Lilly Singh on How to Turn Depression Into Millions (Replay)
Lilly Singh discusses her journey from depression to becoming one of YouTube's most successful creators, emphasizing the importance of hard work, self-awareness, and turning pain into purpose. She shares frameworks for success including getting "hurt efficiently," taking ownership, and maintaining obsession while balancing self-care through practices like meditation and rejuvenation.
Summary
Lilly Singh opens by explaining how her YouTube career began unexpectedly in 2010 as a spontaneous response to depression and lack of passion, rather than as a calculated career plan. Her first video received only 70 views, but she fell in love with having a goal and learning something new. She emphasizes that YouTube wasn't seen as a viable career path at that time, distinguishing her journey from today's creators who deliberately target the platform.
Singh defines her concept of "being hurt efficiently" as the ability to extract lessons from painful experiences without being consumed by them. She explains this involves allowing herself to feel disappointment but not dwelling on it, instead asking what could be done differently next time. This practice of reframing failures as learning opportunities became central to her personal code of beliefs.
The transcript reveals Singh's philosophy on success requiring obsession and relentless hard work. She acknowledges that achieving extraordinary results demands an extraordinary price, including sleep sacrifice during certain periods. However, she emphasizes this isn't unhealthy living but rather strategic prioritization of high-impact work. She demonstrates this by showing behind-the-scenes footage of her exhaustion to illustrate the reality of content creation.
Singh discusses the importance of knowing yourself through deep self-examination, describing multiple layers of truth within each decision. She explains how people often lie to themselves about their motivations and recommends writing down reasons for actions, saying them aloud, and tracing thoughts back to their roots. She advocates for this kind of radical self-honesty as essential to success.
On building confidence and owning ambition, particularly for women, Singh credits Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as an idol who validates his success while remaining humble and not placing himself on a pedestal. She argues women struggle more with claiming their achievements and need to change their relationship with success.
Singh addresses handling criticism and hate on social media by imagining the commenter's perspective and recognizing that negative comments reflect the commenter's unhappiness rather than truth about the recipient. She uses this empathy to decide whether to respond, usually choosing to delete drafted responses.
The transcript includes discussion of her Girl Love initiative, born from the failure of a planned collaboration. When that fell through, she pivoted to create a movement celebrating female support rather than competition. She emphasizes that Girl Love isn't just about feel-good messaging but about creating sustainable impact through creative solutions to systemic problems, using the example of placing water wells at schools to allow girls to attend.
Singh explains her concept of "F a Plan B," arguing that having a backup plan creates a safety net that reduces the intensity of effort. She believes eliminating the fallback option forces people to commit fully to their primary goal. This contrasts with her parents' traditional advice about always having something to fall back on.
Throughout, Singh emphasizes the role of environment and community in maintaining self-worth and motivation, including surrounding oneself with supportive people, creating physical reminders of positivity, and practicing self-compassion through positive self-talk.
About this episode
<p>YouTube Superwoman Lilly Singh turned making videos to break out of her depression, into a million-dollar entertainment empire. </p><p>After struggling to find her purpose, she found fulfillment in entertaining and educating as many people as possible sparking the insane work ethic fueling her global success today. </p><p>The founder of GirlLove and author of How to Be a Bawse explains why doubling down on your passion is the best way to forge your own path on this episode of Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu. </p><p><br /></p><p>[Original air date: August 7, 2018].</p><p><br /></p><p>SHOW NOTES:</p><p>Lilly shares how being lost and unhappy inspired the start of her empire. [3:07]</p><p>Lilly on creating her own path instead of following others. [9:13]</p><p>Lilly describes the importance of taking ownership and how to deal with the consequences. [13:48]</p><p>Lilly dives into how obsession can lead to extraordinary results and how to keep it in check. [18:40]</p><p>Lilly and Tom discuss making plans for goals and having self-awareness while executing. [26:35]</p><p>Lilly on the importance of learning, understanding and loving yourself. [32:20]</p><p>Lilly details the origins and mission of GirlLove. [42:18]</p><p>Lilly reveals the impact she wants to have on the world. [46:57]</p><p><br /></p><p>FOLLOW LILLY SINGH:</p><p>YOUTUBE - https://bit.ly/1leWegH </p><p>TWITTER - https://bit.ly/1TTeqdN </p><p>INSTAGRAM - https://bit.ly/2pv2uMk </p><p>WEBSITE - https://bit.ly/2JTJ359 </p><p>FACEBOOK - https://bit.ly/2pIhSBk</p><p><br /></p><p>BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:</p><p>How to Be a Bawse - https://amzn.to/2jNwZpZ [4:25]</p><p><br /></p><p>FOLLOW TOM:</p><p>Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/</p><p>Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tombilyeu?lang=en</p><p>Twitter: https://twitter.com/tombilyeu</p><p>YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeu</p><p><br /></p><p>SPONSORS:</p><p><em>If you purchase an item using these affiliate links, Impact Theory may receive a commission.</em> </p><p>Get 5 free AG1 Travel Packs and a FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D with your first purchase at <a href="https://bit.ly/AG1Impact" target="_blank">https://drinkag1.com/impact</a>.</p><p>Try Audible free for 30 days! 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Key Insights
- Singh argues that being hurt efficiently means allowing oneself to feel pain but extracting lessons quickly rather than dwelling in victimhood, treating each setback as a stone in the path toward goals.
- She claims that her first 70-view YouTube video only succeeded because she had no expectation of it becoming a career, suggesting that removing outcome pressure can paradoxically enable better creation.
- Singh asserts that extraordinary results require extraordinary prices, including significant time and sleep sacrifice during certain periods, and that successful people universally experience obsession about their work.
- She contends that people consistently lie to themselves about why they made decisions and that true success requires digging through multiple layers of self-deception to understand authentic motivations.
- Singh argues that having a backup plan creates a psychological safety net that reduces the intensity of effort, so eliminating it forces people to commit 100% to their primary goal.
- She claims that negative social media comments reflect the commenter's own unhappiness and lack of direction rather than truth about the recipient, making the comments more about the commenter's story than the target's.
- Singh states that women specifically struggle with claiming their accomplishments and validating their success compared to men, requiring deliberate practice to change this internalized pattern.
- She asserts that real solutions exist for most major problems but require creative thinking and non-obvious approaches, illustrated by her example of placing water wells at schools to enable girls' education in Kenya.
Topics
Transcript
Welcome to Impact Theory. Our goal with this show and company is to introduce you to the people and ideas that will help you actually execute on your dreams. Today's guest is a comedian, actress, entertainer, New York Times bestselling author, and one of the biggest YouTube stars on the planet. With over 2.5 billion views to her name and a combined subscriber count of over 30 million, it's not hard to see why Forbes magazine named her the number one influencer in the entertainment category. Her rise to superstardom, however, was anything but obvious. Her first video on YouTube only received 70 total views and it took her the better part of a decade of serving her viewers her…
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