Learn. Earn. Legacy.

Long-term thinking is hard.

For me it’s hard to plan past the end of the week, let alone into my 50s and 60s.

This can be especially anxiety-inducing when thinking about a career.

What do I want to do? Where do I want to end up? What should I be doing now in order to get there?

For many young people it’s just too much.

Especially with the Instagrammification of our day-to-day lives and careers, the constantly scrolling past ‘success stories’ of people you don’t even know who ‘made it rich in their 20s selling [AI product] and retired in my 30s to the beach’

NO wonder so many of us are turning it off and tuning it out to work mindless, mundane jobs for a paycheck.

But let me tell you my friends, that is the WRONG way to think about it.

In reality it’s a long, long road ahead of us. If you’re recently out of college, you have PLENTY of time.

One of my favorite business podcasts (My First Million) actually changed the way I thought about this a few years ago.

They explained that a career should have 3 phases from beginning to end:

• The LEARN phase (in your 20s—30s)

• The EARN phase (in your 40s—50s)

• The LEGACY phase (in your 60s and beyond)

When you are young, your goal is NOT to make money. Your only goal is to LEARN as much as you possible can about the world.

What do you like to do, what are you good at, what are the valuable societal functions to fulfill, where can you contribute? Where is the economy going, what jobs will be important in the future? And what do you NOT want to spend your time doing?

The only way to learn is to put yourself out there and experiment. Try different jobs, build up important skills and get GOOD at important things that will differentiate you.

Take RISKS and FAIL as often as you can. Because in your 20s and 30s you can actually afford this (even if it doesn’t feel like it) — by the time you’re later in your life you can’t afford risk because you’ll have a family, you’ll have invested too much to risk blowing it.

The fun part about being young and dumb is the risk, but do it smart.

For me, the risk was quitting my cushiony job in consulting at 24 to start my own business without any knowledge of how to do it.

I knew one thing: that I would be likely to fail, and that I would learn way more by putting myself out there than I would stuck in consulting. I could always go back to consulting later if things didn’t work out, I rationalized.

(And funny enough, I was right — I got a job offer from my old consulting company just last week asking if I’d be willing to come back and help out. I said NO).

By the time you get out of your LEARN stage in your 20’s and 30’s, I’m told you’re allowed to focus on EARNING.

In the big picture, the majority of your life-time net worth will be generated in your 40s-50s anyways. These are your peak earning years, your peak experience years before you reach an older age where your ability to contribute begins to decline.

Then, once you get to later in your career, it’s about leaving a LEGACY. Giving back to those that have come after to you to lift them up and make the future brighter for them.

That is honestly what life it all about. Leaving behind a substantial impression on the world that extends well beyond your years.

And the only way to really leave a substantial legacy is to EARN enough in your peak career years to afford the things that building a legacy necessitates.

And the only way to do that is to LEARN enough in your 20s and 30s to beat the stupid out of yourself.

But remember, it doesn’t need to happen all at once. Honestly, it shouldn’t. If you are young, the only goal is to learn.

The road ahead is long my friends, cherish it!

Peace,

Ramsey