The ULTIMATE ADVICE For Every 20 Year Old! | Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary

I wish for all of you a catastrophic failure. Something that makes you cry. That you just want to sit in a dark closet for saying, “Why did I do that? How did that happen?” The idea that you're going to be successful in all your endeavors is complete BS, and the key to that is every time you fail. Because there'll be more than once. You have to learn from it. You do not want to do that again.

Beautiful day for a little hike in the mountains, and I thought it would be just spectacular to do another episode of Ask Mr. Wonderful right on top here. Beautiful day! I just took a little stroll up the mountain. I thought it'd be terrific to do this, a little fresh air, a little relaxation. But I got a great question here from Robin. Let me read this to you.

“Hi Mr. Wonderful, I'm 25 years old. I'm working in technology. I'm wondering if I could ask you what are the five things I should be thinking about to be successful at my age?” Tech is not a bad place to be these days, obviously, so I'm assuming Robin's got a good job. But let's talk a little bit about the future.

So five things. It's a great question. Five things. Well, number one on the hit parade for me, particularly if you're in your mid-20s, is you've got to have a plan. A plan about investing in yourself. In other words, you're starting your career; you got to start thinking about how much money am I going to put aside each week that I'm going to invest for the long run? So when I'm 65, I have my nest egg. You don't know what life's going to bring you. It's serendipitous. Anything can happen. You don't know when you're getting married, how many kids you're going to have, whatever. But you got to start in your 20s right now, because it sounds like you got a job. And I don't even care if you don't have a job; whatever income you've got, you've got to put some aside now.

The number I like to throw around all the time is a hundred dollars. Take a hundred dollars each week and invest it. Now, the good news is there are all kinds of apps you can use. You can download one, you can link it to your bank account, and you can start saving. That's real important. A hundred bucks a week. If the market does what it's done for the last hundred plus years, making six to eight percent in the long run, you're going to end up with a million and a half bucks in the bank. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true! That's kind of what it does when you start to think about investing conservatively and compounding all that interest and dividends and everything else. So that's number one on the hit parade. Think about that and make that a discipline: a hundred bucks a week. You know, I got to tell you, Robin, you can do it. It's not impossible.

All right, number two! This one's a little funky chicken, but I've been thinking about it lately. You have to have some kind of plan, you know, about your own self-care routine. You got to think long-term about your body, about what you eat, and how you take care of yourself. The number one thing for me is your skin, your face. It's what people look at every day. If you're young and you think about this, which means for me moisturizer and sun protection. I've been doing that forever. Now I'm doing a plug—a shameless plug—for a company that I use called Tiege Hanley because they send me this stuff in a little box, which I find very useful, and I don't have to know how to use it. But the one I'm always using? Moisturizer. It's good SPF 20 protection against the sun. Very important! Check out Tiege Hanley and get started for just $25. Also, they are offering my viewers a great deal: just click the first link in the description to get a free toiletry bag with your first box.

You'd be amazed if you just think about that every day: moisturizing and sun protection, because you know, everybody goes outside! You walk somewhere, you hang out, whatever you're doing; you go cycling, you're on the beach, you're burning, you're frying your skin, you're aging yourself prematurely. It's not corny; it's smart! When you start doing this early in life, you'd be amazed over the long term how this can help you. So that's something you should really put some thought to.

I like these guys because I hate perfumey stuff, and you know I've talked about them before. I use them, and I don't like to endorse products that I don't use. So, really, it's about self-care. It's a routine.

Number three, this is a little more complicated. In your life, you need to find a mentor. Someone you can go to that you respect, that you can bounce ideas off. Because making your own decisions all the time, you're going to find out that without any kind of feedback, you can be wrong. And there's nothing wrong with another opinion, another voice that you can listen to that would give you some great advice.

Now you can change mentors as life changes, as your circumstances change, but you should have one in your life. It could be an older brother, could be a sister, could be one of your parents, could be somebody completely random. My first mentor in business was a guy named Jerry Patterson, who was actually a lawyer and a hockey agent. A guy that would bring over Russian hockey players to the Original Six in Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit. I mean, how random can that be? But he was really focused on business; he gave me some great lessons in life. And then later in life, I turned to my stepfather, George, who was phenomenal in helping me through building, you know, some of my businesses.

And the point is, there was always somebody to go to. And the great thing about a mentor is, you know, you can be completely honest with them. Generally, they have your best interests at hand. So that's very important; that's number three.

Now, number four, I have to be sure I put this the right way, but it's important too, is learning how to fail. I wish for all of you a catastrophic failure. Why? There is no lesson in life like failure. The idea that you're going to be successful in all your endeavors is complete BS. That never happens for anybody. The most important lessons you can learn are from failure. Why? That's the definition of experience: failing, getting up, getting back at it, getting back in the race is what experience is.

And the key to that is every time you fail—because it will be more than once—you have to learn from it. You do not want to do that again; that's the whole idea. The more you fail, the better you become because you don't make those mistakes over again. But I wish for everybody, in a good way, now that you understand, a catastrophic failure. Something that makes you cry. That you just want to sit in a dark closet for saying, “Why did I do that? How did that happen?” And then you learn from it! That's absolutely crucial.

You know, I actually remember sitting in a dark room thinking about a mistake I made. I think I was like 15 years old. But it, you know, these moments in your life really stick, and they help you grow.

All right, next, number five on the hit parade: gotta find a partner in life. It's not as easy as it sounds. Like, I'm not going to give you marriage advice here or, you know, whoever you're going to hook up with. Your significant other ends up being very important, and they must be someone that understands you, and you need to understand them.

Because the romantic euphoria that is a part of the beginning of a relationship is spectacular, and I've said this many times: I wish that on everybody. And some people continually fall in love and out of love just to get that high of the euphoria of just the start of the relationship. But that's not really the challenge. The challenge is staying together. Not so easy.

And the reason you got to think about this is that staying together is hard, but you're building a foundation of trust, a foundation of perhaps family, an economic foundation. Couples that stay together build their lives together, and they have similar goals—financial goals, life goals—and that equity becomes very valuable over time. It's not easy, but in your 20s, you think about if you want to have kids, you got to start thinking. When you're 25 years old, Robin, you got to start thinking about, “Okay, how old do I want to be when I have my first child?”

And look, this is a problem that's been around for people for generations, for thousands of years. You got to think ahead because one of my great regrets in life is I didn't get married until I was 36, and I didn't have children, you know, until I was 38. I wish I'd had them sooner. I wish I'd made my decision earlier. I can't change that, but I'm giving you advice; you asked me for it. I wish I got married a lot earlier, and I wish I'd started having a family a lot sooner because I would have enjoyed them even more. To me, family is everything now, and you'll find that too.

This is advice—good, bad, or ugly. It's your family, and it becomes a big part of your life, and your joys, and your sorrows, and everything else. I don't want to get too sentimental here, but you get the timing idea. So if you can find that special person in your, you know, late 20s, that ain't a bad thing; that's a good thing.

And you have to think more about just, you know, the euphoria of romance. You got to think long-term. Is this the right person to hang with for the rest of my life? It doesn't work out that way all the time, and some people get married multiple times. But you wish every time you started one it would be the one.

So the top five: number one, save ten percent of your salary. Invest for the long term. Number two, master the art of really self-care. It's an art; it's a focus. You take care of yourself; it's very, very important. Find a mentor—always have one during your life! You might change, but find one; there's nothing wrong with that. And then, of course, fail hard at least once. You've got to fail hard once. You learn so much from it; it's so crucial.

And lastly, and this is a tricky one in life: gotta find a partner. Someone that's in sync with you and hopefully for your whole life. It'll make it far richer, but they've got to understand who you are. They have to understand you; that's what matters.

So that's just some food for thought, you know, five things that you really should think about now in your mid-20s. It's that easy. They're going to be important today, tomorrow, next week. But I think it's good advice. Now how you deal with it, you have to decide on your own, but I think all of these are things that I've learned were very important. And even more important now that I can reflect on them.

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