While you can learn to make money day trading or investing in real estate, those skills are very linear and don’t always apply to everything you will do in life.
The next four skills, however, will stay with you for the rest of your life. In order to prevent future headaches, master them as early as possible. As simple as they may seem, you would be surprised how many people can’t master them, even when they have had 40 years to try. So, start now!
Time Management
Knowing how to manage your time is a skill very often overlooked and one that will allow you to remain productive even when family and routine settle in, in your 30’s. Mastering the art of getting more done in less time is the only way to guarantee your continued growth despite life’s circumstances.
The core concept to learn with time management in your 20’s starts with your ability to know yourself enough to stick to your own deadline, followed by your ability to know when and how to delegate. Ultimately, learn to never make excuses for not having enough time.
Self-Motivation
While in high school and college, you have your teachers to keep you motivated until you graduate. Unfortunately in the real world, there are only two forms of motivation: internal and external. A boss now replaces your teachers and the only real form of motivation is the one you have to find within yourself.
You have to understand as early as possible that no one but yourself can ignite (or put out) the flame within you. The core to self-motivation is to become aware in its purest shape that we are born alone, and die alone.
Therefore we, and we alone, must decide what we are willing to do for something we want so badly. When we align our goals to realistic working expectancies, we tend to hit more benchmarks as we continue working towards those very same goals, increasing our confidence along the way and re-enforcing our belief in ourselves.
Business Ownership
Elon Musk recently said in his 60 Minutes interview that he never believed Tesla would succeed, but anything important enough is worth trying even if it is likely to fail. Too many people wait till the very last minute to learn how to start, operate, and fail in business.
While you don’t have to recreate how mankind thinks about energy in your 20’s, you can still get a taste of business by taking smaller attempts at it by understanding and learning the different components that make up a good versus bad business.
The earlier you are exposed to this, the less risky it seems in your 30’s as you will have been exposed to much more. Try starting with basic selling skills either in person or online, learn how people make purchasing decision, experience the accounting nightmare it can be, and most importantly, feel the insecurity small business owners have.
Financial Markets
Money, money, money… If you don’t comprehend how money works, you can’t learn how to make any. We are not talking to stocks here, we mean the simple idea of understanding supply and demand, financial markets both domestic and international, and also how credit markets work.
Most of this information is available online (most time even for free) on over a dozen sites. Even though you might think it’s simple, it’s imperative to understand how money is made worldwide, and where it is a fit for you to also make some.
The most important part is the understanding of supply and demand, which allows you to understand how people make buying decisions and how value is put on goods and services. This intricate aspect of finance can set you very far ahead of others who, even after owning many fruitful businesses, don’t really get it.
This article has been edited and condensed.
Pejman Ghadimi is the founder and CEO of Secret Entourage, a unique organization which focuses on helping motivate and improve the lives of young entrepreneurs worldwide. He is also the author of Third Circle Theory, a powerful theory which explains how some of today’s top visionaries are made. In his past 10 years, Pejman has held multiple leadership roles at the Vice President level for Fortune 500 companies and has established several successful off-line businesses including Secret Consulting, and VIP Motoring. Connect with @secretentourage on Twitter.
© YFS Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Copying prohibited. All material is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this material is prohibited. Sharing of this material under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International terms, listed here, is permitted.
