Today, I wanted to talk about looking back at where you were at the beginning of your
career and the advice that you would give yourself. For many of us at any age, we have
these expectations about where we want to be and what we want to have accomplished.
But as you know, none of our journeys are the same. Some of us take longer than others
to figure ourselves out, and that's fine. Or some of us choose unconventional paths,
and that's fine. And often we're balancing various aspects of our lives and constantly
trying to discover who we really are.
So in this video, I wanted to help illustrate this with a letter that Richard Branson, one
of the most admired entrepreneurs of our time, had written to himself on his 65th birthday
to his 25 year old self. I think this is so important because what he's doing is looking
back at the journey that he has had and imagining what his 25 year old self would have felt
like staring into the unknown that was waiting for him. And so, I picked out five key points
that I wanted to highlight, so let's get right into it.
Number one, the road ahead is pockmarked with many bumps, chasms and forks. There will be
times where you want to give up and throw everything in. Don't. By turning challenges
into opportunities, you will find success you never realized you were capable of achieving.
This is fairly straightforward. Life is going to have many twists and turns and may not
be exactly what you hoped it would be, but you cannot be disheartened because opportunities
that you never expected will keep popping up. So, don't be dissuaded by the challenge
that lies ahead, but be inspired by the potential of what is yet to come.
Number two, you won't always succeed. In fact, you will fail time and time again. That's
okay, though, because failure is an inevitable part of every personal and entrepreneurial
journey. Failure is inevitable. It's what helps you grow, what helps you learn. If you
never failed, then you never learned. You never developed a resilience to deal with
bigger and bigger challenges. Remember, it's not the end, but merely a small part of your
journey. Especially if you're working towards something where there's no guarantee of stability
or success, you will realize how much of your potential you have yet to tap into once you
stop fearing failure.
Number three, it's important to pick yourself up, retrace your steps, look at what went
wrong, and learn from your mistakes. This builds off the previous point. Looking back
and doing some self-reflection is necessary to understand what went wrong and how you
can improve upon it going forward. It's extremely hard not to dwell, but it's even more important
to try again. Pick yourself up and maybe things will be different than next time.
Number four, keep the people you love and respect close to you. Don't be afraid to delegate
responsibility. This may be one of the more important points here, for the reason that
you need to have people around you who you can rely on and can make you a better person.
Find a mentor or somebody whose career that you admire and you can constantly learn from.
You aren't expected to handle everything in isolation, so keep those who inspire you and
push you to be better in your close circle.
And finally, number five, your ability to take calculated risks and your incurable optimism
will lead to great Heights both in business and in life. We often talk about how lucky
someone is whenever we hear their success stories, but in addition to consistent hard
work, there's an incredible amount of positivity and self-belief that is required in order
to achieve great things. He also mentions taking calculated risks, and I implore you
to not shy away from doing your homework and taking measured risks if you're motivated
by the opportunity that something provides.
All right, guys. If you're starting out in your career and you don't know what awaits
you, I hope that this helps provide some perspective on the fact that you can never really know
what your story will be. But maybe with some optimism and some real hard work, things could
just work out in the end. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, please subscribe because
I'm posting weekly and I'd love to keep sharing these videos with you. Also, let me know in
the comments below what advice you would give your younger self if you could. My name is
Vihan Chelliah. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you next week.