20 Rules For Your 20's (15)
A blog I really like to keep up to date with is http://wallstreetplayboys.com, at times extremely arrogant but nonetheless some excellent sources of information. There are a lot of us youngens on this forum still, and I thought sharing a post from there would be a good idea, would also like anyone into the next decades after if they would agree/disagree with this advice, it happens to be one of their top posts as well 
1) Minimize Debt: This is one of the biggest items on your to do list. Debt is a vice around your wrists that is slowly cutting off your blood circulation, if you don’t release the pressure you’ll be dead before thirty… the Prime of your life. If you are able to spend money on assets that depreciate in value (cars, clothes etc.) you better be debt free and saving large amounts of cash.
2) Change Your Friends: We have given a quick blue print to choosing friends, however the biggest mistake is not upgrading your social circle as you move on. We know, you read the word upgrade and immediately thought the word is heartless. It is not. You need to surround yourself with like minded individuals, even if you have known a childhood friend for 15 years, if they begin using drugs for entertainment purposes and falling off of the grid you have to say goodbye. Your life is too short to spend catching falling knives.
3) Learn to Help Others: This sounds contradictory to point number two, however it is paramount that you learn to help those that wish to improve. The key is their interest in improving, if you attempt to convince a man of self improvement when he does not care, you’ll burn a bridge. Hyper competitive and intelligent young men tend to develop a “put down” mentality where you compete at each others throats 24/7. Not only is this not sustainable, it is not healthy and does not help you in your career. Instead, pass along helpful information and you will find your friend count increasing.
4) College Should Be Tough: Everyone else goes to college to drink and try to sleep with hundreds of women. These guys usually end up unemployed or making $40K a year at a soul crushing job with no skill set to jump into another industry. Their entire life is now 100x more difficult to fix and you’ll be shocked at how difficult it is to come back when you’ve built no foundation. Build a foundation. You can have fun in your spare time.
5) Get Internships: Even if you have a 4.0 GPA from a top university, no one will care if you have zero work experience. In addition to obtaining line items on your resume you will realize that your network expands drastically. You’ll be in contact with people in their 30′s who are well outside of your current social circle of 20 somethings.
*Note internships was intentionally plural.
6) Find Mentors in Their 30′s: By the time you are in your low twenties you should have a handful of men to speak to regarding life decisions. Each man does not need to know every aspect of life, however the more the merrier. You’ll quickly realize that your peer group is older than you as soon as you receive your Diploma (MBA or Bachelors). This is a good thing. Generally speaking, older men make hiring decisions.
7) Your Co-Workers Will Screw You: This is the most common miss. If you are in the same peer group, none of your co-workers are out for your best interests. If you party with your direct co-workers, as soon as layoff rumors begin making the rounds, be certain you’ll be thrown under the bus . See point number one for why they would be more than happy to see you fail.
8) Read Books Daily: If you are not reading books outside of the classroom you are allowing the collegiate system to have more influence on your upbringing than it should. The topic of interest is less important than the act of reading. You can read about health, fashion, coal mining, animals, chemistry, art and the list goes on. Reading is similar to investing as the payoff is far in the future, one day you’ll have a chance to make a connection with a higher up on an obscure topic and ideally you’ll have the ability to add to the conversation. Don’t forget that wealthy men and women are typically eccentric.
9) Learn About Basic Fashion: Before we get comments about books beyond finance, you can simply start with learning about basic fashion. Learn what colors work for your skin tone, eye color and hair color. Once this is mastered find the right brands to accentuate all of your positive features and build a sustainable wardrobe. Better to learn and earn before you have some cash and see it burned.
10) Exercise Five Days a Week: Unless you are forced to burn through 100+ hours a week for several weeks straight, you should find time to lift weights five days a week. No excuses. Your health is the only thing that will outweigh your aspirations for wealth. A man who has a healthy mind and body with a heavy wallet is free. There is nothing more valuable than complete freedom to do as you wish.
11) Procrastination is Valueless: If you find yourself procrastinating on tasks it means that you have nothing to do with your free time. In an ideal situation you are constantly moving and improving your life. You don’t have time to procrastinate because you’re too busy taking action. The day you find yourself sitting and staring at a computer screen for 2-3 hours in a row is the day you either walk outside to exercise or immediately buy a book online. This is the minimum.
12) Ignore the Lazy: You will meet many people who suggest you simply relax and live in the moment. Avoid these men like the plague. You should live in the moment for a calculated risk not to simply feel good for a short period of time at the detriment of your future. Much like investing, 20 years from now they will have a hard time getting by while your life is already on cruise control because you’ve built an unbreakable foundation.
13) Don’t Get Married: No matter what you do, do not tie the knot in your 20′s. The truth is that many women in their twenties are most attracted to men in their low thirties. Run the math. Your future ex-wife is still in high school right now, so don’t fret over anyone within ear shot for a long-term relationship. We recommend not getting married but if you decide to keep one, wait until your 30′s.
14) Go International: By the time you’re in your mid 20′s you should have some international exposure that will wreck a lot of your current beliefs. By experiencing a new culture you’ll quickly see how many of your ideals are based on a US cultural phenomenon. You can do this with a single briefcase and you can do it alone. You’ll force your body into survival mode in an unknown city, your confidence level will grow by leaps and bounds.
15) Face a Major Fear: Heights, snakes, fights, the major fear you have does not matter compared to your ability to tackle it. If you’re afraid of being beaten down in a street fight, you should get into a ring and take a few kicks and punches. You should jump out of a plane if you fear heights and you should even consider purchasing a snake. There is no substitute for repeated exposure to eliminate a major fear in your life.
16) Turn Family Into Friends: For many, your family members are dragging you down and for others they are a positive in your life. The key is to separate your life decisions from their opinions – their opinions should have no weight on your emotions. At this point you should not use your family as a safe haven in life. If you lose your job, if you want to move cities, if you want to take a risk, it is on your shoulders. Remove the safety net.
17) Stop Complaining: Maybe you didn’t land that Bulge Bracket job, maybe you didn’t get ranked number one in your class, maybe you hurt your wrist and can’t lift for a month, no one cares. By the time you’re well into your 20′s your interest in complaining should be zero. Complaining gets you no where. All it does is increase your stress levels. When you are stressed out, no one wants to be your friend. If no one wants to be your friend, your contact list is not improving and if your contact list is not improving…. you’re dead.
18) Wake Up Early: Unless you’ve obtained a job in investment banking where you’ll eat garbage for multiple years straight to earn your stripes, you should wake up early to get ahead of the rest. Read, go to the weight room, build a website, it does not matter. Your brain functions well in the morning, use your most productive time to invest in the most important person in the world. Yourself and your future.
19) Earn a Voice: Many men will destroy their careers in a few short years by never earning a voice. When you are in your twenties there is not a single person who will care about your world view so it is best to remain quiet and diligently improve while waiting for an opportunity. Instead of dishing out advice, take advice and remain quiet. As soon as people begin asking you for your contributions you’re officially of value. You have earned your keep in a specific niche.
20) Fail: The last piece of the puzzle is the most obvious and the most undervalued. Fail as many times as possible in your twenties while you have the time to recover. We do not recommend dropping out of college as a failure or taking up a humanities major as a failure (this is simply financial suicide for most), instead we recommend you fail at trying to create value. Try to create a mobile app. Try to learn how to code. Try to learn a foreign language in a year. Try everything.
Assuming you follow these rules, you’ll look back on your life when you hit thirty and know, not believe, you have done everything to make your life better. If anyone attempts to say you’ve worked too hard, write them off as whiny complainers who have to live with the knowledge that they could have been better. They could have improved, they sold themselves short.
http://wallstreetplayboys.com/20-rul...your-twenties/
Really awesome tips here, pointed out quite a few crucial elements that I've overlooked about improving myself. If pursued with dedication these are bound to turn anyone into a better version of themselves.
Nice read, I always love reading advice to younger people as I'm pretty young myself (I'm 20).
Some of my impressions regarding my personal life:
- Never been in debt, not gonna go there
- changing your friends over time is SO TRUE. I honestly think that my old friends are losers and it's not to hurt them, it's just they don't have the same goals as I do, and that's completely OK. Just find high achievers, it'll help so much.
- Find Mentors in Their 30′s - This is easily an 80/20 type tip. Mentors rock. I need to find some
- read daily - I started habit 2 weeks ago reading 1 hour/day and I LOVE it. I've read 5 books last month and I can feel the growth and progress, it's a great feeling!
- Go international: Moved out of my parents house in israel last week to bangkok. Too much distraction and negetive energy.
- Fail - I guess we all wish we had failed more in life.
Thanks for sharing!
Dvir
Nice list.
I'm 31 now, I wish I was aware of more of this when I was 20, I learn most of it the hard way.
I'm really happy with my current situation, I earn $XX,XXX profit per month for years now and I'm absolutely free of my time and people, I travel a lot.
But still, there is always things to improve :
- I've start doing 1 hour exercices per day 6 times a week since 3 months
- I've joined STM a few months ago to start going international (I'm french) and will take conversation lessons to improve my speaking
- I need to meet more successful people, but for now I've not find where to meet them... That's not so hard to drop friends or partners, that's really harder to find new one that drive you up as you move on
Finding a mentor is not an easy thing, great people usually have no time to offer. If you do not have one, I suggest you to find people active online that inspire you a lot and give you energy and new ways to see your life and the world. I've find mine years ago after reading his book, and he is still the person I follow the most and that inspire me the most.
I think that the rule 12 (Ignore the Lazy) is probably the one where most successful people will failed. Of course most people are lazy, do not listen to them and keep going... but live now and not always in the future.
If you are always trying to improve and never live now, in the present moment, you are just wasting your life.
And if you disagree, follow rule 8 and read "The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment" by Eckhart Tolle.
And if you disagree, follow rule 8 and read "The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment" by Eckhart Tolle.
That's a great post Maynzie. Very applicable to life outside Wall Street too.
I may be fairly new to the AM world, but I've been an entrepreneur for 9
years now in various businesses, and "optimizing myself" in similar ways to
this post has always been a major key.
I'm almost 37 now, and it's amazing how much of this list rings true for me,
even though I found my way there through trial and error. Seeing a list like
this in my twenties would have blown the doors wide open though. Great
stuff!
Originally Posted by the_writer
Used to despise these lists... (used to)
Lately i'm a big fan, i can't agree more with this one!
This is a very good blog, thank you Josh!
I <3enzie you
Wow... This is a great post Maynzie and the points are spot on. I'm glad to see so many successful members here in their early 20's. I'm in my late 30's and have seen the detriment of not following the mindsets that are mentioned above on a consistent basis.
A big theme I see is the difference between instant gratification and the absolute joy of accomplishment. Instant gratification feels good for a bit, but is fleeting....even making you feel worse in the long run. Working hard and seeing the results takes a bit, but is something you can look back on for the day, week, year, or decade and feel great joy.
Not to say you can't indulge...but take care of business first...as most of you do.
As per rule #18-Wake up early... I hear a lot of people talk about financial freedom as the fact that they can sleep till 11:00 AM every day. I did this because I thought it was cool... I was making money in my sleep. But it made me feel bad, like I was instantly behind. When I get up at 6:00 AM, I feel as though I have a jumpstart on everybody else...even though my bed is mega comfy.
That's just another example of instant gratification vs. the joy of accomplishment.
#10- Exercise! This is very beneficial to me...for mental health as much as physical. I don't lift too many weights, I run hills. It fills my brain with endorphins, I couldn't keep sane without it.
#17- Stop complaining! Yes this is gold. Complaining is not only stressful, it makes you a victim. And the life of a victim just plain out sucks.
#12- Ignore the lazy... Yep... pure gold! What you will find is that these sort of people do not want you to get ahead; they will be envious when you do. They want you to stay with them so they feel comfortable. And they will be telling you exactly what you want to hear when you are trying to find an excuse to screw off.
I won't comment on any more of these because I am by no means a mentor, expert, or any kind of authority on these matters. I just wanted to give some life experience to anyone who might shrug off such valuable suggestions. Here is one reason....
#11 Procrastination is valueless (Life is short!!!!!) You 20 somethings will be 30 somethings before you know it. You will wonder where the time went. The decisions you make now will either benefit you or screw you much faster than you could ever imagine.
I suspect most of you Stackers will be just fine. This forum and the mindsets talked about here are far above what most people get to experience.
This was a great read... Thanks Maynzie
I'm 20 years old, and I couldn't agree more with rule #2 "change your friends"
I've kept only a couple of friends from high school and I do much best to surround myself with people who are 5-10+ years more experienced than myself. If I were to keep all my friends from school I'd be clubbing, doing drugs, binge drinking, complaining about exams and having girl problems on a consistent basis. I definitely wouldn't have time for AM haha
Originally Posted by Sweet Tooth #3
I do not complain a lot, but I've never seen myself as a victim when I do so.
I will try to have this in mind next times I'm complaining ! Thanks.
Some good tips here.
This made me laugh though:
great stuff Maynzie. Upgrade yourself all the time, set goals and do it. Very inspirational
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