1. Career Advice I Wish I Received 4 Years Ago

    This weekend thousands of college grads proudly received their diploma and ready to take on the world. This exciting time made me reflect back 4 years ago to when I was sitting in Husky stadium, bright eyed with world as my oyster. This letter is from present day Harold (2010) to Harold (2006) of 4 years ago:

    Dear Harold (2006),

    Congratulations on graduating! I know you are super excited and scared to grow up and enter the world of adult life. This letter is written to guide you through and give you advice on what is to come. 

    In a couple weeks you’ll be starting your career at Microsoft. It’ll be an exciting time where you’ll receive a corporate credit card, travel around the country, meeting really cool and smart people. They will even make you believe that Windows Vista is the best thing since slice bread (which it isn’t, and don’t install it). The perks and pay will make you tempted to stick around, but very soon when the clock hits 5 you’ll be walking towards the elevators thinking to yourself, “This is my life for the next 40 years”. This is the first lesson; pursue your passions. You have always enjoyed technology and entrepreneurship as a kid and in college. Reading and thinking about tech startup is what makes you tick, you don’t really care about what version of Exchange a company is using or whether or not they have the latest Windows patches. Run hard after what you love and what you do between 9-5 will not feel like work. 

    The phrase carpe diem is abit cliche but reflect on it daily. I am still working to live this better out in my life but the second lesson is to just do it. You’ll have many bad ideas and some decent ideas, but instead of sitting around and wondering what if, stop and just do it. It’ll be better to have done something and taken the risk than looking back and have not done anything at all. You’ll probably fail more times than you succeed but don’t look at those moments as failures, rather life lessons that you can apply to your next venture. Keep hustling :)

    The third and final lesson is to enjoy the moment. You wont enjoy life if you are constantly planning on getting out of your present situation, or living in the past. Enjoy the now. You’ll always be thinking that the grass is greener on the other side, but that is only because you have stopped watering your side. Make the most of your current situation and consider it all a blessing from God. Take mental snapshots of good times with family and friends and hold onto them; no money or prestige can replace those.

    Best of luck with what is to come, and the boring commencement speaker will be done soon. Hold onto these three lessons and I’ll write back in another 4 years with three more lessons. 

    Harold (2010)

    PS. Invest your money in Apple stock, trust me on this one :)