- Make sure that you spend time on things that give you a lot of return. Don't spend time on things
that give you little return. Picking up a new skill can
change your life totally. If you just try and improve
your life by 1% every day, the effect over many years
is extreme, is massive. Every day, try and just
learn something new. That you're not too young, you're not too old, to do something. (soft upbeat music) Before we even get started, I wanna emphasize that you
need to believe in yourself. You need to believe that you
can change your life in 2023. You need to believe that
you have the ability and the capability to do this. You need to ignore the haters. You need to ignore the
people that have told you, at school or at other times in your life, that you can't do it. You need to get your
mind in the right place and believe in yourself. And I'm telling you, you can. If I can do it, you can do it. I can't tell you the number of people that have told me during my life, or over the years of my life
that, "David you're an idiot. "David, you can't do it. "David, I'm putting you into this box. "This is the kinda person that you are. "You can't be this person. "You can't be a YouTuber
because you're too old. "You can't be an instructor "because you're not intelligent enough. "You don't speak with the right accent, "you don't have the right education," et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Ignore those haters. Ignore those people. Go out there and make
the most of your life. What are you gonna do in
2023 to change your life? In this video, I wanna talk
about the five top skills that you need to get in
2023 if you haven't already. It's really important
that you ride the waves. I've said this many, many times and I've done this many,
many times in my life. Look at what the hot trends
are, jump on those waves, and ride them. So I wanna talk about sort of five areas that I really think you should look at if you haven't already in 2023, and then look at the
skills that you need to get to ride those waves. You can't change the past, but
you can change your future. And for me, that's what I love about
technology or tech in general. You don't need a fancy degree. You don't need fancy contacts. You don't need to be part of a
old boys club, as an example, to get somewhere in technology. If you put in the effort, in a few years you can change your life because technology is
changing all the time. Look at me. I got my CCIE maybe 20 years ago. What was really, really
important 20 years ago or 10 years ago or five years ago, isn't really important
necessarily in 2023. The hot technologies of
those days are perhaps gone. Things are constantly
evolving, constantly changing, which can make it harder, if you've been in tech for a long time, to keep up. But the great news for someone like you who's perhaps starting out
is that if you start today, in two years time you could be an expert in a specific sphere or niche if you like. Think about the blockchain.
Didn't exist a few years ago. (screen clicks) Think about machine learning, AI. That is changing the world
in the last few years. 10 years ago, 20 years ago, that wasn't really important compared to how important
it is in the next few years. Jump on the waves, ride those
waves, and change your life. Now, I'm gonna continue talking
about mindset a little bit and giving you some
advice from my experience but if you don't wanna
hear that, that's fine. Use the timestamps below
to jump ahead in the video. It's important to remember that
Rome wasn't built in a day. When you're starting out, it can be overwhelming because there's so much
information, so much to learn, but I'm telling you now you don't have to try and
learn everything like that. Firstly, that's impossible. And secondly, there's just too much to
learn very, very quickly. The more you learn, the more you'll find it's easier
to learn additional skills or pick up additional skills,
learn new technologies, because a lot of it's interrelated. As an example, I have a strong
foundation in networking. For me to move into another
area isn't that difficult because I've got a strong
foundation in networking, programming, et cetera. It's much easier to pick
up new technologies. But I want you to remember
that life is a journey and your path may change over time. You may be doing this today but then tomorrow you do
something totally different, and there's nothing stopping
you reinventing yourself. You could be the expert in this area and then tomorrow or in a few years time, you're the expert in another area because technologies change and you have to change
with the technologies. If people tell you, "You
must stay where you're at," they've either not been
in tech long enough or they've stagnated because
stagnation is a terrible thing. You've gotta keep on reinventing yourself. You gotta keep on learning and changing what you're doing. If you told me five years ago that I'd have a million
subscribers on YouTube, (crowd cheers) I probably wouldn't have believed you. You've gotta keep on
improving what you're doing and keep on learning. So to help you with that, I wanna talk about some principles. First thing I really believe
in is circle of control. You may not be able to control
what governments are doing or what certain people
in the world are doing. I don't watch a lot of news because it can be really depressing. You can't change what people on the other
side of the world are doing. As an example, I live in the UK. I can't change what the
US President is doing, so I don't focus on that. I focus on the stuff that I can control. I can control my time. If you've got a job and you have to work a
certain number of hours, your boss could control that. But you may have some flexibility there to decide what you do with your time. And after work, what are
you doing with your time? What are you doing with
your time on weekends? - Work your ass off.
(relaxing upbeat music) There is no magic pill. It drives me crazy to go to the gym. You read one hour a day. I went and worked out five hours a day and I was working on
construction with 24 hours a day. Organize your day. Work hard. - As an example for me, and I'm not telling you that
this is what you have to do, I don't watch television because it can be a huge time sink, as in take a huge amount of time. I'd rather use my time for other things. You need to decide
what's important for you and prioritize what's important for you. But the point is, is you
can control your time. You can decide where you spend your time. So don't spend time on things
that give you no return. Rather spend time on things that will give you a long return. As an example, I learnt about networking
many, many years ago and that's helped me over
20 years as an example. The stuff that I learned 20 years ago are still helping me today because it's a foundation
that I build upon. Rather spend your time learning something that can help you for the future. Another important principle
is the 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, 80% of consequences
come from 20% of causes. As an example, in business, 20% of your customers give
you 80% of your revenue. If you make sure that you
focus your time on the 20%, you're gonna have a far greater return than focusing your time
on things less important. As an example, if you watch a television program, just some kind of entertainment, that could give you relaxation now but what's the return on that? What's the long-term return
on that versus, for instance, reading a book that changes your mindset or watching a video that
teaches you something that could give you a return
over your whole lifetime? You could learn something about investing. You could learn something
about technology. And that could give you return
after return after return after return throughout your entire life. Make sure that you spend time on things that give you a lot of return. Don't spend time on things
that give you little return. Picking up a new skill can
change your life totally. As an example, learning a
programming language like Python can be used for years and
years and years and years. Once you learn how to code, you might use Python for
a while or for many years, or you may move onto another
programming language, but you've got over
that hurdle of learning a programming language. The return on that
investment can be massive. Learning Linux, as an example, can give you a massive
return over your lifetime. Spend time on things that
give you a big return. Don't spend time on things
that give you little return. A book that I often
recommend is "Atomic Habits." James Clear in the book
talks about the 1% principle, if you like, or 1% rule, that if you just try and improve
your life by 1% every day, the effect over many years
is extreme, is massive. Every day, spend a bit of time learning. Try and learn something new every day. And it's amazing how that
exponentially grows your knowledge and opens up opportunities for you. I've picked up many skills over the years. Some of them would be technical skills like networking, programming. Some of them would be business skills or just other kinds of skills
like how to use YouTube. So I have YouTube skills,
I have social media skills. I keep on learning, keep on trying to develop
myself in multiple areas, and that knowledge becomes exponential and can really change things. Another good book is "Deep Work." Very difficult for some people, but often you need to
put away distractions. Get rid of your phone, turn
off your notifications, stuff like that. Put it away and make sure that you spend
time every day doing deep work. In other words, hard study. A term that could be
used for me is a creator. I'm a content creator. Content doesn't get created
by me checking emails or by looking at the
notifications on my phone. I often turn off all notifications, block myself out from
the rest of the world, and try and spend time creating content where I'm not distracted. I need to turn off notifications because can you imagine me trying to create a YouTube video like this and then getting constant messages? I need to turn off the
notifications and the messages so that I can create content. Now, you may not be a content creator, but how do you think you're going to study something difficult if you don't turn off the notifications and spend time learning? You've got to do some deep work. Some books that I'd recommend
that you look at is, "The 4-Hour Work Week." Some people don't like the title but there are a lot of good
principles in that book. Think about principles
like the 80-20 principle, circle of control. Think about "1%," "Deep Work," great books to look at that can really change
things in your life. You need to make the effort, however, in 2023 to do things differently to what you did in the past. As that saying goes, "It's insanity to do the
same thing over and over "and expect a different result." Make sure that you do something
different today, tomorrow, this year if you're not getting
the results that you want. Now, this year, I'm doing it slightly
differently to previous years. I wanna talk about five core skills that you need to learn in 2023, if you don't have these skills already. And as always, please
put in the comments below if you disagree with what I'm saying. Now, before I talk about
the top five skills, I wanna talk about five paths. There's a lot of overlap with the skills that you would require
for these different paths. The first path, which I think
is really hot at the moment and something that I would
probably start looking at if I was just starting my journey today, is data science, machine learning, or AI. Just recently ChatGPT has really blown up, lot of interest in this AI. If you really wanna ride the next wave, if you want to change your life, I would seriously look at data science, machine learning, AI. It doesn't matter which other
sphere you're interested in. Perhaps you're interested
in cybersecurity. That's been a very hot
niche in the last few years. AI can put you in a
different league to others. If you understand machine learning, if you understand data science, it can change your whole life. I would strongly suggest that you concentrate on that in 2023. And what I'm planning to do this year is create a lot of
videos around this topic. This will change many, many industries. It really has and it's gonna continue to do
that more and more and more. The ChatGPT software is just
one example of what's possible. It's amazing what that AI can do. In my previous video, I put it
to the test in cybersecurity, in programming, in networking, and it was amazing what it can do. Have a look at that video
below if you're interested. But AI is gonna change things. Now, if that's not of interest to you, have a look at dev or programming. There is always gonna be
a demand for developers in the world. Now, think about the devices that most people have with them. Could be an iPhone, could
be an Android phone. These devices run on software. People don't use their phones necessarily to make phone calls, they
use them for the apps. So if you're interested in
getting into programming, I would strongly look at app development, specifically on iOS,
specifically on Android. Fantastic place to make a
good career for yourself. But perhaps you wanna write
applications for Windows or Mac or other platforms,
but look at development. I've interviewed Dr. Chuck multiple times. Have a look at the videos below. He gives you a free path
to becoming a developer. He'll teach you Python, he'll teach you C, he'll teach you SQL. He teaches you a whole bunch
of skills that you would need if you wanna become a developer. Perhaps you can't pay
for an expensive school, you don't wanna go and do
a computer science degree, have a look at his free videos which help you become a developer. Again, very, very hot in
recent times is cybersecurity. There's a big need for
security professionals. Many, many more jobs on the blue team side rather than the red team side. Companies need to be secure. There's always gonna be a need for people interested in cybersecurity, so that's a great place to look. Cloud is huge. Amazon, we've got Google,
we've got Microsoft. I would specifically look at Amazon if you're not sure which
of the three to look at. But cloud is big, only getting bigger. More and more companies
are moving their servers from on-premise to the cloud, so have a look at the cloud. Another hot one to look at is blockchain. And I'm not talking about Bitcoin, I'm not talking about cryptocurrencies. Have a look at blockchain
for smart contracts. Now, you don't have to
focus on just one of these. You could, for instance, be
interested in cybersecurity. So perhaps looking at
hacking the blockchain or helping companies
secure the blockchain. Very good areas, but I wanted
to give you some bonus areas. Have a look at APIs. They've become very hot in recent times. Some people will say, "Well,
APIs are part of programming, "so if you're a programmer,
you have to learn about APIs." But I wanted to put this as a bonus because APIs are also really important with regards to cybersecurity. If you wanna become an ethical hacker, hacking APIs is a great place to start. APIs are used a lot in
networking as well these days, so APIs are really important. And let me talk about networking. It's very sad for me to say this but I don't think networking
is a high growth industry for the coming years. - [Crowd] Aw! - It's become very mature. It's a great stable place to get a job but it's not high growth. So if you wanna ride the
next wave or the future, get into the hot stuff, then
networking is foundational. It's really important, used
by many of these other trends, but it isn't the hottest
place to get a job. If you wanna go for a hot trend, have a look at data science
or machine learning or AI. Have a look at some of
the other sort of spheres. Networking, I would say
is a stable industry but not high growth. Another bonus is IoT, Internet of things. I mean, are you gonna become a developer that writes code for IoT? Perhaps you're gonna
get into cybersecurity and hack IoT devices. These devices are just
proliferating everywhere. We have smart homes. The lights that I'm using here
are so-called smart lights. Smart devices are taking over the world. More and more devices,
washing machines, toasters, et cetera, et cetera, are becoming smart. If you're into hacking, again,
fantastic area to look at, or perhaps coding. So there are five paths that
I would suggest you look at. Now, let's talk about the five core skills that you need to get. Let's say you're interested
in machine learning or you're interested in cybersecurity, any of these spheres, one of the foundational
skills that you need is Linux. Now, I've been saying this for years. Learn Linux. Learn Linux. Learn Linux. And I'll still say it in 2023. Learn Linux if you haven't
learned it already. The world runs on Linux. If you're into hacking or cybersecurity, think of Kali Linux, think of Parrot OS. Just think of the tools that you need. They run on Linux. If you're into machine
learning, AI, Linux, once again. If you're into networking, networking devices often run
or have a basis on Linux. Cloud runs on Linux. I mean, I can just repeat
myself over and over again. You need to learn Linux. This is a paradigm shift
for a lot of people. Don't be a consumer, be a creator. When you learn to code,
it changes everything because you can create your own tools. You're not limited by the tools available that others have created. Best programming language to
probably start with is Python. If you haven't got any coding
experience, look at Python. But very soon after that,
look at Golang, look at Rust. Rust is the language I
would suggest you look at if you're serious about
becoming a developer or coder. If you're in cybersecurity, if
you're into machine learning, Python is a great place to start. Great place to, you know, learn. It'll really help you in your career. But also have a look at Golang, have a look at Rust soon
after you've learned Python. Now, another foundational
skill is networking. Basically, the world runs
on a network, the Internet. Internet of things means networking. Cybersecurity means that you
have to understand networking. You don't need to become a CCIE like me. You don't have to become even CCNP, if you're not interested
in networking per se. You're perhaps interested
in something else but you need to have an
appreciation of networking. You need to understand an IP address. You need to understand port numbers. Have a understanding of networking
as a foundational skill. Important in cybersecurity just to understand what a
port number is as an example, or what an IP address is. The cloud foundational skill, once again, it's one of the hot training
areas in the last few years, becoming more and more mature. You need to learn about the cloud. In the old days, we used to install applications
on physical hardware, now we put them in virtual machines. And that gets me to the
next topic, virtualization. And that's changed now
to Docker containers, so containers have become really hot. So have a look at virtualization. Make sure you have an appreciation or understanding of virtualization. If you work in cybersecurity you're gonna wanna run
Kali Linux, as an example, in a virtual machine. You need to understand
what a virtual machine is. But you may wanna take it a step further and put that in a container
which is a lot more lightweight. Make sure that you learn virtual machines, Docker and Kubernetes. Great foundational skills to learn in 2023 if you haven't learned them already. Lot of repetition of previous years here but this stuff is
foundational, it's important. Right at the top, Linux.
Make sure you learn Linux. Make sure you learn a
programming language, even if it's just Python. Make sure that you understand
core networking principles. Make sure that you understand the cloud. Make sure that you
understand virtualization. As a suggestion, go and get the CompTIA
certifications in these areas. So as an example, get
Linux Plus from CompTIA. Get Network Plus for networking. Get Cloud Plus for the cloud, et cetera. There are a bunch of
introductory certifications that you can get. For networking, if you wanna focus on
becoming a network engineer, CCNA is still my recommendation. But if you wanna do cybersecurity, you may not be as focused on networking so Network Plus is fine for that. Moral of the story is: Read books, go on YouTube. There are many, many places
where you can get free content to learn these skills. You don't have to pay a lot
of money to learn the stuff. Okay, but what are you gonna do in 2023? Are you gonna put the effort in? Are you gonna put the time
in and learn this stuff and change your life in tech? The responsibility is on you. You need to decide what
you're going to do. I'm going to continue learning. I'm not gonna stop learning. You can't stop learning
if you wanna be in tech. You have to keep on learning. And for me personally, areas that I'm gonna really
focus on in 2023 is AI and development. I wanna get back to the old, old days of me doing development. I also want to expand on
the cybersecurity content, but specifically AI. (soft upbeat music) I wanna put AI into different spheres. AI in cybersecurity, AI in
programming, AI in many places. Big focus for me this year. As always, I wanna wish you
all the very best in 2023. Go out there and make
a success of your life. (soft upbeat music continues)
