20대를 최대한 활용하세요: 성공과 성장을 위한 전략

### 20대 탐색하기: 성공을 위한 핵심 인사이트
* 💡 "최악의 경우... 언제든 취업할 수 있으니 **20대에 위험을 감수하는 것을 두려워하지 마세요.**"
* 🏃 쾌락적 러닝머신이라는 개념은 사람들이 새로운 경험에 빠르게 적응하는 방식을 설명하며, 삶의 보상을 더 오래 누리기 위해서는 **스스로 속도를 조절하고 만족을 늦추는 것**이 필수적이라는 것을 보여줍니다.
* 📸 소셜 미디어는 종종 개인이 자신의 삶을 다른 사람들의 선별된 하이라이트와 비교하면서 부적절함을 증폭시켜 **성공과 행복에 대한 비현실적인 기대감**을 불러일으킵니다.
* 🏠 첫 생활은 검소하게 유지하고 초기에는 **사치성 지출을 피하는 것**이 좋으며, 이는 향후 성장과 기회를 위한 여지를 남겨두기 때문입니다.
* 🎓 경력 초기에 도전적인 경로를 추구하면 편안한 상태에서 속도를 높이는 것보다 **격렬한 노력을 줄이기가 더 쉽기 때문에 나중에 더 많은 옵션**을 제공할 수 있습니다.
* 🛑 청년들은 종종 사회적 기대 때문에 위험을 피해야 한다는 압박감을 느끼지만, **20대는 위험을 감수하고 자신의 진정한 잠재력을 탐색할 수 있는 가장 좋은 시기**입니다.
* 👥 동기부여가 되는 사람들과 함께 있으면 **개인의 성장을 촉진**하고 **목표를 추구**하도록 격려할 수 있습니다.
* ❤ **20대에 안정적이고 장기적인 관계**를 맺는 것은 정서적 지지를 제공하고 초기 성인기의 어려움을 헤쳐나가는 데 도움이 될 수 있습니다.

20대에 투자하는 노력은 성공적인 미래를 위한 토대가 됩니다.

What's the worst that can happen? Yeah, and you just... okay, be explicit. This happens, okay? Well, if that happens, yeah, then what can you do? Could you go get a job? They're like, "Yes." And I'm like, "Okay, so the worst case... this is Dalton plus Michael and..."

Today we're going to talk about how to spend your 20s. Yeah, we are. As people who are no longer in their 20s, yeah, we're qualified. Extremely. People on the internet, man, have all the answers on how to live your life. That's... we're elder millennials in...

All honesty, I think that uh, we see a lot of young people at YC become really successful, and so there are some lessons that probably can be pulled out, and they would apply to people who might not even ever want to do a startup. So where would...

You start? How about... how about here. Do you know what the hedonic treadmill is, friends? It's this thing where no matter what's going on in your life, you will get used to it. Yes. And so when you get a new cool thing when you're a kid and you...

Get a new toy, you're like, "Wow, this toy is awesome! What a great Christmas! I'll never want for anything again!" And then two days later you're like, "Oh yeah, this toy sucks. It's just... I want more new stuff." And so whenever you get new things...

Whenever you get new rewards, you get used to them, and they no longer are awesome the way you thought they would be once you get them. Okay? And so the treadmill is you're always trying to walk forwards on achieving new goals or getting new stuff. Yes, and it never feels...

satisfying, and you just keep running on the treadmill forever. Okay, well, and I think that there's some dangerous, ironic treadmills in your 20s. Um, and what's funny is like Instagram kind of blew this up in a really awkward way, because it's like

everyone's sharing videos and photos of them living their absolute best life. Yeah, it's fake, like they're they're clipping the top 1% of their lives that are awesome and they're putting it online, and you're like, wow, everyone is living a more awesome life than me, like

every day, every day, all the time. My life sucks. And and it changes kind of what you think your goal should be. So I and it what's what's sad and unfortunate is that like there's only so many... I mean, wow, this is going to sound really

depressing; there are only so many good things. There's only so many toys. Yeah, this isn't a speedrun to get through them. And you know, you know people who grow up super rich like have this problem of like, oh, crap, like I already did all the fun stuff, and I have a lot

more life to live. Oh, man, this sucks. So we definitely... people screw that up in their 20s. And we're arguing, we are arguing that there is a way to hack this. There's a way to hack the atomic treadmill. It doesn't mean you shouldn't

seek, yeah, like enjoyment. And the hack is to intentionally delay each step, yeah, and to give yourself room and upside. Yes. So there's always more steps for you to climb in the future versus speed-running it and getting it all at once. Yes, so for

For example, you gave this example: the first place you live after college shouldn't be much nicer than your dorm room. Yeah, even if you got a job at Facebook and you can afford it. And the reason is you're leaving yourself a lot more...

upside there. Yes. Um, your first vacations should probably not be that nice. Um, there are lots of examples; your first car shouldn't probably be that nice. I think this in so many areas, and um, I think that if you can get those hedonic distractions um a little bit out of your...

20s, you can focus on other stuff. What should people be focusing on? The best way I've heard this uh said is to do the most hardcore thing early in your career because you can always mellow out; you can always pull the rip cord and do less...

hard things. Yes, it's very hard to go the other way around. Like, if you've been on mellow, chill mode and then you decide you want to be very ambitious and hardcore, it's much harder to do it that way. Why do people... it's interesting to me...

because that seems obvious; that seems like obvious advice. But I also feel like people are, like, afraid of it. Somehow... No, I think you're bombarded with: 'You want to have a good work-life balance.' I think you're actually bombarded with, like, 'You might burn out.' The opposite of...

that, right? It's weird. I found these messages very confusing when I was younger. Well, it's... I might argue, maybe I was just kind of in a weird bubble, but I feel like I hear those messages now; I didn't hear those messages then.

Like, almost all of my friends were trying hard, but now it almost feels like, oh, if you try too hard, you'll pull a muscle. Yeah, which is so weird. It's kind of like, oh, if you run too hard when you're young, you'll hurt yourself.

Versus like, you'll definitely hurt yourself when you're old. And you are... like, being young is when you actually... how about to riff on it this way? Yeah, if you choose to go to med school, that is a hardcore thing. And once you get your MD,

you could be a more mellow doctor. You don't have to be crazy. You could be like a part-time plastic surgeon once you go through med school. So you're doing the hard thing, and you have a lot of choices. Same thing with law school, I would say. Same thing with

people that work at hedge funds or investment banks. But I think a lot of people that opt into other careers do the less hardcore thing. And again, maybe they should. Maybe if you want to be a novelist, you should be a really hardcore novelist in your 20s and write a lot.

Yeah, yeah. And so I think, regardless of the career you're going down, yeah, the more hardcore path just gives you more options when you're when you're older. And I think this comes back to a point we talk about a lot, which is that like,

you don't really know your capacity. Yep. Don't speedrun all the fancy things in life and do hard things early. Get used to it; get comfortable. I think the third thing that comes up a lot in your 20s is it's an opportunity to be risk-seeking.

versus risk-avoiding, and it's hard to contextualize how much of your life you'll spend being risk-averse. Yep, but it's like, your kids, you have a mortgage, you have elderly parents, you yourself are elderly; you are less willing to take risks. So most

people in their 20s don't have any of those things to worry about, um, or many. I shouldn't even say most. Yet sometimes it seems like they're not taking as much risk. Yeah, what do you think's going on there from talking to founders?

A lot of them are told by their parents to not do something risky and to not take career risks in their 20s. Again, I'm not really sure where that's coming from, but doing a startup is seen as risky; like you can destroy your life if you do

a startup. Yeah, or something like that. So I think it's fear, and again, perhaps justified. I don't really get it; this is the thing that always gets me. It's it's it's not the idea that you get a job and you can do that job at that company for

the rest of your life; that's already been disproven. Yeah, like, so it's like I understand the feeling of fear, but like the result, like, 'Oh, if I get a job at IBM today, like I'll be there until I'm 60,' like, probably not. So I think

the other thing that happens when people think about risk is they have to test themselves. It's hard to kind of know what you're made of. It's easy to think you know what you're made of and never test it, then to actually be out

There's an uncomfortable area, and like, you have to put... I think one good exercise you could do on that point, whenever people talk about risk or they're worried about it, is I encourage them to just be like, okay, well, let's talk about it. What's the worst that can happen?

And you just... okay, be explicit. This happens. Okay, well, if that happens, then what can you do? Could you go get a job? They're like, yes. And I'm like, okay, so the worst case... it's like, I would just... I advise this for everybody out there.

You know, talk through explicitly what the worst thing that could happen if you take a risk is. And it might not sound as bad as you think once you name it, once you talk about it explicitly. Well, and here's the interesting thing, because we're making this for a general audience,

I want to leave open the door that maybe it... it is really bad. Yeah, right. Like, and if it really is bad, don't take the risk. Don't take the risk. Like, we're not saying you should always, no matter what starting conditions, be risk-seeking.

I think what we're trying to say is there are a lot of people who their starting conditions would allow them to be risk-seeking, but they don't realize it. Yep. And that's... or they realize later and they're like, wow, yeah, whoops! Like that

was dumb. Yeah, that's a tricky one. You brought up parents. I think it's probably worth revisiting. Um, we're parents. Yep. It's hard to not want to have a vision for your kids. Yeah. It's hard to not have expectations. It's

It's hard not to have dreams, and maybe they're not like, "Oh, I want to be a doctor." Right? For some people, it is, but it's hard not to have that, right? It's hard not to feel responsible. Yeah, but your 20s is really the first time

where your plan's kind of your own. If you're following your parents' plan, you chose that, like, right when you're 14. If you're following your parents' plan, maybe your parents chose that. Yeah. But when you're 23 and you're following your...

are you living your own life or the expectations of you? Yeah, because at some point you're going to wake up and realize, "This is my plan. This is my life." Yeah. Yeah. And I think what's interesting is like, maybe your parents' plan's great,

maybe it's bad, like, who knows? But um, I think there are a lot of people who kind of look back and they're like, "Oh, I didn't question my plan enough in my 20s." Yeah, like I woke up in my 30s and was

like, "Wait, did I really like the path that I walked? Did I ever spend a lot of time thinking about what I want?" Or not. And then they realize in their 30s, like that's a little... some of that's baked in. Yep. I think the biggest point

around these lines is also peers, yes, and who you spend time with. Like, I always like to reference: your personality is just an amalgam of whatever the six or seven people you spend the most time with. Yeah. And a lot of the things that we think are our own ideas are our own

Identity isn't inherent; it's absorbed from your peer group.  So, being thoughtful about who you spend time with is important. Ask yourself: 'Are they making me better? Am I around people who make me more optimistic?'

That influences many life decisions. It's funny how much of our lives are dictated by random things, like college roommates.  Is there

a bigger decision than what kind of person you become? Random roommate assignments freshman year are a big deal. This is hackable, like the hedonic treadmill; you can choose to spend more time with different people based on who you want to be.

We're not saying your friends are bad, but if you want something different—if you want to change, if you want to start a startup—having more friends who are involved in startups helps. They won't say things like, 'Startups are

dumb, risky. Why would you do that?' Instead, they'll say, 'Oh yeah, I'm doing a startup too.' You see?

Everyone becomes a centrist within their social circles. If you're surrounded by extremists on any topic, you'll think you're a centrist, but you're actually an extremist.  Startups aren't weird at all in certain friend groups, but in others, they don't get it. It's tricky.

because it's like, you know, we don't want to make this corporate and transactional. It's just more like, hey, know how powerful the people around you are and like, understand a hack to changing your life is changing those people. Um, and hey, changing those people might require

changing where you work, changing where you live, um, moving to a different city. Like one of the nice things about your 20s is you can make big decisions like that and they usually only impact yourself. Yep. You can move to a foreign country, you can move to the big city, you

can get a job where you don't know anyone. Yeah, period. Yeah. And that's no big deal in your 20s; everyone's doing that. And I will say this: um, your really good friendships will survive. Like, your really good friendships—you can talk to that person once or twice a

year, you can see them once every three or four years, and they'll stay your friends. So you're not maybe risking as much as you think you are by changing where you live or who you're living with or what industry and what job you're in. You're not

changing as much as you think you are. Um, I know it seems scary. Let's move to relationships. Uh, Dalton challenged me to to offer what I might—might say is a controversial piece of advice, and one controversial piece of advice I would have is I think you should seek

long-term relationships in your 20s. I think a lot of people would say, "Oh, you don't want to get tied down with a partner and like, yada yada yada." And I'm not saying like, get married, buy houses, have kids. I'm saying I think that there is

Something really powerful about having a strong partner, especially when you're trying to do hardcore things and work really hard with maximum effort. I think then having a really good partner actually unlocks some of your potential.

Coming home to someone you really enjoy being around kind of recharges you faster. Um, I also think being in the practice of being in stable relationships is good; it's a good habit to develop that your future self will enjoy.  You like stable

relationships. Um, and I think the opposite habit can harm, right? Like the person who never wants stable relationships, just wants to be on Tinder, and doesn't ever want to be tied down... I'd argue that that ghosts everyone, yeah, constantly. Yes, that's

like trying to experience FOMO every minute, right? You're kind of training yourself with the wrong lessons. If you do aspire to have a family one day, you know, you can start orienting yourself in that direction in your 20s, or you can create debt for

yourself in your 20s. I'd argue the debt thing is harder. Um, so yeah, that would be my controversial piece of advice. What's left? What are our final pieces of advice? Let's rebut ourselves. So, Michael, what do you...

This is all startup advice. Yeah, most people don't want to start a startup. Why is any of this relevant to me as a person that doesn't want to do a startup, that's watching this video? Well, and I think what's interesting is I think that

We're not trying to presuppose what you want to do with your life. I think we're kind of trying to say, 'Hey, if you have something tricky you want to accomplish, here are some tricks that can help you.' And I think that there's a lot of

commonality between the startup founder experience and the experience of someone who wants to do anything that's really hard. I think the scary thing that people don't want to hear is that investments in your 20s pay off for the rest of your life. Yeah, they don't want to hear that

whether they're good or bad investments. And it's like, I think anyone who lived through a childhood where you're kind of told, 'Hey, every door is open to you; it's a world of opportunities,' hates being told, 'Hey, this decade, doors start

closing.' Like that, no, doesn't feel good. No, no, but it's true. But it's the truth, man. It's the truth. All right. Um, other common rebuttal questions: Oh, well, what if, you know, I have debt or I have to support people? Like, you guys are giving all this advice,

this is just not applicable to me; this is not applicable to most people, you know? So I think that, like, that is certainly true. I think that there are a lot of people out there that have extremely specific limitations. Hell, you know, hey, some people are stuck in a

country and they can't get out. I would say, once again, this is not 'go do a startup.' Startups are for everyone, like that's not what we're trying to say. What we're trying to say is that, like, doing maximum effort is probably the only way

You can get yourself out of a not-great situation. Many not-great situations are gettable, or at least you can ameliorate them; you can make them slightly better if you work really, really hard. One of the things I've noticed is that

the people who are the most, I don't know, like, who have the most challenges, like, when they can be optimistic and when they can see themselves as agents as opposed to victims, crazy things can happen in their lives. You know, like, crazy things can

happen by just switching what's in their head. So, um, yeah, like you might not be able to apply to YC, you might not be able to move, you might not, like, fine, yeah, but like there's probably something in your life that you can apply one of

these lessons to. That is a chance of making things a little bit better. And I think the last thing that comes up, and this definitely comes in the context of YC, like, you know, what if I didn't go to a good school? I feel as though the people who went to a good school, they

still have a lot of doors open to them in the workplace. And I don't see the doors.  I'm trying to identify what companies or workplaces have the most interesting people doing the work you're most interested in. Again, even if it's not a tech startup, again it could

be like a magazine or something, you know, any, but where you're like, wow, this is really good work they're putting out. Yes, I would try to get any job there. Yeah, because once you're in the room, yeah, once you get into an organization, you will

get to meet and be around all these other people and soak up the culture. And there are so many people I know in Silicon Valley that didn't go to a good school, yeah, that just got in the door somewhere, yes, with any kind of random job, yes, and

once they were in there, their intellect and their skills and their abilities allowed them to win people over. Yeah, and then they're good. You're giving subtle advice here because this isn't this isn't "go get this brand on your resume," um, this isn't "oh, go get a job at

Facebook." Like, this is: where are the super talented people, and can you get yourself around them? Yep. And what's interesting is that, in many cases, super talented people aren't at the big companies, um, or if they are, they're not at every part of the big

company. And so, um, many times super talented people are at the beginning of stuff, yeah, where getting in is easier. Well, this is what's funny about smaller startups: they're not famous yet; they are risky, yeah, but you could get higher there—like it's not as hard to get

higher there—as the larger places. Yeah. Um, but then you're like right in the pit of the craziness when you work in an earlier-stage startup. Yeah. I mean, we had an intern, um, at my startup that went on to get into YC, uh, start a company that's generating

tens of millions of dollars in revenue. Yep. And did not go to a good school. I remember when he was applying for the job, he was working as a security guard for a housing development. Yep, that was his job. How did he get hired at your

Company, you know, we wanted someone to be a content moderator, and we were like, "What are your qualifications?" He's like, "Well, my qualification is, um, I'm the security guard, and I work basically the gate at a college kind of housing community, nights and

weekends are just crazy." And I'm just like, "You know, you're hired!" It wasn't "you're hired." We didn't hire him to be a community director, but it was definitely like, "You're putting your best foot forward, and that sounds hard." Like,

actually, like, I, I've been one of those kids. Like, yeah, like you, you, you've done some hard work. And then what I would say is, man, like getting in the game is as simple as, like, like, yeah. Once he got into your startup, then he was

hanging out with you guys, like all the founders. Yeah, just you're in the game. You're in the game. And I think this is what's so cool about startups is that, like, man, small startups, you know, they might say, "Oh, we're looking at people who

only went to this school or only got this job." But like, you know, humans are reading every email. Like, you know, there isn't a machine. Like, if it's a 20-person startup, five-person startup, it's like your email got read. And man, when people are in those

startups and they're desperate, they're open to giving people opportunities. So to wrap this up, um, probably the overall TL;DR we're trying to share with you is, man, don't be the 30-year-old who wakes up and says, "What happened to my

20s again. This is one of those things like, you know, hard life, troop's life.  Years don't come back, and most of the most successful people we know, they were laying that foundation in their 20s. All right, good chat. Sound good. Thanks. [Music]

How To Make The Most Out of Your 20s

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20대를 보내는 방법:  헤도닉 트레드밀 극복하기

쾌락적 러닝머신 소개: 새로운 것에 익숙해지고, 항상 더 많은 것을 원하게 됩니다.

인스타그램의 영향: 이상적인 삶을 보여줌으로써 불만족을 야기합니다.

즐거운 경험의 한계와 속도전의 위험성.

'해킹': 미래에 더 많은 기회를 창출하기 위해 의도적으로 만족을 지연시키는 행위입니다.

지연된 만족의 예: 주택, 휴가, 자동차.

경력 초기에 노력의 우선순위 정하기

가장 어려운 작업을 일찍 시작하면 나중에 더 유연하게 대처할 수 있습니다.

일과 삶의 균형에 대한 사회적 압력에 대응하고 번아웃을 방지합니다.

초기 경력 경로의 예: 의학, 법률, 금융.

20대의 위험 추구 행동은 노년기의 위험 회피 행동과 대조를 이룹니다.

부모의 영향력과 위험 감수에 대한 사회적 압력.

위험을 감수하는 최악의 시나리오를 명시적으로 식별하고 분석합니다.

일부 위험은 정말 나쁜 것이므로 피해야 한다는 것을 인정합니다.

많은 사람들이 위험을 감수할 수 있는 조건을 갖추고 있지만 이를 깨닫지 못합니다.

부모의 기대와 또래의 영향력 탐색하기

부모의 기대와 개인의 열망 사이에서 균형을 잡아야 하는 어려움.

자신의 계획을 따르는 것과 다른 사람의 기대를 충족시키는 것을 구분합니다.

또래 집단이 개인의 정체성과 의사 결정에 미치는 영향은 상당합니다.

또래 영향력의 해킹 가능성: 성장을 장려하는 사람들과 자신을 둘러싸는 것을 선택합니다.

20대에 장기적인 관계를 추구하라는 파격적인 조언.

강력한 파트너의 지원과 고된 업무로부터의 빠른 회복을 위한 혜택.

안정적인 관계를 피하고 끊임없이 새로운 관계를 찾는 것의 잠재적 단점.

미래의 행복을 위해 일찍부터 건강한 관계 습관을 기르세요.

스타트업 이외의 일반적인 반박 및 적용 가능성 해결

이 조언이 예비 창업가에게만 국한되지 않는다는 점을 명확히 합니다.

20대에 기회가 닫히고 있다는 느낌을 해결합니다.

개인의 한계와 다양한 상황을 인정합니다.

낙관주의와 자기 주도성의 힘으로 어려움을 극복할 수 있습니다.

명문 학교에 다니지 않은 사람들을 위한 조언: 재능 있는 인재를 찾고 함께 일하기.