I had so much fun writing this series last year that I decided to do it again this year. While I didn't get chased by angry bulls or bathe in Tuscan chianti this summer, there were a few memorable moments and a couple of valuable life lessons you guys will appreciate. A couple of them might even motivate you to work harder/smarter (at least harder/smarter than I did). So that's what's up this week.
Like last year, I thought I'd sketch out the broad strokes for you in this post and then get more in-depth with the daily posts. So here are some of the things I learned while vacationing this summer in Spain, Belgium, Germany, and Ireland:
- Spain is in real trouble. Youth unemployment is off the charts, and having massive numbers of disaffected youth in a country is never good. I rented a gorgeous villa on the Costa Dorada, but it was protected like a maximum security prison compound. Beautiful country and great people, but they need to get a handle on shit PRONTO.
- If you're 42 years old and you're still flying commercial - you're doing it wrong. Come to think of it, by then it's probably too late. You did it wrong.
- Diving on the grenade so your wingman can take her hot friend home can sometimes save your life - and cost him his.
- Speaking of grenades, losing your legs in your early 20's sucks ass. There's just no two ways about it.
- A private jet and domestic servants are no longer a luxury, they're a necessity.
- I am a fat bastard. I started the year at 235 and dropped to 204 in 4 months with zero effort on the Slow Carb Diet. I then spent the successive 4 months piling the weight back on. It was awesome. Tipped the scales at 233 this morning.
- If you're not celebrating your youth every day, I mean really sucking the very marrow out of life while you're young, it will be your most profound and lasting regret when you get older. I honestly don't think I could've lived a wilder life or experienced any more than I did while I was young, and I still find myself looking back wishing I'd squeezed more into every hour of every day. You only get one shot at this - don't blow it.
It's gonna be a fun week, guys.
looking forward to it
cant wait for you to elaborate some of these points!
Eddie, please impart more of your sage advice! Sounds like a mini-man week part 2.
This post made my feel like such a tool, working so hard on this pe internship on the weekends while everyone is having fun....Great post nonetheless!
Eddie - number 7 is a point that pretty seriously resonates with me, as I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out myself recently.
Being in my early twenties, I try to figure out in my mind how to enjoy life to the fullest and do as much as I can without running myself into the ground (work-wise, relationship-wise, health-wise). I feel like I'm constantly on the move, which may just be a factor of the summer having just ended, but I worry sometimes that I'm tiring myself out too much and that I should be focusing on more important things. Obviously I'm working hard at my job, but there's always the question of "should I go do XYZ fun thing on the weekend with friends or should I stay in and study for the CFA/LSAT/GMAT or do extra work to impress my boss or whatever."
Well this isn't really much of a question, now that I've actually written it out. I can imagine that people who have been successful would never look back and say "I wish I worked harder" but would instead think "I wish I'd enjoyed my youth more." I guess what I'm asking is - how do you strike the balance so you're never wasting a second of time, but also so you don't kill yourself in the process?
The one biggest factor for me has been to cut out TV and video games - my biggest regret of college (and I don't have many, as I had a college experience that blew away anything I could have possibly thought of when I stepped foot on campus as a freshman) was that I spent even a second more than I needed to in front of a screen when I could have been out doing crazy and stupid things with my friends or talking with a brilliant professor or dominating some kid at pickup basketball or what have you.
Sorry for the rant, but I'd be interested to hear what you think. How did you make sure you got everything out of being young, but still made sure to work extremely hard and prioritize the important things in life while not wasting time on everything else?
Point 7 makes me think I am wasting my life at this moment. I'm 25, working with a bunch of 40 year olds.
Agree with Otter too. Where'd you find the balance? I'm overloaded with work that I am missing out on so much stuff. I miss one night, and you get in that mind to miss another, and suddenly you dont know who you're friends are.
Otter & FinancialNoviceII:
I have an exactly the same situation... Asking myself if bigger paycheck and studying for CFA for brighter future will grant me satisfaction "again, in the future". Probably the thing is, that people who are partying and doing nothing all the time don't care. I wouldn't be able to talk to a person, who has never worked before at 25 (I have seen those a lot lately). I think the solution is to talk to people with the same passion/interests/heavy workload etc. By the end of the day you can always decide if you want to have fun, take days off and go to Machu Pichu, or go start something which will grant you freedom. I have realized that taking days off and going to Barcelona/Amsterdam etc. for a weekend or a couple of days boosts my good feeling at what I am doing right now... but again, it is individual...
Eddie, I distinctly remember you saying in one of the NSFW videos that "At the end of the day it doesn't really matter whether you're rich or poor, just try to find yourself some happiness in life." Now I don't know about you, but I don't know too many poor people with private jets and domestic servants, and we all know it's impossible to be happy without the bare necessities.
Care to revise one of your statements?
^^^ one monkey shit platter coming his way for tool like remarks.
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