**In 2016, I got accepted to 12 schools to attend college and enrolled at MIT as an Aerospace
Engineer.** In 2017, I started this YouTube channel and have since grown it to the size
it is today.
**In 2020, I got accepted into graduate school at Stanford to study autonomous systems.**
Today, I start my first day at a Series A startup as a Client Engineer working with
APIs, software algorithms, and interfacing directly with the clients to help solve their
problems.
**How did I do it?
And how do I continue to achieve the goals that I set out for myself?** Well for me,
it was as simple as learning how to learn quickly.
**Regardless of the challenges at any given time, the key to overcoming those challenges
is to learn:** learn the nuances of those challenges, learn the skills to tackle them,
and ultimately learn about yourself along the way regardless of the outcome.
**In the same time frame that I just mentioned, I got waitlisted from both Stanford and Berkeley
for my undergraduate studies, dropped out of Stanford for my graduate studies,** had
to break my Palo Alto lease, dealt with a life-altering auto-immune disease, and had
to unfortunately cut ties with two startups that were close to my heart.
**The one overarching theme across all of my triumphs and “failures” is that I continued
to learn through it all.**
A lot of the time, learning involves repetition.
The more you’re exposed to a given problem, the more you understand how to navigate the
situation, and the more comfortable you feel while doing so.
**Over the last decade or so, I began to challenge myself repeatedly.
I challenged myself through my academics, athletics, and career.** Many people search
for the easy road in life, but in order to push myself to be the best version of myself,
I tended to choose the most exclusive and difficult paths I could find.
**In doing so, I began to learn how I think, how I physically and emotionally react, and
how I best absorb new information.** And since I was metaphorically drinking from a firehose,
I was forced to learn fast.
**The bulk of learning in any instance doesn’t happen at the completion of any goal or challenge.**
Instead it happens along the way, whether or not you were successful.
I learned just as much during my “failures” as I did my successes.
**Slip ups and mistakes do a good job of humbling you in moments that you feel invincible.**
Even the slightest of successes can inject confidence in situations that seem hopeless.
And everything else along the way simply puts more experience around your belt.
**I would equate learning to exercising.** At first, your body gets very sore and all
of the movements seem difficult, but as you stay consistent and keep putting in the reps,
over time, the workouts seem to get easier and easier.
In reality, the workouts do not actually get easier.
**You simply grow stronger and in turn, can handle more weights for more reps.** With
learning, those reps might involve doing practice problems, reading a book, listening to a podcast,
or actually doing the thing you’re working towards.
**And as you get these reps in, you will grow stronger, more experienced, and more resilient
to bigger challenges.**
Over the years, I learned to not avoid my weaknesses.
**In order to learn as efficiently as possible, I take note of my gaps in knowledge, then
I go and fill them.** One of the best ways to slow your own progress is to avoid your
weaknesses.
I learned a long time ago that weaknesses can become strengths with enough effort.
**I would’ve never thought in a million years that I’d feel comfortable speaking
in front of a camera, when today, I have over 12 million channel views and I feel as comfortable
as I ever could be.** But just as important as acknowledging and growing from your weaknesses,
you need to understand that you do have them.
**It’s simply impossible to know everything about everything,** so keeping an open mind
around growing your perspective or learning about a new topic is pivotal to learning in
general.
**I learned that I learn best by doing.** I can sit in hours of lectures, listen to
countless podcasts, and read every book around a topic, but until I sit down and actually
do the thing that I was learning about, it won’t stick in my head.
**I know not everyone may agree with learning by doing at first, but think about it this
way: say your goal is to play professional basketball.** You can spend a decade reading
every book about the nuances of the sport, watching every documentary and masterclass,
and memorizing every major trend there is.
But unless you pick up a ball and actually play, I guarantee that you’re going to be
a terrible basketball player.
Like I mentioned before, learning involves repetition.
**And tying in my weightlifting analogy, you need to put in the reps, which literally is
just short for repetition.** If you want to learn how to day trade, you’re going to
have to sit behind a computer, watch charts, and actually trade.
If you want to learn how to start a company, the best way to learn is to either join a
startup or start your own small business.
The list goes on and on.
**The point is that there’s a reason that classes give you homework and labs to do instead
of just lecturing you for a semester straight.** Yes, I love learning about new topics and
understand that lectures and books are pivotal in that initial exchanging of information,
but I also know that you will only reach the levels that you hope to achieve if you put
in the time to both learn and do.
**With Brilliant, you can do just that.** They have fun hands-on lessons in math, science,
and computer science.
This kind of interactive learning helps you learn 6 times more effectively than just watching
lecture videos.
Brilliant is great for all ability and knowledge levels.
**Even with how experienced I am, I still learn more every day from advanced computer
science courses like Cryptocurrency and Artificial Neural Networks.** Brilliant is also pretty
fun.
It’s an interactive way to learn real problem solving skills and develop a deep understanding
of concepts in STEM.
Whether you’re trying to brush up on integral calculus or learn Python, Brilliant is a place
that I’d highly recommend for students, professionals, and in general, people that
just want to understand the underlying principles of how the world works.
Join the millions of people already learning on Brilliant with a special offer just for
my viewers.
Head to [brilliant.org/kjhardrict](http://brilliant.org/kjhardrict) to get started for free with Brilliant’s
interactive lessons.
The first 200 listeners will also get 20% off an annual membership.
**I learned to pursue my passions at any given time.** We all know the saying time flies
when you’re having fun and the same thing applies to when you’re learning about something
that you’re passionate about.
**Just like when I binged shows that I enjoyed like The Boys or The Umbrella Academy, I find
myself binging content that teaches me concepts that I’m passionate about.** In my free
time, you’ll catch me watching finance videos, which give broader market updates and financial
outlook.
While I’m cleaning, I am usually listening to podcasts with startup founders discussing
their journeys through entrepreneurship.
And when I feel like I want more to do, I look at engineering videos where I see others
building out their ideas.
I’d say find what makes you excited.
**Because if you go pursue that specific thing, you’re much more likely to put in the time
and to actually put your best foot forward.** You won’t even notice how much work you’re
actually putting in since it brings you joy during those times.
**I learned that I am learning most efficiently when I’m at my happiest.** I not only have
to be doing something that I love, I have to be in the mindset of allowing myself the
enjoyment.
In those moments where I was stressed about work or stressed about my physical health,
I didn’t enjoy doing the things that I was passionate about.
**My mind felt cloudy and I felt bogged down to the point where I couldn’t even make
these YouTube videos, even though I do really enjoy making them.** I couldn’t think for
long enough to plan out what I would say…
I couldn’t focus enough to learn concepts I would’ve loved to… and I couldn’t
even think about anything that I felt like wasn’t solving the immediate crises at hand.
**So before you worry about learning how to learn more efficiently, make sure you’re
okay.** Make sure you’re getting enough sleep at night, and that you remove yourself
from toxic or un-motivating.
Because especially outside of school, there are no clear deadlines or checkpoints.
You have to be intrinsically motivated enough to learn and experience the things that will
push you forward.
**Sometimes it seems like people just continue to get lucky over and over again.** And although
I acknowledge that luck and fortunate situations play a giant factor in timing or some people’s
stories, I do believe that you can learn to be lucky.
**What I mean is that you can build up the skills, knowledge, and experiences needed
to actually take advantage of fortunate situations.** Mark Zuckerberg wouldn’t be where he was
today if he wasn’t an already brilliant computer scientist when Facebook blew up.
Jeremy Lin wouldn’t have gotten to the fame and notoriety that he did if he wasn’t ready
to perform at that level when his number was called.
**I would not have succeeded at MIT if I wasn’t prepared to learn at the pace and rigor that
I had to.** When you start truly believing the phrase “Luck happens when preparation
meets opportunity”, you’ll start to frame your mind in a different way.
You won’t view lofty goals as out of reach.
You won’t take your days for granted.
And you won’t look at other successful people as anomalies anymore.
**Learning more about yourself and the world everyday is something that takes active effort.**
So however you want to motivate yourself, do so.
We’re all hoping to be the best versions of ourselves, but no lucky event or fortunate
scenario will help you skip steps needed to be successful long term.
**Okay bear with me as I bring in another gym analogy.
In life you have to go until failure.** In the gym, you’ll hear it all the time.
It’s because when you go until failure while weightlifting, your muscles break down faster
and they grow back larger and stronger.
In life, your progress isn’t just this exponential graph that continues to go up and up, there’s
always going to be peaks and valleys.
**And as humans with aspirations and goals, we hope that the trend continues up and we
get terrified when we’re heading in a negative direction.** But what I’ll say is that if
you never feel those low points while you’re pursuing your goals, those goals aren’t
lofty enough.
If everything you’re achieving comes easily, you’re not challenging yourself enough.
**I will qualify this by saying that if you’re comfortable with your status quo, and you
enjoy your life, keep doing you for sure.** But for the others who aren’t content with
their current situations and feel like their lives are relatively easy, I challenge you
to reach further because you have the ability.
Apply for that job that you were unsure you’d be considered for.
Let your boss know that you’re willing and able to take on more responsibility.
Go on Brilliant and try to discover a new passion.
Just trend up.
**I learned that above all, I cannot do anything alone.** My support system allows me the headspace
to pursue the areas I want to pursue.
My loved ones support me everyday by reminding me of my worth, challenging me to pursue my
lofty goals, and showering me with love at every achievement.
**I hope to reach a level of success where my loved ones also reap the benefits.** I
want to be able to have my parents live the life they could only dream of.
I hope to have Michelle never worry about anything monetarily in the future, so she
can pursue anything she’d ever want to without the pressure.
**I want to achieve more to show all of you that it’s all possible with enough hard
work, effort, and determination.** If any form of success was easy, everybody would
be doing that one thing.
Life is a series of unknowns and discoveries, and for me, my loved ones allow me to navigate
those without feeling like it’s all for nothing.
**They center me towards my goals and hopefully one day I can show them why I do what I do.**
Everything in this video means absolutely nothing if you don’t believe in yourself.
**For those of you who have watched my channel for a while now, you know that the sayings
I stand by are Believe in Yourself and Be You.** If you don’t believe that you can
achieve something before you go even attempt to, you might as well save yourself the time
and not start.
The belief has to be there, otherwise you will run away at the first sign of adversity.
You won’t allow yourself the room to struggle in order to grow from your failures.
Actually, by not believing in yourself, you are expecting failure — which is obviously
counter-productive.
**And if you aren’t yourself, then why are you doing what you’re doing to begin with
?** Having goals that align with who you are as a person is the most important aspect of
all of this.
You have to believe in yourself, believe in what you’re doing, and believe that achieving
your goals helps to make you the best version of yourself.
**I know, I know, I got pretty deep in this video.** But I really wanted to concretely
explain my though processes around learning because it’s so fundamental to everything
that we do.
Since the moment you’re born, every day is a learning experience to build off of.
**And I’m here to try and help you capitalize off of your learning to achieve goals that
are meaningful for you.** At the end of the day, you have one life to live and finite
time to do so.
**But that’s all I had to talk about today.
Thank you so much for being a part of this journey.
As always, thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.**