[Andy_B]

"If you want to do something, do it now."

This is probably the one thing I would tell my 17 year old self if I had a chance to talk to him.

Looking back over the past 8 years, I've rarely had regrets regarding any decisions I deliberately made. Most of my regrets involve two things:

1. Rash actions taken on impulse (e.g. deciding to buy $120 worth of blow after already having drank 10 drinks). I don't count these as decisions though because they're mostly the result of just letting your emotions have your way with you-- the word "decision" implies thought.

2. Not having done those things sooner (for example, what if I'd started freelancing back in 2006 and paid my way through college instead of taking on student loans?). This is actually a bigger deal than you might think. Although I'm happy that I've established my independence by working online, there's a part of me that's kicking myself for having waited so long to get started. I keep thinking about the financial mess that college left me in and how that could have been avoided simply by harnessing and honing talents I basically already possessed in high school.

It might sound like I'm being regretful here but I'm really not. What I'm saying is, if you want to do something and you've put at least a few dozen hours' worth of thought into it and decided it can work, just take action today. Warren Buffett used to say that waiting to do what you love is like saving sex for old age, and it's absolutely true. It's easy to make the excuse that you need to do such and such first, but if you really look into it, the preliminary steps toward anything, are usually things you can do any time of day from any location in the world.

Here's an example:

Let's say you want to quit your job and start a business. If this was your goal, what could you do this very second to get started? Here's a brief list:

- Start writing a blog for your business.
- Hire a guy on Fiverr to do your logo.
- Start writing a business plan.
- Buy a business website theme from elegantthemes.

If you put a timer on your desk I bet you could complete most of these tasks in less than 2 hours from now.

There's really no reason not to do what you want to do, today.

[roberto]

Damn straight. If you just make the start the rest will fall into place anyhow.

[Scuba_Instructor]

For sure. Life has a way of taking you in its own direction if you don't set your own path.

I read a quote somewhere that basically said "make your own plans or you'll become a part of someone elses'".

[Bushido]

I graduated from college into a terrible job market.

At the time I figured "screw the UK" and bought a one-way plane ticket to Japan without anything lined up. Little did I know, 99% of new grad jobs in Japan are decided years in advance. But I was naively confident that I'd find something with my Japanese skills.

Needless to say, the jobhunting process was horrible. Japanese hiring managers are mostly older salarymen who don't like hiring foreigners. I will spare you the various openly racist episodes, but it took me 3 months on the ground to find an IT role. I had zero IT skills or experience. Bear in mind that tons of Japanese kids went jobless that year. If I had thought about any of this rationally I would NEVER have bought that ticket.

Granted, that first job sucked ass and I quit within a year but it got me into my current role. Now I'm looking to make the next move but that's another story...my point is that a bit of recklessness paid off for me.