What would you do if you could be 18 years old again?

[RazorCut]

What would you do if you could be 18 years old again?

Take my uncles offer up to move to Australia. His brother was high up in the Australian Government and was very happy to sponsor me. Idiot, idiot, idiot.

IF it were now I would locate the people I admired the most, and could provide a strong mentorship, and find a way to move near them regardless of country/climate. The people I would like to emulate. I would look at ways I could provide value to them so that I could gain knowledge and experience from them. At 18 I'd be happy to work for nothing and sleep rough.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”- Jim Rohn

 

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[Grinning-Jack]

1. i'd not do many things that I had done.
2. Learning coding.
3. Never looked on easy money.
and many other things.

 

[TycoonDreamin]

First things first,

Sit in a quiet room by yourself. Find out what you REALLY, really love to do and would love to get paid while doing it.

Then, immerse yourself in it. Eat, breath, sleep it and then find other people doing what you do that are getting paid and ask questions. Dont be afraid to do this.

Good luck!

 

[Grinning-Jack]

Scientists say, a person's fancy changes every 5 years. It's difficult to build a plan on the next 10 years of your life when you're 18 years old.

Anyway, scientists make their mistakes too. lol

 

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[IwillbecomeaDOER]

Great thread!

 

[fastlanebeast876]

Wow... knowing what I know now?? At 18 with no kids, no debt, no spouse, no house, no nothing to hold me in one place?

(I started college at 15, so by 18, I already had a lot of work experience, and was a junior in college - so take it with a grain of salt. I also was living on my own by 17, so I knew how to support myself.)

I went to Mexico with my Mexican friend. We stayed for three weeks, and my mind was absolutely blown at how cheap everything was. So....

Since I was born with the entrepreneurial bug, if I could do it all over again, I would have stayed in Mexico with the couple of thousand dollars that I had. The internet was just beginning to become a "thing" back then... I even KNEW it and SAW it, and knew that I should be getting involved, but I was too busy being an 18 year old. Focused on all of the wrong things.

I was offered the chance to stay there - with a job!, and I should have taken it.

So I guess the lessons for a newly-minted 18-year old?

1. Read the Millionaire Fastlane , if you haven't already. This didn't exist when I was 18 - what a shame!!!
2. Keep your eyes peeled for opportunities (pains/needs/trends)
3. When someone offers you a great chance to learn or do something absolutely amazing, TAKE IT. I missed out on a lot because maybe I was in a relationship, or I didn't want to switch or stop going to school temporarily, etc. I'm talking study abroads, trips or vacations to cool places with family, work opportunities out of state - or even out of the country.
4. Don't get a job just for the money - make SURE you are learning something. I got a job as a server at an expensive restaurant, and was "balling" making like $1000 a week at 18 (in the late 1990s!). I should have taken the $7 an hour job (like I did before I was 18) where I could learn and actually get some better experience.
5. Don't get tied down until you are ready (and this means car payments, buying house, relationships, etc), and realize that once you do make those decisions, your future options will, definitely, be affected.

Remember that the choices you make RIGHT NOW, will effect the most powerful changes on your future. It's so much easier to make the good choices that take you where you want to go right from the beginning, than to try to get back on track in your late 20's and 30's (... and so on and so on).

Good luck!!!

i read mostly everything but this caught my attention.
Im a server atm and #4 got me thinking. What 7 an hour job would you take instead of being server? i already improved my people skills and multitasking for serving so i want to know whats next from a fellow server(or former server)
Im not asking for a life blueprint from you or anything. just curious lol

 

[fastlanebeast876]

Similar thread.
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/what-would-you-tell-your-25-year-old-self.50014

Thank you. Im reaching 25 later this year.

 

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[Hanalore]

Do not be afraid - sink or swim, I'm all in.

 

[eqttrdr]

I would have taken the offer I was given for interning for an Investment Bank, worked 24/7 for free for years until I proved my worth, been sponsored and made millions like my friend who took the offer did. Now he is retired and living in the Caribbean while I spend my days/nights as a slave online to my own business that I hate.

Unfortunately I had the mindset and figured working for someone else was for suckers.

 

[mayana]

Im a server atm and #4 got me thinking. What 7 an hour job would you take instead of being server? i already improved my people skills and multitasking for serving so i want to know whats next from a fellow server(or former server)

I definitely learned some good skills as a sever, too, so I definitely don't regret that I ever did it. (There are other ways to learn those skills, though).

If I could do it again, though, I would go back and take the $7 or $8 dollar an hour customer service job or get some "office" work through a temp agency. I'm not saying that those specific jobs would or would not have provided a superior education to service, specifically, but I am sure that they would've opened up doors for me (especially after I got my degree) to get positions with greater responsibility and more learning opportunities.

(An example: Before I got my first serving job, I got a job through a temp agency at a salad dressing factory working as the assistant to the quality assurance manager. It was a really cool job for a 17 year old to be doing. I learned SO much about manufacturing, etc. I think I was making like $9.00 per hour, which was a lot more than the $4.25 minimum wage at the time. I was really ambitious to learn as much as I could, so I even started helping people in other departments with small projects, etc. Unfortunately, as soon as I turned 18, I left to work as a server, since I knew I could make 2-3 times as much. If I would have stayed at the job longer, it might have turned into something else, or I could have taken that experience into a new job at another place, and continued to learn about the industry.)

Since my goal was always going to be entrepreneurship, I'm looking back at it through those eyes.

Of course, there's no perfect answer for anything. I just wish that my younger self could have been more focused on the long-term benefits of an activity, rather than the short-term satisfaction of having extra money to spend.

 

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[fastlanebeast876]

I definitely learned some good skills as a sever, too, so I definitely don't regret that I ever did it. (There are other ways to learn those skills, though).

If I could do it again, though, I would go back and take the $7 or $8 dollar an hour customer service job or get some "office" work through a temp agency. I'm not saying that those specific jobs would or would not have provided a superior education to service, specifically, but I am sure that they would've opened up doors for me (especially after I got my degree) to get positions with greater responsibility and more learning opportunities.

(An example: Before I got my first serving job, I got a job through a temp agency at a salad dressing factory working as the assistant to the quality assurance manager. It was a really cool job for a 17 year old to be doing. I learned SO much about manufacturing, etc. I think I was making like $9.00 per hour, which was a lot more than the $4.25 minimum wage at the time. I was really ambitious to learn as much as I could, so I even started helping people in other departments with small projects, etc. Unfortunately, as soon as I turned 18, I left to work as a server, since I knew I could make 2-3 times as much. If I would have stayed at the job longer, it might have turned into something else, or I could have taken that experience into a new job at another place, and continued to learn about the industry.)

Since my goal was always going to be entrepreneurship, I'm looking back at it through those eyes.

Of course, there's no perfect answer for anything. I just wish that my younger self could have been more focused on the long-term benefits of an activity, rather than the short-term satisfaction of having extra money to spend.

I'm sure you can use what you did learn at that small amount of time for your entrepreneurial endeavors right?