It’s so hard to screw up in your childhood, and it’s hard to break into a good career deep into adulthood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did great in school but couldn't afford many academic and extracurricular opportunities so it did effect my career and confidence but now in 50's it all feels so unimportant.

I'm a child of poor immigrants. I didn't have any of that either growing up. I certainly didn't play sports. I managed to start earning six figures by 30; I'm now 55 set to retire in a couple of years after having saved diligently most of my life.

I did well in HS but didn't have the money to go to a good college. My sibling went to a public ivy through a GI bill. We both had to work our way through college. I have been out earning my sibling for most of our adult lives.

Education can get your foot in the door, even if it's a lower paying job (that was me), but after that, it's up to you to hustle and use your skills, including EQ and communication skills to further yourself.

Some of it is luck, to be sure, but some of it is you.

Same here but I wish I had actual human needs in high school, such as wanting a stuffed animal, having couple sweatshirts from wet seal, and going out for birthdays. No amount of money in your 40s/50s can make up for the scarcity minded youth. We were not that poor but my family made me go to college at 16 with full scholarship to save them some money, like 2 years of grocery for a disorderly eating teen. I also only ate 1 meal per day during high school because needing to eat breakfast is a huge burden to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes I feel like there’s a very narrow path to success. A few wrong moves and you’re lower middle class and can’t afford a spouse, house or children.

It only looks narrow in retrospect. There are tons of paths to success - you just need to either 1) be exceptionally dogged in your pursuit of you path of choice or 2) be open to opportunities as they arise and looks for chances to build upon your success. The latter is much easier.


But I do agree that some wrong moves will derail your life for the long term. Choices matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes I feel like there’s a very narrow path to success. A few wrong moves and you’re lower middle class and can’t afford a spouse, house or children.

It only looks narrow in retrospect. There are tons of paths to success - you just need to either 1) be exceptionally dogged in your pursuit of you path of choice or 2) be open to opportunities as they arise and looks for chances to build upon your success. The latter is much easier.


But I do agree that some wrong moves will derail your life for the long term. Choices matter.

And the scary thing is that we teach kids that you will be successful regardless of what choices we make. People learn the hard way in adulthood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop with the pity party and get your head out of your ass. Just the way you wrote “got denied from virtually every” tells me that you weren’t denied from every club…you just didn’t get into the ones you thought you deserved to get into. You also got into college, an engineering program, etc. Lots of things have come your way, but because you aren’t grateful, you are complaining instead of making the most of all the opportunities already given to you.

Get off the internet and start working.

+1 Better yet, start dancing. Dance in place. Dance inside. Dance outside. Dance it out. Dance out your worries, regrets and concerns. Just dance.