how to be young and successful (ULTIMATE GUIDE) | mindset, habits, entrepreneurship

you don't owe anyone your crying pics what do I want out of life it could be getting as much attention from boys I can do that I promise but get out of the Rat Race I've been going live a lot more on my Instagram and I started getting these questions where people were asking how did you become so successful and I never felt comfortable answering these questions because I'm like who am I to be like I am successful because XYZ but recently after finishing my junior year of high school and actually just reflecting on my last three years in high school I've realized there are a lot of specific things I did that helped me build my business helped me differentiate myself it also helped me find so many like-minded people and I really want to share that with you guys my definition of success is living with purpose and impacting the world as a result and when you consistently provide value to the world impact the world I believe that wealth and abundance is a mere consequence of that but success is not about the amount of money you make or the college that you get into the college admissions process is only getting more competitive little literally every month my mom sends me articles about how these schools I want to apply to have the lowest acceptance rate that they've ever had I know very encouraging so if none of what you're actually doing during High School you'd be happy with regardless of if you even get into a single College I just don't think that's a good idea I know countless numbers of current college students that were the perfect student in the high school their grades are so much better than mine and they did all these extracurriculars that maybe look good on paper and that you see on these College counseling websites But ultimately when they were telling me about their High School time they wish that they did things from a place of genuine of genuine interest and passion I wish I had a less cringy alpha male way to say this but get out of the Rat Race the rat race is like being in a never-ending cycle where you're constantly changing things like money promotions or material possessions but despite all your hard work it feels like you're running on a wheel without making real progress or finding genuine happiness it's like life's treadmill you keep running but don't really get anywhere I feel like at the beginning of high school I had to choose pretty early on what type of game I wanted to play in life like for students this could be getting straight A's it could be being popular and pretty and liked by a lot of people it could be getting as much attention from boys as possible and none of these games are inherently wrong but I think it's important to understand why you're choosing to play the game that you're choosing to play personally for me I am not playing the getting all straight A's game because I have clearly failed at that you're confused about what I mean about these different games in life I highly recommend trying your best to talk to people that are in the places in life that you think you want to be in if you want to be an investment banker but you haven't talked to an investment banker or even spent a day with an investment banker I would really like think about that a little bit more and really understand what it took to get there and how fulfilling that role actually is a couple months ago I actually took a second to think about what do I want out of life like in five to 10 years what would actually be the dream and I realized it was very different from what I was prioritizing and I was just really dialed in at school at this time I wasn't really prioritizing content and I thought that was a trade-off that I was willing to make but then I realized that not taking my content seriously may actually have worse consequences than not taking my classes seriously for the life that I want to live and yeah that's totally okay it taught me a lot me having this mindset shift didn't make me just start slacking in school I still work hard I still study for my test every single day this week I've been waking up at 5am to study for physics but here's the difference it's just no longer the number one priority in my life I don't think about studying when I'm not physically studying there's less of an emotional charge to it to do more personal Discovery and really figure out what you authentically want and what game of life you're down to play I would highly recommend these Journal prompts but even more than Journal prompts I honestly think that you just need to start taking action and trying things this may seem to go into opposition with what I said about talking to professionals who are already in Industries you want to be in but sometimes you actually need to try like do it yourself for instance freshman year I thought that I was going to be a computer science major even though I watched all the software engineer day in my life videos and CS major Q a videos they didn't truly reveal to me that being a CS major is probably not the best fit it was when I took a course when I took like a live cohort based course with MIT that I realized computer science was not for me in terms of a major so whenever you just have the slight inkling or curiosity about something actually explore that okay it's the most unattractive thing to me when someone is like oh for the last two years I've kind of wanted to try this but I haven't I've just been like like I saw this YouTube video where this guy was talking about what he's learned from really wealthy people like Mega wealthy people and he said that the time elapsed in between when they have an idea to when they execute is very small they have an idea for a new business Mentor they go do it they're not waiting around for years being like I should start a course and yes I procrastinated things too that is so normal inhuman but it's obviously most ideal to take quick action and that is something I'm trying to work on in my own life guys I used to actually procrastinate so much every day after school just go home watch Netflix and eat goldfish but there was one experience that really changed me so in the summer of my freshman year of high school I took a summer entrepreneurship program it was five weeks long online it was called lean Gap in a group with other students we launched our own startup and had to pitch it and we literally spent like 10 plus hours every day on the computer I literally just wanted to cry every single day it was so challenging but here were the main two things that I took away from linga I learned to be really respect full of people's time and to understand that no one owes me anything so I have to be ambitious and be strategic about what I want and also taught me how to take harsh feedback let me just tell you guys there was a lot of that but I think the most important part is it introduced me to a community of a lot of like-minded students I think the students at my school are so smart and so talented but let me just say Bay Area Asians built different I stopped comparing myself to anyone at my school after this program because oh my gosh some of these kids are insane like just started like coding websites when they were like eight so it's so important that you surround yourself with people with similar goals actually recently I joined a team of other high school students that are seriously like so ambitious and I'm so I don't know I'm just so inspired by them I joined on as a national Ambassador for their Global community of gen Z student printers we actually put together a Discord so y'all can connect with each other and be around like-minded specifically entrepreneurial students sparksdale Coast Live event that help you build your skills and your network there's Career Development fairs workshops from industry leaders and Pitch competitions where you can raise seed money for your startup idea and I want to let you guys in on something I'm actually hosting my first like entrepreneurship related live workshop on July 1st when you guys are watching this if you actually want to stop just like watching YouTube videos and thinking about what you want to explore and actually start doing this live Workshop is a perfect opportunity so check the link in the description to figure out more details about the event but even if you can't make it join the Discord because you'll be updated on future live events that we host I'm so excited to see you guys there like I'm actually so excited to see what faces are actually like into this stuff so outside of programs organizations and communities I want to share a practical example of how you could just like start getting involved in business and building marketable skills so let's say I noticed at my town There's this restaurant that serves really delicious food but their menus are kind of ugly and they have no social media presence being in high school can actually be a huge Advantage for this because you can just be like because I'm part of the younger generation I understand social media and a lot of older people are literally like I don't understand social media which explains the conversation in Congress about Tick Tock so here is what I would do I would ask my mom to take me to the restaurant and I would order food there I would take a couple of cute pictures and I would format it into an Instagram post and then I would talk to one of the managers or even just one of the waiters there and I'd be like this is what I created for your guys's restaurant I think that you guys would really be able to increase your sales your credibility your brand awareness if you guys had services like this you could even be like oh do you guys want to see more proof of Concepts because here's why this is so powerful you are providing Value First without asking for anything seriously through all my entrepreneurship programs and stuff I learned that the world does not owe you anything for instance if you can get a summer internship through personal connections that is amazing like yes go off but I think it's a really bad approach to going to internship being like I just want to learn new things I'm really confused I'm not saying it's bad to be confused in what you want that is so normal but when you go into wanting an internship and just say oh I need to learn new skills you're not making it clear what value you're providing to the other party and yes if they're a family friend they're probably going to want to help you but I always like to go off the safe assumption that most people are driven by economics because it's the most cringy thing I think a lot of people hate on gen Z for this when we expect things to be handed to us oh also another thing which might sound counter-intuitive is commit to things that you don't know how to do let's say you're like you think you might be into computer science and you just pick a random programming language you're like I'm going to learn this there's no demand to learn that but if you tell a local business I'm going to build you a website by next Friday you have to learn that new skill having that timeline and extreme accountability on you is pretty much going to force you to get to that level obviously do this safely and in moderation but I'll be lying if there weren't some times where I said that I had the ability to do something and I did not okay this next tip I cannot emphasize enough this is helpful even if you have no interest for business if you are even going to apply to colleges I would totally take this advice actively brand yourself as a personal brand even if you're not trying to be an influencer even writing a LinkedIn post just finding some way to understand yourself better even if it's just journaling I've kind of grown up talking about myself and viewing myself a lot in third person and sometimes that drives me crazy but overall it's just really helped me with my speaking skills and to be able to explain my desires to other people on the topic of finding your voice and the way that others perceive you something that I've consistently done is constantly put myself in Social environments where I feel uncomfortable or when I feel like an imposter I am very frequently the least smart person in the room I just have to like learn how to hold your weight people ask me how do you become well spoken how do you speak eloquently I would say something that really helped me is during covet I'm not gonna lie like I listen to at least 400 hours of podcasts a lot of business and self help podcast I got very used to certain vocabulary certain ways of speaking and I don't want to make it sound inauthentic and I'm like oh what word am I going to use this happened naturally there are specific words like Paradigm that I kept in hearing in podcasts I think I'm pretty different in school than when I am on a business call or something like that and that was something that took me a while to learn because I spent so much time during lockdown just focusing on being business that when I went back to school I like didn't know like how to be a teenager anymore so now I definitely have just learned to channel my energy where it needs to be channeled and how to have just different flavors of myself and I think each flavor of Annie is authentic it's just different if you're watching this video and are serious about becoming successful at a young age I'm gonna give you a challenge right now that's gonna get you out of your comfort zone but it's genuinely gonna help you I want you to comment in the comment section down below what is one limiting mindset that you have that is keeping you in the rat race that you are going to start and I want you to comment down below the new mindset that you're going to start implementing I am excited to read your guys's comments and please comment because other people are going to see your comments and feel really inspired by it a next topic of discussion is Mentor freaking ship in my life I have had at least 30 people Mentor me to some sort of capacity and I'm so grateful for those people that have invested in me and I truly believe that it takes a village to raise a child when I'm older I really want to be a great mentor to other people and give back because I've gained so much through my mentors some of my mentors have been specifically business mentors some are like business and life some are just life some Are Spiritual mentors but there's a specific mentorship relationship that I want to talk to you guys about because I think it really illustrates how to approach a mentor how to maintain a positive relationship with a mentor about two years ago I asked one of my brothers friend's dad to be my mentor and keep in mind I never really talked to my brother's Dad's friend that much prior to this or other than just small talk so here is how I approached him to Mentor me I told my mentor about my business and about what I was doing through my YouTube channel and the challenges I was facing just very briefly and then I related it to his experience because he taught my brother a class in entrepreneurship he taught at my high school for a little bit so I learned about all the great things that my brother said about him and I was like this is how I see your expertise helping me in areas where I have blind spots and I just asked if he was willing to meet me at Panera for one meeting okay and I did allude to the fact like oh I would love for you to be my mentor but I don't think it's realistic to expect someone to make a commitment to meeting with you so I was just like let's just meet up once right and see how this goes we had a great conversation and after I was like what is a meeting Cadence that works for you like maybe every six weeks because I was trying to be really respectful of his time I didn't want to be like do you want to meet every week because uh yeah I just wasn't sure how invested he was and he was like actually like I think you have so much going for you that we should meet once per month we should meet more frequently so that was nice to kind of just see where his Vibe was your Mentor is not really gaining anything economically from mentoring you but what they are gaining is fulfillment and feeling like they're helping youth in order for them to feel that fulfillment you have to show up responsibly you have to actually value their time if you are being a poor mentee you're a mentor is not going to feel fulfilled so that leads me to my next point on how to actually be a good mentee make them meeting with you as easy for them as possible offering to buy their coffee if they're meeting you for a cup of coffee and also in terms of scheduling don't ask a mentor to send you a list of times they're available you send them a list of times you're available because then they can just cross-reference their calendar instead of being like Oh my gosh I have to send this like a list of times I think something I really value that I've learned from the Chinese culture is that there very much of a hierarchy in terms of age when there is an elder it's really important to treat them with like utmost respect with someone that's like a counselor like a big sister a big brother to you I think it's okay to expect and appreciate unconditional love and showing up a little messy sometime but if someone's my business Mentor I'm assuming they love me conditionally next I want to touch on productivity I've made so many productivity specific videos so I'm not going to like give you guys like Pomodoro like tips or whatever but I'm gonna talk about accountability because this is freaking changing my life for the last year and a half I have been studying with my friends on Zoom like 5 a.m study sessions because I literally need someone to keep me accountable I need someone to be disappointed in me if I do not show up to my goals and recently I have taken this an extra step I actually hired an accountability coach because I was like senior year is going to be intense I not need an accountability coach to do the bare minimum like turn in my school assignments okay I can do that I promise but it's just like I was really having trouble staying accountable with content creation because there's no like real punishment necessarily if I don't post consistently on YouTube but I just wouldn't be showing up for myself so it's been so helpful having accountability coach I do it through commit action I'm not necessarily like recommending that you guys get an accountability coach um but I think especially if you have a business that is running it's so worth it oh I cannot even over exaggerate the importance of your mindset I need to make a whole separate video on this because I have so much to say but something that has helped me tremendously is viewing everything as something that serves me Loki lucky girl syndrome for instance I got the opportunity to move out to LA for 10 weeks this summer and my parents wouldn't let me take it and it crushed me it made me sad but although I was still emotionally grieving this opportunity here's what I did I started making an action plan and I started coming up with reasons of why staying in Boston was actually good and I started reaching out to people in Boston and planning fun things for the summer and truly just believing that there was a reason why my parents said no and why I wouldn't be in La for 10 weeks now in hindsight I honestly do think everything has happened for a reason I've been listening to Madison Beer's audiobook and just hearing of all the dark sides of La I don't think I was ready to be and like live alone in La as a 16 year old okay next mindset shift is we need to stop demonizing successful people or comparing ourselves to other successful women in a negative way I'm not joking when I said that like there used to be a lot of influencers that I had to have on mute because I would find myself comparing myself to them whether it was like the amount of views they got or what they looked like their achievements and it's literally crazy now like I have unmuted them I love watching their content I just feel so so positive when I watch it so a lot of the times it's not even the content that's being posted that is you know making us compare ourselves but it's just like if we already feel insecure then content of people thriving is only going to just push that insecurity out of us I think it's really important for influencers to be authentic online but also you don't owe anyone your crying pics I just Envision a future for myself where I'm surrounded by many smart and beautiful girls so it's like I'm not going to feel threatened by you I'm just going to feel excited to build a friendship and to learn from you yeah comparison is literally the thief of Joy I know what it's like to go through jealousy and to just operate like that but this video is going on for way too long if you guys want to hear more content similar to this make sure that you join the spark tank Discord community and check out the registration for the live event in the description I can't wait to talk to you guys more about entrepreneurship Frameworks for Success yeah all my socials are in the description I love talking about this type of stuff but I hope this video was helpful and I'll see you guys in the next one

Channel: Annie Long

Views: 546,502

Keywords: annie long, productive, teenage, teen girl, productivity, self improvement, productive morning routine

Id: slGYg5n6rNs

Length: 18min 58sec (1138 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 26 2023