No Rules
One of the beliefs I have, that I feel like is not truly appreciated, is that life has virtually no rules.
In this life there is an infinite amount of things that you are able to do, that will allow you to build the life that you please.
If you decide to, you are able to wake up tomorrow and take your life and go the complete polar opposite direction of where you are currently headed. You could even go as for as drop out of society to live with a herd of wild bison, and no one could tell you no! Okay that is an extreme of example, but the moral of what I am trying to get at is that you can really do whatever you want.
How this concept ties in to my life: every person is pushed down a path of financial security. Work hard in school, get a good job, climb up the ladder, save up and invest in a retirement plan, buy a house, live modestly, and retire. That path is awesome for many people, but I’ve never been able to lean that way. I grew up re-selling Supreme from the time I was about 13 to about 20ish. With Supreme I was able to make surprisingly good money with little effort, just from my understanding and niche knowledge in that space. What blew my mind though were the kids that were my age, but doing it at scale, selling 100s, sometimes 1000s of items from each drop and making 6-7 figures per year as teenagers. It made no sense.
Fast forward a few years, it was around Christmas time during my Junior year at UC Berkeley, so I was back home with my family. One day, I saw a tik-tok post of this random plushie toy, I thought it was neat, so thought to myself I wonder if I could sell these?
I ended up finding the supplier, I through up a website in about 2 hours, and that night I made my first sale. Within 2 weeks I crossed 5 figures in sales and I would go on to be the only seller of this item in Puerto Rico (PR was 95% of all my sales). And would eventually retire the site after the Christmas boom.
How dumb is that?
I made a decent amount of money, selling a stuffed animal in Puerto Rico. Why on Earth would I follow the beaten path?
And that is just the tip of the iceberg, there are so many more examples of people who have made wayyyyy more money that I did, doing even crazier things.
Which leads me to my final point.
When I was growing up, one the things my dad told me that has stuck with me throughout my entire life, is that in this world there is an inconceivable amount of both money and opportunity. Everything that you see is the product of someones mind, and was brought to life by the effort of them and the people that work with them. If you keep your eyes open for opportunity and remain curious, you will notice opportunities that no one around you will have any idea even exists.
Take risks. Be curious. No rules.