Make This One Change to Succeed Faster | Unforgettable Advice for Students

I advise students as much as possible, look for the job that you would take if you didn't need a job.

Here's the key: learn from every mistake.

Be prepared to be misunderstood. Anyone working on a big vision is going to get called crazy, even if you end up right.

What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan Carmichael. My one word is believe, and I believe in you. I believe you have an amazing gift inside you that I want to see explode out onto the world. So to help you on your journey today, we're going to learn the best best advice that all students need to hear. Enjoy. Tip number 1 is don't sleepwalk through life with Warren Buffett.

I advise students as much as possible, look for the job that you would take if you didn't need a job. I mean, don't sleepwalk through life and don't, don't say it's all going to be great. You know, I'll do this and I'll do that. And you know, I'm just marking time to get to be older. I've told people, that's like saving up sex for your old age. I mean, it just is not a good idea. Yeah, yeah.

What are you urging them to do?

I'll explain. Guess what I'm talking about. You just, you really want to be doing what you love doing, and you can't necessarily find it on your first job, right? But don't give up before you find it.

Tip number 2 is learn to think critically with Jordan B. Peterson.

The best thing you can do is teach people to write, because there's no difference between that and thinking. And one of the things that just blows me away about universities is that no one ever tells students why they should write something. It's like, well, you have to do this assignment. Well, why are you writing? Well, you need the grade. It's like, no, you need to learn to think because thinking makes you act effectively in the world. Thinking makes you win the battles you undertake, and those could be battles for good things. If you can think and speak and write, you are absolutely deadly. Nothing can get in your way. That's why you learn to write. And I can't believe that people aren't just told that. It's like— it's the most powerful weapon you can possibly provide someone with. And I mean, I know lots of people who've been staggeringly successful and watched them throughout my life. I mean, those people, you don't want to have an argument with them. They'll just slash you into pieces. And not in a malevolent way. It's like, if you're gonna make your point and they're gonna make their point, you better have your points Organized, because otherwise you are gonna look like and be an absolute idiot. You are not gonna get anywhere. And if you can formulate your arguments coherently and make a presentation, if you can speak to people, if you can lay out a proposal, God, people give you money, they give you opportunities, you have influence.

Tip number 3: Learn from every mistake with Oprah Winfrey.

This is what I want to share. It doesn't matter how far you might rise, at some point you are bound to stumble. Because if you're constantly doing what we do, raising the bar, if you are constantly pushing yourself higher, higher, the law of averages, not to mention the myth of Icarus, predicts that you will at some point fall. And when you do, I want you to know this, remember this: there is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction. Now, when you're down there in a hole, it looks like failure. So this past year I had to spoon-feed those words to myself. And when you're down in the hole, when that moment comes, it's really okay to feel bad for a little while. Give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost, but then here's the key: learn from every mistake, because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakes are there to cheat you and force you into being more of who you are. And then figure out what is the next right move. And the key to life is to develop an internal moral emotional GPS that can tell you which way to go.

Tip number 4: Work on yourself with Kevin O'Leary.

I was working once at an ice cream parlor when I was about 15 years old, my first real job, and on the second day I was asked to scrape the gum off off between the Mexican tiles on the floor, and I said to the woman who owned the store, it was called Magoo's Ice Cream Parlor, "You didn't hire me to scrape gum, you hired me to scoop ice cream, and this girl in the shoe store across the way is looking at me, I don't want her to see me scraping the gum." And she said, "What are you talking about? I own this store, I'll do anything I want with you. Get down on your knees and scrape that gum." And I said, "I'm not doing it." She said, "You're fired." Last job I ever had. I owe that woman everything. I don't like to work for people. Many of you in here, I hope, inherit that. There's nothing wrong with it, but if you want to control your own destiny, you work for yourself. That's how it works. I'm trying to inspire those of you who are on the tipping point Take the chance, you're young. Go for it. There's nothing better than being able to wake up in the morning 10 years or 20 years from now and do whatever you like. It's about freedom. That's what matters. I'm not saying being an employee is bad, but believe me, Being an entrepreneur is better. I'm a little biased.

Tip number 5, attack what you love with Gary Vaynerchuk.

If you are 22 years old and graduating from college, shit. If you're 22 years old and not graduating from college, if you are 22 years old, you are entering, first of all, some of the greatest years of your life, A, but B, this. This is the moment. Watch this video twice. If mama's watching this, send this to your daughter Sally right now because you have to understand this next 5-year window is when you don't go practical and safe. This is not the time to get the job mom wanted you to. This is not the time to try to maximize as much money so you can buy a fat whip. This is the time to realize that you have a 5-year window, and it's 3 for some, it's 8 for others, but there's a 5-year window for you to attack the life that you want to win, not because it's the secret, or 'cause the world's so zen, 'cause it's fucking hard as shit out there. As a matter of fact, I'm probably more scared about your naivete to how hard it— Class is easy, right? What you've been doing for the last 16 years is easy. It's a fucking bullshit game. It's structured, it's easy. The world, this thing, this thing is hard. However, That contradicts what I'm gonna tell you right now, which is this is the best and easiest 5 years of your life because this is when you need to attack what you love and what you want to do. Here's why. You don't have all the baggage. You may have college loans, respect, it's hard as shit. You may have the expectations of your parents, mentally hard, fake hard. You may have a lot of other things, but this is exactly when you can live with 4 roommates in a basement and eat fast food. Do you understand? This is not when the baby's there. Some of you have babies. This is not when you've been married and you promised. This is not when the world has sucked out all your dreams and hopes yet. You still got this window. And yet, so many of you are so hungry for short-term, short-term gains, like maximizing the job that paid you $3,000 more but it's not as fun but you want that $3,000 for what? For what? For a new iPhone? For what? You get to live life one time and this is the time right now to understand what's actually happening and actually map your behavior to something that will impact you for the next 80 years. So promise me, promise me all you youngsters that are watching this right now in the fucking comments 'cause I'll jump in and talk to you. Promise me that you understand that the land grab of happiness starts right now. That you don't have to worry about getting that job. What you should do is go and travel and learn. Go and start that business that you've always wanted. Hook up with those 3 teammates and start that band you've always wanted. This is the time to be massively risk, massively risk-oriented. I know that this is when you're supposed to grow up and go see the world, but guess what? The world isn't what mommy and daddy told you. The world is exactly is going to be what it's going to be with or without the way you thought it was gonna be. A ton of shit is gonna change. The world changes every goddamn day. Right now what you need to recognize is you can afford to.

Tip number 6, be prepared to be misunderstood with Mark Zuckerberg.

It's really good to be idealistic, but be prepared to be misunderstood. Anyone working on a big vision is gonna get called crazy, even if you end up right. Anyone taking on a complex problem is going to get blamed for not fully understanding it, even though it's impossible to know everything up front. Anyone taking initiative will always get criticized for moving too fast because there's always someone who wants to slow you down.

Tip number 7: Take risks with Natalie Portman.

People told me that Black Swan was an artistic risk, a scary challenge to try to portray a professional ballet dancer. But it didn't feel like courage or daring that drew me to it. I was so oblivious to my own limits that I did things I was woefully unprepared to do. And so the very inexperience that in college had made me feel insecure and made me want to play by others' rules now was making me actually take risks I didn't even realize were risks. When Darren asked me if I could do ballet, I told him that I was basically a ballerina, which by the way I wholeheartedly believed. When it quickly became clear in preparing for the film that I was maybe 15 years away from being a ballerina, it made me work a million times harder. And of course, the magic of cinema and body doubles helped the final effect. But the point is, if I had known my own limitations, I never would have taken the risk. And the risk led to one of my greatest artistic and personal experiences, in that I not only felt completely free, I also I met my husband during filming.

Tip number 8: Learn before you earn with Tim Ferriss.

So what would my advice be to a driven and intelligent college student or young person about to enter the real world? Well, it would be very simple. It would be focus on learning instead of earning. And that sounds cliché, but I'll explain why, because if you want to make say, $1 million a year, $10 million a year instead of $100,000 a year, I would argue you probably don't want to take the $100,000 per year job even if it's offered to you right out of the gate. I know that sounds like a lot of money, but what I'm going to recommend is not limited to finances. You want to focus on projects, on companies, on environments where you can learn lessons on someone else's bankroll Alright, so let them pay for it, and view it effectively as an apprenticeship. So find a situation where you can be in the room with masters of a craft, and that could just be deal-making. It could be joining a small company, say fewer than 50 people, where you simply get to observe one of the principals negotiating in an industry that you don't even care anything about, alright? It could be waste management, and you wanna go into high tech, but if you sit in a room with someone who's an absolute pro at crafting deals, negotiating, getting past no, those skills and maybe those relationships start to snowball, all right? And this is what Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, would call systems thinking. So instead of being wedded to the outcome of a given job, you are accumulating skills and relationships that transcend that job, okay? And if you choose your environments well, because as I've said before and as people like Drew, the CEO of Dropbox, who's a friend, have said, you're the average of the 5 people you associate with most, all right? So if you take just a few years, have the patience, a few years to really develop core competencies that allow you to craft your own reality and life, negotiation, deal-making, getting past no, et cetera, learning how to pitch, how to get someone's attention in 30 seconds so that you can then create the desire and ultimately ask for some type of action. Once you develop those, then you can really just create the map for the next decade, and the next several decades. So that would be it. It would be learn before you earn, and it's never too late to do that. So I don't care if you're coming out of college, coming out of high school, 30, 40, whatever it is. Systems thinking, focus on the skills and relationships first, and then you can just create a blank check for how much money you want to make if that is your goal.

And tip number 9, the last one before the bonus, is bring your dreams to life. With Denzel Washington.

My wife told me this great expression: to get something you never had, you have to do something you never did. Les Brown's a motivational speaker. He made an analogy about this. He says, imagine you're on your deathbed, and standing around your deathbed are the ghosts representing your unfulfilled potential. The ghost of the ideas you never acted on. The ghost of the talents you didn't use. And they're standing around your bed angry, disappointed, and upset. They say, "We came to you because you could have brought us to life," they say, "and now we have to go to the grave together." So I ask you today, how many ghosts are going to be around your bed when your time comes?

Now I have a special bonus clip for you from Jeff Bezos, but before getting to that, my question of the day today is, what is the single best piece of advice that you you have ever received that has had an impact on you? What is that best piece of advice? Leave in the comments below. I'm excited to see what you have to say. Thank you guys so much for watching.

I believe in you.

I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon, and enjoy the bonus clip.

When I, uh, uh, decided to do this, I I first talked to my wife, who is sitting here in the audience, and she had married a relatively stable, goofy, but still relatively stable person working at a Wall Street firm. I worked at a quantitative hedge fund, and this was a hard decision. And I was looking for the right framework in which to make that kind of important decision, and the right The right framework I found is a regret minimization framework. And that's just a nerdy way of saying that you want to project yourself to age 80, and then think back over your life, and if you're 80, what are the, you want to minimize the number of regrets you have throughout that period of time. I think this is something a lot of people do, maybe subconsciously, they probably, very few people probably name it regret minimization framework, because most people are healthier than that. But it was a very clear way for me to think about making that kind of life decision. And the way it helped was, I thought, okay, if I go do this thing and participate in this thing called the internet that I genuinely believe is gonna be a big deal, and if I fail, am I gonna regret having tried and failed? And I knew the answer to that was no. But I also knew that if I didn't try, that I would always regret that. I would always wonder, and it would haunt me until that, you know, mythical day, which I actually hope will come.

So let me give you the one word secret to happiness.

One word. This is all you need to be happy.

The most important word ever.

If you had to think of one word that's most important important to you or that sums you up or that would be kind of like a little beacon?

Hey, Believe Nation!

If you want to know what the most important one word is for Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Oprah Winfrey, will.i.am, and Howard Schultz, I have a very special secret video for you. Check the description for details.