What would y'all do if you were 16?

[Andrés08]

Would you get a job? Would you start a business? Would you focus on High School? What would you guys do if you could go back years in time and be 16 again?

 

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[Isaac Odongo]

I will be serious at school. Very serious and read the goddamn subjects hard.

 

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[Oso]

I'll play Devil's Advocate.

I'd hate being in my teens/20s nowadays. I'd lay low. Real F*ckin' low. I wouldn't try to get laid because the moment you're caught, most will convict you (because despite the fact you're BOTH MINORS, you're the one that penetrates, so as the guy, you'll get a conviction but she won't). So, you know, they'll ruin your life in .5 seconds while letting the chick go back to class as she's putting her skirt back on. Trust me, that's one list you REALLY want to avoid (if you're US-based. Idk how all that shit works everywhere else. Check your local laws, LOL). Not worth. And yeah, having known 2-3 people in high school this happened to, I will reiterate: it is NOT worth the risk.

I'd focus on homework/extracurriculars and whatever "networking" I could (AKA: develop social skills so you aren't a hermit). I'd go to college for 2-4 years with a focus on technology and business, as well as actual networking. Upon earning the degree, I'd move out of Illinois and get a tech job somewhere warm. Probably focus on building a cybersecurity company on the side and automate it with AI.

If you are 16 years old right now, and you're interested in technology, do yourself a favor and learn everything you can about either AI or cybersecurity. I promise, if you commit to either one, you will be successful at some point in your life, regardless of if you're taking the fastlane path or not.

 

[Matt Lee]

I would be ONLY having fun, breaking rules, trying to get with every cute girl in the entire school, and being a legend.

@Andrés08

Johnny's writing here goes against everything being said because what he didn't tell you is that experiences that shape your self-esteem trump everything.

Self-esteem is the difference between someone that goes:

"I suck, this is not working. Let me give up and try something else and break all the moments that I've built"

vs

"Things aren't working but I'll win soon. I'll die before I quit".

The experiences that will shape your self-esteem, confidence, and social skills are more useful in the long run than the facts and formulas taught in school past a certain point. You can always google or chat GPT a fact, but it's harder talking to someone you think is high value if you are inexperienced with people.

It's even harder to believe you are a winner if you don't have reference experiences of being a winner.

Consider which is more useful.

Being able to talk and charismatically befriend a group of strangers vs being able to recite brain-numbing facts. One will open new doors in your life and the other will earn you cringed faces. (why do you know those facts bro?)

You'd be surprised how many things you forget once you leave school. The things that seemed so important then but are pretty much useless now. It's simpler to focus on what matters and serve you in the long run.

 

[Subsonic]

I'd definitely learn Forex Trading, get the hang of it and start managing funds for prop firms and hedge funds at 20.

Dude thats one of the single worst skills one can learn.
You provide no value and your livelyhood relies on chart patterns and economical predictions that may or may not work out.
Then you also cant apply the things you learn to anywhere else.

 

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[Boy Muhammad]

Dude thats one of the single worst skills one can learn.
You provide no value and your livelyhood relies on chart patterns and economical predictions that may or may not work out.
Then you also cant apply the things you learn to anywhere else.

Lol, but why do you think so?

I provide value for people I'm managing the funds for i.e prop firms and hedge funds in terms of returns, I also provide value to my family and dependents by giving them a livelihood.

And I'm surprised you said I can't apply trading skills to other things in my life like seriously? You have to master yourself to succeed in trading, is self mastery not an applicable skill?

I'll be glad to read your answers on these questions.

@heavy_industry too, I'd appreciate your input I've seen that you've liked his post, I look up to your posts on these streets.

 

[Subsonic]

Lol, but why do you think so?

I provide value for people I'm managing the funds for i.e prop firms and hedge funds in terms of returns, I also provide value to my family and dependents by giving them a livelihood.

And I'm surprised you said I can't apply trading skills to other things in my life like seriously? You have to master yourself to succeed in trading, is self mastery not an applicable skill?

I'll be glad to read your answers on these questions.

@heavy_industry too, I'd appreciate your input I've seen that you've liked his post, I look up to your posts on these streets.

You have a decent point here and yes, you are providing value.
I do however believe, that learning forex trading is not a useful way for a 16 year old to progress in life.
The self-mastery doesn't count as a transferable skill, since you get that from every skill, if you set out to master it.

Web-devepopment will help you in every single business you start, even if you don't sell websites.
Sales will help you in every business or you do, even if you are not selling to customers.

See my point?

Managing big funds is obviously something one can make money with.
But you can make money with everything.

Then let's look at the problems of forex-trading:

You make money semi directly tied to your time.

You provide nothing to society since money made in trading is a zero sum game.

Someone learning will probably never make it to a point where they can manage 8 figures and more.

You live by the probability sword.

Need I go on ?



If you are making millions every year by doing technical astrology and checking on Twitter when Joe Biden does something dumb again, hats off to you.

That is still like a NBA player telling a random teen to get good at basketball to make money.

 

[heavy_industry]

@heavy_industry too, I'd appreciate your input I've seen that you've liked his post, I look up to your posts on these streets.

Yes, I personally do not believe that trading stocks, crypto, or any other assets is a viable fastlane strategy.

If I were to invest time and effort into developing a high value skill that can put food on the table, it would be something that produces real value for other people, such as programming, web development, or anything that is very difficult to master (therefore well paid).

is self mastery not an applicable skill?

Self mastery is the root of all success.
Lack of self mastery is the beginning of the end.

But there are many, many way to develop this discipline. Basically any fastlane venture will force you to become a highly competent person that has achieved self mastery.

No discipline = No success.

 

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[Johnny boy]

@Andrés08

Johnny's writing here goes against everything being said because what he didn't tell you is that experiences that shape your self-esteem trump everything.

Self-esteem is the difference between someone that goes:

"I suck, this is not working. Let me give up and try something else and break all the moments that I've built"

vs

"Things aren't working but I'll win soon. I'll die before I quit".

The experiences that will shape your self-esteem, confidence, and social skills are more useful in the long run than the facts and formulas taught in school past a certain point. You can always google or chat GPT a fact, but it's harder talking to someone you think is high value if you are inexperienced with people.

It's even harder to believe you are a winner if you don't have reference experiences of being a winner.

Consider which is more useful.

Being able to talk and charismatically befriend a group of strangers vs being able to recite brain-numbing facts. One will open new doors in your life and the other will earn you cringed faces. (why do you know those facts bro?)

You'd be surprised how many things you forget once you leave school. The things that seemed so important then but are pretty much useless now. It's simpler to focus on what matters and serve you in the long run.

Gold

 

[jclean]

what i did when i was 16 was have fun, go out, hang out with friends...in hindsight i certainly don't regret this! i admire people who start a business when they are 16 years old. but then again, there's nothing wrong with just having fun at this age. people nowadays live to 90+ years. enough time to start a business or work. your young carefree years will never come back when you get older. kids, business, work, family, house, payments ... you can definitely earn extra money here and there, but a company as a 16 year old? no thanks

 

[jsc]

The obvious answer is to spend time learning deeply, reading TMF, having fun, and working at setting yourself up for more speed in the Fastlane! You don't know what the future will hold, but using a CENTS-ible framework should help guide you and whatever unique skills you have to build and maintain freedom to keep having fun and adding value to other people's lives.

 

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[DW85014]

Would you get a job? Would you start a business? Would you focus on High School? What would you guys do if you could go back years in time and be 16 again?

If I had a time machine, I would probably tell my former self to get more experience with graphic design and start offering designs to businesses for free.

I'd probably also tell my 16-year-old self to learn everything I can about building websites (it was mid to early 90's so it might've taken a while on dialup). I would say major in IT when you get to college instead of Marketing but definitely get that Marketing minor.

I might tell myself to work out a little more.

Honestly, 16-year-old me was pretty much on the right track, was already working, was part of the DECA club at school which taught about marketing and business. That 22-year-old me though - that kid had some lessons coming to him but looking back those lessons were necessary.

 

[Vasudev Soni]

Would you get a job? Would you start a business? Would you focus on High School? What would you guys do if you could go back years in time and be 16 again?

- Start a software business as soon as possible and provide value
- Go the Gym daily
- Focus on becoming financially free in the next 5-6 years

 

[ChasingDream97]

Books. Many, MANY books. 4 hours of books per day, if you can.

I honestly don't know why guys above give advice like "wait till you 21", because this is bs. If you want success, you'd better start working for it ASAP.

How to start working for it? Well, you need to know what to do, exactly. That's where books come in. Books revolutionized my life and they will do it for you too.

Oh, and watch Hamza on youtube, he will tell you EVERYTHING that you need to know about "what would you do if you were 16.

So my instincts were correct.
I hardly used social media at 16.
Instead I read a lot on books that could help me in some way or other.

 

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[Johnny boy]

Also, write down all of the crazy dreams you have and the things you'd do with your success and wealth.

Don't forget them.

There's millions of people who end up being able to actually do those things but they are so boring, ugly and lame that they never do it.

I want to own a SU-27, paint it black, and fly it around pissing off the FAA. Just one example.

There is an important quote.

"Wherever you go, there you are".

Lots of people have their own opinions about it but I have mine.

If you're a dork here, you'll be a dork there. You make money and you'll be a rich dork. You get a villa in Italy on Lake Como and make 47 million and you'll be a dork with a villa who's got a wife that is sleeping with the pool boy because you're a dork.

You spend only so much time with other people, but you spend a LOT of time with yourself. You will spend a LOT of time looking in the mirror, dealing with social hierarchies and interactions, and a lot of life will just be small moments that can be really bad or really good just depending on what kind of man you are.

If you are comfortable in your own skin, know you look like a million bucks, are looked at as a leader, can be the life of a party and grab everyone's attention with your stories and have a great joke always on the tip of your tongue, your life will be good whether you're rich or poor. Wealth is slow and it builds if it's going to last. It can come and go, make sure you are a great man when you arrive there. Someone who definitely deserves it. Someone who has a good life, good body, good memories, good friends, good jokes, and a good attitude, because wherever you go, there you are.

The question every 16 year old is going to ask is now "how do I become that?" It's the same way everything is built. Daily efforts, paying attention, constant improvement. Look at people who are better. Pay attention. What are they doing? The simplest one is having a good, healthy body. Not a 300lb bodybuilder, but closer to the american psycho level of fitness.

The next is your attitude, you should learn to break the rules a little. Everything you think is a big deal will not be a big deal when you're older. You're out here worried about a phone call to your parents for being tardy to class, other guys are out doing donuts in the school parking lot making out with cheerleaders. You need to eradicate most of your fears. The most common problem for all people and the reason their life sucks is because they are good little boys and girls who follow directions. 99% of people are NPC's, everyone seems to 'know' that, but they don't really internally 'see' it in their day to day life. The biggest common trait of my successful friends is they just don't care about following rules. Life is a playground. There will always be old ladies shaking their finger at you telling you to slow down, be quiet, don't do X, etc.

Finally, do not allow yourself to be castrated. You will feel pressure from any organization that can have power over you into becoming a castrated little dork. Schools, companies, every time you turn on some content even... they'll all try to keep you under control. Do not allow people to have power over you and you will become a fearless, free version of yourself. I would be a different person if I had a job that could fire my a$$ at any time.

Be in shape, break the rules a bit, play loose and fast, and control your income without a boss. You will have a lot more "life" in your life that way.

 

[Chet Shen]

The experiences that will shape your self-esteem, confidence, and social skills are more useful in the long run than the facts and formulas taught in school past a certain point.

it's harder talking to someone you think is high value if you are inexperienced with people.

It's even harder to believe you are a winner if you don't have reference experiences of being a winner.

That's PURE GOLD right there

You could be remembering facts and be learning a lot. You could be a full on nerd but what's a nerd that has no social skills? You don't know how to interact, convince, sell, market yourself.

Sure, learning and knowledge is key but ALWAYS REMEMBER that social skills are critical, without it you'll have trouble speaking with people and you'll know lesser people.

 

[GoldenGlow]

I'd drop out of school.
Why? Because I only stayed on to please my parents and the people around me.
I'd work a job scrubbing dishes whilst learning everything I could about technology, copywriting, sales, business and finance.
I would sort out my finances sooner, get my money-taking systems set up earlier to femeese geese, and then start affiliate marketing and helping people with their content creation woes.
I'd probably go all-in freelancing a skill such as video editing, I could've used that to get my skin in the game with YouTube.
I'd spend the next 3 years growing my channel and I would've had plenty of niches to choose from.
By now I'd be selling products related to my channel and would be well on my way to running a media company.
I'd read a lot fewer self-improvement books, but the lack of stress from procrastinating would lead to me reading more fiction and philosophy.
I would never have gotten involved with dating, the red pill, drinking, or trying to befriend people that didn't give a F*ck about me.

 

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