Twentysomething year olds who are trying to navigate their way through life and sometimes avoid their responsibilities because they’re scared of what the future holds. Sound about right? We tend to see our twenties as the period where people lay the foundations of their wealth and tend to be free from commitments like marriage and children.
Probably the worst piece of advice consistently given to younger people is some version of “your 20s don’t matter, relax.” This is right up there with “work harder” which also is vague & non-actionable advice
Assuming positive intent think this saying was originally meant as an antidote to people putting relentless pressure on themselves before they had real clarity about much else. Claims such as the somewhat popular notion “thirties are the new twenties”
Every successful person I know started planting seeds in their 20s. This is due to the law of compounding interest which applies to the following:
- Capital
- Knowledge
- Relationships
You indeed have time to recover from mistakes nut there is always that underlying question of how much time do you have? Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to think about compounding at all.
You can look at compounding as planting seeds, it is a good metaphor for starting to work on something that will (maybe) give fruits during the 30s or even 40s. Just don’t expect to be a rapper or a millionaire by age 25. For example, did you know that 80% of the events that affect you and the people that influence you occur during your twenties? This is one of the statistics that Meg Jay presents in The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter – And How to Make the Most of Them Now. Meg’s approach is more so for professionals looking to aid in the development process, it’s important to guide individuals away from pleasure-seeking or avoidance toward growth in communication skills, decision making, and relationship building.
In her work, Meg Jay claims young people complained that their “life should look better on Facebook” and then got upset when they saw other people living “better” than them. It’s okay to have a moment of introspection and think yes this applies to me (we have all been there
Which is why we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others because it does nothing for our lives and leads to you feeling less empowered and more helpless.
My main piece of advice is that your 20’s are the time to take career risks – upsides are outsized and downsides can be mitigated by time. In most cases, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Bedroom 2 Boardroom 🚀 