Now 28, here What i would have told myself while 18

James westfall...
At 28 with everything I've tried here's what I would have told myself now at 18:

Partying is BIG waste of time and health. I wasn't a big party-er but it's a god awful waste of time. You get up the next day feeling like shit, not wanting to do anything productive for the whole day. If you want to tell great stories someday, wait until you can put it in a book and sell a million copies. Those are stories worth telling. Passionate about (your passion here)? GO ALL IN and become an expert in that field/industry. Study it's history, it's previous/current influencers, where it's said to be heading. Skills:

ASSESS yourself. Be honest. What do you suck at? What do you absolutely love doing? What are you really good at? Get nitty gritty in details, are you great at tying shoes? Washing cars? Public speaking? hacking computers? Become a master and well known for the next 3-5 years. You may lose friends, your family won't understand but because your so young and your responsibilities are much smaller now you'll get that time back. *Don't worry about what you SUCK at. Don't improve what you suck at doing, its a big waste of time. Stick with what you know and become a guru. Guru's surround themselves with other gurus, those groups change the world. Stay off of video games. Get into the gym and watch what you eat. A healthy you is a more efficient and better thinking you. Go to Find your people - Meetup join every group you're interested in, make some friends. Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes professional. Practice and then fail.. practice and then fail, practice and then fail, practice and then fail.. this indefinitely repeats. When you Fail you move Forward.

Overnight success is BS made for movies. Updated +1 time never stops. It seems like it'll take forever, whether or not you choose any path in life, time will continue to pass. Seems like too much work for you? Then you may not have it in you. People 10, 20 years older and more talented have gone before you and failed and never recovered. Being in a startup as a well educated and experienced professional doesn't guarantee success. Being in a startup as a nobody with no experience is joke. This last bit may seem harsh, it's intentional. Stay humble, you're still a nobody. Go become somebody first, the rest of the chips will fall into place.