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What would you tell your 18 or 25 year old self?

Brian Suh

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- Double down on what works
- Don't wait for your friends or peers to catch up to you. Sprint ahead in your pursuit of success. Let them be inspired. Wait for no one.
- Look at life through your own eyes. Question authority and create your own "style" in how you do things
- Choose peers and friends who have their own style and are not sheep who parrot what they heard from other people
- Life is a mountain, the moment you stop climbing, you start slipping down (this is the reason why there are so many uncool 40 year olds. To maintain your "coolness" you NEED to keep innovating your life. It is a must. Failure to do so and you will be like that 60 year old in the gym saying back in my daY i used to bench this amount. No one cares. You look like shit now. The same applies in all area of life. This is true happiness. Being engaged in what you are doing. When you dont give a F*ck what anyone else is doing but you are just focused on your own life. You become the life of the party. You become the source of positive energy. Failure to do so will result in a life of consumerism, insecurity, rationalizing, mediocrity, and wondering "is this all there is" and "what if"
 

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What I would tell my 25year old self : releasing a product and getting 0 sales in the first week is not complete failure or a reason to quit the idea altogether.
 

WJK

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If I did go back, I would remind myself that worrying is like a rocking chair. It keeps you really busy and gets you nowhere. Almost everything we worry about never happens. I would remind myself to use my energies on issues that really count rather than silly worries.
BUT, I would never want to be that young again. My life was too hard and unhappy. These are my best days. And, I worked very hard to get to this moment.
 

GoGetter24

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I always like it when threads like these are bumped. Simply because I realize, each time, new things I've learned which I'd go back and tell myself. So this time, after about a year of last answering, I'd add the following:

1. Do not target passive income at high stress or full time, without first getting active income under control. The passive income payoff profile is too sharp and takes too long and too many attempts to get right. Start with freelanced service offerings (active non-job income), and get that solid enough to reliably live off, before targeting passive income in a serious way. It is the stepping stone from job to business.

2. One year of runway won't usually be enough to get passive income right. Some guys will be lucky, wise or experienced, and land it in 6 months. Other's will need 3 years and still not get it right. I've seen both cases. In my case I'd have said a 1.5 year minimum was needed to not cause unwarranted stress.

3. Assume nobody online knows what they're talking about. Less than 1% of advice-givers are good sources of advice. How passionately, dismissively, or authoritatively someone gives advice, even if they themselves have gotten rich, is no indicator of whether you should follow their advice. It'll take time to work out who's actually providing good advice, and who's providing bad advice for their benefit (even if that benefit's as simple as the pleasure of talking down to other people). So study widely, and test things out with minimal investment, lest you get lead up the garden path.

4. Never attempt to use any "clever" tech, even if multiple confident nerds recommend it to you as "the best system to use". And definitely never use free or open source stuff that's not commonplace. Use the most mainstream tech possible. For instance if you want a personal website and don't know what to use, don't ask anybody what to use: just search "most common website tech", observe it's "wordpress", and then use wordpress. I'd probably go as far as to say you should absolutely never listen to a single word a tech nerd says, ever, on any topic, without them being further qualified -- such as having successfully run their own business for a long time, hired other people, done sales etc. Hit the block button immediately on any tech nerd type guy, their speech is as good as noise.

5. The earlier on in your entrepreneurial pursuits, the more you should focus on "out of the box" or "turn-key" solutions for getting you up and running. Keep it super simple. Do not try to customize anything yourself -- you don't have the experience -- you can do that later. Use your savings to contract with other people to do things for you, or to buy the proper software or tools or packages to get it done. Being cheap because you have little money is false economy: you should've just saved more money. Yes you could buy a $5 logo from fiverr, but it'll look like crap, so just spend $100 to get something at least OK. Never use cheap or free software. The time I spent screwing around with a free video editor is ridiculous: just spend $100 to get something real. If you don't have the money, you shouldn't be starting a business. Never do something yourself if you're useless at it. Stick to your core strengths or what strengths you wish to improve (you should have at least some aptitude in these).

6. Put more effort into finding partners, associates, affiliates, like-minded people, etc. Accept that 90% of new entrepreneurs are wantrepeneurs who're just playing at it, and that you'll have to filter a lot of people out to find good ones. But just going it alone is too tough if you don't have years of experience and skills and savings to rely on. A good partner or two can mean a project gets of the ground in a quarter of the time, as you complement each other's skills and help to motivate each other. Yes it seems easier to just go off and do your own thing, but it's false economy.
 

GMSI7D

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i have realized that sometimes older people don't want to share their life lessons

because of envy or whatever

thet were not able to live well as young people ( getting laid or whatever ) and so they don't want to help others to have the good life while they were fooled


thet have paid the lessons of life with their failure and so they don't want people to succeed wheras they failed and they can't succeed anymore

life does not know " equality " or communism

life is the worst dictator on earth

once you are older, you can't complain and cry before life to have the good years again


" come on , allow me to be 20 years old again to have sex with young girls "


this is over


i have asked older people what they think of life

they don't want to answer. this is absurd answers like "women are stupid, be careful " or whatever

this is absurd answer because they don't want people to succeed


.so what' the point : sometimes older people won't give you the right answer

because they can't accept what happened to them and they don't want you to succeed


so you have to be careful
 
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GoGetter24

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i have realized that sometimes older people don't want to share their life lessons

because of envy or whatever

thet were not able to live well as young people ( getting laid or whatever ) and so they don't want to help others to have the good life while they were fooled


thet have paid the lessons of life with their failure and so they don't want people to succeed wheras they failed and they can't succeed anymore

life does not know " equality " or communism

life is the worst dictator on earth

once you are older, you can't complain and cry before life to have the good years again


" come on , allow me to be 20 years old again to have sex with young girls "


this is over


i have asked older people what they think of life

they don't want to answer. this is absurd answers like "women are stupid, be careful " or whatever

this is absurd answer because they don't want people to succeed


.so what' the point : sometimes older people won't give you the right answer

because they can't accept what happened to them and they don't want you to succeed


so you have to be careful
This is so true. Have some money.

It's even worse than this though. It applies even if those older people are your parents. They'll readily throw their kids into the grinder before accepting they ever did anything wrong. Most people will unhesitatingly sacrifice their own children at the altar of their shitty weak little egos.

So I'll reiterate your warning for others: be careful. Sometimes your supposed closest allies are really the greatest enemies you'll ever have.
 

Chromozone

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What would I tell my 25 year old self?

I would probably ask my 25 year old self what he would tell my 18 year old self. He probably wouldn't give very good advice...

Point is that advice is over rated.

We live in an imperfect world, making imperfect decisions, with imperfect data.

Just get on with it.
 
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SteveO

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i have realized that sometimes older people don't want to share their life lessons

because of envy or whatever
I disagree. It is because nobody will listen...

My grandson lived with me for a while as a young man. I asked him if he wanted any life lessons or feedback from me. He just laughed back at me as if he had everything figured out. I certainly saw the humor myself. :)
 

GMSI7D

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i once asked my grand father about life


he was 85 when i asked him about his life . he was a veteran from WW2

he received one of the best military medal available in France for his victories.

he was a well know personnality in town. he was the manager of many teams in soccer and many sports . and so on

so i asked him:


you are 85, you have done many things in life.


what was the best lesson you learned ?

.......



guess what he answered ? you won't believe me

he said absurd things like " women at the office are boring and evil , don't listen to the neighbour etc. "






i said WHAT ???????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME ?

this is all you have learned in 85 years ????


wtf.gif



so what's the point here ?



i learned more by analysing his life than by asking him about his life

because he wouldn't share what he had learned in life for whatever reason



so i learned that you have to think for yourself because older people won't share valuable lessons with you
 

ApparentHorizon

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Money is a skill, just like physics or history:

  • If you can learn to do titrations, you can learn how to register an LLC.
  • If you can learn to write an interpretation of The Great Gatsby, you can learn to write a sales letter for your lawn care company.
  • If you can learn the rules of basketball, you can learn the rules of leading an app team
  • If you can learn about the Mayans, you can learn about Rockefeller

I disagree. It is because nobody will listen...

My grandson lived with me for a while as a young man. I asked him if he wanted any life lessons or feedback from me. He just laughed back at me as if he had everything figured out. I certainly saw the humor myself. :)

Nobody listens...
  1. The only reason to listen to adults is because they said so. They're older so they automatically know.
  2. Young people come to a point in their lives where they realize (most) adults don't know any better.
    1. Consider the pre-internet generation on both of these points.
  3. Just like the top 1%, however, there exists a 1% of potential in the kids. Unfortunately, they may not be the ones you care about.
Maybe it's better this way... If there's the 99%, and going against the grain is the norm when growing up.... Maybe it's how we (society) moved forward all this time.

Once in a while that punk rock rebel realizes what they're doing is conforming. With the real rebellion being against everything society throws at them. Especially the ones closest to them.
 
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GMSI7D

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so to finish the point about older people


they won't share lessons because of envy or whatever

and because they also learned that young people won't follow the advice they give them


this is true

for example, we can buy a lifetime of wisdom at the local boostore for 20 bucks

but who cares ?

the wisdom of great geniuses is available at the public library for free

but nobody cares

....


nobody cares but Masterminds

they are the only people who are smart enough to say

" wait a minute. some great minds died to learn this lesson. maybe i should learn from it "

that's why they control the masses


i am honest with you the readers here : i dislike the stupid masses because they don't care about intelligence. they don't care about the truth or evolution

so they deserve to be mastered by the smart guys



.
 

Brian Suh

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Stay off drugs and build a life where you feel high on life.

(Ive done ecstasy which is pretty much the greatest joy you can experience through drugs and i can tell you, feeling high on life NATURALLY stomps it out the water.)
 

Seth G.

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For you 25 yr old+ guys out there, if you could go back in time, and tell your 25 year old self something, what would you say?

I'm only 25 (turning 26 soon). I wanted to say that this is one of my favorite questions to ask people. So I'm stoked that you asked it!

If I had to say anything to my younger self, I would say:

Start sooner, don't get yourself into idiotic debt (its an anchor), and keep going for the impossible dreams because it is the only way you actually have any chance for achieving them.
 
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socaldude

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My second time chiming in.:clench:

Think of success as a standard deviation bell curve.

If you are dumb, lazy and never question your biases, environment or thinking then success is obviously an outlier. A .01% probability of being rich.

If you master the art of decision making, critical thinking, spotting opportunities, self-awareness, learning etc you DISTORT or BEND the standard deviation bell curve. All of a sudden success is something like 33%, 55% ,66%.

It all depends on YOU.

You can bend your own probabilities.

Figure-YY-Examples-of-normal-distributions-with-different-standard-deviations-source.png
 

ChrisV

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I got the idea after finding this video. What would yours be?

 
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MJ DeMarco

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Timmy C

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Good job giving up smoking weed everyday, but you should have stopped years ago.
 

100ToOne

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I'm 25 years old but I would advice my 22 years old to get a job after graduating. Save the hell out of your salary and spend nothing besides what you need.

CREATE A BUSINESS THAT FOLLOWS THE CENTS RULES. OR ELSE STICK TO YOUR JOB UNTIL YOU DO.

A business that requires that in order for you to scale is to open more shops and hire more employees when your profits are thin and the economy is shit, and you're basically bootstrapping and spending from your own business as an income is a type of method you should avoid.

NEVER SIGN A LONG-TERM CONTRACT WITH THE OWNER OF THE SHOP. YOU MIGHT DECIDE THAT YOU DON'T LIKE THE BUSINESS ANYMORE. OR IT'S NOT PROFITABLE.
 

Tourmaline

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Stop focusing mostly on what's f*cked up, watching horror movies like candy, listening to death metal, and don't give up on your business goals.
 

Thinh

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Oh, boy, I really want to go back in time and slap my 25 year old self in the face. But since it's not feasible, I slap myself today.

Here's what I would tell me:

Don't quit your freaking job until your side business truly starts paying the bills.

I've lost count of the times I quit a well paying job just because I bought into the terrible myth of "drop everything and start your business."

To anyone reading this, please, even if you think you've got the best business idea ever (actually, ESPECIALLY if you do), and you currently have a job, don't quit until your business really becomes one (i.e makes at least as much money as your current job).

If you're saying you need to quit your job for your business to take off, you're fooling yourself.
 
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guy93777

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Quit watching porn bro


LOL.

young single people can't really master their sexual force.

this is the hardest human energy to master. spiritual masters can do it thanks to their training

but here on this forum , i promise you that no single guy will wait 6 months without trying to release the energy

guaranteed

if nobody wants to sleep with you, what will you do ? you become a monk ?

you can't really ask a girl " please i haven't got laid for 2 years ! help me ! "

girls don't care. not their problem. life doesn't care . the universe doesn't care


nobody cares.



no, the odds are that you will watch free porn on the web. this is human nature



.
 
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D

DeletedUser0287

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Make sure your capital and ideas are on the same plane before starting business.

Don't be cheap in business, don't start business on a budget. Only go into business if you can actually afford to. Lost money here and there because I started businesses I couldn't afford. Adds up real quick. Probably would have had enough money if didn't waste on "budget business."

Contrary to popular belief, choose a business you are passionate in because it is the cure to money chasing. If you run a business without it, all you focus on is money. Although, there must be a need or it will just be a hobby.
 

NVious

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This is personal for me:
Start playing poker yesterday (ez af money)
DON'T become depressed and suicidal because you experience a bit of failure, yes compounding "failure" sucks but you have high standards, you've not failed at all, you just have ridiculous standards
Save up money and move out of your parent's home, they are negative people dragging you down
KEEP reading, success WILL come
KEEP getting better and improving your skillset
KEEP mastering things
DON'T STOP working out and get fat, you'll get it back ez but it just makes your life unnecessarily harder
Move back to Eastern Europe YESTERDAY
Put yourself out there
KEEP PITCHING PEOPLE
/\ YOU ONLY NEED TO GET LUCKY ONCE, A GOOD SPOUSE, GOOD FRIENDS AND RICHNESS ARE HARD TO CREATE BUT EZ AF TO MAINTAIN (relative to the creation process)
KEEP THAT SHIT IN MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is SO important because you don't need to be Bill Gates, you don't need to be Casanova and you don't need to have a trillion friends
Actually speaking to YOU (me), you are a very frugal and humble individual 1-2 good friends, a deep relationship with someone you find attractive and 50k from an easy job you enjoy and you are INCREDIBLY happy
So F*ck off with your insane standards, yes you want a 10/10 wife with a 10/10 personality, yes you want to be around ALL the interesting mofos in the world, YES you want to have LOTS and LOTS of money, BUT WHAT IS YOUR BASELINE FOR HAPPINESS? Oh that's RIGHT!
A 7/10 who isn't crazy spouse, 1 amazing friend and maybe 1-2 other really good-good friends and 50k+ USD with an easy job, THAT IS TOTALLY ATTAINABLE FOR SOMEONE WITH YOUR IQ AND WORK ETHIC, so don't give up, don't despair, grind away and you WILL get there it is inevitable and your odds of success in the long run are effectively 100% PROVIDED YOU DO NOT GIVE UP

Basically to keep doing what I was doing and not to get down on myself because I didn't have immediate success.
 

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