This is the most important year of your life (yet)
I’ve been asked to talk to this year’s postgraduate cohort at my old university today. Here’s what I’m going to say. You can find the slides here. You can follow me on Twitter here.
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This year is the most important year of your life yet.
This is no joke. My aim today is to make it clear that what you do this year will be determinative of your future success.
The talk has two parts.
First, I’ll discuss how to make the most of your postgraduate year. Second, I’ll discuss how to figure out what you’re going to do in the future.
Your postgraduate year
Vinod Khosla once gave a talk at a school. He said that he had three slides. Each slide had a rule. The rules were these:
- Only colour outside the lines;
- Disregard your teachers; and
- Disobey your parents.
I’m going to adapt these to apply to postgraduate students, but the underlying message of non-conformity will remain.
- Only read outside your reading list
There will probably be something of value on your reading list, but you should absolutely not limit yourself to what is on your list.
There are two main reasons for this.
First, if you read the same as everyone else, you’ll think the same as everyone else. This should be avoided. You should be rewarded for originality in your essays and exam answers; but, remember that exams are games and you may have to play the game to get the grade. Whether you measure yourself on the quality of your work or on the mark you get is your decision.
Second, if you limit yourself to your reading list, you’ll miss the abundance of information at your disposal on the internet. Of course, you’ll need to be selective about and curate what you read because there is a lot of p*ss poor information out there. However, you should follow your curiosity and go deep on things that interest you. You should also seek different perspectives and frameworks to avoid linear thinking.
2. Disregard what your lecturers say
Your lecturers will probably offer legitimate points of view. However, you should absolutely be willing to disagree with and challenge your lecturers. They may be bored teaching the same stuff as last year, so you’ll be doing them a favour if you do.
I’ll give an anecdote with which you can do what you like: In an essay, I argued directly and explicitly against the point of view voiced by a lecturer last year. It received my worst mark of the year. In my view, it was the best essay I wrote all year.
A peripheral point here is to make sure you engage in deep discussions with each other. I am sure there is a diversity of background in this class, so make the most of that.
3. Disobey social expectations and conventions
Most people are easily influenced while at university. My advice would be to question why you are doing things and not to do things simply because everyone else is.
Those were three core rules I’d challenge you to follow over the next year. I’ll give three others as well.
First, focus on things in your control. This comes from Jeff Bezos: “Focusing your energy on the controllable inputs of your work is the most effective way to maximize outputs over time.” (2009 Letter to Shareholders).
What are things in your control? The things you read, the effort you put in, the extra-curricular things you engage in etc.
What are things out of your control? The main one is the questions which come up in exams.
What’s important here is that you focus on factors which you can control. The more you control, the better the outcome over time.
Second, build a network. Networks will compound over time. Admittedly, I am not the best at this. However, what I would suggest is to be very careful about who you add to your network- especially your immediate network. Be intentional about the people you surround yourself with because they will influence who you will become (and vice versa).
Finally, look after your health. Exercise, eat clean, hydrate, sleep and socialise. This one is pretty simple in theory, but difficult in practice. Start building good habits now.
Your future
I am not so far ahead of you here, so I will focus on the advice given by others.
One thing that advice conflicts on is whether you should follow your passion or you should follow your strength.
Bill Gurley has said that a key to a rewarding career is “picking a career which you have an immense passion about” (see here).
On the other hand, Peter Thiel has said that “you should focus relentlessly on something you’re good at doing, but before that you must think hard about whether it will be valuable in the future.” Similarly, Ben Horowitz has said to“find the thing that you’re great at, put that into the world, contribute to others, help the world be better and that is the thing to follow” (see here).
Who’s right?
It seems to me that the reality is that you can become passionate about what you’re good at; but, equally, you can become good at what you’re passionate about.
As a result, here’s how I would think about it (the framework is inspired by Brian Singerman):
- Can you see what roles will be valuable in the future?
- Can you pick the role for you?
Many roles will be valuable in the future, but the question is can you find the role that fits your passion/strengths?
3. Can you get into that role?
This involves making sure you have the network and skills to get into the role you want to be in.
4. Will you be able to execute once in that role?
One concept that should be emphasised here is a point made by Sheryl Sandberg: careers are increasingly becoming jungle gyms rather than ladders. It may be the case that you jump from role-to-role. However, a caveat with doing this comes from Sam Altman: don’t follow the deferred life plan (see here).
Regardless of how you decide what to do, Bill Gurley’s other keys to a rewarding career are insightful:
- Be obsessive about learning in your field
- Develop mentors in your field
- Embrace peer relationships in your field
- Always be gracious and pay it forward
Final message
You’re in control of your own future, but your future starts today. Take ownership. This year is the most important year of your life yet. Be intentional about what you are doing and why you are doing it. Make sure you do what is necessary this year to make your future great.
I’ll do my best to not be a hypocrite.
Thank you very much.
