2 ms·

I got to do this! It's a great exercise. My college (Berklee College of Music) asked me to give a talk to the incoming freshmen class on opening day. I wrote

by sivers 18y ago

I got to do this! It's a great exercise. My college (Berklee College of Music) asked me to give a talk to the incoming freshmen class on opening day. I wrote it by asking, "What would I tell my younger self?" I called it "6 things I wish I knew the day I started Berklee" and came up with these 6: #1 : Focus. Disconnect. Do not be distracted. #2 : Do not accept their speed limit. #3 : Nobody will teach you anything. You have to teach yourself. #4 : Learn from your heroes, not only theirs. #5 : Don’t get stuck in the past. #6 : When done, be valuable. Some of those won't make sense on their own, so you can read the full version at http://sivers.org/berklee http://sivers.org/berklee or watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxYt--CFXK0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxYt--CFXK0

ChaitanyaSai 18y ago
That was a good talk! I am guessing most of us have regrets and/or proven recipes for our younger selves. However, I do wonder if simply pointing to a list would have helped me. The process by which we arrive at these points is more important, and that seems to be introspection after missing (or meeting, but rarely does success lead to introspection) childhood goals. Unfortunately, I don't think I would have valued introspection over poorly thought out reasoning for why my existing trajectory would lead straight into the lush fields of success. Would I have, I wonder, been more receptive if I had been asked to meditate on why the counter to any prescription was bad? Why, for instance, was focus important enough to trump the sheer enjoyment of youthful disorientation and distraction?