A Week Ago I Turned 57

Turning 57 was like a blink that was never ever expected, but I week ago it happened.

After the euphoria on the day, the mini celebration, the cake cutting, the food and all the celebrations have ended, I snuggled into my comfortable sofa, reminiscing how those 57 year have come and gone so quickly.

I counted my mistakes and misfortunes, and if I could go back to talk to my 20-year-old self and give him some advice, here are the 13 things I would say.

As much as I dread not knowing these things in my twenties, I would give anything to imbibe these into my 20 years old self, should time take me back.

1. Work on your Willpower.

You'll never reach your full potential or outwork your rivals if you can't focus for long periods of time.

This was true when I was younger, but it's even more applicable now with so many distractions fighting for your attention.

If you can focus and work hard, you'll be miles ahead of everyone else.

Willpower is like a muscle.

The more you use it, the stronger it becomes.

It's your ability to resist temptation, stay focused on your goals, and overcome challenges.

Think of it as your inner strength that helps you do what you know is right, even when it's difficult.

2. Become More of a Producer than a Consumer.

I understand consuming content is key, especially if you learn a lot.

However, you should always be trying to put more out into the world than you're taking.

Otherwise, you'll end up robbed of your time and attention.

I did this for years and always wondered where all the years went to.

3. Be Nice to People on the Come-up

This is because you never know where they're going to be in the future.

There have been countless times when I've underestimated someone's potential, only to see them achieve incredible success later on.

By treating everyone with kindness and support, even if you're unsure about their plans, you create good karma.

If they strike it big, they're likely to remember those who were in their corner, and you may benefit from that connection too.

4. Watch What Most People are Doing

Make it a duty to know what others are doing, and then do the opposite.

It took me a few years to find the courage to leave my 9-to-5 job and start my own business.

I was comfortable with the routine of receiving a paycheck and accepting life as it was.

However, when I built a staircase for a wealthy entrepreneur, I realized there was another path available.

I'm grateful I took that chance. I mean, I wouldn't be where I am now if I had continued working for someone else.

This is a pretty simple idea because if you do what everyone else does, then you're going to get the same results.

So reject the idea of being normal and vanilla. As the saying goes, if you're everyone's cup of tea, then you're a mug.

5. Who You Know Matters

Who you know matters a thousand times more than what you know.

A great network beats money in the bank every time.

I can't count how many times my connections have helped me out.

Work hard on connections and learn to maintain them. Sometimes you have to do this at your expense, don’t worry, they will pay back in multitudes one day.

6. Never Talk Behind Someone's Back

If you have a problem with someone, you should address it with them directly or not at all.

You may think that gossiping about people when they can't hear you makes you seem cool, but it actually makes you seem less trustworthy to those who are listening.

Those listening to you may thing you're doing the same behind their backs.

7. Give Yourself Permission to Make More Mistakes.

Most of my success has come from my failures.

I wish I knew this sooner.

I enjoy playing a mind bugging game online with my friends, and I remember one year ago I competed with this new friend who kept failing.

We competed to see who could fail the least. I won, as my friend fail over a few times...

A lot happened; however, he improved tremendously, and now he's a much faster winner than I am, winning in record time.

This just proves that failure leads to improvement if it's embraced. So, remember, if you never fail, then you're probably not trying hard enough.

8. Make Reversible Decisions Quickly

I actually picked this one up from Jeff Bezos.

As he said, with a decision that you can go back on, your biggest risk is dragging your feet and not making a decision.

However, when decisions are irreversible, slow them down, as the biggest risk here is making the wrong decision.

So, it's worth getting as much information as possible before taking action.

9. Focus on One Thing at a Time

The truth is, there is no such thing as multitasking—just multi-failing.

So give yourself time to focus on one thing deeply without distractions.

Trust me, you'll achieve far more.

10. Don’t Be the Best, Be the Only

You can do this by learning seemingly unrelated skills and combining them together.

Steve Jobs is well-known for mixing his love for calligraphy and design with technology and creating Apple as we know it today.

He was the only person doing that at the time.

This is one of my golden pieces of advice, and it’s something I will twist the neck of my 20 year old self to adopt.

11. If you Don’t Like Something, then Change it

If you can’t change what you don’t like, then change your attitude.

Never complain.

I used to be a bit of a complainer, but as I’ve gone through life, I’ve realized that 80% of the time, no one cares about your problems, and 20% of them wish they had them in the first place.

Even if your whole world is crumbling, complaining won’t do anything positive for you.

I’m not saying you can’t express your feelings; however, it’s important to remember we all have our own problems, and not many people care about fixing yours.

12. Work Smart, Not Hard

As I’ve grown old and gray, I’ve seen the birth of lots of revolutionary technology like color TVs, the iPhone, and artificial intelligence.

The crazy thing is, a lot of my generation aren’t like me and choose to reject it, which makes working smart very difficult.

But for you tech-savvy youngsters, working smart and building a business has never been easier.

I mean, take a look at this for example. One of the hottest businesses at the moment is eCommerce, as it's infinitely scalable and provides geographical freedom.

But building a website requires either a unique skill set or money to pay somebody else to do it for you.

But with “Build Your Store AI,” you can get a fully custom Shopify store built completely for free in less than 2 minutes.

13. Assume you Can Learn Something from Everyone you Meet.

I’m not afraid to admit that in my 20s, I was a little bit arrogant.

I thought I knew everything, but looking back, I now realize how much more I still had to learn.

I’m very aware that in 10 years' time, I’ll look back at what I currently know and probably think the same.

Even at 57, I’m still learning new things every day.

So, if I were you, I’d just skip the arrogance stage and be open to learning new things, even from those younger than you.