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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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