You want to hear something crazy?
Conquering school will make you fail at
life. What? Well, what I mean is, if you
follow the conventional way of
approaching school, like 99% of the
videos on the internet, that might get
you decent grades, but you will have a
rude awakening when you graduate into
the real world. The unemployment rate
for new college grads has recently
surged, and some economists say
businesses are now replacing entry-level
jobs with artificial intelligence.
This is unlike any other how to crush
school video you've ever seen before.
This brutally honest take is exactly
what helped me conquer school, even when
I studied chemical engineering at one of
the hardest schools in the whole world
where I did get a 4.0 GPA. Not only
that, but what I'm going to share with
you today is what helped me be
successful in life. Because at the end
of the day, isn't that the point? But
seriously, who am I to tell you? Well,
as alluded to, I did graduate from
Caltech, but I graduated about four
years ago in 2021. Yes, I'm old and
unrelatable. I'm not a student anymore.
So, how can you trust what I say? Well,
guess what? If you want to actually
succeed as a student and after school,
which is basically 80% of your life,
then listening to videos by students for
students doesn't work here because those
people have not seen what the fruits of
their labor and the actual impact of
their habits are beyond school. As far
as some actual stats, if you've watched
any of my study videos before, you'll
know that I brag a lot. For example, let
me just be a hater on myself. Hey guys,
it's Amy and I went to Caltech, which is
one of the top schools in the world. I
slept eight hours a night. I was
validictorian in high school. I played
varsity, tennis, and basketball, all
while having migraines, which is a
neurological disorder at the same time.
Oh, and did I mention I sleep 8 hours a night?
night?
>> All jokes aside, those are all true, and
I only say those to indicate that the
time you're going to spend with me now
is of some value to you. What's more
important than any of the achievements
that I listed, that I have on my resume
or on LinkedIn, is how my content is
actually not about studying at all. I
discuss timeless concepts and mindsets
that will help you live happily,
successfully, and healthily in any
context. I'm also living proof of what
happens if you do the things I'm going
to share with you today. As background,
no, I did not come from a super rich
family. So, you can cross that excuse
out. In fact, my family was super super
frugal, and they still are actually. My
parents came to the US from China with
only $2,000 in their pockets, and that
was my grandparents entire life savings.
They worked extremely hard. My mom even
taking night shifts at a factory to earn
50 cents more per hour. While building
up this middle-class life for my sister
and me, they taught us strong values
that have propelled myself to also have
a strong work ethic and to create the
dream life I have now. High school or
even college me could have never
imagined that now I'm living in New York
City, my dream city. I've married my
dream guy. I have dream friends. And on
a day-to-day basis, I'm very happy with
the work I do. Now, there's no magical
wand you can wave, but I'm going to give
you the next best thing, which is my
compilation of the reflections I've had
since March of 2024 since I've been
essentially working on this video for
over a year now. Don't expect it to be
10 minutes long. So, lock in, be
patient, watch it in multiple increments
if you need to, but treat it like a
podcast with many golden nuggets
sprinkled along the way. I have multiple
hot takes. For example, the fact that
which college you go to actually is
important, contrary to what people are
saying all over social media. Now, let's
go into the brutally honest tips/h
hottakes. Number one, stop watching
study videos. One or two is fine, but
the rate of return drops off
significantly. You are making yourself
dumber and wasting your time with every
new study video you watch. You know why?
because you click on this 12-minute
video and then you're like, "Oh my gosh,
let me put this on 2x speed and oh my
gosh, this person's talking too slow and
I can only watch 3 minutes of it before
I leave."
>> Well, then what kind of brain are you
developing for yourself that can
actually sit through a 30 minute lecture
from your teacher? It's like you want to
get better at studying and have better
focus, but then ironically the way you
approach the study video is already the
opposite of what you should be doing in
school. Does that make sense? It's kind
of meta, but hang with me here. The way
that you approach content that's
supposed to help you is the same poor
way that you approach school that if you
just fixed your approach to school and
life and work, that's focus, dedication,
drive, and grit, then you wouldn't have
any of the problems at all. Like, yo, if
you're going to procrastinate, at least
do it right. Go watch a funny Ryan Higa
video or best dressed. Why are you
spending your time procrastinating on a
study video where you're not even paying
attention to it? You're just fake being
productive. You can see that under the
comments of most study videos. Either be
serious and learn or consume just plain
entertainment. In this day of AI, what
is AI not going to do for you? It's not
going to put things into your brain.
It's not going to give you focus and
drive. It's not going to affect your
identity. Before you click into another
plain study video, ask yourself, am I
someone who values work ethic and
seriousness, and hence, will I actually
lock in? or would my time be better
spent just jumping into the work? Number
two, be a visionary. I mentioned AI
earlier, but almost every time I mention
some kind of AI tool, there are people
in the comments like, "Ew, just another
AI tool. Ah, I'm so tired of this.
Aren't we supposed to be learning on our
own?" Now, I don't know how old you are,
but I assume you're not a boomer, so
stop acting like one. No, but honestly,
that was me for a while, too. I was
using the wrong chap GPT for the longest
time. Don't ask me how. But what I have
learned that has greatly improved my
success and efficiency is to go with the
flow. Go along with the times instead of
resisting. So if you are a student,
please, you must be using AI in your
studying in some way. Everyone always
talks about working smarter not harder.
And if you're not using AI ethically
wherever you can, you are definitely
working harder. And not only that,
you're going to fall farther and farther
behind. It's a skill to be able to
prompt AI in a way where you can still
learn. And it's smart if before you do
any task, you ask yourself, what tedious
part of this can I make more efficient
So many jobs, even ones that have
nothing to do with technical things or
AI before, are now requiring AI skills.
It's super important, especially as the
technological advanced younger
generation to be adept at prompting AI
The internet, YouTube, and now
especially AI actually democratizes
education. Not only that, but also
mentorship. So if for example you might
live in a country with fewer resources,
well instead of hiring an expensive
tutor, you can now use the smartest
person I call it chatty in the world and
let it be your mentor. You can use it as
your therapist, ask questions about how
you should approach something in school
if you're struggling with it. The
possibilities are endless. You literally
don't have to suffer as much as I did.
For example, I spent so long on research
and citations. I had to use things like
easy bib. You know how Google just comes
up with like 452 million search results
and it's really hard to see which of
those are actually credible. That's why
I wish I had free academic tools like
Consensus to save me time. Thank you
Consensus for partnering with me for
this part of the video. Consensus is an
AI powered academic search engine that
only pulls from peer-reviewed scientific
articles. That way every answer is
backed by real research and fully cited
instead of scrapped from random internet
sources. That's why thousands of
universities, including Harvard, use it.
Just ask any academic or study related
question in plain English. Then,
consensus summarizes and synthesizes
findings from highquality research
papers. But why hear from me when you
can hear from a real student conducting
research? Here's what my mentee Ben has
to say about it.
>> Hi, I'm Ben, one of Amy's mentees, and
I've been doing a bit of computer
science research. I've recently started
using Consensus, and honestly, if I knew
about this last year when I was doing my
AI research, it would have saved me so
much time and frustration scam the
internet. You can think of it like a
Google for research or better
perplexity, but it only ever actually
sources information from peer-reviewed
research papers. That means that all of
its information is really really
trustworthy and they even process it for
you to make it a lot more readable. So,
for example, I was recently trying to
find how well an alternative
architecture of AI language models
compares to what model chatbots use.
Using Consensus's deep research
function, I was able to find all the
sources I would ever probably actually
need in a really, really concise and
easy to understand research narrative,
so I know exactly where each bit of
research and information came from.
There's also quick mode, which is what
I'd use for really specific questions.
And honestly, if you're in school
working on a project or just someone who
really values high quality information,
consensus is something you should
definitely try out and at least give it
a go because I think it would save you a
lot of time. Yay! Thanks, Ben. Also,
there's a cool feature called Consensus
Meter. Just ask any yes or no question,
and Consensus will visually show how
much agreement exists in the research.
Plus, we'll link the studies to each
position. Use Consensus to get ahead the
smart way. It's completely free, and you
can use the link below in my
description. Three, use school
opportunities to develop your EQ. A
couple months ago, my godfather's son,
who's an incoming senior, was talking to
me about what major he should choose. He
was really concerned with AI. Okay, I
mentioned AI again. Basically, he and
his friends don't even know what kind of
direction to choose for their major
anymore because by the time they
graduate college in 2030, AI might make
that job obsolete, thus making their
major useless. Here's what I had to say
illustrated in a LinkedIn post. AI is
making you useless unless you understand
this. I attended a sample MIT Sloan
lecture by professor Rama Rama Krishnan
on how AI really works. Data pattern
recognition and probability based
responses. It clicked AI only follows
numbered instructions and learns from
examples. But here's the catch. That's
exactly how too many people maybe even
you want to live everything laid out in
XYZ steps without thinking. The problem
is that this creates a generation that
skips critical thinking and then hands
off all the work to AI. So how to avoid
becoming useless? You need to leverage
your human edge, which is creativity,
nuance, relationship building, and true
problem solving. If you stay at the
level where AI lives, chasing ready-made
formulas, you'll be replaced. But if you
operate above AI's capabilities, you
remain irreplaceable. And wow, turns out
developing your soft skills is exactly
what I emphasize in so many of my
videos. So in school, embrace
opportunities like giving a presentation
in front of your class. Lead a study
group. Take charge when you have a group
project. Join clubs that make you
uncomfortable. Take leadership
positions. Go and volunteer. Just put
yourself out there and do things that
literally AI cannot do because then
you're building your human capital.
That's also why I told my godfather's
son to not worry too much about the
major to choose, but to just pick
something that definitely challenges you
and causes you to inevitably build
problem-solving skills. Add on your
ability to communicate, to build
relationships, and you are in a pretty
good position after graduation. The true
value lies in how entrepreneurial you
are and what people skills you have.
Fundamental concepts in biology or
physics will still be important just so
you have common sense and you can speak
to intellectual topics. But as many of
you may think already, you're not going
to have to do calculus on the fly or
name every part of the cell. So, focus
on the highest anticipated ROI areas,
which is EQ. Number four, learn about
money. I cannot tell you how many
fullblown adults still don't know what
compounding interest is or really
understand the value of money and time
at all. When you're a student, you can
choose to live in a bubble or already
have exposure to the real world where it
matters. Learn how to earn money through
any method you can, whether it be
freelancing, tutoring, helping out at a
local community. What's more is that
when you earn money now, you have the
ability to spend money and you should be
willing to spend money. I say this as an
Asian immigrant kid with a really big
scarcity mindset. Money can buy you more
knowledge from outside of the classroom
and it can buy you convenience, which is
time. This is how you can already begin
to invest in yourself in a monetary way
and to learn what money really is. It's
something that can provide freedom, an
opportunity, a choice. One of my biggest
mistakes in high school was not being
willing to pay for like anything,
including college consulting. Instead, I
have to waste so many hours of my
precious time being an amateur in the
college process, which only happens once
in your lifetime. So, you might as well
get the knowledge if you can, especially
from an expert. And I am definitely
applying this tip to myself now even
more than ever. I actually just signed
up for an AI boot camp. specifically if
you're a student to learn outside of the
classroom. Be willing to spend money on
joining a sports team or a computer
science program, a summer math camp,
etc. Number five, be picky. In school,
it is super easy to be insecure and to
want everyone to like you and then care
about what everyone thinks of you. But
you know what brings inner peace super
easily, like at the snap of a button?
What if instead of thinking that people
are judging you, you judge other people
in a nice way, of course, but what I
mean is like be picky with the people
you surround yourself with. Be picky
with who you have a crush on, and be
picky with yourself. For example, if a
certain person does not meet the
standards you set, then you have no need
or stress to please them in any way.
I've made this mistake so much, too.
going to be a little cringe here, but I
say this out of experience from multiple
friendship heartbreaks and crush
heartbreaks. Like I would have crushes
on so many people that if I look back
now, I'm like, "Ew, like why did I spend
so much time, energy, and emotion on
that person?" It's simply because my
standards weren't high enough that like
I felt like I had to have at least one
crush at any point, even if the pool of
people available to me wasn't that
great. I wish I had an older sister to
tell me in the future I will meet a guy
way better than any of those middle
school and high school guys. And so just
to focus on myself and protect my
energy. So since I didn't have that then
there I'm telling you that you will find
someone who is up to your level and
perfect for you. Don't worry if someone
doesn't like you back because that means
they have bad judgment. So overall why
does be picky not only give you peace
but also help you level up so much more?
Well, the only way to level up is to
have higher standards. Because think
about it, consider, you know, like this
block as a range of what you could have
if you're in school right in the middle
of this range. Well, meeting Zenaia will
probably not be in your range of what
you can achieve. At the top might be to
be friends with the smartest, most
inspirational, kindest person in your
school. Right? So, that is the peak.
When you have higher standards, you're
telling yourself that you are only going
to choose what is at the top of your
range. And then when you do achieve the
top of your range, whether it be
relationships, grades, extracurriculars,
then this higher level now becomes the
middle of your new range. And so you see
how your entire level just increased.
Then you repeat. That's why you should
also be picky and have high standards
for yourself. I'm so done with so many
people out there like,
>> "Oh, but I'm bad at math. I'm someone
who procrastinates. I just can't do this."
this."
>> You are giving yourself an identity that
you wouldn't choose. But by saying it,
you're actually making it a
self-fulfilling prophecy. So, choose
identities like you would choose for
your avatar. Like, if you go into a game
and you pick an avatar, you're not going
to choose someone that's like, "Oh, I'm
going to make their skill bad at math.
I'm going to make their skill oh, bad at
focusing." You're going to choose
someone who, oh, is determined to have a
growth mindset and be good at math. And
I'm going to choose someone who does
their homework the day that it comes
out. That's how you begin identifying
with higher standards and then embodying
them. So then do what you're going to
do. Do what you say you will do and act
in a way that aligns with your values.
Imprint the word conviction into your
head. I feel like people nowadays just
don't have any conviction. They say
something and they do something else.
They have this big dream in their head
and then they never take a single step
toward it. No. If you don't have
conviction, that's how you create really
poor self-esteem. The way you build
self-esteem is by building self-rust.
There's this quote I really like from
Alex Hormosi, who is a really successful
millionaire and creator. The only work
that matters is the work that no one
sees. It shows who you really are rather
than who you say you are. Being picky is
a recipe for success because you are
also selecting your environment to make
yourself better. So if you have an
environment of hardworking, inspiring
people, you won't even feel like hard
work is that painful. And you won't even
feel like your big dreams are that
unachievable. It'll just be normal
within your group. So if you do want to
kick off having a good community of
like-minded people, well, I'm trying to
make my Discord more active again. So
you can join with the link below. It's
called Amy's A Team. It is filled with
people who are from my YouTube channel
or from my newsletter. Plus, my mentee
Ben, who you saw earlier, he created a
really cool tool that is completely free
within Discord called Athena, which is
my very own chatbot assistant where when
you ask a question and you tag Athena,
then Athena can answer what I have said
before in my videos. So, if you have a
question for me, but I'm just so busy
that I can't respond, you can tag Athena
and be like, "Hey, Athena, what is the
best way to study for the SAT?"
>> And then Athena will pull the data and
transcribe what I said in my previous
videos, give you a summarized answer,
and link the video from which it came
from. Ben worked so so hard on this
chatbot so it can be a free resource for
you, the A team, because I know it's
really hard now. It's a good and bad
thing that now I have over 700,000
amazing people in this community. So,
how many hours did you spend on this, Ben?
Ben?
>> So, across the many versions we made
before we decided on the Discobot, I
think we worked for around 60 hours
across the past 4 months on Athena.
>> Wow, that is awesome. So, please do
justice to Ben's hard work and check it
out with Discord the link below and try
using Athena. Number six, live like an
old grandpa/g grandma. Here's what I
mean. So, still be a visionary, not a
boomer when it comes to using new
technology. But you know what's really
cool about old people? They just don't
give an F about what people think about
them anymore. And they just do whatever
the heck they want to. And they're just
always happy. Even if they seem like a
cranky old grandpa, well, they're
finding joy from being cranky. And they
don't care that other people find them
cranky. Because if you have such limited
years in your life, why not spend them
literally doing whatever you want to do?
Doesn't that seem so blissful? And
that's why I believe we should time
travel in our head and already be
putting ourselves in that kind of
mindset because old people are wise,
right? They have it figured out. So why
not embody what they already are doing?
So stop giving an F. You'll find that
most of the time the things you care so
much about don't really matter. For
example, I used to be really shy in
school until I made this simple
calculation. Would you rather ask a dumb
question that people forget about in 2
minutes and get clarification that helps
you learn better? Or would you rather
sit there never knowing the answer and
then falling more and more behind
because you were just too shy to say
anything? You see, because fear is
something that will destroy your dreams
and destroy your potential. Here is
proof. Summer before my senior year at
Caltech, I had an internship. That is
where I met Shawn, who scandalous was a
full-time employee. At this point, I had
already learned the value of just going
for something and not giving an F. And
so, I was brave enough to chat with him
and get to know him and be bolder than I
ever was with any other guy I was
interested in. If I had not done that,
then we would not be married today.
Literally, what does that mean
tactically for you as a student? Well,
be willing to do things simply because
you want to do things for yourself. Join
math competitions even if none of your
friends do. Go to office hours alone.
Use the heck out of your resources like
your school counselor, even if your
other friends are not. Raise your hand
in class. Speak the f up in whatever
situation you're in. The more you live
for yourself and stop caring what others
think, the more you'll realize that
there are actually very few
consequences. The bigger consequences
are actually sacrificing your own values
and needs. If you struggle with
confidence, just understand this. The
older people get, the more confident
they are because the less they care
because they've gone through enough to
prove that it doesn't matter. So,
accelerate your path to confidence and
happiness by simply doing that. Now,
number seven, workout. I don't care if
you think you are bad at sports. I am
actually incredibly bad at sports
naturally. You can ask my basketball
coach. You can ask my tennis coach. My
form looks atrocious. The only reason
I've ever had any success in sports is
because I work really hard and I'm
scrappy. When you're young, if you don't
know how important your health is, then
you are lucky because that means that
you've never struggled with it. For
myself, I had migraines, which is a
debilitating headache that makes me lose
vision in half of my face. So, I had to
quickly early on learn the importance of
sleep. My body is also very sensitive,
so I used to get back injuries and just
easily injured in general. But if I had
not played sports or learned how to
exercise and lift weights when I was a
student, then currently at this adult
age, my back would be a lot worse. My
joints would hurt a lot more. And then
going into the future, who knows what
kind of mobility I would be at. When you
work out and play sports young, that's
how you build an understanding of what
your body's value is because you can see
what it does for you and not just define
it, but how it looks when you practice.
and can make basketball shots so much
more accurately or you gain muscle at
the gym. You are both building your
mental toughness and setting a great
foundation for when you're an adult.
Because so many adults, they have on
their New Year's resolutions start
working out. But why is it so much
harder for them? Why is it like 10 times
harder for them than someone who's done
sports before? It's because it's not as
easy for them to pick it up. They also
don't have the structure of perhaps gym
class or inter mural sports to have that
easy start. When you're young, you may
not see some limitations your body has,
but when you push it through sports or
working out, that's how you can get a
taste of how important it is to stay
active and value your health instead of
waiting to see when it's too late.
Number eight, don't worry about how
attractive you are. When I was in
school, I literally had a list in my
planner with a title called fix where I
listed all the things about my
appearance that I wanted to fix about
myself. Like I was insecure about my
calves. I wanted to have slimmer thighs.
I wanted to have bigger eyes. I wanted
to have smoother skin, better fashion,
jewelry, like you name it. So, I did
work on them to get a baseline of
attractiveness where I would be socially
accepted, right? for example, I wouldn't
have like bo and I wouldn't dress in a
decent way. But if I compare that to how
I am now right now, I am way more glowed
up. And I am so grateful that I can look
back at my school self and be like, "Oh,
she actually did not know what she was
doing style or attractiveness wise."
>> And here's why. Across all of my
successful female friends now and
successful female creators I've seen
online, okay, this is anecdotally, they
all look way more attractive and
beautiful now than they did in school.
Like they had their glow up later in
life after graduating. And here's why I
think this is important. So nowadays on
social media, you see all these
teenagers looking like they're like 25
with like supermodel makeup and like
worried about like retinol and things
like that, like the Sephora kids. But if
you peak in your beauty and
attractiveness when you're in school,
then my theory is that you will put more
weight on how you look on the outside
rather than the human capital and beauty
you're building on the inside. And when
you're younger and especially in school,
it is so so important that you actually
focus on education and building skills
rather than spending an hour and a half
on hair and makeup every morning. It is
inevitable that as time naturally flows,
you're going to learn what things look
better on you. You're going to have more
time in the future to learn better
makeup techniques simply because of more
practice and experience in life. Number
nine, accept that studying will never be
close to a video game. I am so tired of
seeing all those videos pop up like how
to make studying so fun. It's like a
video game. Like, please, come on, man.
Come on. You you know that can't be
true. But it's a great title and so many
people click on it. But what is the
proof that those videos don't work?
Well, it's because if all those 2
million or 3 million viewers had those
tips work for them, everyone would have
straight A's. That means that after
those videos went up, then every other
subsequent study video would be useless
and have zero views because people don't
need them anymore. Nothing worth doing
is ever easy. The goal is to make
yourself happier while doing it, while
understanding the true value of why
you're doing it and getting yourself to
want to do it. But it can never be as
fun as a video game. Imagine your friend
Jack. Jack graduated at the top of his
class. And you look up to Jack. So you
ask him,
>> "Hey Jack, how did you get A+es in
everything, including all of those hard
AP classes?" And he just goes, "Oh yeah,
I just gified everything. I really,
really hated studying and I wanted to
procrastinate every single time. But you
know what really helped me is by
treating studying like a video game and
by studying two grueling hours, which I
absolutely hated and I just don't like
learning. Well, then I gave myself a
little cookie as a reward. And I also
imagine that I was leveling up in a
video game. No, like you want Jack to be
inspiring and be like, "Oh, I have this
drive and this dream in life to become a
doctor and to help kids because when I
was young, I used to have this kind of
like sickness and I understand how hard
life can be for people who don't have
the best health. So, I want to help
people in the future." You want someone
who has drive and a reason behind
they're doing something, right? You want
Jack to say, you know, studying isn't
fun, but I wanted to do it because every
hour I study, I knew that was closer to
me achieving my dreams or to be able to
retire my hardworking parents in the
future. And I know the value of studying
and how this is such an insane
opportunity and privilege to have
education and to have to go to school.
No, I get to go to school. It's not just
telling himself with affirmations in the
mirror like, "Oh, I get to go to
school." No, like he truly believes it.
that's the kind of person you want and
therefore to actually succeed in school
and in life then you should be the
latter, the actual inspirational person.
Another Alex Hormosi quote, sorry,
hopefully Hormosi doesn't get cancelled
in the future because I've quoted him
way too much at this point. If it's hard
for you, it's hard for everyone. And
most people avoid hard things, which is
why you can beat most people by just
trying. If we do want to talk about
studying actually being more enjoyable,
then don't even complain because it is
actually easier than ever to make
studying more fun it was before. You can
just let this AI platform pop in the
terms and then create a game or
flashcards for you or to give you
practice problems which is more
interesting than reading the textbook.
Just accept that at the end of the day,
I'm going to be honest here. A matching
game with vocabulary is not going to be
as fun as Mario Kart. So, you should
just do painful things, right? That's
how you become successful because it's
harder. Well, no. That's why tip number
10 is remember that pain is not
progress. One of the biggest mistakes
that so many students make is that they
go like, "Oh my gosh, I worked so hard.
I studied for 10 hours straight
>> and they use that as a proxy for how
productive or achieved they are. But
instead, you should use the achievement
itself or how efficiently you worked or
what you learned. So I always talk about
increasing efficiency, right? But what
is efficiency really? So consider an
input output equation. Input is how much
effort or pain you put in. I guess
output is your learning your improved
skills maybe the concrete achievements
like an award or or a grade of an A.
When you increase efficiency and focus
more on what you're actually getting out
as a result of your effort, that's how
you achieve more sustainably and
therefore are less likely to burn out.
Don't put yourself through more pain for
pain's sake. If you're not getting the
result you want, like for example, so
many people comment,
>> "Oh, I studied for like 4 hours and I
study so much more than my peers, but I
still get worse grades."
>> Then that is an indication for you to
evaluate what input you have and how you
are studying. That way you can iterate,
become a better problem solver, and then
actually get better results. Plus, this
way of increasing ROI or efficiency will
prevent burnout and make you more
successful. An interesting thing is that
my peers would always ask me, "Oh, Amy,
how much did you study on for that test?"
test?"
>> And I would never know because I never
count how many hours I study as a means
of progress or be like, "Oh, I'm going
to study 2 hours and get this kind of
reward." I will always tell myself, I'm
going to read the textbook and do these
practice problems. When I'm familiarized
with them, then that is a sign of my
progress instead. Number 11, understand
the goal is to have the power of choice.
What is the point of all your effort and
conquering school? whether it's getting
good grades, skills, awards, etc. Well,
it is so then you have more of the world
open to you. When you have more
achievements, then you have more
colleges available to you to apply to in
a higher likelihood of getting in. Then
this will accumulate where in the future
you will have more jobs available to
you. So, if you do a really hard
engineering degree like I did, well, I
can choose to do a chemical engineering
job or I can also choose to be a
business management consultant, which I
was. I could also take on a bunch of
other jobs that perhaps do not require
the same level of rigor or technical
experience as chemical engineering. And
I hate to bring in tiers, but honestly,
that's a lot of how the real world
works, right? So like if I picked a
somewhat easier major like business in
college, right? Not saying anything
against business majors of course,
right? But if I was a business major,
then I cannot have a chemical
engineering job in the future, right?
Because I don't have those skills. So
it's valuable to choose something hard,
not only because of the recognition,
because my business management
consulting firm, they saw that I study
chemical engineering in Caltech. They're
like, "Okay, just by that alone, I know
that this girl knows how to work hard
and tackle difficult problems. She's
probably smart, and I bet that she can
pick up whatever business skills she
needs to later on. You will have that
hard proof where an employer will assume
these great attributes you have, and you
will also truly have those skills and
attributes. School is the perfect
opportunity where in this safe
environment where you can take risks.
You are putting yourself at the highest
caliber possible. You don't want to
waste your years of school, not study
hard, and then after you graduate only
have a few options to you, which by that
time might even have lower pay, and then
you can't sustain yourself in the
future. I didn't know about it. But by
working hard and smart in my school
years, I gave myself the power of
choice. So, I can choose to live in New
York City. I can now choose to work my
dream job of doing this. I have more
choices of what people I want to
interact with and who to get close with.
The earlier you widen your power of
choice, the more the effects will
accumulate. So imagine a golf ball. You
hit golf ball A in one direction. Oh,
direction A. Then you hit golf ball B
just two degrees to the right of the
first golf ball. But over time, the
distance between them is farther and
farther away. And golf ball A, if they
chose a better path, for example, they
could be farther and farther along than
B could have ever imagined. And you
wouldn't even know that those two golf
balls came from the same spot. This
place where that golf ball came from is
like the beginning node of a decision
tree. You might not realize this, but
where you spawned in the world, where
you were born, and to whom you were
born, your entire circumstances that you
couldn't have controlled, that already
puts you on a certain life path. I don't
know about you, but I could not pick
where I spawned in the world or in what
time period, right? It totally makes
sense when people say, "Oh, but I can
never achieve this unrealistic dream of
becoming an actor because I live in this
third world country." Right? So when I
say achieve your dreams, I mean things
that are reasonably so like within your
reach, right? Don't give up. But there
are certain limits. I'm not going to lie
to you and say, "Oh, hard work is all
you need." People come from different
circumstances which affects the range of
choices and opportunities that they can
begin with. As James Clear and many
other self-improvement gurus say,
environment is more important than
motivation. So where you spawn matters.
But guess what? When you work hard in
school, you can actually for the first
time choose your environment from where?
College. That's why I disagree with
people who say, "Oh, a college degree is
worthless. Why don't just drop out and
then start a business?" No, it's not
just as easy as that. The reason is
because college is the first and one
chance where you get to choose what
environment to put yourself into. What
state, what city, what kind of
surroundings and influences are you
going to have in your life? Are the
people at the school you're picking
going to be entrepreneurs and super
excited about innovating for the world
and to work hard or are you going to
pick a school full of party people,
which there's nothing wrong with, but
that's going to influence the kind of
path that you go on later. Because when
you pick an environment in a decision
tree, you are giving yourself a range of
options falling under that environment,
that node, per se. Think about how
important your pre-ol years are. That's
one of the biggest opportunities you
have to transform your life. I am
actually super grateful that I was
rejected for one of my in-state
scholarships which would have paid for
any school I choose in the state full
ride. Since I didn't get that
scholarship, I went to Caltech. Oh yeah,
I was forced to go to Caltech. But this
gave me an environment of people that
made me realize, oh, I can actually
achieve more and take risks than I ever
thought before. Because I went to
Caltech, I started vlogging on YouTube
and I started realizing, hey, I actually
really enjoy this and helping other
people. Then because of Caltech, I took
an internship in San Diego, which is
where I met Sean. Then because I met
Shawn and he was so supportive of my
creator dreams, then I pursued YouTube
more seriously. And now I can literally
make a living doing what I enjoy. I can
even have great perks like free things
sometimes, meet famous people, walk on
red carpets, go to movie premieres,
right? Like this is what the butterfly
effect is. One little change and getting
put into different environments can
completely transform your life. Final
tip here. I know this video is getting
super long. I did warn that in the
beginning, but I think because it's so
hot and the lighting keeps changing that
I'm just like really struggling to say
the stuff in this video as well as I had
hoped. But I just want to say that you
should care about the word waste. People
say waste all the time. Like it's no big
deal. like, "Oh, I wasted 2 hours
yesterday scrolling on TikTok."
>> I think a reason why I can value my time
so well is because due to my Asian
immigrant background, I know how
terrible it is to waste things. Like, we
would never consider wasting food. We
would never consider like wasting money.
We would pinch every bit of value we
could have from our time and our
financials. And thus, waste just seems
like an awful word. Like, I understand
the value and weight behind this. My
biggest fear is wasted potential. I
believe that more people should care
about the word waste and thus fear
wasted potential. But we can also take
it as a positive, right? We're like
instead of thinking of lack and doing
something due to the fear of wasted
potential, just understand that you you
listening right now have this unique set
of traits. You are special in your very
own way. No matter where you come from,
you have something to offer to the world
that only you can. And so we need that.
We need good people like you to work
hard and to use their potential and to
make the world a better place. We need
people like you to become successful.
Think of it as a positive. Realize the
potential you have and use that as
something to propel you to use it
because then that makes you be like, why
would I ever spend time doom scrolling
because I don't care about these
strangers on my phone. I know that I
value to give and so I'm actually
excited and happier doing work. And see,
that's how you can do work in a more
happy way rather than pretending it's
like a video game. Because when you
pretend like like it's a video game,
you're still forcing yourself to do it.
You're just kind of lying to yourself.
The actions you do in life have to be in
alignment with what you believe. If you
lie to yourself, you're never going to
become successful that way because
you're just going to be getting to a
place inauthentic to you. I might have
put more pressure on you listening to be
like, "Oh my gosh, I can't mess up
school." Or like if you've already been
through school, like, "Oh, shoot. I'm
late now."
>> But that's not true. No matter where you
are, just take where you are now as a
starting point. Don't feel like you have
to have everything figured out because
school is literally the start of your
life. It's just getting started. You
have no idea how great your life is
going to be later. When I was in school,
I thought that school was my whole life,
right? Like I wanted people to like me
and I had insecurities, but those all
just don't matter at all now because I
still did what I had to do, which was to
study and work hard in that chapter of
my life to create all of the amazing
chapters I'm living now and the more to
come. My dad always says that there is a
time for everything. So when you're in
school, you should be studying and
working hard and gaining the value that
education will give you. When you start
your first job, you work hard and do
that, right? When it's time to have a
family, then you do that, right? So life
is made of chapters. But if you don't
use school for what it's supposed to be
used for, if you skip chapters or you
resist moving on to a new chapter, that
will cause you nothing but misery. This
is the time for learning. There are many
great viewers who email me about how
they're struggling to learn now and go
back to school in their 30s, but it is
20 times harder when you're trying to
get your education as an adult because
now you have bills to pay and you have
to do all of the adult responsibilities.
That's an example of not doing what you
are supposed to be doing at each age.
Like I know there's a lot of nuance and
people are like, "Oh, but like there's
no cookie cutter path that everyone
should follow." But the way that society
is set up, you know, you still got to
play the game because that's the way
that will benefit you most, right? And
that's actually self- loveve and doing
things for yourself. I'll leave you with
this. If you truly want to consume more
content, to conquer school, then consume
content that's actually not about
school, but it's about life instead.
Read self-improvement books, but also
act upon it so you convert it into your
own knowledge. And watch more videos
about general, you know, life advice
like I have on my podcast literally
called CEO of life. do that and don't
focus too much on just studying for the
sake of studying because how boring is
it and how useless would it be if you
were just like super good at studying
and then you graduate and then you can't
even get a job, right? I'm just looking
out for you. That's why I ramble and I
emphasize that so much. Remember to try
Consensus, the smarter, faster, and more
trustworthy way to navigate scientific
literature. Link below in my
description. You can also join my
discord where you can use the chatbot
Athena to get advice from the virtual
assistant that will pull information
from everything I said in my YouTube
videos. Wow, so cool. If you're here
this part of the video, then write below
in a comment, "Thanks, Ben, for building
Athena." Or just, "Thanks, Ben."
Remember to subscribe and hit that like
button. It's interesting as a YouTuber.
I feel like I haven't said that in a
while. Now that you're hopefully fired
up and ambitious about life, be careful
because you also don't want to burn out.
So, if you want to learn how to avoid
burnout while still being successful and
achieving more than ever, then you can
click here at this video. Thank you so
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