What would you tell your 16 year old self?

[Harti]

Easy:

1. Biggest lesson ever: Your outer success comes with your inner peace. You get that peace by working with your emotions - bringing to the light what you've buried deep inside you for long - and making your personality patterns conscious. You can learn to do that by reading "Michael Brown - The Presence Process" and everything you can find about the Enneagram.

2. Write copy every single day, you'll regret it otherwise.

3. Instead of reading x amount of books every year, master one or two of them. But never stop acquiring new books - instead, understand what they are talking about and use them as a guides once the time has come.

Example: Had a book called "Traction" in my shelf for months without touching it. It describes 18 or 19 different ways to get traffic. Had no product, so I couldn't use it. Once I finished my first product, I grubbed it out and got busy with it.

All the best,
Harti

 

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[Formless]

The same mantra I tell myself today.

"Do what you want."

Everything else is details.

EDIT: I doubt my 16 year old self would listen.

 

[relentlessaction]

Forget the partying and the drinking and wasting time with friends.. It's great and all but 5 or 10 years down the road.. Life will change..

Sure it will be fun, sure you might want to experience it.

But imagine if you spent that time hustling and grinding from 16 years old. You'll be set for life possibly if all that effort went into building something.

Sure, you don't need to be a hermit but you should know what's more important.. Your future life or living in the now..Hanging out here and there is fine but if that's your main focus = poor.

Those friends unfortunately, won't be as successful and/or might be perfectly happy in their 9 to 5 life..

But if you are on this forum, that's most definitely not like you.

You, always here that quote "If I knew, what I know now".

Good luck.. Start increasing your capital or your money saved.

 

[Chitown]

• Friend threw a snowball at his car

• We ran into a building site in the snow, at night

• Friend lost his shoe

• I apologized to the guy

• Got slapped hard

• Friend proceeds to laugh right there and then while I hold my face and get yelled at in swiss-french.

@Aaron W

Hilarious!!!! Glad you lived to tell the tale!

 

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[Kung Fu Steve]

The next couple of years are going to be incredibly painful. No one will believe you can be a success. Many will downright hope that you fail. The people you think are your friends today won't be your friends in the future so stop worrying about what they think.

You will shed a lot of blood, a lot of sweat, and a lot of tears.

But listen to me now:

It's worth it.

 

[jareers]

It hasn't been too long since I was 16, I was reading everything from affiliate marketing to daytrading, all the finance guru books (especially Kiyosaki) looking for the easiest and fastest way to get my financial freedom and get off the path I was on (the study, uni, 9-5, rat race, being busy, being trapped).
But that's all I did, I just read and read, overwhelmed myself with information, fear of failure, paralysis by analysis, etc. Everything I did start, I would just move on to the next thing I'd read about and spread myself too thin.

So, assuming you're in a similar position to myself I'd say;

• When you find something that interests you focus on that thing, discipline is key but it comes with experience.
• Don't get stuck in the planning, TAKE THE FIRST STEP. It was a lot easier said than done, sometimes you don't realise you're procrastinating.
• Fail, try again, fail, try again, ..., succeed.

Your biggest hurdle is you, master yourself. Also, put in the work lol.
At that age you have a unique insight into where the world is headed, everyone around you is up to date with the latest trends so you can literally see the future if you look. Use that and be ahead of the game.

Good luck to everyone.

 

[BaraQueenbee]

Some amazing and very recognizible messages

 

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[SWB]

16 was along time ago for me and I would love the opportunity to have a chat to the 16 yr old Steve. If I did i would say this,

• Do not stop learning and asking questions, knowledge is king
• Never ever give up
• Watch what everyone else is going and go the other way
• There are is no benefit nor answers in that bottle.

 

[Liana]

I would tell myself to start looking into business ideas instead of just focusing on college. I wasted a lot of time in my teens and early twenties that could have been better spent coming up with ideas.

 

[guestuser151]

I'd probably tell me 16 year old self to manage their time wisely and stop satisfying those bad habits (procrastination, not being a dedicated student, etc.).

 

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[Freedom61]

A lot of this was great to go through because I've learned so much on what not to do...

To my 16 year old self (2007-2008) :

-Just because you enjoyed working your a$$ off in the heat & humidity in summer 2007 for $8/hr for that local lawn company, learn as much as possible about more than just the green industry before you started a slow lane lawn/landscape/snow biz in 2011, instead - read TMF right when it comes out in 2011!!

-Instead of listening to your teachers, extended family, parents, etc. about going to college & starting a business - read books on how business actually works! Only take advise from the people that are in the position you want to be in the future - since you don't know anybody - read books on successful businessmen that have done it. The "go to school, get a good job, save money, etc." plan isn't what's going to buy the Ferraris/Lamborghinis, yacht, and the mansion on the inter-coastal in SE Florida, even if you want to become a CPA or stock broker and make a $250k/yr, you don't know this now but you would continuously have to work 50-60 hrs a week for 20+ years to reach that highly paid salary, with your own business that offers something unique - this can be done in much less time and you can have true freedom!

-During your junior year of high school: Ask out the cute blonde girl that looked over at you during every passing time between classes from the other side of the balcony where you hung out with your friends each day from January through June, instead of talking to one of your buddies about it but being to shy to just walk up to her & her friends and say "Hi" - it's not as bad you'd think even if she said "no" or "not interested"

-Instead of spending time with your so called "friends" (whom you hardly talk to 6-7 yrs later) playing Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, MX vs. ATV Untamed, etc. playing online tournaments/races, research how to make money on the internet! Later on, TMF will help you understand how having an internet business allows for a near unlimited scale and how to create an internet company that provides value by solving problems/fulfilling needs/etc. to which you can begin to grow your own internet business to make millions of dollars, then sell for hopefully tens of millions by the time you're 24-25 years old.

-Just because the redneck type of friends you have with their newer heavy duty trucks (that their parents likely paid for) that plowed snow seemed cool to hang out with because they "had their own businesses", don't hang out with them! They actually don't have shit for a business and are merely "self employed" with a job they created and will go on to give up their "businesses" to work as construction workers or service advisors, etc.
This goes back to learning how business actually works - just because you enjoy the work involved with the business doesn't mean you should start a business in that industry unless you want to live the typical middle class life, something you despise!

-If you skip out on playing Xbox with your friends and they don't understand why, just tell them "You'll understand in about 5-7 years" and leave it at that. Hang out with those friends at the motocross races/practices but take your free time after school to read books and research internet businesses.

-Since you'll have gained a ton of business knowledge before graduating high school next year (2009) and see that college is a waste unless you're pursuing something in science, want to be a doctor, engineering, lawyer, etc. , skip going to UND and attend a community college to learn generals to "keep your parents off your back" for a semester or two. Work whatever job you need to in order to have some money, then start your own internet business - whether it's selling SEO services, affiliate marketing, creating eBooks & vid courses on various subjects, w/e, to just get your feet wet for a couple years as you build up a solid base level of cash so you can move out from home, then change your focus to capital heavy businesses (TMF will be out at this time) - such as software, larger websites, etc. that can generate millions of dollars per month and have the potential for a fastlane liquidity event!

-Don't give a shit about what anybody thinks of your plans - none of them can see your vision and it's invisible to them. You've had your vision for what you want in life since early 2008. Your friends, some of your family, your teacher are going to laugh at you however when the tables turn in the future and everything you've dreamed of has happened, who will be laughing now as they're headed to work on a below zero morning in their Toyota Rav 4 sitting in traffic listening to some shitty morning radio show as they count the days to "TGIF" because they hate their job.

I'm sure there's more but this is good enough!

 

[Guest34764]

Well, I'll be 16 in a two days.

So I'll leave this message for the bastard.



Stop being such a lazy a**hole.Like for real, you are in weight lifting but you're too damn lazy to research business or even stay awake for more than 12 hours.ALL I NEED YOU TO DO IS WATCH SOME YOUTUBE VIDEOS ON IMPORTING OR SOMETHING.I KNOW HOW INTERESTING THAT NEW VIDEO ON THAT ONE DUDES CHANNEL IS BUT FOR REAL JUST SIT DOWN AND WATCH SOMETHING EDUCATIONAL!

p.s I know you love reading books so I got you 13 new ones.I swear one me pappy if you don't read them


All jokes aside.I hope my 16 year old self will read this and figure some shit out

 

[MooreMillions]

Take your high school athletic career seriously, take the "gamble" of going to college to get ready to play pro, and use Magic Johnson, LeBron James, and a handful of other athletes-turned-moguls, as psuedo mentors with your start up capital from your salary to build businesses.

I ALWAYS had knowledge, but I learned the hard way that start up capital just ain't LAYIN' AROUND, LOL!

 

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