07/10/2026
Five Things I Wish I Did in My 20s
The older you get, the more you realise that some of the things you worried about were not nearly as important as they felt at the time.
And some of the things you kept postponing were far more important than you realised.
If I could sit across from my 20+-year-old self today, there are a few things I would tell him.
1. I would have worried less about looking successful and spent more time becoming valuable.
In your 20s, there can be this quiet pressure to look like you have figured life out.
The right car.
The right clothes.
The right title.
The right circle.
But looking successful and becoming valuable are two very different things.
I would have invested more aggressively in what nobody could easily take away from me: knowledge, competence, character and the ability to solve difficult problems.
Because eventually, appearance stops opening doors.
Value keeps opening them.
2. I would have learned to become a beginner more often.
There is something strange that happens as we grow older.
We become more afraid of looking like we don’t know something.
So we stay around what is familiar.
Looking back, I would have entered more rooms where I was the least knowledgeable person.
I would have learned more things that made me uncomfortable.
New technology. New industries. New ways of thinking.
The world changes too quickly to become too proud to start from zero again.
3. I would have taken money more seriously much earlier.
Not just earning it.
Understanding it.
There is a difference.
I would have learned earlier about investing, assets, compound growth and what happens when money is allowed to work over a long period of time.
You can always earn more money.
What you cannot earn back is time.
And when it comes to building wealth, time is one of the greatest advantages a young person has.
4. I would have paid more attention to the people I was becoming close to.
Your circle does more than give you company.
It quietly affects what you consider normal.
How you think about money.
How seriously you take your career.
What you believe is possible.
How you respond to failure.
Even the kind of opportunities you hear about.
Some relationships will change your life without ever announcing themselves as “opportunities.”
Choose people carefully.
And when you find good people, keep them.
5. I would have started more things before I felt ready.
This may be the biggest one.
There were probably things I thought I needed more knowledge, more money, more confidence or better timing to begin.
Age teaches you something:
You rarely feel completely ready.
Sometimes clarity comes after you start.
Confidence comes after you try.
And the experience you are waiting to have is often hidden inside the thing you are afraid to begin.
If you are currently in your 20s or 30s, you have something incredibly valuable that may not feel valuable yet:
time.
Use some of it to make mistakes.
Use some of it to learn.
Use some of it to build.
And please, don’t spend all of it trying to convince people that you are already successful.
Give yourself enough time to actually become the person you want people to think you are.
Ndewo nu!
