don't get married and be like, that's it. I've completed the game of marriage. The goal of marriage is to maintain a happy, loving marriage. That's the end goal for everything when you see it as an infinite game.
Speaker 2:The end goal is to keep playing.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I always knew in my head that this is something I want to do forever in terms of being the best I can possibly be in all areas of my life.
Speaker 1:I love it. I mean, we're in Dubai right now. One of my favorite quotes is by Sheikh Mohammed. In the race for excellence, there is no finishing line. There's absolutely no finishing line.
Speaker 1:You know? No matter how far you go within your physicality, your your ability to do things, there's no finishing line. You're still racing. You know, you'd always wanna keep keep racing. The race goes on.
Speaker 1:Who's been the biggest influence for you in your personal life and in your business as well? Who has been the most important influence for you to have helped you with your personal growth and business growth?
Speaker 2:Personal growth? I've thought about this a lot, and regardless of whether I knew it or not at the time, I have to say it's my dad. Regardless, because even though I didn't speak to him much growing up, even though I still don't speak to him much, right, I a 100% understand the small amount of time I probably did speak to him. I've instilled the beliefs and the mentality that I needed to be where I'm at. Small bits and pieces of books which I read now that he's read 10, 15 years ago that he used to quote to me, which meant nothing to me when I was 10, 12, 15, which I remembered.
Speaker 2:And I think back to it, and I'm like, this is why I'm where I'm at why I act the way I am. And I guess in business life as well, there is one person whom I've always, always referred back to and as doctor Emile, someone I I knew about a long time ago before my in for my first mentorship. He, I guess, was the first person to break the belief that it was all possible for to be a doctor, and that was the path that, you know, my dad chose and that I wanted to go down as well. And to also have a fitness coaching business, to also have a successful personal life in terms of mentality, being satisfied and grateful with what you already have in your life. So a lot of what he shared, a lot of, what I feel that he was trying to impart on the world did rub off on me, and I guess was, a big pivotal moment in terms of me knowing that it is all possible.
Speaker 2:Everything is possible, and the only thing that can really stop you is your own self limiting beliefs as to what's possible and the lies you tell yourself as to what you can and can't do.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. Like, one of my and I I love quotes. So one of my favorite quotes is if you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you can't. Either way, you're right.
Speaker 1:You know? And that's what you've kind of led me to believe. That's what you're saying that you've been led down the road to believe in yourself a 110% no matter what you're doing, even in personal life or business. Am I correct in saying that? A 100%.
Speaker 2:Because one thing I did think about a lot is death. When you get to your end of your life, what is there left? It's how much you've impacted other people and how far you've progressed into becoming the person that you wanted to be. So if you can tick those two boxes and whatever you think matters right now, whatever you think is possible right now, if those don't align with the end of your life, then you need to reassess exactly how you actually view your life and the perspective that you have of life itself because, you know, I've come across staff many, many times. I've been in hospital for it's been in the medical space, and, when you do come across that and you do see these people who get to their end of their life with the only thing that they regret being the things that they could have and should have done in being more aggressive with their goals.
Speaker 2:It's it's a lot more significant in terms of how you try and perceive yourself and your views on life itself.
Speaker 1:I love it. I mean, I think what you've said to me, it kinda leads me to my next question, and we spoke about this off camera in regards to goal setting. What do you think what role do you think goal setting plays in your success? And and how what can you share with your listeners in regards to goal setting, and how can they set goals and to assist them achieve what they wanna achieve in life, even if it's personal or business?
Speaker 2:If you want my very, very honest answer, I think at the beginning, goals didn't mean as much to me as it should have done. At the beginning, I was so gung ho on going all in, going all out as fast as possible, and my goals were to run away from whatever pain it was that I was running away from. That's when I was like, let me try and learn everything I can possibly know so there isn't a point where I'm in this much pain again. But as I've grown, as I've grown as a person and as I've become a lot more mature and less naive, I've realized that goal setting is more important in terms of direction. So how I like to frame it as now is it's something I've heard from Ali Abdaal a while ago.
Speaker 2:Goal setting is more like playing a game of darts with someone else who has the exact same ability, who has the exact same skill sets, but one person has a blindfold on and the other person does not. Regardless of how many dots you throw, the person without the blindfold is always going to be doing better than you towards hitting the center of that target. Goal setting is essentially removing that blindfold so you have more direction in where you're going.
Speaker 1:Oh, powerful direction. I mean, you can go down a wrong path for the for 10 years and follow the wrong goals for the 10 years. You know? So when you talk about direction, for me, it's very important that when you wanna set goals or you you wanna achieve something, you've got to make sure that you're following the correct path. You know?
Speaker 1:And it's important for me, and I always share this with our clients, is that when you're going down a path, you wanna follow someone who's already been there to achieve those goals that you want to achieve. Because no matter what goals you wanna set on this planet, someone's done it before you. Someone's been there. There's loads of stuff that's been done. There's loads of things that have been carved out.
Speaker 1:There's loads of obstacles that's been jumped over that you're gonna probably be trying to jump over. So it's interesting what you're saying. I just want you to elaborate a little bit more about that because I think when I spoke to you in the gym earlier on today, you you gave me a completely different answer to it. He was like, you know, you you weren't so you know, you don't think goal setting is so important.
Speaker 2:A lot of people in their early stages of their life procrastinate and mentally masturbate around goals far more than they should do.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:They get to a point where they are obsessing over the goal instead of the action that it takes to get to that goal. Setting actions to do list, knowing what you actually have to do is a lot more important than the outcome itself. Because regardless, if you take that many actions, it's unlikely that you're not going to progress towards your goals. The volume of the actions you take, the consistency is what gives you the predictability of getting to that goal, not not necessarily the goal itself. The goal is just there for direction for me personally and from what I've seen in most people who are doing quite well.
Speaker 2:And, of course, mentors for me was probably one of the biggest things that gave me the idea of really having significance in you don't know what you don't know. Until you have someone who has been there and has done that, you're progressing a lot faster with someone there who removes that ego behind what you think you know. That's why I value mentorship and investing in education so much for myself.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I think I value mentorship and I value education a lot more now, as a 44 year old man than I did as a 24 year old man. And you being 24 and valuing education and mentorship at your age is just fantastic. Like, honestly, I I I didn't even realize how young he was. Honestly, like, you know, obviously, for me, I wish I had your mindset when I was 24 because I think a lot of people at 24 are in a completely different headspace than you are right now.
Speaker 1:And the headspace that I'm in now as a 44 year old man is different from the head space I was in as a 24 year old man. And the head space that you're in now is very similar to the space the head space I'm in now as a 44 year old man. And I think you've got to give yourself a lot of credit for being in that headspace and being having the ability to do the things that you do now and have such a big impact, not just on your staff and your team, but also on the world. Because the more I listen to you is that your legacy, you do not want it to be about you. You want your legacy to be about the people you bless and the people you help along the way.
Speaker 1:You don't become a doctor to become a millionaire. You become a doctor because you love helping people, and that goes for the online coaching space and online coaching business that you run as well. I believe that you have a passion, you know, in helping people and the legacy that you wanna leave behind is about how many people you bless. Am I correct in saying that?
Speaker 2:A 100%, and I appreciate you saying thank you very much. And I'm not where I wanna be. I'm not helping as many people as I know I can help. So that's one big driving factor behind me wanting to continue to progress. Second thing is I know the direct impact that I am having on people because I, of course, speak to my clients.
Speaker 2:I see the results, and I know exactly what is going to happen in terms of the charities I'm going to build, the hospitals I'm going to build because I donate a lot of money to both. So I know what kind of impact that's going to have. And at the end of the day, you know, having a bigger box to them and having a nicer car doesn't mean much to me right now. And, yes, That may be a goal that may be helping me progress to helping more people. But right now, a constant line of progression for me to being satisfied with how much I have done in terms of impact on other people.
Speaker 2:Because, you know, once again, going back to the end of your life, no one is gonna remember me after I die. I can get hit by a bus tomorrow. No one's gonna remember me except maybe my mom. And when you look at it like that, everything becomes irrelevant. Your social status is your following bank account, items that you've accrued over the years.
Speaker 2:Everything becomes irrelevant when you get to the end of your life, which is why I still try and maintain my spiritual level and try and increase that because I feel that's something that you do carry on and then the impact that you've had on other people. Even then, you know, the people who have helped the most people, they become forgotten. So regardless, if you're able to help more people so they can help more people as well, then, ideally, that's always going to be the end goal.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. I think, like, for me, like, I love helping people. You know, I joined the London Fire Brigade from the age of, like, 20. I started applying for the fire services from the age of 18 because I knew I had a passion, a driven passion in me, and my passion was to serve and help as many people as possible. And I think I always say this.
Speaker 1:I don't want my legacy to be about me. I want legacy to be about how many people I've helped along the way, and I think it's important that, you know, you have a very that's why me and you get on really well because I feel like our purposes in life aligns with one another. You know? And I think a lot of people in life like to see people like themself, and that's why friendship becomes a lot easier when you can always see yourself and others and you have the same why, you have the same purposes, and you're sort of road that you're both work walking down the lines of one another. And I think, you know, I really wanna kinda ask you what strategies and techniques do you have when you've implemented that's helped you become successful at age of 24?
Speaker 2:Actually, optimizing my cognitive performance. I've spoken about this at the event as well that we had. That was a big, big thing for me because once I knew I could do a baseline of this amount of work within a period of time, and then the only thing that was stopping me from doing more is my personal mental performance. Mhmm. Big driver of growth for the speed of growth.
Speaker 2:That was more of an educational factor. How much can I actually learn about this topic? And then being able to implement that. It's the same as with anything. You still need to be able to do a baseline of work for you to actually optimize that.
Speaker 2:It's not a matter of, you know, trying to automate something that we haven't built up a base with in the 1st place. Just like you you can't really enhance something that's not working already. Right? No. No.
Speaker 2:No. No. It's like going to you know you know which example.
Speaker 1:You need to have to put a foundation first in everything that you do. Yeah. You you
Speaker 2:you know what example I'm giving you. So people that, you know, who would say that, you know, what's the best supplement to take to lose fat when you haven't moved off the couch for a few years or they haven't looked at how many calories they've eaten their whole lives? So I guess the next thing was the actions itself. A lot of people do, especially when I was in med school, everyone wanted to help more people. Everyone wanted to make more money from being in a higher paying job as a doctor.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. But I realized very, very quickly that no one's really that different. If the goals don't really define you, the actions that you take to define them do.
Speaker 1:It's important that people that realize that the actions that you take to define your goals do, not the goals that you're setting. You know? I I think a lot of people sit back and say, right. I wanna get in shape. All they're looking at is that end goal.
Speaker 1:They're not looking at the actions basis, on the habits that they're making, the choices that they're making? All they're looking at is their end goal. And I think social media doesn't help. So I think for me, to you, how can you elaborate a little bit more on what you said in regards to, you know, making sure the actions that people are taking on a day to day basis are leading them towards the goals that they've set or what they want to achieve. How can you elaborate a little bit on that?
Speaker 2:I think people very much over complicate it. So with actions being need to be needed to be taken, if you start very simple as to what's the one thing I can do Yeah. That can push me further forwards towards whatever outcome that I want to get. Mhmm. And ask yourself why you're not doing that one thing.
Speaker 2:Is it waking up 1 hour earlier, and that's how I can actually, let's say, prepare a meal for me to be able to know that I'm not going to be binging on whatever it is that I'm going to be eating out. If that's the one action, then why aren't you able to do that? Is it because you didn't set your alarm? Is it because you didn't go to sleep an hour earlier? Is it because you really, really couldn't actually wake yourself up?
Speaker 2:In which case we have to look at sleep policy, we have to look at different factors that may be playing with your sleep. So it's that small one thing and then working back as to why you're not doing that one thing. That's where I feel most people overcomplicate it. When they're trying to do 5 mile run-in the morning, they tell themselves they're gonna get an ice bath in, do some meditations, affirmations. Let's start going to the gym 6 times a week when they've not been once.
Speaker 2:Right? When when people try and go for one huge step without the first step, it's very, very hard for them to progress or they do stick to it. They get some results and fall off.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? Same same with business. Right? People do the same thing. They're like, okay.
Speaker 2:What do I need to do? Do I need to create a landing page? Do I need to create a new funnel? Do I need to redo my whole Instagram page? Do I need to hire 5 setters?
Speaker 2:I was like, no. Just send send it wake up. Send it to end to book calls.
Speaker 1:Close calls. Exactly. Yeah. Book calls, close calls make money in your business? It is that simple.
Speaker 1:You know? I think Charlie Johnson, our business coach, made it that simple for me when I realized how simple business can be. Yeah. Because I think when I got into business myself and especially when I started my online coaching space, I was looking at fancy website, fancy logo. You know?
Speaker 1:And we weren't booking calls. We weren't closing calls. But, yeah, I was looking at all these fancy things that all singing and dancing, oh, I wanted to change my logo. I wanted everybody to know about this. I wanted everybody to know about that.
Speaker 1:And I just kept it simple. The simpler I've kept everything is the more success we've had within our business because it is just simplicity of, you know, book calls, close calls, new client.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:That's how easy it is. And it is that simple with fitness as well. I think going back to what you said, and I just wanna, like, kind of elaborate a little bit on things like because it makes me laugh. I was chuckling and laughing into myself because the amount of messages I get on a day to day basis about supplements is unbelievable. What is the best protein shake?
Speaker 1:Should I be taking creatine? Should I be taking pre workout? Shall I be taking, you know, BCAAs? I'm like, forget about the supplements. Concentrate on your nutrition.
Speaker 1:You know? What are you eating in the morning? What are you eating in the afternoon? What are you eating in the evening? And what are you snacking on throughout the day?
Speaker 1:How much water are you drinking? How much sleep are you getting? Keep on the basic things. And I like I always say, there's 3 things that you could do without even stepping a foot in the gym to reduce your physique. And I'm sorry to improve your physique and improve your caloric intake by basically your nutrition, your sleep, and your hydration.
Speaker 1:Three simple things that you can do to implement changes into your life. Make the simple, small little changes on a day to day basis with your habit. That's this is one of the reasons where I think for me, the best book I've ever read read is Atomic Habits, and that kind of leads me on to my next question. What are your favorite books? What favorite 3 to 5 books that you've read and also any quotes, because I love books and I love quotes.
Speaker 1:So what are your 3 or 5 favorite books that you can give me? Give me 3 books. I think 5 might be too much for listeners, and give me 3 quotes that you love, because, you know, you've you've you've you've you've mentioned a few quotes during this podcast, and I'd love to hear what are your 3 favorite books and your quotes as well. Free quotes that you love.
Speaker 2:Okay. That's a very good one. So Traction is a very good book if we're looking at business interest in book in terms of outlining exactly what you are and aren't doing in your business. Probably should be doing. By the way, Atomic Habits is definitely a very, very good book.
Speaker 2:I guess if people really need a pick up, then Can't Hurt Me, David Coggins is probably a really good one for a wider range of people. I don't really want to say this, but motive by Patrick and Tierney. So I don't think it's applicable to most people, but I think if you are in the business space, I'm really focusing on your people, your your team team meetings as well. That, I guess, hit me very hard. One quote which I really do like, there's nothing more foolish than doing something efficiently that shouldn't be done at all.
Speaker 2:You really put yourself into perspective as to what are you actually doing, why? Is this something I should even be doing? Is this something that should be delegated? Is this actually worth my time? Because you spend a lot of people spend a lot of time doing something that feels good, that doesn't move the needle in terms of getting them to their goals or getting them any sort of outcomes.
Speaker 2:I'm talking about plain thoughts and beliefs as to what I feel is going to help the most people. I would say one thing would be chase growth more than the outcome. So people derive chemically as well in their brain, the actual dopamine drive from what they do perceive to be the end goal, the outcome is derived from the pursuit of that goal, the climb there. And I think people undervalue that a lot when we don't realize or we don't have perspective on how grateful we should be to be able to be living our best lives. You know, we don't have significant health issues.
Speaker 2:We're not on our deathbeds. We may not be in a place where we've had a recent death with a certain family member because when you put it in that perspective, a lot of things that you think matter to you now, a lot of things that you think are negative in your life that you feel sorry for yourself about don't really matter when you put it into perspective, and that's something that plays up my head a lot. It's like, am I really being grateful for what I am doing right now? Am I really being grateful for having the ability to move and actually take the actions that I'm able to take? Once again, going back to, am I really being grateful to be able to play the game?
Speaker 1:For me, I don't think a lot of the things that I've done and achieved along the way, I feel ungrateful sometimes because the comparison that I have to others is huge, and I think that plays a vital part in my life because, like, you know, my best mate is a multimillionaire. You know, I look at the cars that he just bought. He just bought a new Rolls Royce Specter, an all electric Specter. I'm in Dubai. He's sending me pictures of the car, and I'm like, wow.
Speaker 1:That's an amazing car. You know? But I don't put into perspective the fact that he's a multimillionaire, and I'm like, why can't I buy a car like that? And it's something that I have to stop myself when that that negative thought pattern enters my head. I stop, and I say I shout out loud, stop, Wally.
Speaker 1:You know? Because I don't wanna go through that negative thought pattern and start comparing myself to others, and I think we all do that, and we do it sometimes at a high level. So do you feel like you ever compare yourself to anybody else?
Speaker 2:Honestly, no. I've learned very, very early on that you don't know what the rest of someone else's life looks like. Mhmm. I knew for a fact very early on that, you know, this person may be a significantly more successful than me, but he may not be in shape. He may not have a happy, loving relationship regardless of how they make it seem on social media.
Speaker 2:Right? A lot of people do have the dream life, but we don't know what the back end of their life looks like. So I've never ever wanted to be in anyone else's situation. I've never once said ever that I would love to be this person or I wish I could trade my life for them. That's never a thought that even crossed my head because once again, I was around people significantly older than me and those people knew what a lot of other people's lives look like.
Speaker 2:I think it's a good thought to keep in mind because of the significance of social media in most people's lives nowadays. Even my life, like, I don't think people would have wanted to go through the climb that I did go through to get to where I am, regardless of where I am. I don't think that would have been the nicest situation for most people. And I know where I am right now, and I know what it cost me. And I wouldn't want anyone else to go through that, especially when, you know, I won't talk about all of the things that it did cost me.
Speaker 2:There is 10 levels deeper for nearly every single person's lives regardless of what it seems like from the outside. So, anyways, that is,
Speaker 1:that's It's powerful. It's powerful. I'm just you know, I'm trying to absorb all the information that you're given because I think, like, I'm gonna have to listen to this podcast again myself because it's powerful, all the things that you're saying for a young man of 24 year old to have the mind that you have and that to be in a position that you're in is just powerful. And I'm you should be very pleased with yourself. And I just think, you know, all of the things that you've said, you know, I've taken on board, everything that you said.
Speaker 1:I just want you to kind of if there's a young entrepreneur out there, a business owner, someone who's struggling in med school, someone who wants to be a doctor, what advice can you give them?
Speaker 2:Number 1, don't quit, but more importantly, don't slow down. A lot of the growth is coming from the speed. And, yes, I know it's very, very contrary to a lot of advice around you're doing well, take it slow. For me, personally, that wasn't the case. The speed is what distracted me from the mess that was going on in my head.
Speaker 2:And for me, the mess that was going on in my head was what I actually had to deal with. So whatever you are progressing towards, go all in, go all out, and don't slow down. Step over every hurdle of fear that is inevitably going to come up. Expect the rain after the sunny days. Expect it not to be easy.
Speaker 2:Know that every single part of it is worth it. Yeah. Regardless of when you have this outcome that you're wanting to achieve, it's worth it. The speed of the climb is where you will derive the most joy. You don't want to be at the top of the mountain.
Speaker 2:Always want to be climbing. Start taking the first steps and go absolutely all in because absolutely everything is possible.
Speaker 1:Love it. I mean, like, you know, I'm I'm I love quotes. So this is a quote by Vince Lombard. You know? It says if if, you know, if we trace perfection, we might catch excellence.
Speaker 1:And I think a lot of people are not willing to trace excellent they're trying to trace perfection, but they're not catching excellence because they're not implementing the stuff that they need to implement on a day to day basis. I mean, we can talk all day. I mean, we can me and you can talk all day, but it's been awesome having you on this podcast. Just for the listeners out there, if they wanna get a hold of you through your social media platform, what are your social media platforms? So those listeners that are listening to this podcast can get a hold of you and follow your journey, follow the business, and be part of your business if they wish to become, you know, join your business or online coaching business if they need a coach or doctor?
Speaker 1:You know, what are your social media platforms?
Speaker 2:Yes. So I'm mainly on Instagram atazri.zakariyaazri.zedakariy. Going for a heavy push into YouTube this year, so that's just my name again, Azri Zakaria.
Speaker 1:Amazing. So, guys, if you like this podcast, make sure you share it. Make sure you share it with all your friends, all your family. Let me know who you would like me to interview on my next podcast. It's been amazing and an honor and a privilege to have you on our podcast.
Speaker 1:And like I always say, guys, never give up because your best is still yet to come, and let's all get swole like woah. Cheers, buddy.
Speaker 2:Alright.
