3 Lessons From a 75-Year-Old Woman, Which Will Help You Not to Ruin Your Youth

When I was 25, I returned to Brooklyn to get a job at an art gallery. I was left with zero and destroyed after three years of graduate school, changing one temporary job for another and some bad relationships for others.

That's when I first felt like an adult - an exhausted, nervous, and forever tired adult. Nobody tells us what adult life is like, it's not for the faint of heart.

When it all began to take on the features of a catastrophe, I met Jackie, a 75-year-old art critic, and museum inspector. A dizzy, strong woman, like a natural element, was much older than me.

He read to me from our first meeting and decided to help me "rebuild my life." Jackie took me under her wing, becoming my professional and spiritual mentor. In the end, he was even more than a mentor. She was my girlfriend.

Jackie taught me three important lessons that helped me protect myself.

Here are the ones:

1. Fight for you

"You can't try to protect everyone around you if you can't protect yourself!"

What does this mean?

Ask yourself what you want from life (namely you, not your perverted or more acceptable version) and negotiate until you get what you want. You have nothing to lose. In the worst case - you will receive a refusal for that job, you will not receive the much-dreamed advancement or the person you like will not respond with the same feelings.

After learning this lesson, I learned to take risks, being sure that one way or another, I would succeed. The truth is that, around the corner, we are always waiting for new opportunities, it is important only to have an unwavering desire to create them for you.

At the age of 27, I moved to another country, started a new company, and six months later I started a new relationship. I had no money, but I bet on myself and fought tirelessly for both myself and my new business. As a result, in the first six months of my activity, my partner and I obtained several of the largest local companies as clients.

2. Keep secrets

"The problem with our generation is that everyone thinks the world should know absolutely everything about us! But the only person who should know you perfectly is you! "

What does this mean?

Keep things important to yourself.

In the age of social networking, people tend to spend their entire lives recognizing, appreciating, and/or commenting on friends and strangers. But if you want to keep your common sense, you just have to be more discriminating with the help you render toward other people.

There must be a part of your life and soul that is open only to you. Become your refuge for yourself. Other people shouldn't know you down to the last detail.

3. Choose your people wisely

"I can't put my name next to their name" or "I can't afford to be associated with this project because it goes against my principles."

What does this mean?

Work, collaborate and associate with people, places, and things that match who you are, what you believe, and what you want from life. Everything else is a waste of time. These are the things by which the world will judge you. You are a company with which you spend time and ideas that you support.

With the advent of the internet, we have unlimited access to information. However, there is no denying the benefit of wise counsel from those who have already lived a life.

Be open to the wisdom and life experience of those who are ready to share right now. In the end, it can save your youth.