Thread by @warikoo

Mistakes I made in my 20s

A thread...

I continued to pursue my education because I was good at it, without ever asking myself if it made me happy?

Just because you are good at something doesn't automatically ensure you get happy doing it.

I looked down upon people who used to smoke or drink or party every weekend.
I felt they were losers and the reason to bring the world down.

It is not what you do, but who you are underneath, that defines you.

I read books that made me look cool.
Without truly understanding what I could learn from those books, until much later in life.

People do not remember you for the company you keep.
They remember you for who you become because of that company.

I felt morally obligated to help everyone in distress.
And if they continued to remain unhappy, I blamed myself.

The best gift you can gift yourself and to others, is to take care of your own happiness.

I felt the lack of money was the root cause of all our family problems.
And once we have money, we no longer will have any problems.

Our problems are the stories we tell ourselves, of how everything will be fine once we get what we want.

I felt that rich kids will never make it in life, because they got everything on a platter and do not know how to struggle.
Their privilege will always harm them.

It is not privilege that harms us.
It is our lack of awareness of our own privilege, that harms us.

I ate shit, slept odd hours, maintained bad posture, while constantly telling myself that I have tomorrow to fix all of this.

An excuse is the distance between who you are and who you wish to be.

I really tried hard to please people. I wanted them to like me, to think highly of me, to speak highly of me.

If your happiness depends on external validation, then your happiness depends on something you do not control.

I took loans.
Because I didn't have money as yet.
And I kept telling myself, "But I will have money in the future. And that's why it is ok."

If you do not have the money to pay for something right now, you DO NOT have the money.

I didn't think subjective topics such as psychology, business ethics or human resources were needed or even important.
Business is all about finance and marketing.

Business is all about people.
How well you know them.
And how you treat them.

I assumed if I speak well and speak confidently, it will cover up for the lack of content I have.

You cannot lie on stage.
The audience will always know it is within your heart.

If people approached me with their problems, my job was to determine whether the problem was worth my time or not.
And if it was, then my job was to fix it.

Listening to someone without judgement or prescription is the most precious gift you can give someone

I need to have a plan.
A plan is the only way you get to any point in life.
If you do not have a plan, you do not have any chance of getting to anywhere.

To not have a plan and be ok with it, is the best plan.

I looked around and saw that everything was designed to make our lives comfortable.
And so I assumed, the purpose of life if to make life comfortable.

Avoiding the comfort trap is the difference between who you are and who you could have been.

If I said something, wrote something, shared something, I felt dejected when no one cared, when no one responded, when no one commented.

No one owes you their time and money. You earn it, everyday, by the work you do.

I had to make money fast, buy my parents that house, buy that fancy car, that vacation.
I had to make money fast, to buy stuff.

Money can you buy you stuff. But the biggest thing it buys is freedom.
Including freedom from stuff.

I assumed if you work hard, really hard, you will eventually win.
Working hard is the only thing that matters.

What you work on is just as important as how much you work on it
Even donkeys work hard.
Working smart is the difference between a donkey and a human.

I blamed myself for being late in the game.
At 29 I was jobless with no money, no plan and no clue.
I remember looking at Mark Zuckerberg and feeling shitty! :)

Everyone is running a different race.
Infact, we're not even in a race.
We're on our own paths.
Some walk. Some run.

I assumed my work will speak for myself.
If I do well, people will give me what I deserved, what I wanted and what I deserved.
I never asked!

If you don't ask, the answer is always no.

90% of what happened to me in my 20s was because of luck.
I am that guy who was at the right place at the right time and lucked out.

And as much as I am grateful for that, I wish I knew better.

Today I know, the 20s should be used to discover yourself, as against stabilizing yourself.

Meet as many people as you can, do as many jobs as you can, explore as many streams as you can.
Find out what you are good at and what makes you happy.

And then spend your 30s doing that

I am embarrassed at who I was in my 20s.
The under-confident, people-pleasing, over-weight, stuck on one path, bad with money, judgmental kid.

But I am glad I was all of that.
Because now I know, who I do not want to be.

I wish everyone could get rich and famous and everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that's not the answer.

@JimCarrey