I first read What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 by Tina Seelig, when I turned twenty-two and was heading into my final semester of college.
Feeling anxious about leaving the safety of academia behind – I wanted guidance on professional career advice. I was already working a part-time job at a Fortune 100 company, but I decided I needed to take my upcoming career very seriously (and a little too seriously at first).
Thus, I went to the bookstore after work looking for career advice books. That is where I found What I Wish I knew when I was 20 by Tina Seelig. It was one of the first books to send me down the personal development rabbit hole. Being 100% honest, I picked it because of the title, I thought, “what should have I learned two years ago?” – always been one for being a little Type A about everything.
Tina Seelig’s book was not what I expected. Tina is a professor at Stanford specializing in creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. What I Wish I Knew When I was 20 opened up the ideas of design thinking, pursuing entrepreneurship, and the importance of having high self-efficacy.
I think this book is great at any stage of your life, particularly if you are still under 30.
Below are 3 of my favorite take-aways from the book.
3 Key Take-aways from What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20
1. Actively Tackle Challenges
“Attitude is perhaps the biggest determinant of what we can accomplish”
Tina Seelig
People often limit themselves when faced with challenges. People tend to doubt themselves, develop imposter syndrome, and question if the problem they are facing is even solvable. The thing is, every problem is solvable, and people are at work every day to solve the world’s toughest challenges. If we want to be among them, we have to find challenges we want to tackle and approach them with genuine interest and a willingness to experiment.
How do you solve big problems? The first step is to identify them. Closely observe your day-to-day life. What hassles pop up in your life that could be easier or better managed.
“The key to need finding is identifying and filling gaps-that is, gaps in the way people use products, gaps in the services available, and gaps in the stories they tell when interviewed about their behavior”
Tina Seelig
See problems in your day-to-day life as opportunities to problem solve and actively tackle the challenges that excite you. It can be as simple as making a garlic peeler to tackling climate change. Find what excites you.
Along those lines – don’t be afraid to tackle life. Develop a Growth Mindset and a Beginner’s Mindset. With these two you will be equipped to handle all of life’s inevitable challenges.
2. Give Yourself Permission
“There is considerable research showing that those willing to stretch the boundaries of their current skills and willing to risk trying something new are more likely to be successful than those who believe they have a fixed skill set and innate abilities that lock them into specific roles.”
Tina Seelig
The world is divided into two types of people: those who wait for others to permit them to do the things they want to do and people who permit themselves.
Permitting yourself to do what you want can be challenging. Again the first step is to identify the problem, “what is it that you want to do?”. Reflect on what you want to do and why you want to do it. Then you have to get creative to go where you want to be.
If you want to move into a different field, one of the best ways is to figure out how your skills can be transferred into different settings. Find the commonalities and talk about how you already have similarities. For example, if you were a waiter but want to work in a corporate job – you can site how you dealt with different personalities, worked with different teams, and always focused on getting your job done successfully because it directly impacted the restaurant’s bottom line.
Another way to gain relevant experience is to look at things others have discarded and find a way to turn them useful. Michael Dearing worked at eBay in 2000. In those early days of the internet, he noticed only 10% of sellers were using the “post a picture” feature to show what they were selling. After researching, Michael found evidence that those who posted a picture were more likely to make sales. After presenting that research to its users – eBay saw 60% of its users start posting pictures. At 25 cents a picture, that generated an additional $300 Million in additional revenue at eBay. Michael didn’t wait for this work assignment. He took initiative to go after this project and was handsomely rewarded for his efforts.
Where are you holding yourself back? Check-out these guides on finding your dream job and how to dream big to start seeing what you need to permit yourself for!
3. The Secret Sauce of Silicon Valley is Failure
“If you aren’t failing sometimes, then you probably aren’t taking enough risks.”
Tina Seelig
On the most basic level, all learning comes from failure. It is impossible to learn to cook by just reading recipes. At some point, you have to burn quesadillas to learn just how hot a stop top can get. Failing isn’t fun, and it doesn’t get easier.
But learning to accept failure as a natural part of learning can relieve a lot of the stress and self-criticism that comes from failing. People who spend a lot of time on creative endeavors know that failure is a natural part of the creative process, it takes a lot of tries to get something to be successful, and along the way, there will be bumps in the road.
Practicing self-compassion is a proven way to develop this mindset of learning from failures.
Failures also can serve as incredible opportunities in disguise. They force us to reevaluate our goals and priorities and often propel us forward much faster than continued success. The failing and stopping to assess process forces the failures into the open. Allowing for course correction, inspiration and all this can lead to a better end than ever thinking of continued success.
But just because failing is important for learning does not mean we should be careless with it. Prepare for risk and failure. Define the possible outcomes and attempt to figure out the chances of each one, in the case of a major downside set up a back-up plan in place. Do diligent work will ensure to mitigate risk, and this process even helps align the path to hit the big goals.
Key Take-Aways
- What I Wish I knew when I was twenty is a great book for early in your life
- Life is filled with challenges – learn to embrace them
- Permit yourself to live the life you want
- Learn to and from failure
Action Item
How can you tackle challenges with more vigor this week? Where in your life can you permit yourself to develop the skills you want? What are you willing to try and fail at?
