Most recently, I turned 24.

24 feels a bit old, but I’ve been told it is still very young in terms of career growth.

Knowing this, I decided to do some reflecting to review what I’ve learned and have some foresight on where I’m headed.

Here’s the aggregation of all this.

As of now, I work a nice job in venture capital. Doing a self-assessment on fulfillment, I am actually reasonably close to the life I want.

A life of true freedom secured by financial freedom + fulfilling relationships.

I have an idea of the skills I want to develop/have, but am honestly kind of flexible on this, and leaving room for these to change.

But as of now,

Understand how to design systems and leverage tools to build business systems that scale and lead to impact.

Being able to have strong public speaking, articulation, and depth of knowledge in a subject does a lot. Of course, writing has been good, but strong in-person communication does a lot for the energy and aura you bring to a room and seems to be a key aspect of strong leadership.

I am confident in my ability to get along with anyone, which aids my ability to bring people together. This seems to be a skill that will hold more importance as AI takes over the world. And honestly, it seems to be a skill that I have proven to do well with casual friend hangouts, small tech events, etc. There might be a competitive edge here for me to organize people and keep a room warm. The only jobs people will do are the ones that people want people to do. Community is one of them. This is an area that I should explore more of. Main idea: bring people together.

i.e. the actionable things I need to do to develop the skills I want to set up future me.

Here’s what I’m thinking:

Keep writing on LinkedIn. Figure out a good Twitter strategy and keep going.

Explore side projects. Operations agency. Indie hacking apps. All tentative ideas, execution is on the way, with room to fail.

Build systems that scale. Make introductions that matter.

Learn how to get sponsors. Host a monthly event.

At 24,

➡ Everything takes longer than you think.

2-3 month goals are great but you’d surprise yourself with how much you can do in 2-3 years. Personal growth seems to be like compound interest. Start early, and you grow faster over time in a 10 year timeframe.

➡️ Seasons are better than balance.

I spent a lot of life trying to fit every habit, hobby, etc into everyday of my life. But looking back, the most progress was made when in one season of my life, I was really focused on one thing.

➡️ Physical health is mental health.

I have never regretted a workout. The mental clarity from exercising is unbeatable. Human were made to move, go move.

➡️ Figuring things out isn’t found by standing around.

I’ve learned the most about myself by committing myself to something for 1-2 years to effectively judge it and then evaluate. Picking something, sticking with it for a bit, and evaluating seems to be the move.

➡️ Intuition takes you surprisingly far.

I’ve had some no news no social media periods of my life which I think have helped my intuition, and have helped me tune into the wavelength of life you might say. Making decisions off pure intuition has led to some great wins so far.

➡️ Have something to say.

This saying has stuck with me for a while. The presentation of yourself to others is much better received when you have color to yourself and when you have a kick to you worth sharing.

➡️ Environment is important and a reflection of you.

UCLA vs community college was a crazy jump. But making this jump, leveled myself up farther than I thought I could go. On top of that, I’ve tend to mold to the people around me, so I try to keep to some cool people around me.

➡️ To have the opportunity is the opportunity. Have some gratitude.

Being able to focus on your personal growth & your personal career is luxury. Priorities change fast when you are responsible for others or need to find 3 meals a day and a roof over your head.

➡️ Fulfilling relationships is a fulfilling life.

There’s a stat out there that people with more friends live longer. It makes sense. At the end of the day, having people you share your wins/losses with seems to be what’s its all about.

➡️ Distribution is everything

In the sea of AI noise, a new competitive edge that startups have found against other nearly identical products is distribution and a more “human” branded product. It seems distribution and "human” branding have growing importance in career as well. The more eyes on you, the bigger your surface area of luck is. I see your ability to access communities, catch eyes, and to appear as a human to be more important than ever.

➡️ The bolder the better in startup land once again

I see traditional B2B SaaS companies phasing out, and deep tech being core to new startup culture. Running excel formulas only get you so far, software’s barrier to entry is only decreasing, so let’s instead blindly throw some money at that new robotics company run by that amazing team. The higher the barrier of entry, the harder to build, the more impact, and it’s refreshing seeing new startups and VC investments return to what startups were meant to be about: innovation.

➡️ Hard work and personality

I believe work ethic does take you very far. If you were to put 60+ hours a week towards something you care about, the truth is you’re not going to end up in a bad spot. But there is something to be said about people who have ambition, work hard, and also have a personality. It adds so much to one’s character when they’ve hiked Machu Picchu, sing in their free time, or have something going on outside of work. The room lights up when they’re there, the conversation follows them, and they seem to be much more fulfilled people.

➡️ Thinking in systems is the new high-value skill

It seems like any technical skill you pick up now gets outdated in a couple weeks, that’s why you NEED to “leArn to UsE AI”. Yeah, learning how to prompt efficiently is probably gonna be a good skill to have but I think it undermines the concept here. I think the people who succeed are gonna be the ones who understand the set of “tools” they have, their effect, and build systems with these “tools” that compound into success. This expands beyond “AI” and to things like people skills, content skills, and a combination of everything at your disposal. Kind of meta, but think about it.

➡️ Alcohol & Coffee

Caffeine addiction and going out for a drink seem to be core to any work culture. What I realized entering the workforce though, is that real high-value business activity actually stems from these activities. These activities are great for relationship building in the startup ecosystem, but too much of anything is a bad thing. You don’t need to take every coffee or drink, the most important coffee chats and quick drinks will find you.

If you made it this far, or at least skimmed this far, thanks for taking the time to do so and for your curiosity. Genuinely appreciate it.

And for you reading, always feel free to reach out, happy to help any way I can.