Contrary to popular belief, cool people do watch Star Trek. Putting the posters up in your bedroom, however, is crossing the line.
The 2010 Star Trek 'prequel' featured some mesmerizing visuals; most notably the scene in which a sprawling Romulan ship, shaped like some grand, tentacle-trailing space squid, got sucked backwards through a wormhole in time. It was Back to the Future in outer space, as Spock was afforded the chance to speak to his younger self.
'Neat trick!' I thought, and then wondered what advice I might give to my own younger self (if I'm ever sucked backwards, squid-like, through a worm-hole. These things happen).
Grasping certain principles early, rather than later in life, could exponentially increase your current-time success and prosperity. Some of what I'd tell myself would be business related and some would pertain to relationships. Some would be financial advice and some would simply be motivational.
Here's what I'd go with:
1. Nothing Comes to You
Anything you want out of life, anything you want your life to be, anything at all that you foresee as a part of your future, will only happen if you make it happen. Design and personal agency. You have to think it and make it. Time spent waiting for your ship to come in is pursuit-time wasted.
2. Start Early
Every financial planner you'll ever encounter will speak about the importance of starting to save while you're still young. That advice applies to everything: start saving early, start writing early, start taking care of your physique at the gym... like... yesterday.
The trouble with twenty-year-olds is that they don't feel a sense of urgency. The clock is ticking in the background, but they can't hear it over the hormones. I would grab my younger self by the shoulders and try to shake a sense of urgency into that dull, nattering boy.
3. Grasp the Art Epiphany Early
My younger sister won an award for Best Art Student in her senior year at high school. I requisitioned her to draw five illustrations for one of my books, but said I was not able to pay a large amount. I offered her one thousand Rand in total.
She was blown away, and replied that we had vastly differing notions of what was 'not a large amount.'
Original illustrations should be valued at thousands of Rands per item, certainly not five for a grand. So what was informing her (very low) sense of her own value?
As an eighteen-year-old, Lauren's only context for income was the odd jobs she did as a cameraman's assistant at weddings. She understood that four hours of carrying cameras is worth approximately R200. Her mistake was in extrapolating that to her area of expertise; art; and assuming that four hours of drawing should be worth the same.
It isn't.
It is worth exponentially more.
Business is the same. As an entrepreneur, you should not simply rate yourself according to hours of slog. You should rate yourself according to the value of the solution you provide. That sort of thinking makes entrepreneurs wealthy, and helps to position them at the top-end of their industries.
4. Get the Technique Right First and the Gains Will Follow
You see it in gyms around the world: Young guys, just starting out, grasping the heaviest dumbbells they can lift from the rack and swinging them dramatically to and fro, pimply faces scrinched tight in manly concentration.
Not only is that a spectacular way to permanently ruin your shoulders, but it also doesn't achieve the goal of muscle-development. So, why do they do it? Simple: To show off.
Serious bodybuilders advise us to leave our egos at the door, drop down to a weight that we can properly manage and learn the proper technique first. Get that right and the gains, they assert, will follow.
Don't get hung up on showing off. In the early stages of anything - a new job, sport, craft, hobby, skill or pursuit of any kind - learn to dispense with ego and educate yourself. Get the principles right. The gains will always follow.
5. Grasp One Simple Financial Principle
My twenty-year-old self would not listen to a long financial lecture from my thirty-year-old self. So I wouldn't try. But if there was just one principle I could impart, frankly, that would be sufficient, because this principle covers everything you'll ever need to know:
* If more is going out than coming in, you're getting poorer.
* If more is coming in than going out, you're getting richer.
It took the first half of my twenties to build up a vast mountain of debt, and the second half to (largely) climb back out from under it. Grasping that one principle could have changed my life.
6. Abuse is Not a One-Off Incident. It's a Precedent
My final pearl of wisdom to my younger self would be relationship advice. It would stem from the incident in which I asked my father-in-law for permission to marry his daughter, and he responded with, "Here are my concerns... ," and then spent the next 20 minutes laying into my character, prospects and likelihood of ever procreating.
If I could have that moment back, I would say that I wasn't there to hear his concerns. This was a polite formality only, and he could choose to give his consent or not, but we would be getting married either way.
I might also use less savory language while making the point.
Ultimately, my advice to my younger self would be a stern warning never to accept abusive behavior, in any type, shape or form, from anyone, ever. Because the first time you let it slip, you've already set a precedent for the other person's behaviour. That is now how they are allowed to treat you.
Shall we sneak a seventh in there? All right, let's round it off with: "Get a mentor."
Mentors, just like time-travelling versions of yourself, are able to shorten your learning curve. Seek them out; heed their wisdom. They are usually surprisingly willing to give of their time and advice.
The Real Lesson:
According to Popular Mechanics, time travel won't be possible for at least a couple of months yet. Pity. So the real lesson becomes this: Another ten years shall pass, whether you learn these lessons or not.
Why not practice the astonishing level of foresight necessary to ponder what advice the you-of-ten-years-from-now might wish you would follow... and then follow it?
Yes, you'd have to create a sense of urgency that you don't necessarily feel yet, and you'd need to initiate action that doesn't seem 'relevant' at this point.
But the squid-like, worm-hole traversing version of your future self will surely thank you. Maybe he'll even look you in the eyes and declare, "Live long and prosper."
The 2010 Star Trek 'prequel' featured some mesmerizing visuals; most notably the scene in which a sprawling Romulan ship, shaped like some grand, tentacle-trailing space squid, got sucked backwards through a wormhole in time. It was Back to the Future in outer space, as Spock was afforded the chance to speak to his younger self.
'Neat trick!' I thought, and then wondered what advice I might give to my own younger self (if I'm ever sucked backwards, squid-like, through a worm-hole. These things happen).
Grasping certain principles early, rather than later in life, could exponentially increase your current-time success and prosperity. Some of what I'd tell myself would be business related and some would pertain to relationships. Some would be financial advice and some would simply be motivational.
Here's what I'd go with:
1. Nothing Comes to You
Anything you want out of life, anything you want your life to be, anything at all that you foresee as a part of your future, will only happen if you make it happen. Design and personal agency. You have to think it and make it. Time spent waiting for your ship to come in is pursuit-time wasted.
2. Start Early
Every financial planner you'll ever encounter will speak about the importance of starting to save while you're still young. That advice applies to everything: start saving early, start writing early, start taking care of your physique at the gym... like... yesterday.
The trouble with twenty-year-olds is that they don't feel a sense of urgency. The clock is ticking in the background, but they can't hear it over the hormones. I would grab my younger self by the shoulders and try to shake a sense of urgency into that dull, nattering boy.
3. Grasp the Art Epiphany Early
My younger sister won an award for Best Art Student in her senior year at high school. I requisitioned her to draw five illustrations for one of my books, but said I was not able to pay a large amount. I offered her one thousand Rand in total.
She was blown away, and replied that we had vastly differing notions of what was 'not a large amount.'
Original illustrations should be valued at thousands of Rands per item, certainly not five for a grand. So what was informing her (very low) sense of her own value?
As an eighteen-year-old, Lauren's only context for income was the odd jobs she did as a cameraman's assistant at weddings. She understood that four hours of carrying cameras is worth approximately R200. Her mistake was in extrapolating that to her area of expertise; art; and assuming that four hours of drawing should be worth the same.
It isn't.
It is worth exponentially more.
Business is the same. As an entrepreneur, you should not simply rate yourself according to hours of slog. You should rate yourself according to the value of the solution you provide. That sort of thinking makes entrepreneurs wealthy, and helps to position them at the top-end of their industries.
4. Get the Technique Right First and the Gains Will Follow
You see it in gyms around the world: Young guys, just starting out, grasping the heaviest dumbbells they can lift from the rack and swinging them dramatically to and fro, pimply faces scrinched tight in manly concentration.
Not only is that a spectacular way to permanently ruin your shoulders, but it also doesn't achieve the goal of muscle-development. So, why do they do it? Simple: To show off.
Serious bodybuilders advise us to leave our egos at the door, drop down to a weight that we can properly manage and learn the proper technique first. Get that right and the gains, they assert, will follow.
Don't get hung up on showing off. In the early stages of anything - a new job, sport, craft, hobby, skill or pursuit of any kind - learn to dispense with ego and educate yourself. Get the principles right. The gains will always follow.
5. Grasp One Simple Financial Principle
My twenty-year-old self would not listen to a long financial lecture from my thirty-year-old self. So I wouldn't try. But if there was just one principle I could impart, frankly, that would be sufficient, because this principle covers everything you'll ever need to know:
* If more is going out than coming in, you're getting poorer.
* If more is coming in than going out, you're getting richer.
It took the first half of my twenties to build up a vast mountain of debt, and the second half to (largely) climb back out from under it. Grasping that one principle could have changed my life.
6. Abuse is Not a One-Off Incident. It's a Precedent
My final pearl of wisdom to my younger self would be relationship advice. It would stem from the incident in which I asked my father-in-law for permission to marry his daughter, and he responded with, "Here are my concerns... ," and then spent the next 20 minutes laying into my character, prospects and likelihood of ever procreating.
If I could have that moment back, I would say that I wasn't there to hear his concerns. This was a polite formality only, and he could choose to give his consent or not, but we would be getting married either way.
I might also use less savory language while making the point.
Ultimately, my advice to my younger self would be a stern warning never to accept abusive behavior, in any type, shape or form, from anyone, ever. Because the first time you let it slip, you've already set a precedent for the other person's behaviour. That is now how they are allowed to treat you.
Shall we sneak a seventh in there? All right, let's round it off with: "Get a mentor."
Mentors, just like time-travelling versions of yourself, are able to shorten your learning curve. Seek them out; heed their wisdom. They are usually surprisingly willing to give of their time and advice.
The Real Lesson:
According to Popular Mechanics, time travel won't be possible for at least a couple of months yet. Pity. So the real lesson becomes this: Another ten years shall pass, whether you learn these lessons or not.
Why not practice the astonishing level of foresight necessary to ponder what advice the you-of-ten-years-from-now might wish you would follow... and then follow it?
Yes, you'd have to create a sense of urgency that you don't necessarily feel yet, and you'd need to initiate action that doesn't seem 'relevant' at this point.
But the squid-like, worm-hole traversing version of your future self will surely thank you. Maybe he'll even look you in the eyes and declare, "Live long and prosper."
Douglas Kruger is a professional speaker, trainer and author of the '50 Ways' series of books. His most booked keynote speeches are: The Rules of Hamster-Thinking, The Big Bum Theory, and How To Position Yourself As an Expert. See him in action or read more of his articles at: http://www.douglaskruger.co.za. Email him at: kruger@compute.co.za or follow him on Linked In or Twitter: @douglaskruger
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I think that maybe the suggestion alone can't be always useful for the younger version on we. Sometime there's need a bigger vision and consciousness to change the things we do.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very fair point, Matteo. I certainly wouldn't disagree, though the article does give some good food for thought, I think. Many thanks for your comment. Most welcome, Best wishes, John.
ReplyDelete