I Asked 1000 Older People for Advice and Learned...

this video is sponsored by Shopify we all have an expiration date everything does and I don't let that stop me I'm 59 wow and every day you got to learn something you can't just lie in bed and eat cookies you have to get up and get going I've traveled to over 15 countries this year and interviewed close to a thousand strangers on the streets of each of them and today I'm going to share with you the greatest interviews that I've have recorded throughout this year featuring the best love life health and career advice from some of the oldest wisest and most diverse people you'll find on this planet if you could go back in time and relive any age in your life is there one in particular you'd go back to no oh 30 to 40 that's when I got married I traveled a lot my wife and I had our our children it was a good time time we had a nice home I had a good job uh it was good what is something that we tend to prioritize a lot when we're younger but that as we get older we realize it's not important go we worry about what everybody else thinks of us and uh what we look like our cosmetics and our hair and our face and our clothes you guys don't have to worry about it so much but we women we're encouraged to spend a lot of money on it it's a waste of time like the new car uh the big house the fancy clothes you know those things come and go I don't know I think everyone settles down too quickly think you need to have a home you think you need to have a family and once you do that you're in it you should do a whole lot of stuff first money is a means to pursue your passions what's important is uh really it's your health if you don't have good health you're not going to enjoy life I think you need to invest more time in your family and your friends and make sure you hang on to them because that's the other thing as you get older you lose those friends they start having cancer issues getting dementia and before you know it you're down to a few so this all started in my hometown of Montreal Canada back at the beginning of the year I started interviewing people every weekend asking strangers to take 2 to 3 minutes max to speak to me and share some of their best pieces of Life advice if you could give any piece of advice to someone younger than you what would you tell them if you have an idea that something that you want to do I wouldn't put it off you know the golden years are not that golden people say you can do all of this stff to your re tired but you never know what's going to happen to you so while you're healthy you should go do things meet people travel the world if that's what you want to do be brave but be true to yourself and be kind get up get out there look around put some effort in yeah every day you got to grow and every day you got to learn something you can't just lie in bed and eat cookies you have to get up and get going after Montreal my next stop was New York City New York City has some of the most diverse and interesting characters on this planet and one thing that I've learned over the course of the Year going to a city where most people have dealt with something like the people in New York have makes the interviews a whole lot more interesting for me my biggest regret was I wanted to be an actor that was my dream since I was in like Elementary School I was in all the school plays and I had a modum of success like when I was in my late teens early 20s was on a few TV shows and I I I was like sort of almost like on the cusp of like making it I guess I got scared and it was like you know I need to work I need to support myself obviously I was the quintessential starving artist I was sleeping on Friends couches I was bartending I was a server whatever doing what I had to do so I can go on auditions during the day and I kind of like gave up on that dream and got like the typical corporate 9to five job and that's my biggest regret in my life because I was like 20 let's say 22 I should have really kept at it and pursued it cuz that's all I've ever wanted to do was be an actor and now I have some lame corporate job and it's like yeah I can pay my rent and whatever live but what is the point at the end of the day you recognize that time is so short that's the only one thing that you can't get back sort of hyper aware of that now you know when you're 22 you think you're going to live forever I got my whole life ahead of me no you have to do it then try fail there's nothing to be ashamed of with failure just learn from it and then move on and just try a whole bunch of different things that would be my biggest advice to a young person if you could give one piece of advice to someone younger than you what would you say we both love to travel and I think we waited until we thought oh we can afford that it would have been much more fun to travel when we were younger at less nice places so we didn't start really traveling until we were about 50 yeah yes we can afford nicer places to go but it would have been much more fun to have done some backpack stuff make sure you do what you enjoy doing don't don't just get a job have a passion for what you're doing early into the year I went to Japan with my best friend conveniently also named will we traveled to Asia for 4 months we spent most of our time in Japan and that was one of the most eye openening experiences for the interviews because Japan if you may or may not know does not have that many people who speak English now I don't speak Japanese so for the first time I had to turn to you guys and use my audience mainly from YouTube and Instagram and Tik Tok to be my translators as a result even though I didn't understand the majority of them while they were being filmed when I looked back on them I realized they were pretty valuable so here are some of the best ones from my time in Japan what is something that when we're younger we tend to put a lot of priority on but as we get older we realize isn't actually that important [Music] for [Music] for mm two mhm three three if you could give one piece of advice to anybody younger than you what you tell them is your wife watching right [Laughter] there one thing I've learned and some something that has been heightened over the last year is just how many people are really unhappy about their careers now I grew up in Canada where your career basically makes up the better part of your life now most of us accept working in a job that we don't enjoy but there are some westerners who think differently they decide that their corporate existence in North America is not worth their time their money or their unhappiness and so they move out to different parts of the world and one of those places that a lot of them actually move to is Bangkok how old are you you're not allowed to ask those questions to a senior like me man I'm 51 I'm 59 wow 59 what wait how did you just pull that out how did I pull it out what do you do for a living I retired to move here and then uh kind of got bored of being retired and so I started a YouTube channel man what's it called plug it ah retired working for you check it out man why did you move to Bangkok ah man I've been dreaming about it my whole life I came here for the first time in '94 and fell in love with the place and kept coming back year after year for vacation and then uh finally just decided to make it happen long story probably I've been working in the film and TV industry for uh over 20 years originally moved to LA uh to kind of Chase my dreams when I was a young teenager and then uh ultimately ended up getting a job for Netflix to uh run their post- production department and help start up their studio for all original content in Asia that that brought me out to Asia then decided after I left my job it was time to come to Thailand why did you quit your job I would say mostly because it was time to try something new every four or five years or so I start to get a little bit of a an itch to live life a little differently I think I was spending a lot of time especially during the pandemic sitting in one room in front of a computer I had spent maybe 3 years almost doing that and I thought I'm not living life anymore and I need to try something different and get out of this sort of monotonous sort of routine you act and seem like you're a lot younger there's things that you do that you think make you feel younger we've lived in a world to where we've been pretty much programmed to follow directives since we were a child once we break away from all of those past beliefs then we free ourselves and we are able to follow our gut feelings and once we start exercising following our gut we tend to go a different direction you start walking slowly and then you start to skip a little little bit and next thing you know you're running because you realize that what you were doing before or what you were living before was a lie I mentioned earlier in this video how a lot of us are not happy with our lives specifically not happy with our careers now regardless of if it is your career or Another Part of Your Life most of us are unhappy because of three reasons one we don't know who we are two we don't know what we want and three even if we do know those first two things we have no idea how we plan on making that happen I wake up in the morning I'll go out for a walk and I'll just say you know what I'm just going to talk into my diary about what I feel or what I've experienced and that allows me to free myself from the thoughts of what I should be doing a few years ago I decided to create a product based on my own personal experiences that is a series of answers to the questions that the majority of us face when we set off on a journey to set big goals for ourselves and actually achieve them that product is our 365 day workbook a fully guided Journal that is designed to help you build the mindset tools and systems to completely change your life this year now to sell this product we used a Shopify store Shopify offers an easy to use all-in-one Commerce platform for anybody regardless of your technical ability and your experience to start grow and manage a business like me Shopify is Canadian but they power millions of businesses in over 175 different countries I started building my website using their key offer I went super Frugal on the website by using one of their free templates until recently where I decided to reinvest into the business and purchase one of their customized templates I then played around with it changed the colors changed the font change the style so it would adapt to my brand and that actually really helped me improve the sales on my product now if you are an aspiring entrepreneur SL future side Hustler and you want to get your business started then head over to shopify.com sprout to get a free trial today and if you're interested in changing your life this year and also getting a glimpse into what one of shopify's websites does look like head over to our website using the link in the description to get your hands on a limited edition of one of our 365-day workbooks before the new year kicks in people love to focus on the end goal and the the big dream of what it could be come and that's awesome and it's a key part of it but I think what I've learned is the difference between success and failure is often just taking that next step even though it might feel a little bit boring it might feel like a bit of the the grind but you just got to take baby steps to get to that end dream or else you'll never get there after spending those four months in Asia I came back to Canada with a different way of interviewing while I was in Asia and I was speaking to more people who did not speak the same language as me I had to be more strategic so again I turned to you guys so I would message you guys on Instagram and I would ask if anybody's in Tokyo for example and if you wanted to take 15 to 20 minutes to speak to me and hang out with me and do an interview and so most of my interviews ended up being in parks where there was no time limit and I got more comfortable speaking for 10 15 20 even 30 minutes at a time and so once you do that it's really hard to go back to a 1 to 3 minute interview so the first video that I filmed with this new found style Mac in Canada was about a topic that really interests a lot of us everybody wants it and needs it and that is love what is love to you for me love was always a sense of finding someone who brings out the best in you having a sense of commitment to the other person For Better or For Worse being caring of one another accepting each other for what faults they may have we're honest we we tell each other everything and um without that I don't think love exists you know because that leads to caring for somebody except when you go and buy a new watch didn't tell me about that I'm buying you one as well so Love is feeling fulfilled Love is feeling calm being seen and that's really really in any relationship and we have to work at all of our relationships not just what we consider the big one I could nitpick to death I choose not to do that because it doesn't expand the relationship I was someone that you know always looked for approval on the outside be it from my parents my teachers and especially from my boyfriends and then my first husband and uh after my divorce I lived alone for 8 years in a little apartment but they were the best growth years of my life how would you recommend someone who's young in today's dating world to find love true love not on the internet not swiping right in your circles at at your health club at your yoga studio what you are focused on what you're interested in is where other like-minded people are you're always looking for that piece of the jigsaw puzzle to complete you yeah when you should be complete to begin with so no rushing into marriage you know and a lot of kids do because it's important to be in a couple Ood situation but there's no need to rush I've interviewed a lot of people from a lot of cultures and a lot of Ages in this year what I've learned is that the older you get the more enriching your experiences are and the more advice you have to share but I was really looking to interview more people above the age of 90 that's when I got this idea that in Montreal there is a park that is surrounded by retirement homes we quickly went to that park for a weekend and found some of the oldest and healthiest and wisest people that you will ever find Walking the face of the what does it feel like to be 95 and 89 we don't feel our age at all times we each have certain issues but we're lucky to be walking and under in the sun on a day like today we're doing the best we can we have um a lot of friends who have passed and a lot of friends who are sick and we're we're fine so we're lucky and we're lucky we're together married 67 years we have a lovely family and lots to be thankful for what is one thing that when you were younger you put a lot of priority on and as you gotone older you realized wasn't that important things chachkas you know like now I have a house full of uh beautiful dishes and vases and things and my kids don't want them they have small houses it's not important to have the best of everything don't look at other people what is one thing that when you were younger you put a lot of priority on and when you got older you realized it wasn't that important I don't have any time to think about those things I'm just quite happy with it but he does waken in the morning and looks over and say oh are you still here if you could give one piece of advice to anyone younger than you what would you say just enjoy life and if there's something that's distasteful stay away from it first of all I say one thing stay in school get as much education as you can make yourself valuable but make sure that you you're the best that you can be M that's something I wish I had done okay may God knows what I could have been it's very hard very hard for kids today make yourself the best that you can be that's my advice and then your life will be okay lead a clean life mhm don't do things you're not supposed to do and try to be as positive as you can yeah right because tomorrow is going to be a better day unless you make it a worse day same if I've learned anything this year from interviewing close to a thousand people around the world it is really to just be more open-minded about having a conversation all of the people that I interviewed they're not Superstars they're not famous they're normal people living their lives walking along the streets the same streets as you yet they have so much wisdom to impart so my advice from my learnings is to seek advice head over to the nearest park near you find somebody sitting on a park bench and start a conversation and ask them about what advice they would give to a stranger would be that's probably how you're going to get the most out of life thank you so much for watching we have a lot planned in 2024 so make sure to subscribe if you haven't already I'm will and as always it's a mindset see you next time

Channel: Sprouht

Views: 602,624

Keywords: sprouht, advice from strangers, life lessons, life advice, self improvement, street interviews

Id: Zq5AEc7WJf4

Length: 19min 14sec (1154 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2023