Post: #1

So in order to give all the other 18-early 20's guys a huge advantage in life that read this board.

What would you tell your 20 year old self if you could go back?

(No shit like "I would buy Google Stock" please. Just real advice you've learned the hard - or easy way that they could apply to their own lives).

Post: #2

Hit the gym. Start strength training, drinking whole milk, and consuming massive amounts of protein immediately when your balls drop and fuzz starts to grow.

Post: #3

I would tell him to use the search function more...

/thread-39942.html

Post: #4

Join the military for the esprit de corps, discipline and skills it teaches and for the camaraderie and life experience it gives

Study science or engineering for the framework and skills it gives you to solve problems and think outside the box

It's too late for me to join the military but not late to study computer science (which I'm doing at the moment)

Post: #5

(12-18-2014 11:59 AM)Atlantic Wrote:  I would tell him to use the search function more...

/thread-39942.html

Touche

Post: #6

(12-18-2014 12:03 PM)jake1720 Wrote:  

(12-18-2014 11:59 AM)Atlantic Wrote:  I would tell him to use the search function more...

/thread-39942.html

Touche

Oh and to buy google stock

Post: #7

Quote:What would you tell your 20 year old self if you could go back?

(No shit like "I would buy Google Stock" please. )

So, you want me to go back and give advice to my 20 year old self...

But, I can NOT give financial advice that would make me a billionaire?!?!?!

Get the fuck outta here!!!!

Post: #8

Sticking around. And then sticking around some more...

(12-18-2014 11:39 AM)jake1720 Wrote:  What would you tell your 20 year old self if you could go back?

Sell your shit, pack your bag and get the fuck out*!


*of that p.o.s. country you were living in. wish i could turn back the clock... ;(

Post: #9

Leave the country w/ your benefits right after you get out of the military.
Don't get married!!!!!

Post: #10

Skip college, learn a trade.

Post: #11

I'd tell my 18 year old self to stay on cs instead of switching to business with some college buddies.

If tell him when girls are a sure thing. Also tell him that if you are in girls bed and are sucking on her titties ( because her roommate asked this 19 year old to keep me occupied so she can have some time with my best friend/her boyfriend that she had not seen in four months) then you need to stop talking and fuck her

I'd tell my twenty year old self to go to the silicon valley
To not work with/for my parents
To work out, to learn Spanish and Chinese
To invest in companies with ceos whose image is integrated with the company image, those that are universally lived and hated at once, those with something to prove, those with a chip on their shoulder and a drive. Like gates, jobs, musk

To buy when everybody is selling and there is blood on the streets

Post: #12

(12-18-2014 02:08 PM)godfather dust Wrote:  Skip college, learn a trade.

It depends.

I think a young man should take an IQ test.

If it's over 120 to 130, he should consider getting educated in fields that pay very well like medicine or finance.

Post: #13

* Start now putting 10-20% of your monthly income into a balanced mutual fund and/or start an IRA and max your contributions
* Push your body hard. Pick something active such as a martial art, triathlon, marathon running, rock climbing, etc and give it a lot of your free time
* Strength/weight train at least three times a week
* If an attractive woman appears to be DTF, don't talk yourself out of doing her unless she looks completely bat-shit crazy or is the girlfriend/wife of one of your bros
* Start learning another language if you haven't already
* Improve your wardrobe little by little congruent with your age and environment

Post: #14

Not get into a 6 year monogamous relationship.

Post: #15

Lift weights sooner

The only regrets I have in my life are the girls I had the chance to bang but didnt.

Everything else in life has pretty much lead me to where I am in life and I'm happy as a fagg with a bag full of dildos right now.

Post: #16

Put that cookie down!

Post: #17

Stop listening to Radiohead

Post: #18

Either switch your major to to CS or get the hell out of college and go audition in Hollywood or something - you're wasting your time and your dad's money. And for fucks sake, forget about law school at any point in life. Everyone in higher ed has something to sell you - and they all lie. Marketable skills matter most, not credentialism.

I'd also say if you were seriously thinking of the military, do it early, do only one term, and join the French Foreign Legion instead of making half a career out of the American Army. Knowing what I know now, I'd talk myself out of enlisting in the US military until I could talk no more. I'd stress that it will be a total time waste serving ungrateful masters and being at the receiving end of extraordinarily bad decisions.

I'd say to my 20 year old self if you HAVE to join something, you'll at least get a second language out of the Legion. The American Army will always be there later, but hopefully the military thing will be out of your system after 5 years of eating snakes & crawling through mud in French Guyana and African shitholes with the Legion.

Post: #19

Don't enlist in the US Army at any age.

If you're too stubborn to listen to that, at least go for the Air Force or Navy. Though it will probably still be retarded as all hell.

Post: #20

20 was good, it was age 21 that fucked me!

I would tell my 21 yearold self to not fuckup the Fall semester. That alone had some huge ramifications and has led to me living in Ohio of all places until I'm 25 or 26.

On the plus side, my prospects are looking great after that!

Post: #21

I would get a flight to the west coast leaving from Boston on Sept. 11th, 2001. Stab the fuck out of the terrorists on my flight, become a national hero.
Leverage that into a lifetime of high level business and social connections.
Maybe even do a term in Congress to really get on the gravy train. But no more than that, because being a politician would mostly suck.
Fuck dime pieces like an oligarch because I could.
Also, I would sell everything I owned and borrow whatever I could, and short Lehman brothers stock on Sept 14th, 2008.
Besides that? Never pause with working out, and never let the drinking get out of control.

Post: #22

Not sure what i would say to do otherwise, all the mistakes i made in my early twenties helped shape my views and understanding today; that said if i had to list one thing.. it would be to stop hanging out with losers and people with no direction in life, they will do nothing for you but bring you down and keep you at their level of zero ambition, while justifying it by proclaiming rebellion against the 'system'. a.k.a "I'm too lazy to change my circumstances, so i will invent the idea that this is what i want'.

Been around too many of these people in my life, and been swallowed up into their self-loathing pity party.

Post: #23

-

What I would tell my former self on my 20th birthday:

1. Everyone is a snake until they prove otherwise

Never trust anyone until they prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that they are trustworthy. Most of the problems I've faced in my twenties can be boiled down to trusting the wrong people too soon.

Sometimes miscommunications happen and relationships get off on the wrong foot. Sometimes, however, people are just misanthropic scumbag psychopaths. Know when to cut your losses.

You can learn a lot about someone by the way they treat other people. I knew a guy in Shanghai who kissed up to me constantly but treated this other dude in our crew like shit. I didn't think about it too much until, one day, he began to dislike me for some reason and then began to basically ruin my life.

Conclusion - don't invest your time and energy in people who treat others badly or constantly talk shit behind people's backs. You don't know when that might become you.

2. Weed out liars early in relationships and then cut them off

If you think someone is lying to you then quietly encourage this behavior until you know for sure. If they seem to be embellishing the truth and manipulating facts to move their agenda forward, smile and pretend to believe their story.

At a later time, ask them to recount the story for different reasons and perspectives. If they were honest, they will tell the same story and everything will basically line up. You should maintain an aura of credulity so that they do not suspect that you are attempting to weed out potential lies.

Most of the time, if they are prone to lying or embellishment, this will cause them to slip up and tell you a different version of the story.

Maintain this strategy until you have hard facts to prove that they were lying to you and then confront them about it with blistering directness. They will be unprepared and you will be able to see them for what they are.

3. Coders and technical types rule the future, befriend them NOW

Learn how to code. Befriend dozens of people who have been coding since they were children. You will need them later as partners or employees.

When the time comes to launch a venture or hire them, they will be comfortable doing so.

4. If possible, do not take dumb money

If you must raise capital, only raise capital from experienced entrepreneurs-turned-angels who can give you real advice and access to their network in addition to cash.

These angels will often also be able to round up a group of VCs to invest in a round together. Thus, if possible, start with these angel types. Prove your idea with a solid prototype and some traction and then turn these guys into evangelists. They will champion your effort and will make the fundraising process significantly easier and quicker, saving your precious weeks or months of your life and cash runway.



-

Post: #24

I would tell my doctor to go fuck himself when he said I was too young to get a vasectomy and do it anyway.

Post: #25

Focus on the present and all that this involves: take action in the present and seize opportunities as they arise.

Ruminate on the past as little as possible except to draw what lessons you can from it and move on.