The 6 things I wish I knew when I was younger...

And like I said, life isn't a race to the finish line; it's a journey. And the journey is what makes life beautiful. It's not the finish line. That's something I wish I learned a lot earlier on, because as a teenager especially, it would have saved me a lot of mental energy.

What's up, you guys? It's Graham here. So these are a few of the things I wish I knew when I was a lot younger. I know a lot of you guys are watching this might be in high school, might be in your early 20s, younger than that, or older than that. It doesn't really make a huge difference. These are just a few of the things that looking back, I wish I would have known when I was a lot younger.

Especially as you're growing up, you do the best you can. Especially in the moment, you make the best decision that you can given your circumstances. But it's not until you're a lot older that you can look back at all of those experiences objectively and see exactly what you should have done differently. These are a few of the things that I want to address, so hopefully you guys can learn from a few of my mistakes.

The first thing is that I would be less concerned about what other people thought of me. I wouldn't try so hard to wear the right clothes, to say the right thing, to try to fit in, to try to be cool, because none of it really ever even mattered. A lot of that stuff is just in your head and your own perception of yourself and what you think other people want to see when in reality, it's just you making your life way more difficult.

And the thing is, no one gives you at all. Everything was just in my own imagination because I thought I couldn't be accepted just for being myself. I thought that I had to put on some persona of this person who always was cool, always was funny, always was awesome, always was the best person to hang around, because I was too self-conscious to believe that someone could actually like me just for me.

And the thing is, people are so absorbed in their own self-image and their own self-consciousness and their own beliefs about themselves that they don't really have any time to judge you. Even if they do, it's usually a reflection of what they see in themselves and what importance they place on themselves that they perceive on you. So my biggest piece of advice is just be yourself.

Now, I know that's something that's a lot easier said than done. It's something that you tell most people, "Just be yourself," and they'll be like, "Yeah, I am myself, though." But in reality, they're not. They had no idea who they are, and sometimes it takes a lot of searching to figure out who you actually are behind the facade that you put on for everyone who's looking at you, who's watching you, who has an expectation of who you are.

It's really difficult to overcome that, but when you do, people really respect that. People love the authenticity of who you present yourself as actually who you are. Just own yourself as a person, and other people really respect that, because most people look at that and think, "I couldn't do that," and they actually look up to you just for being yourself.

So by trying to be cool and sometimes by trying to fit in, it actually works against you, because you come off as someone who's trying. Versus if you're not trying, if you just own who you are and be who you are and present that to other people, they love you for it. Very few people out there can actually be themselves, and it takes a lot of inner self-confidence to be the type of person who can openly express themselves to other people without the fear of being judged or ridiculed, because all of that stuff, it's all in your head.

And I wish I knew this when I was a lot younger. So the next thing I would recommend is not to compare yourself to other people. Now, this is a bit of a double-edged sword because you can certainly look at somebody, compare yourself to them, but see them with inspiration. Like, you want to get to their level.

Let's say you see a dude driving down the street in a brand-new Ferrari. You could look at that dude and be like, "That's an inspiration to me. I want to be like that person. I will work hard to get to that." On the other hand, comparing yourself to people can be just this weird poison because it's not so much as a race as it is a journey.

So you could look at someone else in that Ferrari and be like, "Why does he have the Ferrari? Why can't I have the Ferrari? We're the same age. I work really hard." And it's just a waste of mental energy. And the thing that you start to realize too is that when you start comparing yourself to somebody else, there will always be someone else to compare yourself to who has more than you, who works less than you, who's been way more successful than you, has everything.

There is never a chance where you can ever win at the game of comparing yourself to somebody else. If you ever look at that with jealousy and negativity, it's a total waste of mental energy. I have been there; I know exactly what it's like to look at somebody and be like, "They didn't deserve that. Why did they have that? I worked really hard for everything, and they just had this handed to them." But that's not fair.

And the thing you realize is that none of that matters, because even if you are that person that you're hating on, that person— I promise you, will have somebody else who's had it easier than them, who has more than them, and it's this losing downhill battle. You will never win in the end.

We are all different; we all travel different paths; we all have a different journey in life, and there is no sense in comparing yourself with somebody else because it's just a total waste of mental energy. And like I said, life isn't a race to the finish line; it's a journey, and the journey is what makes life beautiful.

It's not the finish line. That's something I wish I learned a lot earlier on, because as a teenager especially, it would have saved me a lot of mental energy. The third thing is that there's more to a person's image than just what you can see. So even though you might see someone who appears on the surface to be successful and have it all and be super happy and just like living the dream, you have no idea what that person is secretly going through inside.

And a lot of the time, sometimes very successful people that I see are just truly miserable inside, having nothing going on for themselves that they look forward to or that they're excited about. Deep down, some of these people are the most unhappy people you will ever have met in your entire life. I know so many people that on the surface look amazing, but when you get to know them, are just extremely toxic, negative, depressing people, where you hang out with them, and then after like 30 minutes, you just feel down.

It's the most ridiculous thing that you can hang out with somebody and then all of a sudden just be drained after 30 minutes. And you feel it; you feed off that energy. Just the same goes with maybe you have like this obese dude in his old beat-up Honda Accord from like 1989, you know, eating cheeseburgers all the time with like a dirty t-shirt. He could very well be the happiest pimp player ever in the world, and his image doesn't necessarily represent that.

So the point being is that just because someone looks a certain way doesn't mean they're necessarily that type of person all the way through. You have no idea about all the hardships they've been through; you have no idea what type of person they are. So I would not place that much importance on someone's image as I would about who the person actually is and what they represent.

So everything you see is pretty much just surface level, and you just see the tip of the iceberg. And there's a lot more to an iceberg than just the tip— that's not what she said. The next thing, and it's probably one of the biggest things that I've come to realize, is that nobody knows what the heck they're doing.

Everybody is just as lost and scared and just trying to figure it out, like everybody else. Ninety-nine percent of people are just looking to somebody else just to reassure them that they're on the right path and doing the right thing. I am the exact same way half the time; I have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm just winging it along the way.

We're all trying to figure it out; we're all doing the very best we can given our circumstances and what we've been through, and that's it. So we're all just basically as clueless and trying to wing it as everybody else, and it doesn't make you weird; it just makes you normal.

And the other thing that I found too is you think it goes away as you get older, but as you get older, you realize that I still don't know what I'm doing. This is something I feel like most people are too afraid to admit, but that's been my experience. That's where I've noticed, and this is one of those things that, you know, even me, I have no idea what I'm doing half the time.

The fifth thing is never regret taking action, and it's very true that you only miss the shots you don't take. This is the same thing when it comes to taking action; you look back, and I don't think I've ever once ever regretted doing something and taking action and trying something.

The only thing so far that I've regretted are not doing things— deciding not to do something, deciding not to go and like talk to that cute girl over there, deciding I'm too scared to go and do this, deciding, "No, that's about I shouldn't do this other little like business idea I want to do." It's those things that you look back on that you always wonder, "What if?" Those things eat away at you, and they slowly manifest themselves and grow.

These are things that are so much better just to decide to take the action that it is to put it off, make excuses, or not do it altogether because you never regret taking action on something. Even if you fail, you at least go into the future, you're like, "Hey, okay, so I failed; whatever, I'll learn from that, not a big deal."

Because years from now, none of this stuff right now is really ever gonna matter, you know? Unless you like kill somebody or something stupid; don't do that. But you know, besides that, besides, you know, something really extreme, it really—anything you do right now is gonna make zero difference two years from now.

And that's such a great way to look at things too. Anytime I'm concerned about something right now, or I'm worried, like, "What if I do this and I fail?" above what I think to myself is, "Is it gonna matter three years from now?" Three years from now, am I really gonna think back at this moment and think, "Oh damn, I shouldn't have tried it?" The answer is like 99.999% no.

I wouldn't even think about it; like, I would have to try really hard to even remember it, and even then, it's like, you know, 50/50 if I even remember trying something like that. So I always recommend take action; do the things you're afraid of— just try it. Because even if it doesn't work out, you're not gonna remember; it's not gonna matter.

And if you don't try it, you're always gonna wonder what would have happened had I tried it. And the last thing, which is a big one for me, is don't worry about things that haven't happened yet. I am one of these big worriers, where I imagine every possible scenario of something playing out, and then I pick the worst-case scenario, and then I think to myself, "How am I gonna handle that worst-case scenario?" And I play it through my head; I get anxiety about it, I worry about it, I stress about it.

And this is something where it’s maybe like a worst, worst, worst-case scenario with like a one-in-a-million percent chance of ever happening. And here I am, wasting my time worrying about this stupid thing that chances are, is never, ever gonna happen, and never ever does happen.

So I highly recommend do not stress yourself out and worry yourself about something that hasn't actually happened yet. Worry about what's most likely to happen and what you can do to move yourself forward instead of digging yourself out of a worst-case scenario and just stressing about it in your head. Because trust me, that takes up so much mental space that could be spent somewhere else doing something that's actually productive instead of worrying about something that chances are is never actually going to happen.

So understanding all of these things really helps put it in perspective, and all of these things I wish I would have known when I was a lot younger, because I wasted a lot of time on stupid stuff. Now, you know, one can say sure, I wasted a lot of time, but I came out of it, and at least I'm able to learn from it, sure.

But at the same time, if I can cut down on someone else's learning curve just by putting it in perspective and sharing this with you guys, mission accomplished. Then I think this is definitely worth the YouTube video. This is definitely worth me spending probably two hours making and editing this video and trying to get it perfect for you guys.

So if this has any impact on any of you, mission accomplished. I am happy, and I can rest well tonight. So as always, you guys, thank you so much for watching. I really hope you enjoyed this. If you haven't already, make sure to click subscribe and then smash that notification bell so YouTube can sometimes notify you when I upload videos. They send out notifications like 50% of the time, so you know, oh wow! But still, smash that notification bell so you know when I upload a video.

Also, feel free to add me on these Snapchats and the Instagram because I post there pretty much daily, and I post like behind-the-scenes stuff and like my basically what I'm doing. So if you want to follow me there, feel free to follow me there. And before I end this video, a lot of people are asking me where I got this desk and the rug and the lamp and a lot of this stuff, so I'm just gonna do some pre-promotion for the companies that bought this for me, because a lot of people asked, and I love this.

Urban 95 has this desk; it is so dope; I absolutely love it. Urban 95 also has this cool Hollywood-style lamp; it's got like this cool gold flake in the inside. I love lamp; I love this lamp. Urban 95 hooked it up with this lamp and this desk. I also got this really cool rug; you guys have not seen it yet, but I'm posting it on Snapchat right now.

So if you're watching this on YouTube already, I posted it on Snapchat like days ago. The rug is from selectrugs.com. They had a sale; I got a sale on top of the sale with like a discount code and everything like that. The rug was epic! This is Wayfair—this dinosaur skull weight it like none. Do not, you know, pay me to promote any of this, but anyway, rambling right now. Dinosaur skull, Wayfair—thank you! Good for watching, and until next time.