What I'd Tell My 8 Year Old That I Wish I Knew When I Was 18

Yesterday I gave a talk at Eunoia Junior College's Passion Pursuit Unconference. The stuff I wish I knew when I was 18. Will need to adapt the content for younger kids, but what I shared with an auditorium of 17 and 18 year olds is probably worth sharing with 8 year olds as well.

Learn About Yourself

To make your way in the world, you need to first understand yourself. What are you good at? What are you not good at (and have no interest in getting better at)? What makes you tick? Sir Ken Robinson famously shared the story of Gillian Lynne, one of the most accomplished choreographers of our time, who was so fidgety as a child her teachers and parents thought she had a learning disorder. It was only after a psychologist left Gillian in a room, turned on the music, and watched her dance that the adults realised she did not have a learning disorder. She was a dancer. She had to move to think.

When I was younger, I thought about joining the creative industry. It was only in my 30s did I realise I’d have been a terrible advertising executive because I don’t have the temperament to deal with clients.

Self-awareness is way underrated.

Learn About The World

Growing up in a cosmopolitan city like Singapore, it’s easy to think this little island nation is the centre of the universe. Be curious about the world and what goes on outside of your own little bubble. War. Famine. Floods. But also artificial intelligence, metaverse, genome sequencing. Read more. Read widely. One of the best investments I made in my 20s is subscribing to The New York Times and FT Weekend. Reading these publications made me more worldly and taught me to think critically.

It is this curiosity that got me into tech and shaped my career as an investor and entrepreneur. If I didn’t go to tech conferences all those years ago, I probably wouldn’t have carved out a career as an angel investor and edtech founder.

Learn Skills

While it’s important to read widely and learn about the world, it’s just as important to learn skills that will help you become a builder and changemaker. Technical skills like writing code and working a spreadsheet, but even more importantly non technical skills like critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, communicating effectively with people etc. As an employer and board member, I always tell young people it’s not about what you know. It’s about what you can do with what you know. Companies hire people who do things, not know things.

Learning By Doing

So how do you learn about yourself and the world, and learn new skills?

The simple answer is to do more.

Seek out opportunities to try new experiences. Get out of your comfort zone. Meet interesting people whose backgrounds are completely different from yours. Make mistakes. Learn from them. Fail forward. Be bold. Use your imagination. Build stuff.

Be Skeptical About Other People's Definition Of Success

Many young people have been conditioned by adults in their life to take the path of least resistance, land a well-paying job, and be happy with "success". This may work for some people, but it may not work for you.

Teachers, parents, siblings etc are cheerleaders. Don’t live your life according to somebody else’s definition of a life well-lived.

Decide for yourself what is important to you and what makes you excited about getting out of bed every morning.

Believe in your own potential. You have hidden talents in you. You just need to find them.

If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

Be Kind And Give Back

Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others. Give back in anyway you can. Start early. Start small.

“Life is loving, laughing and being loved. There is no greater joy than understanding there isn't much more than that. Life is simple.” - Esteban Bullrich

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Till the next issue!