A recent Twitter follower asks “What is some advice you’d give to an eighteen year-old?” Usually I don’t like answering these types of questions, because doling out “life lessons” is kind of cheesy.

But, after some thought, here are some broad guidelines for getting unique and interesting experiences at that age.

Take this with a grain of salt.

1. Travel Abroad (And Go Somewhere Off The Beaten Path)

Everyone should visit another country while they’re young. And I’d suggest going by yourself instead of on a school trip or pre-planned vacation package (i.e. spring break in Cancun).

One, it’s a fun way to expand your horizons. Two it helps you test your mettle. When you’re 600 miles from anyone you know, you’re going to develop incredible self-reliance. I remember being 19 and dodging gangsters in Nicaragua. Not something worth doing twice, but certainly a once in a lifetime experience.

Lastly, international travel is surprisingly cheap.

I’ve never done the whole backpacker / stay in a hostel routine (I’d suggest you don’t either), yet those trips still cost less than $2,000 each, including airfare.

Set aside $50 – $100 per week (even as a college kid, that’s doable) and you’re travel fund builds up quick.

2. “If It Has A Name, Don’t Join It”

Politics is a waste of time.

99% of political strife has no effect on your daily life. Yet people get so caught up on news cycles it destroys their life. At least once a week we’re facing some sort of world ending catastrophe, and it becomes an endless cycle of outrage and fear mongering.

Likewise, I’d avoid most social movements too.

While it’s easy to say something like “Avoid Social Justice Warriors and dorm room Marxists,” the manosphere / alt right is just as bad.

Rather than waste your time arguing this, I’ll let French psychologist Guetave Le Bon explain:

The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim. An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will.

In other words, people joining movements trade their brain for a simple ideology and sense of belonging.

3. Create A Secondary Stream Of Income (And Reinvest All The Money From It)

(Dividend Paying Stocks Are A Nice Form Of Passive Income)

Everyone should start a side business. And that’s especially true if you’re young with plenty of free time.

Most businesses cost nothing to start, and service industries, like writing or web design, have an immediate return on investment. I did freelance writing at age 20, and it was the best education possible.

Not only do you get paid, but you also learn new skills and build up an impressive portfolio of work. I’d suggest doing this even if you have absolutely no interest in working for yourself. Why? Because it gives you a massive advantage over your competition when you apply for work somewhere.

Who’s more likely to get hired for web design: A guy who’s done nothing outside of class projects, or someone building professional sites in their free time?

Likewise, you can take all your earnings and roll them over into a third stream of passive income.

Namely investments.

This is anything from purchasing stocks (doing that this year) to hiring ghostwriters, buying paid traffic, or otherwise outsourcing your business.

An easy example of this?

Taking my entire library of eBooks and hiring a voice actor (on 50/50 royalty split, so risk whatsoever) to make audiobook editions. This created a whole new product, cost nothing, and took zero hours on my end.

Doing a royalty split was far more economic and logical than being frugal and trying to record the books myself.

Sometimes it pays to spend money or split profits. Especially when there’s no downside for doing so.

4. Don’t Go Into Debt

Most people handicap themselves early on in life by purchasing things they can’t afford.

They take out student loans, rack up credit card debt, or get a car payment.

All dumb choices.

Likewise, the money you spend on vanity purchases is better invested elsewhere.

In 2017, I paid all my bills for the year (rent, etc) by June.

No bills for six months is a lot more exciting than buying trendy clothes. Additionally, you get long-term happiness from things like going on a trip or not having to worry about money. Meanwhile, purchases like a watch or new coffee table offer a short-term rush, at best.

5. Take Up A Competitive Sport

(First Year Boxing Results – Age 20)

To quote an old boxing coach: “Everyone’s a tough guy. Except fighters.”

Armchair athletes are everywhere. Go into a sports bar on Sunday and watch all the fat drunk guys who “know” they’d do better than their favorite player.

Playing a sport kills that delusion.

You will lose, and it’s your job to figure out why.

This goes for physical contests and mind games (like poker or Chess). I do business to business sales and am perpetually amazed by the number of executives and decision makers who still play competitive sports on a regular basis. It’s no coincidence that these smart tacticians send their free time honing their cut throat skills and out-strategizing each other for fun.

I’d suggest picking both a physical and mental sport, then doing both for at least a year. You’ll make huge progress within that time.

6. Read More Books

The cheapest, and best, investment around.

Reading lets you step inside the minds of countless intellects, tycoons, philosophers, and visionaries.

All the classics are free on YouTube (here’s a great channel recommendation), and your library has all the latest titles. There’s no excuse for not broadening your horizons.

Reading gets a lot of flack, and I’ll agree that only consuming books on the same topic is pointless (the top five titles in any field will cover 90% of that subject on its entirety), but being eighteen or nineteen gives you plenty of opportunities to learn a lot of stuff.

Personally, I’d study the following:

• Quality motivational material (a perfect age for The Strangest Secret, Education Of A Bodybuilder, and Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got).
• Psychology (persuasion, decision-making, and more esoteric stuff like dream interpretation or word analysis).
• Sales (both face-to-face and advertising).
• Math (expectation value and statistics being the most widely used in daily life).
• Philosophy, a few of the classics, and some modern literature (these make for fun reading, plus they flesh out abstract concepts we seldom think about).
• Puzzles (everyone wants to improve their intelligence, buy a huge Penny Dell Variety Puzzle book and do one challenge a day).

Like physical exercise, stick with that for a year or two and you’ll make incredible progress.

Closing Thoughts

Staying out of debt, competing in sports, traveling, and being well-read give you a solid foundation for future success.

Give them a try and see what happens.