Great style and obviously relatable. At the risk of taking it too seriously, though, this piece reveals an all-too-common self-centered approach to goal-setting

Great style and obviously relatable. At the risk of taking it too seriously, though, this piece reveals an all-too-common self-centered approach to goal-setting: "I wanted to found and sell a successful business by the time I was 35". "I wanted to have given a TED talk." These are just personal outcomes that are the by-products of doing something for society. The older I get, the more obvious it becomes that the founders and the TED-talkers of the world are the people whose goals were set in terms of how they specifically wanted to help others - "I wanted to bring better healthcare to Senegal", "I wanted to improve urban transportation". It was just happenstance that founding a business was the only way to get there, or conducting academic research was the first necessary step to solve the problem. Careers and jobs are just tools to affect real societal change; speaking engagements and awards are a symptom of having done something for the world. You can't start with these things as goals and work backwards - I mean, you can, but it requires an almost sociopathic drive for fame and recognition, and is far more likely to result in burnout.