If I could send a letter to myself 20 years ago (knowing what I know now) this is what I would say:

– You don’t have to be great at everything. While it’s good to know about a lot of things and try new things, pick a few that really make you happy and focus on them.

Find out what you’re special talents are, and improve those. There will be plenty of time later to try new things once you’ve mastered a few of the important ones.

– It takes time to build something great, so be a little easier on yourself. You know all those stories you here about overnight successes?

1 year old companies being bought out by Google? Guy’s working in their PJs making 100k/mo? 15 year olds making 20k a month in their basement, then paying off their parent’s house?

There is A LOT more to those stories that you don’t hear about – chances are they aren’t the overnight successes you think they were. Just stick with it and don’t get discouraged if you don’t see massive results right away.

Take massive, focused action.

– The grass isn’t always greener. In fact it almost never is. That new bag, pair of shoes, new phone, shiny new business idea, moving to a new location…none of that will make you more happy.

You can decide to be happy now by spending time figuring out the little things that give you joy and doing them often.

– Stop worrying, things will be OK. You will look back one day and think: “Why did I spend so much time worrying about that?”

– Be consistent and focus. You suffer from Squirrel Syndrome. There is always something new that you want to try or do but you never finish what you got started on. Instead of being mediocre at a lot of things, try focusing on one or two things and get REALLY good at them.

And don’t give up so easily when you “lose interest”. There’s a lot more you can learn if you stick with it when if becomes hard.

– Don’t be afraid to fail. In fact, you should glory in your failures. It means you are taking risks, moving forward and progressing. Each day, ask yourself (in addition to what you succeeded at): What did I fail at today?

– Build your own perfect life, not what others tell you your life should be like. Just because Joe Moneybags rides around in a Maserati in LA doesn’t mean that you have to do that.

If you were the last person on earth, what car would you drive? What would you wear? Where would you live? Do what makes YOU happy. Find out what the perfect life looks like for you and start building that.

– You can be REALLY happy without lots of money. I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but true joy comes from spending time with important people in your life, doing things that you value and enjoying what you have.

– Stop comparing yourself to others. Trust me, this is going to bring a lot of emptiness and sadness into your life. Focus on what makes you happy, try to be a little better than you were yesterday and push yourself a little harder each day.

– These are the 4 Pillars of Wealth. You are going to start a lot of businesses in your life, but if you follow these pillars you will be less stressed, more energized, work less and make more money:

1. The business must have an automated sale. This means they can buy without using your personal time.

2. It must generate consistent, recurring revenue; you work for one sale that generates income on a regular basis.

3. Sell a reproducible product, instead of a service. This will allow you scale as much as you want with limited use of your time

4. Get paid in advance – no accounts receivable. No chasing down checks, complicated accounting softwares or wasting time picking up checks at your virtual office.

Now go get ’em! I’m rooting for ya!

Love,

Yourself