Most people hit their stride in their thirties and forties. Studies
show that major life milestones previously reserved for
twenty-somethings , like marriage, buying a home and starting a family are occurring later in life.
But that doesn’t mean that the twenties aren’t an important decade
for personal and professional development. Instead, they are a time when
character development occurs and choices set a course for the future.
Let’s look at 20 life changes highly successful people made in their twenties.
1) Pick A Solid Business Partner like Bill Gates and Paul Allen
We’ve already covered the importance of picking a solid life partner, but hitching your wagon to someone else’s in business is also important. Bill Gates started Microsoft with Paul Allen when they were both in their twenties after becoming friends in high school. Said Allen,
“Our great string of successes had married my vision to his unmatched aptitude for business.”Despite the unraveling of Gates’ and Allen’s partnership after Microsoft was under way, Allen still admits that, in the early days, “We had an amazing friendship and an amazing partnership.”
2. Build Sweat Equity like Oprah
It might be hard to remember a time when Oprah wasn’t a superstar. But she paid her dues as a radio television news reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, and Baltimore, Maryland, bouncing between different stations to learn the craft after college. After 5 years, she was given her own show in Baltimore, which lasted 8 years. Next came a morning show in Chicago. The Oprah Winfrey Show wasn’t nationally syndicated until 1986, after 15 years of work in broadcasting.
“What other people label or might try to call failure, I have learned is just God’s way of pointing you in a new direction.”Don’t be frustrated by being the “low man on the totem pole.” Everyone needs time to learn and grow outside of the pressure of the spotlight. Even Oprah.
3. Learn from Hitting Rock Bottom like Tim Allen
For some people, hitting rock bottom puts the future into clear focus. Comedian Tim Allen, now starring in the ABC sitcom Last Man Standing, was arrested for cocaine possession and drug trafficking in 1978.
“When I went to jail, reality hit so hard that it took my breath away, took my stance away, took my strength away. I was there buck naked, humiliated, sitting in my own crap and urine — this is a metaphor. My ego had run off. Your ego is the biggest coward.”If you’ve recently made a mistake, remember that a little perspective and humility go a long way! Turning that mistake into a learning experience shows maturity as well as personal and professional development.
4. Find the Right Life Partner like Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos married in 1996 when they were both in their twenties. She went on to huge fame, starring in the Regis and Kelly Show (now Kelly and Michael Show), and he starred on All My Children and now Alpha House.
Finding the right partner offers a foundation for both your personal and professional life.
“He is the person I was meant to be with forever, and I think he feels the same way. We really do have quite an allegiance to one another. No matter what, we support each other in everything we do.”
5. Make Your Own Education like Steve Jobs
Staying in school is clearly the safer path to success. But for some young entrepreneurs, college is not necessary. Steve Jobs famously dropped out of Reed College and started Apple Computers with Steve Wozniak in a garage. At his 2005 commencement address to the graduates of Stanford, he explained:
“After six months [at college], I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.”
6. Take a Risk like Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer was given 14 job offers after graduation at Stanford University. One of those was from Google – at that time the company only had 19 employees and no women on staff. But she went on to be a part of some of the most successful Google products before transitioning to Yahoo to act as CEO.
“I helped build Google, but I don’t like to rest on [my] laurels. I think the most interesting thing is what happens next.”
7. Start a Business like Jay-Z
Sean Carter had rapped under the nickname Jay-Z for many years, but it wasn’t until he founded Roc-A-Fella Records with two friends that he became a star. Under his own label, Jay-Z released Reasonable Doubt, which is now widely thought of as a classic hip-hop album.
“There’s not a lot of people who have come of age in rap because it’s only 30 years old…As more people come of age, hopefully the topics get broader and then the audience will stay around longer.”
8. Take Advantage of Compounding Interest like Warren Buffet
Putting a few hundred dollars a year away now and letting compounding interest work its magic for decades until retirement will result in more money than trying to play catch-up with the same amount later in life. And with our collective credit scores hovering below average in a lot of places, that’s advice we should take. Warren Buffet had that figured out, since he started investing right after college.
“I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.”
9. Work in Sales like Howard Schultz
There is a lot that can be learned in sales that will teach lessons for future success: how to make a good first impression, how to persuade and convince others, how to take rejection well, among many other things. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz started as a Xerox salesman. That led him to a job as a coffee machine salesmen, which is how he crossed paths with his current career.
In his book, Pour Your Heart Into It, Schultz writes:
“Cold-calling was great training for business. It taught me to think on my feet. So many doors slammed on me that I had to develop a thick skin and a concise sales pitch for a then-newfangled machine called a word processor. But the work fascinated me, and I kept my sense of humor and adventure. I thrived on the competition, trying to be the best, to be noticed, to provide the most leads to my salesmen. I wanted to win.”
10. Find a Mentor like Condoleezza Rice
Long before she became Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice took a class at the University of Denver taught by Dr. Josef Korbel (father of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright). His leadership and passion for Soviet and eastern European politics inspired Rice to change majors and pursue that career path.
The two stayed in touch, the mentor encouraging his mentee to pursue a doctorate, which led her to a professorship and placed her on the radar of federal government agencies. According to this NPR story:
“To Rice, Korbel was a dazzling mentor, the person she cites as having inspired her to become a diplomat.”
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