In this episode, I’m sharing what I wish I knew in my 20s about career success, career development and long-term career growth. It’s the three career lessons I wish I knew earlier in life, and the mindset shifts that would have changed how I approached my professional growth.
If you're in your 20s, building your career or thinking about your next professional move, these are three important lessons about ambition, career capital and creating long-term opportunities that I wish I'd understood sooner.
Looking back on my 20s, I was ambitious, qualified and focused on achieving my next goal. But what I hadn't fully grasped was that career success isn't just about getting promoted, collecting qualifications or moving on to the next opportunity. It's about building something that gives you more options, leverage and freedom over time.
Here are the 3 career lessons I wish I knew in my 20s:
1. Create Career Capital : Why developing rare and valuable skills is essential for long-term career success. Inspired by Cal Newport's So Good They Can't Ignore You, I explore how specialised skills can create greater career opportunities, autonomy and flexibility.
2. Build Your Leverage : How to recognise opportunities and make better use of your existing skills, experience and resources. Drawing on Naval Ravikant's The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, I explore professional leverage and building a personal brand that creates opportunities.
3. Make Future Self Plans: Why setting goals isn't enough to create the career and life you want. Inspired by Benjamin Hardy's Personality Isn't Permanent, I explore future-self thinking, identity shifts and making present-day decisions that align with your future ambitions.
If I could give my younger self career advice, it would be this: stop chasing the next milestone and start building something that compounds over time.
Whether you're looking for career advice in your 20s, personal development lessons, professional growth strategies or inspiration for your next chapter, I hope these reflections help you approach your career differently much earlier than I did. Stop chasing. Start building.
NEXT EPISODE: What I Wish I Knew in My 20s: 3 Personal Development Lessons.0:00 What I Wish I Knew in My 20s Intro 1:03 Build Your Financial Literacy7:30 Vision Board10:13 Tools & Tricks of the Trade