"Stop being so arrogant! You need people!", that would be one thing I would tell my past self, right after I smacked him upside the head.<p>Be humble, trust win, trust lose, trust again. Adapt to the market, don't think it'll adapt to you!<p>Also, the real meaning of life is to find your creator, not make millions of dollars. When they bury your sad fat rear end in the ground, all you've made goes to someone else. The afterlife is a part of life. Read Acts 2:38.
A few things.<p>* Don't necessarily trust, without thorough vetting, those who made money extremely quickly and claim to truly understand business. Being successful at business and understanding business can and often are very different achievements.<p>* You can entirely do it on your own, you don't need anyone else. [1]<p>* You cannot entirely do it on your own, you need a partner. [1]<p>* Maybe my greatest business insight: the longer it takes to find revenue to less likely you will be to find revenue or profitability.<p>[1] These are not mutually exclusive. For me, I needed to realize that I did not have to be trapped by a partner. And I also needed to realize I should not be trapped by doing things by myself. Picking the right partner is essential whether in business or just in life. I have been lucky to find them in both cases.
Stop working on random side projects after work.<p>Do what you enjoy in the evenings.<p>And if you still want to do a side project then work on it and market it for maximum of an hour every day but for, at least, a year before starting a next project.
"Don't waste time. Don't abuse alcohol. You wouldn't shoot heroin, so for the same reasons, don't 'fall in love' either. You think of yourself as frugal, but you aren't even close. Save your money. Don't speculate on stocks. Buy the smallest house you can find. Meditate. Don't interact with people at all while emotional."
One of my college professors once said "I am the primitive of my way." It has taken me a long time to realize that people who are currently "successful" are not necessarily people I should try to follow in the footsteps of. It is better to try to stand on their shoulders and see farther than they could, so to speak.<p>They aren't where they are because everything they do is brilliant. A lot of what they do can be improved upon. Admiring their accomplishments is fine. Trying to understand their success is fine. But assuming that they are unequivocally <i>better</i> than me in every way is problematic and simply not true.<p>I wish I had gotten the memo sooner that other people in positions of influence or whatever don't necessarily know more than me or have better answers than I have. It is a lot more complicated than that.
-People are more important than anything else but they come and go. They are still more important than anything else.<p>-Don't get lost in the weeds. It's easy to let small things that are immediately interesting take precedence over more important things.<p>-You won't be what you are now in 10 or 20 years. You'll think differently and have different abilities. Age comes before you know it. Remember this always and don't think you have it all figured out because you never do.<p>-Work hard but take it easy. Don't let stress over little shit destroy your long term productivity (see lost in the weeds section). It's a marathon not a sprint.<p>-Things change fast. Plan for the future but do so loosely because you are probably going to have to re-asses shortly enough.<p>-A little a day for 10 years is worth more than a lot for 1 year in terms of what it gets you. Saving, learning, all those thing. Don't plan on big windfalls.
Learn about yourself - what motivates you, what are your limits etc. This way you'll know if some goals are realistic or just pipe dreams.<p>To expand on that, let's say that you want to become an uber-programmer, like John Carmack. In his own words (paraphrasing), "everyone can do it, all resources are available online, you just need sit and do it". While this is technically true, the reality is that he seems to be extremely gifted when it comes to sustaining focus when working on abstract/technical tasks (while your average developer starts checking out after 4-5 hours). If you're like that and read about people like him, the conclusion is that you're like a short person trying to compete in NBA - technically feasible, but the odds are against you.
Taking something personally - e.g. what happens to you, or how someone treats you - is a choice.
Choose not to take everything personal, because things rarely are.
Find the right people with who you enjoy working instead of assimilating corporate culture.<p>Stand up for your real values and stay true to them.<p>Don't just learn something, but publish, write, talk, demonstrate what you have learned. It helps build a public profile.
Your kids should have priority over your side projects. Yes, you're going to get interrupted a lot. Welcome it rather than resenting it - you are privileged to be able to now spend your time on something more important.
Whatever energy you have left to feel guilty about "not doing enough", reinvest it into letting go. Don't take being bored, in the moment, and content. We've unlearned these very basic things in this contemporary age.<p>Make a goal because it's a good exercise to start the journey. But just follow your heart after you start walking because if it was meaningful, you will find some way to incorporate it into your life.<p>Go slower. Enjoy the things you could only in university; there's no need to graduate earlier; you can work while going to school, but you cannot go back to thinking like a student after you've started working.
Trust yourself.<p>Take care of your health.<p>If it's not working for you, walk away.<p>Have fun. If you're not having fun, change things.<p>Deal with fear and anger. They're useful, but only if you take positive action. Let them fester, and they will destroy you.<p>There are no guarantees.<p>TANSTAAFL
It's ok to set impossible goals as long as you get going in that direction....like walking toward the horizon, you can always see farther the more you walk.
Rather than looking forward to the next big thing, and trying to hype myself up over a random idea, look back: what are your greatest memories, successes, and create more of them.