I am generally a pretty pensive, somewhat sappy person. Knowing this, there are two times during the course of a year when I get particularly pensive (and maybe particularly sappy). Those times are the area generally surrounding my birthday and then pretty much the whole span of time between Thanksgiving and New Years. I really love birthdays more than New Years because it’s about your own specific life. Whether or not a birthday is a big 5 or 0, it gives you a chance to look back on what you did when you were one year younger, and what you hope to do when you are 1 year older.
I have been working for my family’s advertising agency for just a hair over six years now. That’s still two years fewer than the time it took me to finish college and grad school. I still haven’t graduated, in terms of years, professionally. It seems hard to believe that I have been working for such a small amount of time, because when I look at where I was when I started, or five years ago, it feels like I have learned a lifetime worth of stuff.
So, I thought I would share some of the things I would tell the me of five years ago. What would you tell the you of five years ago? I’d love to hear your stories 🙂
Dear five-year-younger me:
– Concentrate on the infinite number of doors that are still open, not the few that are closed
– Read more, talk less
– Learn more, teach less
– The stiff unbending tree is the heavy wind’s first victim. Learn to sway in the breeze
– Nothing and no one can be taken for granted. Life doesn’t owe you a thing. Everything you have and everyone you know, therefore, should be cherished with all your heart
– Think outside the box more
– Don’t let fear be your tour guide
– Always dream. You’re never done dreaming, you’re never done striving for your dreams
– You can do it
“Don’t let fear be your tour guide”
I like that.
I would like to tell myself – nothing.
Let me make my failures and endure the pains.
That’s a fair point. I wouldn’t be the me of five years later if I hadn’t been the me of five years ago. Who will I be five years from now? Dunno. Hopefully bigger better brighter 🙂
The most successful people I’ve met in life (and this includes a handful of millionaires and one billionaire) would totally agree on the open doors/closed doors thing. That coupled with forgetting about the competition and focusing on the customers/prospects are their two big secrets (and every time *I* use the word secret, I mean “common sense.”)
Here’s the very simple framework that julien and I are putting into a book right now:
* experiment
* execute
* expand a community
That’s it. That’s how I can explain my new business. That’s how I can explain my success. That’s how I can tell you that things work the best for me.
More than that and I’ll have given away the guts of my new book before it’s even been accepted by a publisher. But that’s enough. You’re smarter than most. You’ll get it.
And I think you’re awesome.
I think you’re probably underselling what you do, but I get what you mean. And thank you 🙂
Looking forward to all of these books!