Back then, it seemed like a ton of money.<\/p>\n
Now, I laugh because $50,000 is really nothing in the grand scheme of life. And that $50k was the amount it took me to settle for a 9-5 job that didn’t speak to my soul, in a city that I didn’t really like.<\/p>\n
If I could give advice to my 22-year-old self, I’d say work for a startup or start a company.<\/p>\n
The upside is so much bigger than the traditional route (starting a successful business in my early 20s, learning a ton), and the downside would have been minimized at that age (live with my parents at worst).<\/p>\n
Build more authentic\u00a0connections.<\/b> My best opportunities have come from connections with friends.<\/p>\n
A goal for my 30s is to build stronger friend groups in different areas of my life:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Spiritual (e.g. meditation\/consciousness group)<\/li>\n
- Physical (workout accountability buddies)<\/li>\n
- Mental (Mastermind work group \u2014 which I have, but want to expand and continue getting closer)<\/li>\n
- Emotional (some way to hold myself more accountable with emotions)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Building authentic, vulnerable connections has been one of the most difficult parts of my life. I want to deepen my existing friendships in my 30s, cut the “toxic” friendships, and find new friends who support my groth.<\/p>\n
Seek more balance.\u00a0<\/strong>About two hours ago, I met with David Cohen<\/a> \u2014 the co-founder and co-CEO of insanely impressive\u00a0Techstars<\/a>.<\/p>\n
He shared two things which stuck with me:<\/p>\n
- \n
- If you can’t take a week off the grid, something is broken. No one wishes they worked more on their deathbed, so make work\u00a0part<\/em> of my life… not my\u00a0entire<\/em> life<\/li>\n
- Teach people. When I keep ideas to myself, I prevent myself from learning and growing. Offload what I learned, help other people grow, and then move onto new things myself<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
2017 was a year I had my head down and worked non-stop. There was a lot of good…\u00a0and<\/em> a lot I regret.<\/p>\n
I stopped doing a lot of balancing activities I did in years past \u2014 improv, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, ManKind Project.<\/p>\n
While I’m glad I stopped\u00a0those<\/em> things (I was ready for a change), I lost balance overall. I turned everything into work. I wish I had spent more time trying new things, meeting new people, and traveling.<\/p>\n
To celebrate turning 30, I traveled to Denver, Boulder, and Santa Fe.<\/p>\n
I have mixed opinions on how it’s going (I’m writing this from Boulder). In hindsight, I would have planned more and gone somewhere way more fun like South America.<\/p>\n
And, at the same time, I’m happy to have stepped outside of my comfort zone and traveled at all.<\/p>\n
It’s easy for me to look at what I could have done better, and beat myself up over not being perfect. Sometimes, the grass is greenest when appreciating the steps I’ve taken even if they’re imperfect.<\/p>\n
Here are pictures from my trip.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/dmkthinks-blog-denver-brownpalace-500x323.png\")
<\/p>\nThe Brown Palace in Denver, CO.<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/dmkthinks-blog-boulder-sun-500x375.png\")
<\/p>\nBoulder, CO. Along the Boulder Canyon Trail hike.<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/dmkthinks-blog-boulder-beaver-391x500.png\")
<\/p>\nAnother picture from Boulder, CO, along the Boulder Canyon Trail. Are those beaver dams?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is going to be a short blog post about turning 30, with minimal editing and written in one sitting. Hopefully, this post will add value to one person out there. Especially in a world that’s become highly edited and inauthentic. Today, I’m turning 30. Here are a few things I’ve learned. No numbers, no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-tricks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1386"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1618,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386\/revisions\/1618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Teach people. When I keep ideas to myself, I prevent myself from learning and growing. Offload what I learned, help other people grow, and then move onto new things myself<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
- If you can’t take a week off the grid, something is broken. No one wishes they worked more on their deathbed, so make work\u00a0part<\/em> of my life… not my\u00a0entire<\/em> life<\/li>\n