at age 18 I went to college because well that's what you do at 18 right this was simply the next step in my predetermined life path so I didn't think much about what happens at the end of the tunnel fast forward to my first job after graduating college 2 weeks in after a long day of management consulting I went home and cried this can't be it I worked so hard and for what is this what the rest of my life will be like you only get one shot at ages 18 through 24 which are some of the best years of your life but it's also where you can feel the most lost now I'm right at the tail end of this age range and built what I currently consider my dream life today I'd love to share with you what I would have loved to know these are the five most important lessons you should start doing now if I didn't do these five things I would probably still be crying about my job instead of living the life my younger self wanted I'm Amy I graduated from Caltech with a degree in chemical Engineering in 2021 so yes I was a CO graduate sad very very sad actually not just a fake sad I worked as a Management Consultant as my first job I'm currently doing more entrepreneurial and content things let's go into the things that I want you to know so much that I put please in the title let's go each week studying or working you wake up on Mondays hating life you stay up to finish that one task and it feels like a drag until one day you look at at where you're going in life and you don't know because you realize that you've been living on autopilot you should begin with the end in mind I picked chemical engineering because I liked chemistry and math but I didn't begin my college experience with the end in mind whenever you're starting something new or before you're making a decision think about what your ultimate goal is with what you're putting in right now I already messed up choosing my college major by not following this advice so when I began recruiting for my first full-time job I reflected about the end I want and that was to make an impact through leadership if I hadn't reflected about my ultimate goal and instead done engineering right out of undergrad then it would have taken me five extra years before I could switch into Consulting and then only after trying Consulting I would realize I don't want to do it and by then it would be a lot harder and riskier to do entrepreneurship like I am now so I actually saved myself over 5 years getting myself to do what I enjoy now you can also save yourself years and years getting ahead more successful and happier by simply beginning with the end in mind when you input something right now it's more optimal if you already have a sense of where you want that to take you the headline here to keep in mind is think about what you won't regret and that includes spending time with the ones who matter I saw this crazy graph the other day that shows the time spent with your parents and siblings it peaks in childhood and declines dramatically after age 20 you're probably working on a degree right now or have already finished a degree or even if you're not in college that's totally fine but I think what's really important is to realize that being educated is more than a piece of paper I've seen people who go to Harvard who go to Caltech and they don't have many life skills or they don't know how to handle things outside of the bubble of college and not being smart in life definitely includes myself because your girl didn't know the first thing when it came to how credit cards really work finances taxes knowing how to turn on a stove just kidding I'm not that bad but my fiance who went to a quote unquote lesser ranked school is so good at speaking with people he knows everything about finances and helps me I'm looking for a man in finance trust so number two is build your human capital the diploma doesn't mean as much as the person you are this is the internal value you have within yourself like skills experience knowledge wisdom that no one can take away from you where even if one day your degree has no meaning at all because it is arbitrary Society just gives a definition to it even if that all goes away you will be fine and you will know that you're going to succeed in life no matter what some of the most important education can actually be forms such as wisdom from reading books there's a reason why all the millionaires out there say to please read books I definitely agree once I read my first self-development book my eyes just opened I was like where has this been my whole life so I definitely recommend you try one first you can self-study with AI on the rise it's really important to at least understand its capabilities how you can leverage it and at the very least learn how you can accurately prompt AI work on writing and communication I hated writing essays but now I'm writing every single day way more than I ever thought I would because communication is so crucial for me to be making this video to be putting my knowledge and experiences into a format that's digestible and helpful to anyone on your own you can also work on organization and time management skills when I was younger I would look at adults in their 30s and 40s and assume they had their lives together and they were just Miles Ahead in terms of managing their schedules their calendars multiple commitments but that's not really true you realize that at every age people are still just kids and the more mature people are those who actively try to improve continually in these time management and organization skills speaking of self-studying new skills you can easily do this on skillshare and they're conly sponsoring this video practicing what I preach I'm actually taking a class on how to communicate more clearly and confidently if you've been wanting to learn anything from film to design to improving your productivity you can choose from their thousands of classes is which are led by experts you might wonder why skillshare when I could just watch some YouTube videos two major reasons one you will be with other dedicated Learners who help you stay motivated and two you learn by doing you get to create and share a project at the end of each class plus get feedback from the community you know how we're so busy and always say I want to learn how to paint or I love to learn how to edit videos well summer is your chance to be proactive and skillshare can help make it happen for a while I've been wanting to learn how to level up my community ation skills in a more structured way so this course is amazing because he Alex lion is a communication professor and he teaches me how to use pauses more confidently and use less fewer words fewer filler words ironic you can try skillshare for free today just use the link in my description because the first 500 people will get a free one Monon trial so don't miss out finally some of the most important education you can have comes from expanding your worldview with experiences you can travel and get immersed in different cultures which is some of the most fun and beautiful things I think that you can do and you can do the next two tips you only get one chance at walking down this life path you're on time moves linearly such that after you get through college after you get through your first job you can look back and be like I wish I did that differently you will make mistakes and while mistakes are definitely great and you should learn from them it's ideal to not have to learn things the hard way so the best way to do that is to learn from others lives listen to and study other people's Journeys purposefully find and understand the years and years of struggle their mistakes and their failures that lie behind their current successes let them Inspire your own Journey For example Ali abdal he talks a lot about his struggles and his failures and about the sunk cost fallacy because he's not a doctor anymore even though he spent years and years studying to be one so by learning the ups and downs of his journey will not only encourage you because you'll see it's not easy for anyone but you'll also have a better idea of how to build the life that you want in fact good job doing this right now learning from me as like your older sister or kind of a mentor friend while it's amazing to learn from others it's super critical and valuable to grow from your own experiences and you do that by pushing yourself outside your comfort zone if you don't know what to do with your life well there's only one way to find out every time you're scared to do something whether it's to talk to someone intimidating pick up a skill or apply for a position that seems too difficult Relish in that fear reframe your mindset that fear means a huge opportunity for growth right there in front of you it's also a chance for you to discover which doors you can close and what things you can cross off the list it was very daunting for me to completely switch industries from engineering to Consulting but I'm so grateful I did that because I discovered way more about myself than if I stayed in engineering and at a quicker Pace to too I'm no longer in Consulting but I'm grateful I now know to cross that thing off my list of things I don't want to do in life see you don't know what to do with your life yet but that's the beauty of it I felt lost in my 20s and I felt this pressure to have it all figured out and I thought that because I didn't know everything about myself I was somehow doing something wrong but it turns out that's what your life's for the fifth thing is to remember that it's your life I absolutely love this quote the life I had been given is not a rehearsal for some future life and I constantly remind myself to drop the act and strive for authenticity rather than Applause believe in your own judgment if people are pushing you in one way understand that maybe they just want you to live out their dreams but you are the one who needs to live out your own growing up and having values of really respecting and valuing the opinions of my Asian parents I struggled with becoming my own person and forming my own view of things I had to learn to put my own beliefs above my parents and only think of them as advisers not managers the world is moving fast and that's why companies love to hire young people because we are the ones who have Innovative thoughts and ideas so why not listen to that Advantage all in all you're going to feel so much pressure to have your life figured out and people are going to ask you what are you going to do with your life heck you're going to ask yourself the same thing every day but there's nothing to do with it your life is not something to be expended like what are you going to do with that $100 bill I'm telling myself this every day as an achiever personality type don't put pressure on yourself to win in some arbitrary race don't feel the need to force some productivity or achievement rating on what you've done with your life so far really if I could give you one thing to take away from this is that in this age of distraction and social media treat your time like it's gold it's your gold so you choose how to spend it you choose what to give your attention to you choose what kinds of opinions to form don't put other people's above yours don't put their time and their livelihood above yours as long as you continually reflect on how you're spending your time in valuing it you will find your way at the end of the day remember that the old folks have a few things right which is to prioritize your happiness your health and fulfillment what to do with your life live thanks so much for spending this time with me hope it was valuable and I actually have a podcast tast where I go deeper into discussions and my struggles going through my 20s right now and how I think about ways to motivate myself and stay disciplined so that will be linked in the description don't forget to build your human capital and to try skillshare for free with a link in my description if you enjoy this please give me a like so this can help reach more people and help them thank you till next time feeling a little stressed overwhelmed because I still have so much to do for the application and I've barely started and I have so many other things on my plate where it's like I already had this amount of stuff to do and now I add on applying and it I shouldn't even be so stressed about this because I'm only applying to one school I also have to film right now and I'm trying to get this anxious heavy feeling in my chest out it's just this kind of dull feeling that I have so many things to do so I'm just trying to take one step at a time where maybe I have this giant pile of tasks but the only way to get it done is to start on the first one and then keep knocking them down one by one today I had two calls one was a coffee chat with a former student of the program I'm applying to so that was very helpful I have another coffee chat on Friday I have gotten deeper into brainstorming I realize with so many other things on my plate that I'm not giving myself enough time to work on applications so starting today I'm putting a Time Block in my calendar every day where that time is dedicated to work on the application so that's where the application is going right now as you can tell I'm in a kind of a frantic mood right now I need some more Zen anyway oh today is June 19th 2024 obviously it's 2024 cuz that would be weird if it's not anyway okay thanks for watching this update for the application process it's hard to realize right now now but your time with your family is so limited I learn to prioritize and cherish every moment such that even when I got invited to participate in a college documentary I turned them down so I could go home to spend time with my mom and dad