7 Things I Regret NOT Doing In My 20s [0:00:00]
So, when I was 22, I felt like I was on top of the world. On the same day that I graduated
college, I got my commission in the United States Marine Corps. In fact, I remember riding
around campus on my Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 in my dress blues feeling like Richard Gere at
the end of the movie, An Officer and an Gentleman. Well, being the smart guy I was, the next
day, I went and traded in my motorcycle and picked up a new Chevy pickup truck. I drove
that truck off a lot, only have to come up with 650 bucks a month at 26% interest. Yeah,
I had no understanding of interest rates. And for those of you that don’t speak finance,
a 26% interest rate is highway robbery. Seriously, I might as well borrow money from a loan shark.
And to add insult to injury, I was so oblivious to this that I paid on this loan for a year,
no problem until one of my roommates, who was a finance major saw the bill laying around
and was like, “Are you crazy? You need to renegotiate.”
So, I approached the bank and they wouldn’t lower my interest rate. I ended refinancing
the loan at an interest rate well under 10%. But the reality is I was under water on that
vehicle. Now, the story you could say had a happy ending.
I ended up doubling down on my payments. I paid it off early and to this day, I still
own that truck. Seriously, that truck now is almost 25 years old. And this summer, I
had it sanded down and repainted. That being said, I regret being too busy to
look at the numbers. I remember not even really looking the paperwork. I just trusted the
guy. I thought he would take care of me. And that had me waste almost $10,000.
[Music] Now, this next one, I bet a lot of you guys
can relate to and that’s I regret not taking better care of my body. In particular, not
learning how to lift weights. And to be fully transparent, this was really
bad for me because I was a military man. I was getting paid to actually take care of
myself. In fact, it was expected. We had fitness test. So, it was something every lunch break,
you’re expected to disappear for an hour and go take care of your body.
And I identified as runner, so, yes, I would go for jogs and I could do my pull-ups, I
could do my crunches, but when it comes down to lifting weights, no, I ignored it. I thought,
you know, that’s not my thing. Here’s the thing. I was surrounded by people
with tons of knowledge and I wasted the opportunity to be able to glimpse on that knowledge and
build up habits, which would have served me the rest of my life.
Now, of course, it’s not too late, but what I’m saying here in this video is I really
wish I would have built the habit sooner. Because now, I’m still trying to relearn
things, it’s difficult. I still want to default to going for a jog when resistance
training is such a great way to stay in shape especially as you age, as you get in your
40s, 50s, and 60s. And speaking of taking care of your body,
I regret not learning how to cook healthy meals. Now, when it comes to pasta dishes,
when it comes to fried foods, I know tons of recipes. But, when it comes to lean healthy
dishes, a menu without sugars, that is difficult for me.
Now, it save me because I’m pretty good at cooking meats and I can just eat raw vegetables.
But, I really wish I would have learned how to make tons of different salads and focus
in on foods that, yes, just have lower carbs and less sugar.
And speaking of staying healthy, let’s talk about today’s sponsor, Ritual. Now, gents,
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I know for me personally the habit is when I wake up, I go downstairs and I slam a glass
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plenty of water, but, again, I’m not eating any food first thing in the morning, but I
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deal on the web. Now, for this next point, I want to be a little
bit personal. And some of you guys may find this hard to believe, but I was a complete
asshole when it came to dating in my early 20s. And I regret, I feel like I wasted so
many great opportunities for relationships with nice girls because I treated them like
objects. I just went right through her. If she was pretty, I went after her and as soon
as I got what I wanted, I moved right on. [0:05:01]
I remember just this beautiful girl, Alicia. And she was the daughter of a gunnery sergeant.
Once I was there and I got what I wanted and had my fun, I just moved on. And I remember
breaking up with her. I was basically just dropping her off at her house and I was playing
love song. And it was cruel, why was I even doing this. I just like the song. I didn’t
care how she felt at all. And we all go through this and I’m sure
we all treat some people bad and we’ve done things like this. But, I felt I did it more
than many. And I guess I was rewarded because now, I’ve got, you know, I’ve got three
girls, another girl on the way. This is life. I’m going to have to deal with all the heartaches
and all the guys that are going to probably do some of the same things to people in my
family. Point being, guys, is treat people with respect.
I know there’s a lot of like men feel this stuff about like, you know, women are out
to get you. It goes both ways. And, hopefully you find somebody.
And I’m fortunate enough that I did find somebody that I learned to build a strong
relationship with. But I really wish I wouldn’t have wasted all those opportunities to learn
how to build strong healthy relationships with women.
Now, gents, really quick, I need your attention. I want to save you from a big regret. And
that regret is not liking this video. Seriously, if you don’t smash this like button, you,
20 years from now will wake up with cold sweats and say, “Gosh, if I just liked that video
and helped Antonio.” Seriously, when you engage with these videos,
it helps the videos do better, so I appreciate it. Yeah, we know to make more videos like
this. Next up, I want to talk about wasting two
years of my life in flight school chasing somebody else’s dream.
So, here’s the thing is I get to flight contract when I entered the Marine Corps.
And that was really cool and tons of people wanted this. I had good vision, I was in good
shape, I was the right size. Everything was aligned, except for the fact that I really
didn’t want to be a pilot. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I just
knew that I was going along, this was a great place to be. I was getting paid, I was doing
some pretty cool stuff, enjoyed the basic school, which is basic officer training that’s
six months long. I had a great time. But, I didn’t – I really have to do work
hard because guess what? I was – all of us pilots, we’re going to flight school,
so it didn’t matter how we rank in the whole system, drove a lot of other people nuts.
But, I showed up to flight school and I realized very quickly, this is not the place for me.
There are all these people there that want to be in flight school.
And I stuck to it for two years, not because I’m wanting to be a pilot, but I just simply
didn’t know what else I wanted to do. And I enjoyed kind of the party scene, I was having
a great time, but I wasn’t enjoying really what I was there to do. And I wish I would
have the courage to step out of that sooner. What ended up happening is I blew my sinuses
out and I had to go in for surgery and they said, “Okay. Well, we can get you back in
the flight program after a year of recovery.” And I just opted to exit and just go to the
infantry. Now, the big picture of things, all this time
I wasted all these regrets, they actually made me who I am today, so I can’t say that
I would go back in time and undo any of these. But, there is one thing looking back that
I would probably go back and try to undo. And that is being away from my son for the
first three years of his life. So, after I left the military, I went and
lived in Ukraine for a year. My wife and I were married there and my son was born. And
I realized I didn’t have any great skills, so I needed to go back to school, at least
I thought. And I got into the University of Texas. I scored pretty high on the GMAT. I
was able to make up for my horrible grades in undergrad and I got into this great program.
But, I realized I’m not going to be making any money, I’ve got a wife and a young son
and we are going to keep you guys in Ukraine. That was what we decided. And I’m going
to go in and I’m going to study hard and I’m just going to be able to get through
these two years, pick up my MBA and then get a good job.
Now, logically on paper that makes a lot of sense, but when it comes to the heart when
it comes to knowing that I missed some of the formative years of my son’s life, you
know, that’s something I have to live with. I’ve tried to make up the time, trying to
spend a lot of time with him now. And I am fortunate I’m in a position where I can
choose my hours. We’ve been able to take trips around the world and I’ve been working
to build that relationship. But, to this day, I still wonder, we still have a pretty, you
know, a little bit of standoffish relationship. He’s very quiet around me. He’s more open
to his mom. And is it because I didn’t spend this time around him when he was younger?
You know, I’m not going to regret this going forward, I am going to continue.
We just took a trip to Austin, Texas went to F1, awesome. But, I do these things, I’m
trying to spend more experiences with him because I realized, you know, you can’t
make up the time with the people you care about with the people you love. It will never
be the wrong decision to spend, yes, maybe take a year off of your career path or starting
your business to spend time with your father, who’s in really bad shape.
Looking back on this, this is going to really be the moments you’re most proud of. Yes,
you will lose some time. You may not – your business may not grow as big as it could have
if you had put in those, you know, that investment, but you invested in yourself, in your family,
in those relationships, which I think ultimately define you as a person.
Now, speaking of business, one thing I do regret is not starting my business sooner.
So, I remember being a student, we were doing all these simulations. I spent a lot of time
focusing in on grades, which is good, I got great grades with my MBA program. But, if
I just would have started on the internet. If I just would have started there a little
bit earlier, I would have been so far ahead. [0:10:08]
And that’s what I recommend to any student, anyone that ever says, “You know what? I’m
thinking about this.” I’m like, “Stop thinking and just get started.”
I remember in this one class we were doing these computer simulations of these businesses
we were starting and we put our heart and soul into this, ended up not getting a good
grade because of some stupid glitch. It was very frustrating.
Point being is look at all the time and energy I spent on that class, I probably could have
spent it actually starting a real business. Because that’s an amazing part in business
whenever you take that idea and you throw it out there and you most likely get rejected,
but sometimes you get that first sales. Sometimes you get somebody that’s willing
to pay you for that service and that’s when you realized, wow, I’ve got a lot of power
in my hands, I’ve got the ability to control my faith. It just something it took – it
took me like six months after I left the business school, I got fired from my first job to actually
make my first dollar. And I wish I would have started that so much sooner.
All right, gents. So now, it’s your turn. I want to hear from you down in the comments.
What are things you regret? What is it that you wish looking back if you could whisper
in the ear of your 20-year old self or just yourself a few years ago, do this, what would
it be? Guys, I want to hear from you down below.
All right, gents. So, what video to watch next? Well, how about why I stopped waking
up at 5:00 AM? Seriously, for the longest time, I was an early morning riser and then,
I decided, you know what? I’m going to start sleeping.
Why did I do this the story behind it? Guys, find out here. Yeah, it’s a good one, click
it. Good, boom, right there. [0:11:35] End of audio