If I Could Start Over, I’d Learn These 7 Skills First

Intro — Why these seven?

People often chase the “one big thing” (the perfect degree, the perfect startup idea) and forget compounding skills that power careers, businesses, and a meaningful life. The seven skills below are durable: they help you earn, learn, craft a reputation, and stay resilient when everything else changes.

1. Clear, Persuasive Writing

Why it matters: Written communication is the backbone of modern work — emails, proposals, landing pages, content, leadership. Great writing short-circuits trust and gets things done.

How to get started:

• Daily: write a 200–400 word note about what you learned.
• Learn frameworks: AIDA, PAS, and problem→solution→benefit for short-form persuasion.
• Resources: free online copywriting courses, books like On Writing Well or The Elements of Style.
• Quick wins: turn one idea into a newsletter thread or LinkedIn post each week.

2. Public Speaking & Presentation

Why it matters: Whether pitching to investors, teaching, or leading a team — spoken clarity opens doors and accelerates influence.

How to get started:

• Practice micro-talks: 3-minute talks on a topic you care about.
• Record and review: fix gestures, pace, and clarity.
• Join a group: Toastmasters or local speaking meetups.
• Quick wins: convert a blog post into a 5–10 minute talk and present to a small group.

3. Basic Financial Literacy & Personal Finance

Why it matters: Money skills compound. Understanding budgeting, investing, taxation, and risk lets you take advantage of opportunities and avoid preventable mistakes.

How to get started:

• Build a 3-bucket budget (essentials, growth/investing, fun).
• Learn basics of index investing, emergency funds, and debt management.
• Use simple tools/apps to track net worth monthly.

Quick wins: automate a small monthly transfer into a low-cost index fund.

4. High-Value Technical Literacy (not necessarily coding deep-dive)

Why it matters: You don’t need to become a senior engineer, but you should understand the tools and logic shaping products: data basics, automation, and how to work with AI/tech partners.

How to get started:

• Learn spreadsheet mastery (formulas, pivots) + basic data visualization.
• Familiarize yourself with AI tools and automation platforms relevant to your field.
• Build one small project: an automated report or dashboard.

Quick wins: automate a repetitive task using Zapier/Make or a simple Google Sheets script.

5. Sales & Customer Empathy

Why it matters: If you can’t sell what you do, your idea won’t scale. Sales is really structured empathy — understanding needs and guiding decisions.

How to get started:

• Practice active listening and discovery questions.
• Learn the structure of a sales call: intro → pain → value → close → follow-up
• Shadow successful sellers or take short negotiation/sales courses.

Quick wins: run 5 discovery calls to practice listening without pitching.

6. Systems Thinking & Productivity (how to learn faster)

Why it matters: Skills that help you learn faster and manage energy/time are multipliers: they let you turn raw effort into sustained progress.

How to get started:

• Build simple systems: daily review, weekly planning, habit stacking.
• Use the Pareto principle: focus on the 20% of efforts that yield 80% of results.
• Learn basics of spaced repetition for faster long-term retention.

Quick wins: implement a single weekly review ritual and a focused “deep work” 90-minute block.

7. Personal Branding & Networking

Why it matters: Talent alone is rarely enough. A visible, reliable personal brand and a supportive network create opportunities — jobs, partnerships, and collaborations.

How to get started:

• Publish helpful content regularly (short-form posts, videos, or a newsletter).
• Build a network by helping others first — share, introduce, recommend.
• Keep a simple relationship CRM (oddly enough, a spreadsheet works).

Quick wins: publish one piece that teaches something actionable and reach out to 5 people who’d benefit from it.

Putting it together: a 90-day plan

• Pick 2 skills to prioritize (one “hard” like technical literacy, one “soft” like writing).
• Set measurable outputs (e.g., publish 8 posts, deliver one 5-min talk, automate one workflow).

Weekly review: what worked, what to double down on.

Share progress publicly — it accelerates learning and builds the brand.