Advice to Me from the Past

Dear me from the past,

You’ll be glad to know that in a few years, high school will be over. You will go out drinking with your friends every weekend, you will travel to twenty different countries, and the number of women that are willing to kiss you will increase by an order of magnitude.

Work on projects you’d be willing to do for free

You’ll be offered a string of entry level jobs in international corporations, which will seem sexy and exciting, but you will also find out that a job is a place where your boss tells you what to do, and the minutes ticks by very slowly. If you want to have the freedom to work on interesting problems that let you use your creativity, you need to find a career.

You have a limited amount of time, energy and brain cells; invest them on work you love. If salary is the main reason why you are accepting that position selling enterprise storage solutions to small and medium business over the phone, don’t do it. Eventually you’ll stop thinking about the money, and you’ll start thinking about why you have to get up in the morning. Find something you’d be willing to do for free (it doesn’t hurt if you also get paid for it).

What other people think of you is irrelevant

I hate to break it to you, but not everybody is going to like you. As long as you are not hurting anybody, what people think of you pales in comparison to what you think of you. Anyway, if everybody likes you, you’re probably doing something wrong. Everyone who has ever lived a remarkable life has been criticized at some point, because of their personality, their beliefs, or their work.

Never let the fear of being judged or looking like an idiot stop you from doing the things you want. If an opportunity to travel comes up and your friends can’t make it, go by yourself. If you see a cute girl you want to meet, go up and talk to her. If you have to speak to a room full of people, feel the fear, and do it anyway.

Good luck.