If you are a someone in their early 20s contemplating what to do with your life, you have come to the right place. Right now, you are in this remarkable position where your entire life is in front of you, and you have seemingly infinite choices. With this privilege of choice, however, comes also a challenge. Choosing the right thing to dedicate your most precious resources towards: time.
There are a few common assumptions people make about how to navigate those early, and transformative years of your life and professional career. In this essay, I want to add perspective to those assumptions to help you make the most out of your 20s. And explain how I believe Acta can be the greatest stepping stone that lays in front of you.
Treating Your Career As Something You Execute Rather Than Something You Look For
The first common mistake most people make is that they treat their career as something fixed they are now executing on. Let's say you have studied business in an undergraduate program and are about to land your first job or internship. Most students in this stage have some idea of what they want their career to be. Often shaped by their parents and social circles. They have this preconceived notion that they will go on the track of becoming a management consultant, or work in finance. And with this notion, they start to execute on this career track.
The deal they have in front of their eyes is sweet: great money, status to signal to your group that you are a smart and capable (labels that come with being a member of MBB and institutions alike), and an environment of other driven and smart people they can learn from. This path has become the norm, and on the surface, seems like the perfectly viable path ahead.
Now, let me present you with an argument that is meant to shutter all the daydreams you have about this path.
You are very likely choosing this path not because you truly want it, but because you lack the confidence and courage to create a life you truly want that goes against the safe societal agreements we have made implicitly.
If you look at the lives of people that go down that path, the majority of them realizes at some point in their lives that this is not the life they want to live. Yes, there are exceptions - people who love this path and excel at it. But the vast majority of people have much greater gifts and contributions to make to this world than to spend hours in prediction-based, abstract excel sheets or strategy presentations that ultimately never have the real impact they intent to achieve. You don't need to take my word for it. Verify yourself. Talk to people who have done it, and truly listen to what they tell you if you succeed at creating a connection between the two of you where they can be deeply honest and don't give you the superficial answers that the insecure version of themselves believes need to be communicated to feel worthy in their life.
This may sound like an extremely harsh take on this world that so many call their life reality. And it is. But I am deeply convicted that >90% of people who get into these conventional fields do not see this as their dream version of their life.
The point I am attempting to verbalize is that instead of treating your career as something fixed and narrow that you are expected to execute on without mistakes for the next decades of your life, you should treat your early 20s as a search for the thing you truly love doing. Your highest calling if you will.
Just from a logic standpoint, taking a few attempts at ideas you have fantasized about will drastically increase the likelihood of you finding a career you deeply love that resemble a life your younger self would have dreamed of. Or, to use some more economic terms, the expected value (=finding a career you love) goes up if you are taking multiple attempts at it. And this does not mean that you keep moving in this narrow field of finance or business. But rather that you engage in real exploration beyond those limited constraints.
If you study nearly anyone that has contributed to our world in meaningful ways by creating something remarkable, they typically share this advice. Some people are blessed to find this very early in their lives and turn out to be geniuses. Others, realize it late in their life during their mid-life crisis. If there is one thing I want to convince you of is that you should treat your career as a search for something you genuinely love, rather than an execution of a preconceived plan.
The Relationship of Risk & Age
Another aspect I wish I would have understood more deeply sooner is the relationship between risk and your age. As you get older, your risk appetite tends to decrease. So the best time to take a risk was years ago. The second best time is right now.
Chances are, there is an unlived dream somewhere inside of you. Something that your social circle of parents and friends does not take seriously. Whether it's becoming a music producer, creating your own fashion brand, launching a startup, or becoming an author. Or something entirely different. You can categorize career choices into conventional and unconventional. By this definition, what the masses do becomes conventional. A norm. A well-traveled path. And this gives us the illusion of safety and certainty. As we are wired for acceptance by the people around us, we all gravitate towards these choices. Luckily, today, we live in a world where it is safe to try unconventional paths. From social security programs, to the wealth of your parents or friends, there are more ways you can make something unconventional paths work than ever. This, however, requires courage. Because most conceptualize it as a risk. I would doubt this categorization in the first place, but regardless, we can stick with this domesticated idea for the sake of this argument.
As you risk tolerance and appetite inevitably decreases every year, your time to act is right now. In line with the idea of finding the thing you love rather than executing on a set career path, now is the time to take that risk. You can always go back later. Even if people will try to convince you this is not the case. If you are a quick learner, ambitious, and good at the things you do, you always find a way back to the conventional world. Likely with an increased market value ironically because of your unconventional experience and new found conviction of why you do the thing you do.
The Role of Purpose & Trusting Your Intuition
A frequently talked about concept in our contemporary world is purpose. I have not interest in breaking this down in great detail. But I do want to expose your mind to a new way to think about purpose in your life.
For me, the joy and fulfillment I experience correlates directly with how much I can give to the people around me and the world. The means through which I live this wiring out is by creating products that improve the life of people. If I can create something that makes life better for 100 people I receive joy and fulfillment. This may not be true for everyone, but I am certain for many if they contemplate their life purpose more deeply, they will also find this to be true. A good virtue to live by is exchanging an excess in use value for the cash value you receive. Or simply put, always overdelivering.
If you are in your early 20s, it is extremely hard to articulate your purpose due to the lack of life experience you have. And with this, I mean real life experience where you took real risks, had skin in the game, and were faced with the struggles and challenges that come with that. This is what real experience look like. Not the fake experience people tend to talk about in perfectly constraint environments. Regardless, despite you likely not being able to express your purpose in sharp language, you do have an inner compass that can guide you towards it. Trust your intuition, it will serve you better than any advise you get from anyone in the world. Thus, the only question when considering life choices becomes: does this feel like an expansion or contraction? Then, sense into your body. And listen to this gut feel. It is always right in such questions.
Regardless of how clear your purpose is, the point I want to make is that it is always wise to trust your gut feeling (=intuition) when making major life decisions. And not make decisions based on opinions of others, fears, or overthinking. But what genuinely your body tells you to do.
The difficult bit about this is that often times when we dare to dream and go after our highest version of our lives, fears enter the picture. In this setting, fears are simply trained reactions that are based on years and years of patterns and subconscious learning from the people around you. Differentiating your gut feeling towards an action from fear is hard. And I don't have the answer for this yet. But having the awareness for this is a first powerful step.