October 3, 2025 • 19 mins
At 32, I’m living the life I once dreamed of as a millionaire entrepreneur—but my 20s were anything but easy. In this episode, I’m sharing the seven lessons I wish I had known sooner. From choosing the right partner to embracing criticism, challenging the myth of “readiness,” and realizing you’re never too young to start—these are the insights that transformed my life. We’ll dive into the power of mentors, the importance of controlling your environment, and why pressure is actually a privilege. If you’re ready to build your dream life, this episode is your roadmap.
P.S. After listening if you want to continue you investment in yourself... join my webinar on how to expand your business. Spots are limited. Register here: https://10x.cardoneventures.com/bet?utm_source=Podcastndsocial
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:00):
Welcome to business and the podcast for people making it
all happen. Running a successful business completely takes over your life,
but I'm a believer that there is still room for
some ands like health, wealth, beauty, and maybe even some fashion.
On this podcast, I'll share with you what's working for
scaling my nine figure business while keeping you up to
date on the latest trends, news and fun finds. This
(00:23):
is a place for business and let's dive in!
S2 (00:26):
Welcome back to business. And if you are listening to
this and you are in your 20s, welcome. If you're
listening to this and you're not in your 20s, you
are still welcome here. These lessons still apply if you
are not happy with where you're at in life and
you're in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, you
could be in your hundreds and still listen to this.
(00:46):
The advice and the tools that I'm sharing are so invaluable,
regardless of what age you're at. It's just a nice
little title to talk about being in your 20s, because
people oftentimes really like listening to this type of content,
hence why we're creating this type of content, but I
care deeply about the lessons that I learned in my 20s,
and I care deeply about sharing them with other people,
(01:07):
because I wish somebody would have taken me by my
hand and showed me the way. But the reality is,
no one's coming to save you. No one came to
save me. I had to learn these things, and it
took me longer to create what I wanted than if
somebody would have actually given me the steps. And so
here I break down the seven different things that I
(01:28):
wish somebody would have told me when I was in
my 20s, in order to be successful, in order to
have the life that I want. And I hope you
find a lot of value in this one, because I
really enjoyed making it. With that, enjoy. At the time
of recording this video, I am 32 years old, living
my dream life as a millionaire entrepreneur and I'm married
to the love of my life. But in my 20s
(01:49):
I felt lost. I was broke, and I had no
idea if I was going to be successful. This is
the advice I wish that I could have given myself
that would have changed everything. The first is probably the
toughest lesson that you will ever learn. Who you date
and ultimately decide to marry will have everything to do
with how successful you become. Everyone has heard the saying,
(02:10):
you become like the five people that you spend the
most amount of time with, the person that you date
and ultimately decide to be with for the rest of
your life will create an environment that either helps you
get to where you want to go, or entirely takes
you in a different direction. They will either be your
biggest cheerleader, your biggest support, the person who you go
to for advice and wisdom, or they're going to be
(02:32):
the person that asks questions like, do you really need
all of that? Oh, you think you're too good for me?
Or the worst of this is when they start saying
invalidating things like, I don't know if you could really
get there, and if you can't trust the person that
you are dating with the goals that you have, with
the vision that you have for your life, how do
you think that they're actually going to support you in
order to get there? If you're not satisfied with who
(02:55):
you are, with what you've done, with where you are today,
why would the expectation be that the person that you're
with should be satisfied with that person. You want them
to see the potential that you have. You want them
to share in the vision that you have with your life,
not be really excited that you're going to the bars
and that you're hanging out and doing stupid shit, pretending
like you're still young and using being young as an
(03:15):
excuse when you really know that you want to be
taken seriously, and that you want to make a lot
of money and you want to have responsibility. So don't
find somebody to fall in love with who is falling
in love with the version of you today. They need
to be accepting of the person that you are today,
while also fully a believer of and fully in support
of the person that you are trying to become. When
I talk with people in their 20s, they're prioritizing chemistry
(03:37):
and comfort in the relationship. Instead of really looking at
can that person be a partner to me? Can that
person help me get to where I'm trying to go?
It has nothing to do with comfort and chemistry, and
has everything to do with the fact that you will
spend the most amount of time in your life with
this one person. The right partner for you will be
the one who is aligned with your vision for your
future and who pushes you towards it. Remember that this
(03:59):
momentum compounds over time, so don't waste your 20s in
situationships that drain you emotionally and hold you back from
your goals. If your futures aren't ultimately aligned with the
person that you want to spend your time with, then
no amount of love or history will build the dream
life that you're going after. Next up is number two
learn to love feedback. When I was in my 20s,
(04:23):
I did it too. Criticism felt so personal. If somebody
knew that I wasn't perfect at something, I would get
really irritated with myself because I wanted to be perfect.
But then they knew I wasn't perfect and it would
just be something I wanted to conceal. But now that
I actually understand that the criticism I received that challenged
me with the truth was what actually made me grow
(04:44):
the fastest. It's a gift to have people who are
willing to give you feedback, and even if it feels
like criticism, recognize it as a gift. That person cares
enough about you to point out, hey, you don't know
how to do this. Hey, that thing was wrong over there. Hey,
make sure you fix the situation here, because they're giving
you these indicators of what does and doesn't work. And
without somebody pointing those things out to you, you won't know.
(05:05):
One of the most mind blowing things that I ever
heard was a speech about blind spots. And it changed
my life because the speaker said, the funny thing about
blind spots is you are the only person who doesn't
see them. Meaning everybody in your life sees your blind spots.
You're the only person who doesn't see your blind spots.
(05:26):
So if somebody is giving you feedback or they're being critical,
stomach that shit just like sit there, accept the criticism
and try to see the other person's point of view.
As soon as you start to feel those emotions boiling up,
maybe your heart is going a little faster. Maybe you
want to get in an argument or a discussion. Let
that be the sign. It is the ultimate indicator that
(05:47):
you should say nothing and really look at what that
person is trying to communicate to you. Think of feedback
like a mirror. It's just reflecting what's already there so
you don't run from it. In order to get to
where you're trying to go, you have to run towards it.
That is where you find your competitive edge. In your 20s.
You have to remember that as much as feedback or
failure may hurt and be painful, it is a gift
(06:10):
and it is a lesson. And the funny thing is,
no one actually expects you to be great anyway. Most
people aren't great, so you getting feedback and failing early
is part of your ability to be successful later on.
You just have to get that all done and handled
in your 20s. Now we're on to number three the
readiness myth. You see, I had this really interesting experience
when I was in my 20s because I was dating
(06:32):
somebody who was much older than me and much more
experienced than me, and we worked together. So I thought
of him as the ultimate picture of having it together.
And he was so eloquent and he had so much experience,
and he was so smart. And all of these things
were why I loved him so much. But they also
held me back because I thought that I had to
(06:54):
have all of this stuff in order to be ready.
And the real unlock for me with this was recognizing
that I had a short window of time to make
as many failures as possible in order to actually be
ready one day, because I never was gonna feel ready
if I just continued to put off the opportunity to
gain experience. That's what you get in your 20s. Nobody
(07:17):
expects you to be good at anything, so you are
bad at things and it feels uncomfortable and it feels
like people care, but they don't really care because the
expectations truly are so low. Use your age and being
young to your advantage. But when you lean into that
and you realize that you're gonna feel the same way
in your 30s and your 40s and your 50s if
you don't get over it in your 20s. Age doesn't
(07:38):
make you feel more confident, and age doesn't actually give
you experience. There are a lot of inexperienced 80 year
olds who just never took the steps when they were
in their 20s, to learn how to become uncomfortable with
not being ready. You do not have to have it
all figured out. And to be honest with you, you
can't figure it all out. The process is taking small
steps every single day, and I promise that if you
(08:00):
do this, you will start to figure it out as
you go. Next is number four, and it's one that
we can all relate to. You are not too young.
I remember the day that my life changed was when
I found out that Kylie Jenner was a billionaire. And
why this day changed my life is Kylie Jenner is
younger than me and at the time I was in
(08:21):
my mid 20s and she was already a billionaire. And
for whatever reason, I just couldn't even think with the
fact that people who were younger than me could be
more successful than me. I just thought of myself as
really young, until I realized that there are people who
do big shit on this planet at a very young age.
There are people Forbes 30 under 30 list who should
(08:42):
inspire you to remind you that you are not too
young to do big things, and the bigger things that
you take on in your 20s will have this snowball effect,
because you're just gonna start taking on bigger and bigger
and bigger things. But thinking that you are too young
is gonna have you in this mindset that you're just
gonna push off the important things to when you're older.
But this is the problem. You never actually learn the
(09:02):
skills by the time that you're older. It is a
myth to think that you were too young. You're actually
too old. You're too old to have the excuses that
you have for not putting the work in on yourself.
You are too old to not take your goals seriously.
You are too old to be wasting your time doing
things that do not align with who you want to become.
So start thinking with you're too old. I haven't done
enough with my life yet. I gotta get going. And
(09:25):
that reframe will change every single action that you take
throughout the day, because it is a lie to tell
yourself that you're too young. The people who tell themselves
that will never become successful. It is only people who
create urgency right now that create success for themselves because
they have urgency to get something done. Take the time
in your 20s to invest in your skills and your mindset,
(09:46):
in your relationships, in your mentors. You are not too
young to want to build a great life. I've been
thinking about my 20s a lot recently. As I am
going into this new era in my career, I have
to get this really technical understanding of accounting and what's
hilarious to me is the time that somebody has taught
these accounting skills is between the ages of 18 and 22.
(10:10):
That is when all of the learning happens here. I'm 32,
but I have to go back to the things that
I could have learned and paid more attention to in college.
So the fact that the expectation is that you could
learn these things in those ages between 18 and 22
is just a complete reframe on the most important skills
and the foundation of understanding. Communication and math and science
(10:31):
actually happens at such a young age, but you're not
too young to learn those things. You actually have to
learn those things. And if you don't learn them now,
you're not going to go back in your 40s and
learn them. I don't really want to go back. And
I'm 32 and learn these things, but I recognize it's
what's required. But if I would have taken it more
seriously when I was in my 20s, I wouldn't have
to spend the extra time doing it today. Number five
(10:52):
is next. You have to find the right mentors. I
have avoided so many bad decisions because I started to
learn from other people's decades worth of mistakes, and I
skipped the period of the trial and the error. This
is what mentors are for. And here's the hard truth.
Mentors who shaped my life the most were not the
nice ones. They were the ones who demanded more and
(11:15):
they pressured me to grow. It was never convenient and
it never felt good. I'll never forget one of my
very first mentors in the first job that I had.
She was a badass. At the beginning of the meeting
that we had flown all the way from Portland, Oregon
to Atlanta, Georgia in order to be there for one day,
I asked her for a computer charger, and when I
asked her for this charger, she looked at me and
(11:36):
she said, you have to be prepared at all times. Natalie,
it is not my job to keep you prepared. And
I was like, hold the fucking phone. Like, I lost
my chart. Like I had all these reasons. I had
all these things that this is why I don't have
my computer charger. But that never left me. She was
where she got to because she was prepared and she
took things seriously. And as much as I wanted to
(11:57):
get irritated or frustrated or defend myself in that moment,
it was right. I should have been prepared before big meetings.
Your computer charged. Is your phone charged? Are your notes prepared?
Did you do due diligence? What research did you do
ahead of time to make sure that you knew exactly
what questions you were going to ask? That level of
preparation is required, but I would never have learned that
if somebody wouldn't have very inconveniently pointed out to me
(12:20):
something that I wasn't doing. So your mentors can be
people that you aspire to be like, but they can
also be the people inside your current job, inside your family,
around your environment, who do things that drive you crazy.
Because those things that drive you crazy about other people
are teaching you how you should create an environment for
other people. When you are in the position that those
(12:42):
people are in, you're getting mentored by the people in
your life consistently. You're getting mentored by the people that
you follow on Instagram. You're getting mentored by the boss
that you currently hate. You're getting mentored by the people
around you who might treat people like shit. Those people
are telling you what does and doesn't work, what does
create success and what holds people back. So pay attention
to those things and don't expect that it's going to
(13:02):
be delivered to you on some platter of how somebody
is going to mentor you, and they're just going to
take you under their wing and fly you off to
the promised land of success. It is never gonna work
like that. It will always be inconvenient, and mentors are everywhere.
So start paying attention to those little indications in your
life of the people who are doing things that you
can learn from. So you get better and you create
(13:23):
the environment that will actually allow you to have the
life that you want. The goal is not to look
for mentors who make you comfortable. Look for the ones
who will push you to do more and to be better.
Look for the ones who will bring you into new
environments and who elevate the standards that you set. Now
we're on to number six. Your environment is everything. Every
(13:44):
part of your environment is a reflection of your standards.
Even Kris Jenner says that she judges people by how
clean their cars are. This is a physical example of
your standards, how you keep your things, how organized your
desk is, what your bedroom looks like, how you do
everything actually matters. Even if you think it is so immaterial.
(14:05):
It's not immaterial. What I didn't realize when I was
younger is that if I'm gonna try to make an
impact on the world, which is something I've always wanted
to do since I was in elementary school, I remember
just thinking about what would it be like to make
a huge impact on the world. I believe people are
born with massive dreams, but I didn't understand that if
I couldn't even control this environment, I can't control me.
(14:27):
I can't control what my car looks like. I can't
control what I do or don't eat, or if I
get myself to the gym. If those things aren't handled
for me, how on earth am I gonna have the
confidence to control somebody else's environment? I don't have confidence
to control my own environment, so it took me a
little while to learn this lesson because I was a
little bit messy and chaotic, and I was always running
around like a chicken with my head cut off until
(14:49):
I realized that, wait, it's actually a sign of success.
If I can control my environment, if I can control
who I am. Because once I know I can do
that and I have confidence in myself, then I can
help other people. But I can't help people before I
can help myself. In your 20s, this is where you
decide where you're living and what car you drive, and
the people that you surround yourself with. And all of
(15:10):
that is going to send a signal about who you
are becoming and what you value. So if you want
to become the very best version of yourself, you have
to be an absolute control of your environment. And this
means letting go of the people, the places, and the
things that no longer serve you because they're going to
block your ability to advance. One of the things I
do in my business with every one of my team
(15:30):
members is set goals, because if I can help people
get clear on their goals, I can help them get
to their goals. So if you want the form that
I use inside my business in order to help people
establish goals and align those goals with their actions, go
to Natalie Dawson on Instagram. Send me a DM that
says goals and I will send over the form that
(15:52):
I use. Last up is number seven, one of my
personal favorites. Pressure is a privilege. When I was in
my 20s, I always thought that the heavy feeling of
pressure meant that something was wrong. Every deadline felt like
it was suffocating and the expectations felt completely unfair until
I heard this quote that pressure is a privilege. When
(16:14):
you're in your 20s, you have to own that you
are the main character of your life, and when you
are the main character of your life, it may sound
ridiculous that you feel pressure over some assignment that seems
immaterial that your boss gave you and that you're gonna, like,
get all serious about completing this deadline and making it happen.
But you're the freaking main character, and pressure is a
(16:36):
good thing, and you have to learn how to convert
these inconvenient things in order to be able to create
the thing that you ultimately are trying to create. And
the big things don't happen without learning how to convert
those moments of pressure that seem insignificant into moments that
really do matter, so that you perform one of the
most ridiculous life hacks that I have that I am
(16:57):
like cringing on the inside, actually verbalizing to the world
of YouTube right now, but is like a real thing
to me is listening to rap songs where they're talking
about violence and things that are real pressures in life.
And I'm over here listening to this, getting hyped up
in order to go have a team meeting that I'm
(17:18):
gonna crush. But I'm the main character in my life,
and those songs actually help me get hyped up to
go do things that do matter in my life and
my ability to convert inconvenient things. Things like running team meetings,
things like hitting deadlines, things like putting an event together
and actually hitting on that. They might seem like no
(17:38):
big deal to somebody who's really struggling with real pressures,
but you can't invalidate the pressures that you've chosen. You
can't invalidate the choices that you're making in order to
get yourself to where you're trying to go, and you
doing whatever is required to hype yourself up to make
the stakes high, even if it sounds ridiculous to your friends,
to your family, to anybody that you would ever tell.
(18:00):
But guess what? Because you used it to prepare, you
learn this invaluable skill of converting things that have to
happen in your life, of converting things that are uncomfortable
and that you don't want to do this pressure into
a real result. And if you learn this in your 20s,
it is game over for the rest of your life,
because nobody can take that skill away from you. And
it's a skill that compounds and compounds because you gain
(18:23):
more confidence and your ability to do big things. So
those were the seven lessons that I wish I knew
in my 20s.
S1 (18:29):
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(18:50):
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Welcome to business and the podcast for people making it
all happen. Running a successful business completely takes over your life,
but I'm a believer that there is still room for
some ands like health, wealth, beauty, and maybe even some fashion.
On this podcast, I'll share with you what's working for
scaling my nine figure business while keeping you up to
date on the latest trends, news and fun finds. This
(00:23):
is a place for business and let's dive in!
S2 (00:26):
Welcome back to business. And if you are listening to
this and you are in your 20s, welcome. If you're
listening to this and you're not in your 20s, you
are still welcome here. These lessons still apply if you
are not happy with where you're at in life and
you're in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, you
could be in your hundreds and still listen to this.
(00:46):
The advice and the tools that I'm sharing are so invaluable,
regardless of what age you're at. It's just a nice
little title to talk about being in your 20s, because
people oftentimes really like listening to this type of content,
hence why we're creating this type of content, but I
care deeply about the lessons that I learned in my 20s,
and I care deeply about sharing them with other people,
(01:07):
because I wish somebody would have taken me by my
hand and showed me the way. But the reality is,
no one's coming to save you. No one came to
save me. I had to learn these things, and it
took me longer to create what I wanted than if
somebody would have actually given me the steps. And so
here I break down the seven different things that I
(01:28):
wish somebody would have told me when I was in
my 20s, in order to be successful, in order to
have the life that I want. And I hope you
find a lot of value in this one, because I
really enjoyed making it. With that, enjoy. At the time
of recording this video, I am 32 years old, living
my dream life as a millionaire entrepreneur and I'm married
to the love of my life. But in my 20s
(01:49):
I felt lost. I was broke, and I had no
idea if I was going to be successful. This is
the advice I wish that I could have given myself
that would have changed everything. The first is probably the
toughest lesson that you will ever learn. Who you date
and ultimately decide to marry will have everything to do
with how successful you become. Everyone has heard the saying,
(02:10):
you become like the five people that you spend the
most amount of time with, the person that you date
and ultimately decide to be with for the rest of
your life will create an environment that either helps you
get to where you want to go, or entirely takes
you in a different direction. They will either be your
biggest cheerleader, your biggest support, the person who you go
to for advice and wisdom, or they're going to be
(02:32):
the person that asks questions like, do you really need
all of that? Oh, you think you're too good for me?
Or the worst of this is when they start saying
invalidating things like, I don't know if you could really
get there, and if you can't trust the person that
you are dating with the goals that you have, with
the vision that you have for your life, how do
you think that they're actually going to support you in
order to get there? If you're not satisfied with who
(02:55):
you are, with what you've done, with where you are today,
why would the expectation be that the person that you're
with should be satisfied with that person. You want them
to see the potential that you have. You want them
to share in the vision that you have with your life,
not be really excited that you're going to the bars
and that you're hanging out and doing stupid shit, pretending
like you're still young and using being young as an
(03:15):
excuse when you really know that you want to be
taken seriously, and that you want to make a lot
of money and you want to have responsibility. So don't
find somebody to fall in love with who is falling
in love with the version of you today. They need
to be accepting of the person that you are today,
while also fully a believer of and fully in support
of the person that you are trying to become. When
I talk with people in their 20s, they're prioritizing chemistry
(03:37):
and comfort in the relationship. Instead of really looking at
can that person be a partner to me? Can that
person help me get to where I'm trying to go?
It has nothing to do with comfort and chemistry, and
has everything to do with the fact that you will
spend the most amount of time in your life with
this one person. The right partner for you will be
the one who is aligned with your vision for your
future and who pushes you towards it. Remember that this
(03:59):
momentum compounds over time, so don't waste your 20s in
situationships that drain you emotionally and hold you back from
your goals. If your futures aren't ultimately aligned with the
person that you want to spend your time with, then
no amount of love or history will build the dream
life that you're going after. Next up is number two
learn to love feedback. When I was in my 20s,
(04:23):
I did it too. Criticism felt so personal. If somebody
knew that I wasn't perfect at something, I would get
really irritated with myself because I wanted to be perfect.
But then they knew I wasn't perfect and it would
just be something I wanted to conceal. But now that
I actually understand that the criticism I received that challenged
me with the truth was what actually made me grow
(04:44):
the fastest. It's a gift to have people who are
willing to give you feedback, and even if it feels
like criticism, recognize it as a gift. That person cares
enough about you to point out, hey, you don't know
how to do this. Hey, that thing was wrong over there. Hey,
make sure you fix the situation here, because they're giving
you these indicators of what does and doesn't work. And
without somebody pointing those things out to you, you won't know.
(05:05):
One of the most mind blowing things that I ever
heard was a speech about blind spots. And it changed
my life because the speaker said, the funny thing about
blind spots is you are the only person who doesn't
see them. Meaning everybody in your life sees your blind spots.
You're the only person who doesn't see your blind spots.
(05:26):
So if somebody is giving you feedback or they're being critical,
stomach that shit just like sit there, accept the criticism
and try to see the other person's point of view.
As soon as you start to feel those emotions boiling up,
maybe your heart is going a little faster. Maybe you
want to get in an argument or a discussion. Let
that be the sign. It is the ultimate indicator that
(05:47):
you should say nothing and really look at what that
person is trying to communicate to you. Think of feedback
like a mirror. It's just reflecting what's already there so
you don't run from it. In order to get to
where you're trying to go, you have to run towards it.
That is where you find your competitive edge. In your 20s.
You have to remember that as much as feedback or
failure may hurt and be painful, it is a gift
(06:10):
and it is a lesson. And the funny thing is,
no one actually expects you to be great anyway. Most
people aren't great, so you getting feedback and failing early
is part of your ability to be successful later on.
You just have to get that all done and handled
in your 20s. Now we're on to number three the
readiness myth. You see, I had this really interesting experience
when I was in my 20s because I was dating
(06:32):
somebody who was much older than me and much more
experienced than me, and we worked together. So I thought
of him as the ultimate picture of having it together.
And he was so eloquent and he had so much experience,
and he was so smart. And all of these things
were why I loved him so much. But they also
held me back because I thought that I had to
(06:54):
have all of this stuff in order to be ready.
And the real unlock for me with this was recognizing
that I had a short window of time to make
as many failures as possible in order to actually be
ready one day, because I never was gonna feel ready
if I just continued to put off the opportunity to
gain experience. That's what you get in your 20s. Nobody
(07:17):
expects you to be good at anything, so you are
bad at things and it feels uncomfortable and it feels
like people care, but they don't really care because the
expectations truly are so low. Use your age and being
young to your advantage. But when you lean into that
and you realize that you're gonna feel the same way
in your 30s and your 40s and your 50s if
you don't get over it in your 20s. Age doesn't
(07:38):
make you feel more confident, and age doesn't actually give
you experience. There are a lot of inexperienced 80 year
olds who just never took the steps when they were
in their 20s, to learn how to become uncomfortable with
not being ready. You do not have to have it
all figured out. And to be honest with you, you
can't figure it all out. The process is taking small
steps every single day, and I promise that if you
(08:00):
do this, you will start to figure it out as
you go. Next is number four, and it's one that
we can all relate to. You are not too young.
I remember the day that my life changed was when
I found out that Kylie Jenner was a billionaire. And
why this day changed my life is Kylie Jenner is
younger than me and at the time I was in
(08:21):
my mid 20s and she was already a billionaire. And
for whatever reason, I just couldn't even think with the
fact that people who were younger than me could be
more successful than me. I just thought of myself as
really young, until I realized that there are people who
do big shit on this planet at a very young age.
There are people Forbes 30 under 30 list who should
(08:42):
inspire you to remind you that you are not too
young to do big things, and the bigger things that
you take on in your 20s will have this snowball effect,
because you're just gonna start taking on bigger and bigger
and bigger things. But thinking that you are too young
is gonna have you in this mindset that you're just
gonna push off the important things to when you're older.
But this is the problem. You never actually learn the
(09:02):
skills by the time that you're older. It is a
myth to think that you were too young. You're actually
too old. You're too old to have the excuses that
you have for not putting the work in on yourself.
You are too old to not take your goals seriously.
You are too old to be wasting your time doing
things that do not align with who you want to become.
So start thinking with you're too old. I haven't done
enough with my life yet. I gotta get going. And
(09:25):
that reframe will change every single action that you take
throughout the day, because it is a lie to tell
yourself that you're too young. The people who tell themselves
that will never become successful. It is only people who
create urgency right now that create success for themselves because
they have urgency to get something done. Take the time
in your 20s to invest in your skills and your mindset,
(09:46):
in your relationships, in your mentors. You are not too
young to want to build a great life. I've been
thinking about my 20s a lot recently. As I am
going into this new era in my career, I have
to get this really technical understanding of accounting and what's
hilarious to me is the time that somebody has taught
these accounting skills is between the ages of 18 and 22.
(10:10):
That is when all of the learning happens here. I'm 32,
but I have to go back to the things that
I could have learned and paid more attention to in college.
So the fact that the expectation is that you could
learn these things in those ages between 18 and 22
is just a complete reframe on the most important skills
and the foundation of understanding. Communication and math and science
(10:31):
actually happens at such a young age, but you're not
too young to learn those things. You actually have to
learn those things. And if you don't learn them now,
you're not going to go back in your 40s and
learn them. I don't really want to go back. And
I'm 32 and learn these things, but I recognize it's
what's required. But if I would have taken it more
seriously when I was in my 20s, I wouldn't have
to spend the extra time doing it today. Number five
(10:52):
is next. You have to find the right mentors. I
have avoided so many bad decisions because I started to
learn from other people's decades worth of mistakes, and I
skipped the period of the trial and the error. This
is what mentors are for. And here's the hard truth.
Mentors who shaped my life the most were not the
nice ones. They were the ones who demanded more and
(11:15):
they pressured me to grow. It was never convenient and
it never felt good. I'll never forget one of my
very first mentors in the first job that I had.
She was a badass. At the beginning of the meeting
that we had flown all the way from Portland, Oregon
to Atlanta, Georgia in order to be there for one day,
I asked her for a computer charger, and when I
asked her for this charger, she looked at me and
(11:36):
she said, you have to be prepared at all times. Natalie,
it is not my job to keep you prepared. And
I was like, hold the fucking phone. Like, I lost
my chart. Like I had all these reasons. I had
all these things that this is why I don't have
my computer charger. But that never left me. She was
where she got to because she was prepared and she
took things seriously. And as much as I wanted to
(11:57):
get irritated or frustrated or defend myself in that moment,
it was right. I should have been prepared before big meetings.
Your computer charged. Is your phone charged? Are your notes prepared?
Did you do due diligence? What research did you do
ahead of time to make sure that you knew exactly
what questions you were going to ask? That level of
preparation is required, but I would never have learned that
if somebody wouldn't have very inconveniently pointed out to me
(12:20):
something that I wasn't doing. So your mentors can be
people that you aspire to be like, but they can
also be the people inside your current job, inside your family,
around your environment, who do things that drive you crazy.
Because those things that drive you crazy about other people
are teaching you how you should create an environment for
other people. When you are in the position that those
(12:42):
people are in, you're getting mentored by the people in
your life consistently. You're getting mentored by the people that
you follow on Instagram. You're getting mentored by the boss
that you currently hate. You're getting mentored by the people
around you who might treat people like shit. Those people
are telling you what does and doesn't work, what does
create success and what holds people back. So pay attention
to those things and don't expect that it's going to
(13:02):
be delivered to you on some platter of how somebody
is going to mentor you, and they're just going to
take you under their wing and fly you off to
the promised land of success. It is never gonna work
like that. It will always be inconvenient, and mentors are everywhere.
So start paying attention to those little indications in your
life of the people who are doing things that you
can learn from. So you get better and you create
(13:23):
the environment that will actually allow you to have the
life that you want. The goal is not to look
for mentors who make you comfortable. Look for the ones
who will push you to do more and to be better.
Look for the ones who will bring you into new
environments and who elevate the standards that you set. Now
we're on to number six. Your environment is everything. Every
(13:44):
part of your environment is a reflection of your standards.
Even Kris Jenner says that she judges people by how
clean their cars are. This is a physical example of
your standards, how you keep your things, how organized your
desk is, what your bedroom looks like, how you do
everything actually matters. Even if you think it is so immaterial.
(14:05):
It's not immaterial. What I didn't realize when I was
younger is that if I'm gonna try to make an
impact on the world, which is something I've always wanted
to do since I was in elementary school, I remember
just thinking about what would it be like to make
a huge impact on the world. I believe people are
born with massive dreams, but I didn't understand that if
I couldn't even control this environment, I can't control me.
(14:27):
I can't control what my car looks like. I can't
control what I do or don't eat, or if I
get myself to the gym. If those things aren't handled
for me, how on earth am I gonna have the
confidence to control somebody else's environment? I don't have confidence
to control my own environment, so it took me a
little while to learn this lesson because I was a
little bit messy and chaotic, and I was always running
around like a chicken with my head cut off until
(14:49):
I realized that, wait, it's actually a sign of success.
If I can control my environment, if I can control
who I am. Because once I know I can do
that and I have confidence in myself, then I can
help other people. But I can't help people before I
can help myself. In your 20s, this is where you
decide where you're living and what car you drive, and
the people that you surround yourself with. And all of
(15:10):
that is going to send a signal about who you
are becoming and what you value. So if you want
to become the very best version of yourself, you have
to be an absolute control of your environment. And this
means letting go of the people, the places, and the
things that no longer serve you because they're going to
block your ability to advance. One of the things I
do in my business with every one of my team
(15:30):
members is set goals, because if I can help people
get clear on their goals, I can help them get
to their goals. So if you want the form that
I use inside my business in order to help people
establish goals and align those goals with their actions, go
to Natalie Dawson on Instagram. Send me a DM that
says goals and I will send over the form that
(15:52):
I use. Last up is number seven, one of my
personal favorites. Pressure is a privilege. When I was in
my 20s, I always thought that the heavy feeling of
pressure meant that something was wrong. Every deadline felt like
it was suffocating and the expectations felt completely unfair until
I heard this quote that pressure is a privilege. When
(16:14):
you're in your 20s, you have to own that you
are the main character of your life, and when you
are the main character of your life, it may sound
ridiculous that you feel pressure over some assignment that seems
immaterial that your boss gave you and that you're gonna, like,
get all serious about completing this deadline and making it happen.
But you're the freaking main character, and pressure is a
(16:36):
good thing, and you have to learn how to convert
these inconvenient things in order to be able to create
the thing that you ultimately are trying to create. And
the big things don't happen without learning how to convert
those moments of pressure that seem insignificant into moments that
really do matter, so that you perform one of the
most ridiculous life hacks that I have that I am
(16:57):
like cringing on the inside, actually verbalizing to the world
of YouTube right now, but is like a real thing
to me is listening to rap songs where they're talking
about violence and things that are real pressures in life.
And I'm over here listening to this, getting hyped up
in order to go have a team meeting that I'm
(17:18):
gonna crush. But I'm the main character in my life,
and those songs actually help me get hyped up to
go do things that do matter in my life and
my ability to convert inconvenient things. Things like running team meetings,
things like hitting deadlines, things like putting an event together
and actually hitting on that. They might seem like no
(17:38):
big deal to somebody who's really struggling with real pressures,
but you can't invalidate the pressures that you've chosen. You
can't invalidate the choices that you're making in order to
get yourself to where you're trying to go, and you
doing whatever is required to hype yourself up to make
the stakes high, even if it sounds ridiculous to your friends,
to your family, to anybody that you would ever tell.
(18:00):
But guess what? Because you used it to prepare, you
learn this invaluable skill of converting things that have to
happen in your life, of converting things that are uncomfortable
and that you don't want to do this pressure into
a real result. And if you learn this in your 20s,
it is game over for the rest of your life,
because nobody can take that skill away from you. And
it's a skill that compounds and compounds because you gain
(18:23):
more confidence and your ability to do big things. So
those were the seven lessons that I wish I knew
in my 20s.
S1 (18:29):
If you enjoyed this podcast, you are going to definitely
not want to miss out on my new newsletter. It
just dropped. I just started creating this content and I
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it sounds like. How do you fit business and all
the other things in your life so that you are
(18:50):
up to speed on fashion, beauty, wellness, all things that
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