[ErrybareMyronGainez]

I'm in my early 20's right now and would like to hear what opinions older cats (25 +) have that they did not have when they were younger and deem absolutely essential. Stuff you guys would tell your 21 year old self !

Here are 5 things i would have told my 16 year old dumb and beta self.

- Don't start smoking

- Be your own man; a man of principle, boundaries and self-respect.

- Don't give a fuck what other people think

- Time is the most important asset you have. Time is life pretty much.Don't waste it getting high, eating chips and watching family guy.

- Always push out of your comfort zone. It's a necessity for self-improvement.

[Kingsley Davis]

Paging Mark Minter.

[Veloce]

There was a thread like this a long while back.

Mine would be:

-be so bold and daring as to make yourself excruciatingly uncomfortable. Then, when you get comfortable with that level of boldness, push it further. I still struggle with this.
-don't stick with any bitch longer than a month unless she treats you really, really well.
-Stop with the videogames, cold turkey. Use that time to hit the gym or make more money.
-Don't ever be considerate to a woman. Take everything she's willing to give and then some.
-Believe in yourself. You're never "ready" for anything. You get ahead in life by jumping into the abyss and learning to adapt as you go.

[Ovid]

Don't waste time with LTRs in your early 20s.

[UrbanNerd]

Start saving money now!

I am almost embarrassed to admit that I need to work until my 60's. Technically, I would have been able to retire in my early 50's if I had not pissed away my income during my 20's. Hell, I landed a nice engineering job right out college....literally went from commencement to a job with a secretary with a high-matching 401K and all of that.

.....and didn't contribute to the 401K...SMH

[T and A Man]

If that also involved it being 1995, I'd say 'invest $100,000 in Fortescue when it was $0.08 a share'.

But if you're talking about development. I'd saying

Do not commence any LTR's
Never own a TV,
Lift weights
Learn a new langauge every one or two years
Live a minimalist lifestyle and reinvest everything until you're into your 30's.
Ditch the friends who drag you down.

[rudebwoy]

Girls are hornier than boys.
Don't waste money on stupid shit.
Workout.
Find a positive role model or someone living the life you would like to live.
Educate yourself to the best of your abilities.

[greensteelhead]

Damn good thread! As a 40 year old guy, I would tell my 20 year old self the following:

- Exercise and weight lifting are important. Develop good habits and keep pushing yourself at the gym. Don't be lazy or work yourself to death; losing this shit is a bitch when you are older.

- Learn about the Red Pill and use the lessons to your advantage. It will change your life and outlook on the world.

- Your career is important, but there is more to life than work. Play some hooky and enjoy life.. Go fishing. Go hunting. Spend some quality time with friends and family. Do shit YOU want to do. Live a rich life; don't become a workaholic and then wonder what the fuck happened to a decade. The clients, boss and employees will be there tomorrow or next week. They are playing while you do the work of two people, stupid.

- Spend some time with your dad and grandparents. You can't replace them, that experience and ties to history when they are gone. Like it or not, they went through some shit and really good times; what was it like? What did they learn?

- Read more; do more; learn more.

- Save cash early and often. Do not go into debt.

- DO NOT buy a bigger house than you can afford. The banks and that agent don't care if you can pay it off; they want the commission.

- Keep in touch with friends, especially good friends that share similar goals and interests. Sometime you need to make the call and take the time.

[greensteelhead]

Jeez...mine gets me riled up just reading it. My 30's were busy, and not in a necessarily good way, obviously.

Interesting that there are common threads developing already.

[UrbanNerd]

As for working out....

You can get by with just 4 compound lifts: Bench Press, Military Press, Squat and Deadlift (can be sometimes substituted with rows) and you will be OK.

Note: I have BEEN NEEDED to get back in the gym but I am in my 40's and can pretty much use money for chick attraction

For young guys.....do those 4 lifts at a minimum.

[nek]

I love posts like these. It benefits everyone. The OP gets some knowledge. The commenters get to do some introspection and in turn, learn something themselves. If I may, I'd just like to add my 2 cents with regard to some of the things already mentioned:

@OP:

-"time is the most important asset you have". Truer words have never been spoken. Value your time. Every second that ticks away is one you can't get back. There's a game/relationship lesson with this: Your time is the most valuable thing you can give a woman. You ever hear women complain about their man not spending enough time with them? The equivalent is a guy complaining about not getting sex. Women value our time, we value their sex. Women don't value their own time, they waste it on vapid reality TV. They value ours. So value yours. Not valuing your time and wasting it on women who aren't providing you with what you want is the male equivalent of whoring yourself out. The slutty girl isn't respecting herself. The guy who's playing BFF with a girl who won't sleep with him is just the different side of the same coin. She's a whore with her body, he's a whore with his time. Don't be that guy. Use your time wisely and importantly make sure you use it on the right people.

-"be your own man": The worst advice people give to others is to 'try to make friends'. This creates inorganic friendships. Being your own man allows you to develop quality friendships, ones that will complement and enhance your life. These typically happen naturally and aren't the result of trying. Quantity of friends doesn't mean SHIT.

@T and A Man

-"ditch the friends who drag you down" This goes hand in hand with the "valuing your time". Most people, even 'friends', will be toxic, and will not support you on your way up. So cut them loose. The sooner the better or else you're wasting your time, and your time is your best asset. There's a cultural push in the west for the opposite. We've been trained to always need friends (regardless of quality), always to be social (see what social media has done), to shun the guy sitting at the bar by himself and to look upon him with pity. This mentality is a dependency mentality, it will hold you back.

And now for a few of my own:

- Cut out masturbation to the best you can. While I feel the "is masturbation bad" debate is still some what up in the air, masturbating to porn is a definite no-no. You need your testosterone as a man. Porn will turn you into a bitch. This idea ties into the eat right, exercise right principles that others have mentioned here already.

- Start mma: I wish I would've gotten into this so much earlier. It's great physically and mentally for a man. Consider the ring a forum of philosophy.

Those are just a couple I could think of before I go to bed, but It's good to see you getting this stuff early on. I'm 29, so I'm not old but I wish I had this shit earlier too. Also, all the other posts on this thread have really great advice. Good luck bro. Hope you can make the most of your time on this rock.

[greensteelhead]

Good advice. I never have been a big dead lift guy, but I do like rows. I am getting back on track!

@nek: excellent stuff. I agree with you wholeheartedly. It is the quality of the friends, not the quantity. That is critical, especially with so many manginas out there that are a pain in the ass or flat out negative all the time.

Stand up for yourself and don't be afraid to put it out there.

Excellent points about the value of your time. Do what interests you; spend time on what interests you. Time is important, especially as you grow older and time seems to speed up.

[ErrybareMyronGainez]

Thanks for your input bro. I appreciate it. We are all gonna make it !

(03-14-2013 11:17 PM)nek Wrote:  

I love posts like these. It benefits everyone. The OP gets some knowledge. The commenters get to do some introspection and in turn, learn something themselves. If I may, I'd just like to add my 2 cents with regard to some of the things already mentioned:

@OP:

-"time is the most important asset you have". Truer words have never been spoken. Value your time. Every second that ticks away is one you can't get back. There's a game/relationship lesson with this: Your time is the most valuable thing you can give a woman. You ever hear women complain about their man not spending enough time with them? The equivalent is a guy complaining about not getting sex. Women value our time, we value their sex. Women don't value their own time, they waste it on vapid reality TV. They value ours. So value yours. Not valuing your time and wasting it on women who aren't providing you with what you want is the male equivalent of whoring yourself out. The slutty girl isn't respecting herself. The guy who's playing BFF with a girl who won't sleep with him is just the different side of the same coin. She's a whore with her body, he's a whore with his time. Don't be that guy. Use your time wisely and importantly make sure you use it on the right people.

-"be your own man": The worst advice people give to others is to 'try to make friends'. This creates inorganic friendships. Being your own man allows you to develop quality friendships, ones that will complement and enhance your life. These typically happen naturally and aren't the result of trying. Quantity of friends doesn't mean SHIT.

@T and A Man

-"ditch the friends who drag you down" This goes hand in hand with the "valuing your time". Most people, even 'friends', will be toxic, and will not support you on your way up. So cut them loose. The sooner the better or else you're wasting your time, and your time is your best asset. There's a cultural push in the west for the opposite. We've been trained to always need friends (regardless of quality), always to be social (see what social media has done), to shun the guy sitting at the bar by himself and to look upon him with pity. This mentality is a dependency mentality, it will hold you back.

And now for a few of my own:

- Cut out masturbation to the best you can. While I feel the "is masturbation bad" debate is still some what up in the air, masturbating to porn is a definite no-no. You need your testosterone as a man. Porn will turn you into a bitch. This idea ties into the eat right, exercise right principles that others have mentioned here already.

- Start mma: I wish I would've gotten into this so much earlier. It's great physically and mentally for a man. Consider the ring a forum of philosophy.

Those are just a couple I could think of before I go to bed, but It's good to see you getting this stuff early on. I'm 29, so I'm not old but I wish I had this shit earlier too. Also, all the other posts on this thread have really great advice. Good luck bro. Hope you can make the most of your time on this rock.

[nek]

(03-14-2013 06:45 PM)Kingsley Davis Wrote:  

Paging Mark Minter.

I think he'd only have 2 things to tell:

Don't get married and don't fuck fatties.

[Hannibal]

Well, I'm 22.

If I could send books back in time, I would send "Worthless", "Issuance of Insanity", some other training books, and a few game books.

I would tell my 16 year old self these things.

Don't start smoking.

Start developing a social hobby that doesn't involve drinking. Not too late on this one, I know, but I remember learning a hell of a lot faster when I was 16.

Do not overintellectualize the simple shit. Treat things that don't make you money as a black box, it matters not what goes on inside, but what you put in and what you get out of it. This goes for the topics such as fitness, chasing tail, the behavior of other people, etc. Too much analysis and you won't get a damn thing done. Experiment, find what works adequately, and fine tune it over time.

Drinking a bit is cool, never drink to impress people or show that you have the biggest swinging dick in the room. The friends you make when you do this are heavy drinkers. Which follows my next point.

You are the average of the five people you hang out most with. If you hang out with shit, you are shit.

Start working out (maybe wait till 18 on that, I don't know what to believe on the science of this). If you can't get to a weight room, then start a program of sprinting, pushups, pullups, and bodyweight squats until you can get to the weights.

Develop obsessions that make money or increase your own value and fuck the video games. Reading books was/is a good idea though.

Don't go to a liberal arts college and piss away tens of thousands of dollars on the judgement of your family to be "well rounded". A liberal arts degree counts for jack shit and a library card accomplishes the same thing.

Learn a trade in two years and get some employment, but make sure to move elsewhere. The money you make as a plumber or a welder pays the bills and saves you a lot of debt. Entry level plumbers and welders still make more than folks who graduated with a bachelors in nothing math related. Since you're not planning on getting married, a 40-50k income is just fine.

If not learn a trade, then really apply yourself at math and physics (my GPA could stand to be higher). If you don't want to do that, go the military route like a few of your friends will.

Move out once you hit 18 and if you go to college, learn how to cook and get an apartment. Dorms and college food suck ass and your parents will not respect you in the slightest if you don't leave home, no matter what you've accomplished.

Going overseas to learn a language is a great experience. It's also 80% cheaper if you simply apply for it yourself and don't bother going through a liberal arts college to do it.

[Katatonic]

Do not fucking raw dog that stripper in the LAX Hilton.

[Nonpareil]

Game:

- 'A woman's favorite subject of conversation is herself.' (talking to women is 90% talking about her)
- 'Show me a beautiful girl, and I'll show you a guy who's tired of fucking her.' (just because she's pretty, doesn't mean she isn't a pain in the ass)
- 'You have to crack a few eggs to make an omlette.' (you'll get rejected far more than you get laid)
- 'Be ready to walk from any girl at any time.' (always be in control)
- 'Opportunity is everywhere...' (always be on the lookout)

Lifestyle:

- There's nothing wrong with liking video games, but try to limit them. Same goes for TV. Read more books.
- Eat right. Working out is important, too, but this is the #1. If you eat right and work out properly you basically have carte-blanche to engage in almost all of the fuckery (drinking, fucking, drugs) that 21 year olds do and come out fairly unscathed.
- Dress well. Stand out, look good, create a positive impression (bonus: most of your age group dresses like shit).
- Pursue a few hobbies and interests that you like, things that will add value to you as a person (a musical instrument, a foreign language, travel).
- Travel while you're young; I did when I was 20-21 and am doing it now. Don't want to be 40 and thinking 'I wish I went to ____________ when I was 24...'

Ways of Thinking:

- Act as if. (fake it 'til you make it)
- Pick your friends wisely. I like and trust my friends. If we've met a bunch of times, I think you're awesome, you think I'm awesome, but you notice I never call you over to chill, invite you personally on trips and nights out and rarely contact you personally, it's probably because I don't trust you.
- Always look out for #1.
- All except the people closest to you are too wrapped up in their own drama to worry about you (so why give a fuck what they think?)
- Don't hold pointless grudges for petty shit. Forgive but never forget.

[Echoes]

Listen to your Father for once, going to Art School is a waste of time. You'll just doss around, meet a few bohemian/hippy girls who'll fuck you over and get stoned too much before you drop out. Study something that'll earn you as much money as possible.

Stick with your mates, don't ever be tempted to ditch them when a girl nags you to see less of them, when your life turns to shit she'll be long gone, but your mates'll get you through

Girls aren't mysterious, beautiful creatures that only a virtual saint would be worthy of talking too. In fact 99% of them are trash, and you'll actually do better with them treating them so. Being respectful, courteous and gentle will get you nowhere, also don't listen to girls you tell you to stay that way whilst they fuck guys who act the complete opposite.

You can play videogames when you've retired, don't waste every other Friday night of your best years playing Dreamcast with your most geekish pals, get out there and throw yourself into life

Stand up for yourself, and go after what you truly desire rather than settling for less.

[Kickb]

I just turned 22

I wouldnt change too much right now. Maybe i would tell my 21 yearolf self to not do those chilly willys and to not shotgun that fourloco.

Fucking stupid.

[titan22]

Only 4 years past that point, but I'd tell myself;

-Lift weights and work out
-Don't put women on a pedestal and treat them like princesses who you need to become worthy of, make them become worthy of you
-Eat a clean diet and don't crush a 30 pack and handle every weekend in college
-Question everything. Why are you at this college getting this degree? What are the future plans with it? Does anybody else really have your best interests at heart or is it all bullshit?
-Save money and don't spend like an idiot. You don't need a new car wrapping you in debt, you don't need the best name clothes to attract women.

Really I think they can all come down to one basic idea of be who it is I want to be and not who others or society expect me to be. I'm still working on completely internalizing this idea and undoing all the programming I've been raised with.

[bojangles]

stop smoking and stop smoking weed.
Start realising you're better than these bitches you are chasing
eat good healthy food
keep lifting and staying active
stop getting so wasted every friday and saturday and save some fucking money.

[Acute Angle]

Try not to take things personally. If someone blows up at you or treats you carelessly, it's usually something wrong with them, not you.

Money equals freedom. Spend your freedom wisely. Stuff will not make you happy. Credit is borrowing from your future.

[Mekorig]

Get on a diet and go to the gym NOW!
Dont be the nice guy, be the cutthroat.
Dont waste time on silly things, focus on your carrer, and on what can give you power.
Travel more, far more.
Women are to be fucked, nothing more. Dont get more females "friends".

[ErrybareMyronGainez]

(03-15-2013 10:10 AM)Mekorig Wrote:  

Get on a diet and go to the gym NOW!
Dont be the nice guy, be the cutthroat.
Dont waste time on silly things, focus on your carrer, and on what can give you power.
Travel more, far more.
Women are to be fucked, nothing more. Dont get more females "friends".

I agree with all except the female friends part. Dont you think having female friends is valuable ?

Having female friends

- gives you gaming access to basically all of her friends. Women have their guards down when they meet a friend of a friend as opposed to a stranger.

- is invaluable in social circle game. Having women you hang out with signals to other women that you have value as long as you are not a white knight or time whore.

- makes you conditioned around women n general. A problem i had when i started getting into game was that i viewed every interaction with a woman like a complex machine that needed to be analyzed. Constantly asking myself if i was offering value/qualifying /being alpha/beta.

Having female friends lets you go outside your head and stop seeing every female as a target you need to micromanage your interactions with,

As long as you are your own man, enjoying women for who they are ... (silly, irrational and emotional) is no problem.

The problem lies in one of the following

1) Becoming friends with women you are attracted to, in order to become closer and "know " her better before you make your move.

2) Being nice to girls just because they are girls. I swear some men get a kick out of girls being nice to them and would do embarrassing stuff to get that reaction.

3) Thinking they are your real friends. I can tell from experience, that when you are in deep shit most people will act as if they never knew you. But the few people who will actually be there ( family aside) are your guy friends. Expecting a woman to do the same or to exhibit the same level of loyalty is stupid.

Other than that, i dont mind having chick acquaintances.

[RouteBackwards]

Well, I am only twenty-three, so this would be talking to my sixteen year old self...

1. Learn to enjoy physical labour, and/or get used to lifting. The pay off is more than worth it for your well being as a man.
2. Don't ever apologize for your actions if you feel strongly about them.
3. There is always an abundance of women, don't linger on one.
4. Eat properly and try to get decent sleep.
5. Save your fucking money from your job.

On the bright side of things, I've been able to project all of these things to my little brother, I have a feeling he's going to experience more pussy, money and physical well-being then me or my older brother.

In the meantime, I just gotta keep working at myself and I'm happy as fuck with where I am now.