It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog article, but I wanted to capture my current perspective in the moment in which I have just ended a chapter. Over the last six years, I have done a lot of growing up, further understanding who I am as a person. These years for me are bounded between 18 - 23 and are a culmination of my experiences of school and internships.

Some notable observation and concepts that are at the core of my beliefs:

• As people, we are constantly changing and that is a result of different experiences that we encounter over our lives. I think what defines us, such as our personality and behaviours, are influenced strongly and shaped by these experiences which compound on each other.
• The cone of uncertainty. This is a mental model which outlines that planning for the future over x years is a quadratic relationship with variance. This means that while planning for the next year may be somewhat accurate, planning for the next 5 years will be wildly different than from what you originally expected.
• To try and fail is at least to learn. In life we will and always will be exposed to new opportunities, some of which we may be reluctant to try. For those that foster a growth mindset, don’t be afraid to fail, as they will pay dividends in the future and contribute to your eventual success.

Inspired from this article here by the Founder of Stripe, Patrick Collison, I wanted to encapsulate what I believe are the best things to do for anyone in this chapter. The purpose of this isn’t to say that there is a strict set of guidelines one should follow, but rather these are some key points and observations that I found which allowed me to further advance myself in both my career and as a person.

• Roll the dice a lot. What I mean here is to take bigger gambles like trying out a startup and applying to as many internships as you can. I strongly believe that luck is a factor in success and that there will be a time where even though you may be prepared, you will still fall short. Understand that sometimes, there are just some external factors that are beyond your control and that you simply just need to move forward and roll again.
• Take a semester abroad, whether that be an internship or an exchange program. I am a strong believer that as humans, our wisdom grows deeper as we are able to experience more perspectives, gathering knowledge and building on from what we know. It may be harmful to grow up in the same city for all your life, so when there are opportunities to breathe another culture, take it.
• Learn to be financially literate. There are many tools out there that will enable you to grow your wealth especially if you start early. Money isn’t an infinite resource, so knowing how to budget and save early on will be to your advantage.
• Become more sociable. As someone that is still shy today, but learning to be more open, I found it incredibly beneficial to build more connections and learn to engage with people. Learning how to ask the right questions will allow you to connect with people sooner. Sometimes, there are missed friendships that could have been, you just didn’t get to know them enough yet.
• Explore explore explore. In this phase of life, there is no need to exploit so soon what you are good at. Try different hobbies, and potential career paths related to your field of study. It doesn’t hurt to give something a shot, if it doesn’t work out, then you have at least opened and realized a door in which now you know wouldn’t work. How else will you know that what you want to do in life really is the best candidate to proceed with?

Closing off, I’ll be entering a new chapter, one without a defined ending. As an example, with high school and university, it became obvious that after a certain period of time the paths with whom you shared with the most would eventually diverge.

• In high school, many of my close friends branched off to different universities studying different professions.
• In university, though many of my friends studied the same profession, we ended up scattered across the globe to work for our dream companies.

A close friend of mine had noted a similar observation outlining that the best man(s) that he would choose for his wedding 4 years ago are completely different than what he would choose today. It seems like in life we are always bound to make these crucial decisions during the exit of a chapter. For myself, I am fortunate to graduate with a job in hand and am incredibly grateful for the opportunity. As such, I’ll be moving to a new city to start a new job and am extremely curious to know how long this new chapter will be, but that answer will only be discovered at the end ;)