- Things I wish I knew in my 20s.
Travel more for leisure.
Yes, I traveled. I've been all around the world.
We have a whole video dedicated
to all the countries I've been to,
but most of them were for work.
I would fly to China for a day and a half
and then fly right back.
I would fly to Monaco to do my Ted talk and fly right back.
I never truly got exposed to the cultures
of these nations that I was visiting,
and I felt like, if I did,
I could have grown more as an individual.
Wear sunblock.
Oh my God, how many times was I playing soccer outside
and I didn't wear sunblock,
and as a result, I was burned.
Therefore, my skin is showing signs
of what I like to say is premature aging.
It increases my risk for skin cancer later in life
because I had more than several burns.
And it's such an easy thing to do.
We're all trying to play catch up
by doing Botox, fillers, and all this stuff,
when in reality the preventive stuff is what works.
Sunblock.
Don't put an over-emphasis on the future.
Certainly think about the future, plan,
have a five and 10 year plan,
all that good stuff that people talk about,
but don't think the future has a finish line.
I'm guilty of this myself.
When I was in medical school, I would say,
"Oh my God, once I finished medical school,
it's gonna be great.
Once I finish residency, it's gonna be great.
Once I hit a million subs, it'll be great.
Once I hit 10 million subs."
This is all factually untrue.
You have to enjoy the present.
And I'm not saying you have to force yourself
to enjoy the present or anything cheesy like that.
Just take time during the day,
during the night to think about what went on,
to think about the unique experiences you had
because ultimately those experiences will change.
And if you didn't enjoy them then,
odds are you won't enjoy them later.
Devote more time to sustaining friendships
from high school and/or college.
It's very easy in your 20s and even into your 30s
to create distance within friendships accidentally.
Someone moves away, someone finds a relationship,
someone starts a new job.
Send that text message, do a check-in,
have a phone call on your car speaker
when you're driving home from work.
It truly goes a long way.
The older you get,
the less of those friendships you maintain,
and you're gonna kick yourself in the bum for doing that.
Learn to cook.
Right now, I am not a Master Chef.
(Mike screams)
I am Master Uber Eats Seamless Orderer.
That is not ideal.
If I learned to cook in my 20s,
I would've had a great hobby,
used it for dating purposes, been healthier,
because when you cook for yourself,
odds are that it's healthier than ordering out,
and you can use it as a creative outlet,
creating your own dish, putting spices,
doing all this cool stuff.
You also become better at understanding calories
and macronutrients earlier on in your life.
Oh, and not to mention that it saves money.
Start investing earlier.
I always knew when I was younger
that the most valuable investment
would be investing into my future.
Knowledge, skillset, that's absolutely true,
and I don't regret doing that.
But if I invested even a small amount of money
in my early 20s, that would've compounded
into such a good quality savings account.
And you don't have to do something very unique.
A lot of people think
you need to be a master stock picker
or had to get in early with cryptocurrency.
No, invest in the indices.
Buy the S&P and forget about it.
Let it just sit there, and collect that interest.
Spend more time with parents.
I think this one's kind of a universal one.
When we're in our 20s, we're excited,
we're going out a lot, we're going to events,
and we kind of put our parents on the back burner.
I learned firsthand this was a mistake
for me in my early 20s, at least when I lost my mom,
'cause I didn't get to spend enough time with her.
So don't waste those moments.
Invest your time that you have with your family.
Don't buy brand name stuff just to show off.
Oh my God, I did that probably more than I'd like.
And I will say, to give my younger self credit,
I did it for others as well.
So I would try and buy expensive gifts
for my friends, my girlfriends.
Not a smart way to spend money.
You buy, you know, $1000 shoes, $2,000 handbag,
and you're like, "For what?"
That bag is worthless now.
Those shoes are worthless
the moment you walk out of the store.
No one's gonna think
you are a mega millionaire when you're 21 anyway.
Who are you fooling?
But this doesn't go the same for watches.
That is more of an alternative investment.
Sign up for more leagues.
Man, I wish I did this.
When I first came to America,
most of the friends that I made
were because of leagues I signed up for,
soccer, Little League Baseball, Taekwondo.
But in my 20s for some reason after college, I was like,
"All right, I don't have time for leagues."
I wish I did.
You could meet so many people,
like, participating in a league.
You could play pickup basketball, frisbee, flag football.
I wish I did those
'cause I could have met like-minded individuals,
created long-term, lifelong friendships there.
Take it easy with the milkshakes and snicker bars.
This isn't about punishing yourself.
I just know that I probably was a little bit too loose
with my diet early on,
especially in my late teens, early 20s.
I would be eating like two Snickers bars a day,
muffins, milkshakes, all this really unhealthy stuff
because I thought I was young and it's fine.
The foundation of the health of your arteries
starts getting impacted in your late teens, early 20s.
You literally start forming
those early layers of plaques in your blood vessels.
And to make that plaque go away
takes a lot of work, a lot of discipline.
So it's easier to not have it become a problem
by just controlling those binges
of the Snickers bars and milkshakes.
Everyone is faking it.
I would rotate with doctors when I was in my 20s,
cardiologists, neurologists,
and I would assume that they have it all figured out.
I would meet someone who is very wealthy
and assume they have it figured out.
And after spending enough time with them,
I quickly came to the conclusion that we're all faking it,
that we're all just trying to do our best and figure it out.
Some are faking it more than others, obviously.
The takeaway that I have, that I would give myself then,
be as prepared as you can be,
but then learn from the outcome.
You can't control the outcome fully.
Life is too unpredictable.
There are too many variables.
All you can do is what's in your power,
the time you have available,
your genetics, your innate ability.
Use that, use it to the best of your ability,
and then see what happens,
and then do kind of a postmortem analysis.
What went wrong?
What could you have done better?
What'd you do really well?
Give yourself a pat on the back.
Perform more injury prevention exercises.
And I'm not just talking about stretching.
I'm talking about doing shoulder stability work,
getting that scapula stable,
making sure that my rotator cuff muscles are well supported.
If I did that early on,
I wouldn't have a tear of my rotator cuff,
two tears of my labrum,
all because I thought the only way to gain strength
is by putting on 300 pounds and bench pressing it.
But it's not only shoulder related.
It's hip related, stretching, longevity.
Everything improves when you focus on stability,
range of motion, not just on power.
Don't discount sleep.
This is probably my worst health habit in my 20s,
and I'm already feel like I'm starting to regret it now.
But this is something that pays dividends
in your later years if you do take care of your sleep.
Too often I would cram for exams, not sleep,
work all hours of the night, not sleep,
stay out with my friends
and then try and go to class in the morning, not sleep.
I wish I could have those hours back
to get those quality Zs.
Do stuff alone.
This is something that was probably the biggest challenge
in my younger years.
Unless one of my friends would come with me to do something,
I wouldn't go out.
I would just stay home waiting for them to become available.
And the only time that I remember
that I pushed myself outside of the comfort zone
to go do that was after my mom passed away.
I was asking my friends to go do stuff
and they just didn't want to.
And I forced myself to buy a Groupon and go boxing.
And look what's happened.
Just 10 years later I became a professional boxer.
So you never know where going alone will take you.
It could be quite an interesting path.
And by the way, as you get older,
you're gonna be doing more stuff alone.
So learn to enjoy your own company.
Listen to the classics.
And I'm not talking about music,
I'm talking about the books.
I'm a big Audible fan as you know from my other videos.
But if you listen to the classics, you're gonna be faster
at figuring out certain aspects of life.
I have some friends
that I was amazing friends with in my late teens
and early 20s that recently picked up reading.
They weren't big readers, fair.
But now that they're just beginning to read certain books,
they're coming up with the ideas
that I've sort of been navigating
and already trying to figure out
for the last 5 to 10 years.
So you can sort of accelerate this process
by picking up those early books,
starting with a good foundation,
and then figuring out life along the way.
Don't rush into relationships.
I don't know
if I watched "Friends" one too many times or what.
I thought every relationship that I got into was it.
And yes, I want you to be optimistic
and think everything is gonna work out.
But I felt like
after I would go on a first date with somebody, right away,
I would say that this person is either fully compatible
and they're gonna be my potential future wife or not at all,
and it would end right there.
Give relationships some time to form.
Allow yourself some patience in figuring out
if this person is right for you.
Those are all the things I wish I knew in my 20s
or did in my 20s.
But there are three things that I did in my 20s
that I think pay dividends
and I'm proud of myself for doing.
Don't worry so much about money
when it comes to choosing your career.
Money and financial success
comes from creation of value, not the career itself.
So many times people have asked me,
"Mike, why are you going into family medicine?
It doesn't pay as much as plastic surgery or this or that."
It's not important.
What's important is, do you get enjoyment?
Is there a satisfaction with the work?
Are you gonna create value for other people
in this world by going into this field?
I answered all those questions yes,
and I find myself in a very financially rewarded position,
even though I went into a field
that traditionally doesn't pay as much.
So focus less on that
and focus on the other variables much, much more.
Spread success to your friend group, to your acquaintances,
and don't ask or expect for money in return.
This is something I always found strange,
that when I created a connection between somebody
or I introduced someone for a business contact,
they immediately wanted a reward with money
or give you some middlemen fee.
I am not interested in that at all.
I want all the people around me to succeed.
We wanna build each other up.
And when you create this network of rewarding each other
through your friendships and caring for one another,
that's where the biggest reward comes from.
It's not from getting 100 bucks for helping someone out here
or getting some 10% fee of some deal here.
That's not what it's about.
Create your own path.
Certainly take advice and inspiration from others,
those who have more experience or perhaps wiser than you,
but be a trailblazer, a disruptor.
Try to do things differently, disrupt industries.
Look what's working and what's not working
and then try and figure it out.
For me, being a young doctor that saw a gap
within the medical media space, I knew I had to act.
I knew I wanted to put my stamp on this world,
and I wanted to do it differently.
So I was proud of myself that I did that.
But if you can find that within you to say,
"Yes, I'm a big fan of Michael Jordan,"
don't try and be Michael Jordan.
Try to be better than Michael Jordan.
If you wanna be a medical influencer, do it better than me.
Don't strive to be me.
Learn from the mistakes I've made,
but then also learn from what I did well
and improve upon it.
Some of these wacky health products on Goop
need to be reviewed.
Barbara Corcoran from "Shark Tank" and I
take them on in this video.
As always, stay happy and healthy.
(upbeat music)