What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World

by Tina Seelig

It’s important to keep in mind that there are often creative ways to work around the rules, to jump over the traditional hurdles, and to get to a goal by taking a side route.

create something of great value in a completely different arena.

you can remove the constraints that might be comfortable but are often limiting.

“All the cool stuff happens when you do things that are not the automatic next step.”

Knowing that you can question the rules is terrifically empowering and a reminder that the traditional path is just one option available to you.

it takes practice to do things that are not the automatic next step. The more you experiment, the more you see that the spectrum of options is much broader than imagined. You are limited only by your energy and imagination.

Nobody told me I could or should do this. I just did it.

Some look inside themselves for motivation and others wait to be pushed forward by outside forces.

But he saw the need and filled it.

to figure out how your skills can be translated into different settings.

to look at things others have discarded and find ways to turn them into something useful.

pay attention.

In fact, people are generally happy to tell you about their problems.

by experimenting, you get quick-and-dirty feedback on the solutions you propose.

find an array of opportunities to fix things that are

broken.

Those with a fixed image about what they can do are much less likely to take risks that might shake that image.

They’re willing to try new things that push their abilities, opening up entirely new arenas along the way.

setting your objective.

where you are, where you want to go, and how you will get there.

“You have to have a dream for that dream to come true.”

If you want to achieve something, the key is to start moving in that direction. Give yourself permission to do so.

to come to terms with their mistakes and to extract lessons from those experiences.

failure is an important part of your learning process, especially when you’re stretching your abilities, doing things for the first time, or taking risks.

Failures are also a sign that you have taken on challenges that expand your skills.

“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.”

Quitting is actually incredibly empowering. It’s a reminder that you control the situation and can leave whenever you like.

the failure allowed him to better align his passions with the opportunities around him.

it’s important to know whether you’re putting energy into something that has the potential to pay off.

If you view each day as a series of experiments, you end up with lots of fascinating data that can be mined for valuable insights.

change her relationship with the overall problem by seeing it as an opportunity.

If you get out there and try lots of things, you’re much more likely to find success than someone who waits around for the phone to ring.

The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything.

“It’s all good in the end. If it’s not good, it’s not the end.”

We are always in the middle of the story, and there is usually a way to recover.

But failures can serve as incredible opportunities in disguise.

rewarding only successes can stifle innovation because it discourages risk-taking.

If you want a creative organization, inaction is the worst kind of failure.

Failure is the flip side of success, and you can’t have one without the other.

Trying new things requires a willingness to take risks.

it makes sense to take the high risk/high reward path if you’re willing to live with all the potential consequences. You should fully prepare for the downside and have a backup plan in place.

making decisions with incomplete information.

learning from others can significantly reduce your failure rate.

If you do take a risk and happen to fail, remember that you personally are not a failure.

Passion is just a starting point. You also need to know your talents and how the world values them. If

we simply tend to work harder at things we’re passionate about.

Passion is a big driver. It makes each of us want to work hard to perfect our skills and to excel.

Before something is your passion, it is something you know nothing about.

Engaging in new activities is critically important because it opens the door to developing—not finding—a wide variety of passions.

finding ways to bridge his skills, his interests, and the market.