1. Learn a Technical Trade

The first thing that I would learn is a technical trade. My trade was engineering, but it could be anything else.

Learning technical skills or how to build is something fundamental.

Worst-case scenario, it gives you a career to fall back on. Best-case scenario, it teaches you how to think critically, how to create within constraints, and how to deal with long-term projects.

It also provides you with an industry to work in and to start your career journey. Some of the best entrepreneurs in the world have a strong technical base, and for me, engineering is a great technical base.

2. Master Marketing and Sales

The next thing I would learn is marketing and sales. Marketing and sales are things that don't come naturally to most of us - we haven't been taught to do these sorts of things.

Selling is sometimes seen as a dark art and sometimes seen as unethical at best. However, proper marketing is not about selling people things that they don't want; it's not about forcing things upon them.

It's about finding out exactly what they need and finding a way to give it to them and create a win-win situation. Finding out how to create transformations in people's lives.

At its very best, marketing is taking a transformational product and giving it to the right person at the right price at the right time to create a massive change in their lives. This is something that we should all know.

3. Learn to Code

The next thing that I would learn is coding in some form. In this time of AI, you don't even need to be the best technical coder in the world.

However, it is great to know the basics because then you can take ideas for processes and put them down. This isn't just for creating products for sale; it's also for changing the way you work in your own life.

When you are able to code, when you are able to create things, you are able to significantly change the way you spend your time and the way other people spend their time. Learning to code is something that is a force multiplier for your own intelligence.

4. Develop Writing Skills

The next thing I would learn to do is to write. Even in a time where video is the de facto way of communication, writing is still something that is almost timeless and almost magical.

Great writing goes straight to the heart. It has the ability to make you see things in a new way, and it literally has the ability to change your life.

Writing is persuasion, writing is beauty - copywriting, technical writing, fiction, non-fiction, it really makes no difference. But learning how to write is something truly transformational.

Also, learning how to write helps you to get in touch with your own thoughts. It helps you to think more clearly; it helps you to take the clutter out of your mind and put it down on paper. Writing down is a magical way of de-stressing.

5. Study Basic Psychology

The next thing I would learn is basic psychology. This goes back to marketing and sales; it ties in with writing, it ties in with leadership.

Basic psychology helps us to understand other people. Once we understand other people, we have greater insight into our relationships, and we can see why others and ourselves act the way we do.

It helps us to be less triggered, it helps us to be less stressed, and it helps us to form deeper relationships. And at the end of the day, the quality of our relationships makes the quality of our life.

6. Develop Leadership Skills

The next thing I would learn is leadership. Being a good leader is another one of these force multipliers.

It allows you to take several people - dozens, hundreds, thousands of people - and help them to do their work in the best way possible.

It inspires them, it can change their lives, and in turn, it can change the lives of hundreds of thousands of others. Being a good leader allows you literally to change the world.

7. Master Money and Wealth Creation

Money is often something that is almost taboo. It's something that we don't talk about; it's something that is not taught well enough in schools and in families.

Money is a skill; making money is a skill. You might call it entrepreneurship, you might call it investment, but to me, it's best called wealth creation.

Learning how to create wealth is a definite step-by-step process which we should all follow. Once we create wealth for ourselves, we are able to help create wealth in others, we're able to give to the organizations and charities that we love, we are able to improve the lives of other people as well as ourselves.

So learning the skill of making money is learning the skill of changing our environment.

Conclusion

These are the skills that I would learn if I started my career again as a 20-year-old. You'll see that they're quite varied, they have a wide range.

I was deeply inspired by the book "Range" by David Epstein, and so if I knew then what I know now, these are the things that I would learn.

What things you would learn if you were starting again in your career?