Beanie babies. All of the beanie babies.

Join Toastmasters, to learn to present, get over public speaking fears, and meet people. It is a cheap investment for the future.

Never work for a company with more than 150 people. You'll only learn about bureaucrats and politics.

Start side projects while I am young and single. Having a wife, kids and mortgage makes the side hustle really complicated.

Stay a nerd. We became too cool to play D&D, video games, and geek out on weird things. Guess what, the people who keep geeking out on things only they think are cool, will eventually have their own tribe. More fun, less beer.

OK, I am about to turn 35 so it was the year 2003 when I was 21. Here is what I would have done:

Big Meta Lesson - Do SOMETHING, I had lot's of ideas but almost never did anything with them. This has become my mantra now and being able to start doing this back then would have put me way ahead now.

Specifics -

1. Start a blog on a topic I have been interested in since 2003, probably nutrition or marketing. Just doing a post a week, while collecting emails, would mean I have a site with 728 posts and probably many thousands of email subscribers, even if I did little promoting.

2. Bought bitcoin when I first got interested in it. I don't remember the year but bitcoin was selling for less than $10, so a few hundred dollars then (what I could have afforded) plus a few hundred more each year would mean my bitcoin portfolio would be worth... a lot.

3. Don't blow out my L5/S1 disc.

4. Built a portfolio of physical product affiliate sites using whitehat techniques. In 14 years I should have a sizable portfolio with a few big winners. At this point I could sell all of them but one off and have a bunch of money plus some low time commitment cashflow.

5. Obligatory time travel stuff - Buy tons of real estate and stocks right after the 2008 crash, play the lotto, etc.

The main thing I would do is just do something. By starting something and letting it compound I would be so much farther ahead now it would be crazy.

One thing: Read more.

Knowledge will propagate as wealth, material or intellectual.

Either, or both are welcome.

I would have invested in gold...which then was around US$140.0 and would have also spent time researching how monetary policy of central banks worlwide work. I would have researched how human beings have exchanged value through historical times. I feel this would have prepared me to understand better what bitcoin & digital currencies are and I would have embraced them sooner when they started to appear.

Also I would have started paying more attention to computer courzes, programing & would have bought apple devices when they started appearing in the market.

Great post Neville...thanks for reaching out again.

Oh man.

I wanted to start creating apps when I was 21 (around 2011), I would have made an app for my university, on board all the students and sold it to the university (or do the same with the city transit system).

I would have invested in real estate in Toronto and in seed rounds for Uber and Facebook.

Get my skydiving D-License. Wife, Kids, 80+ hours a week gig....not-a-gonna happen.

1. Uncover Problems first - Then Solve them. At 21 and sometimes catch myself now, I come up with the solution, that gets me excited but then I talk myself out of it. Leading conversations that uncover Problems worth solving would give me unshakeable confidence that I should pursue providing the solution as people would pay for that.

2. I should Travel for 6 months minimum and then find a job. In the short trips I've managed to take since college I've learned so much about cultures and points of view. These views would have changed me in ways as a 21 yr old in foundational ways than in my 30s. Plus, I'd have so many more interesting stories to share.

3. My identity. Building me confidence by learning about my authentic self rather than defining my self esteem shaped by others opinions of me, of not feeling worthy unless they liked me leading me to not have my own opinions. Going through this self exploration in my late 30s - it's an extremely exciting Journey :)

I was 21 6 years ago. I would tell my old self to do exactly what I am working on now, since I finally feel that I found the business model I wanted all this time:

I would have built websites and SEOd them and then rented them to businesses, following the Rank&Rent model.

I would have had a huge advantage if I did this, because this business model was "invented" or at least "first blogged about" about 4 years ago. Imagine the opportunities, the low-hanging SEO fruits just waiting to be taken <3

Not starting a startup with an evil co-founder :(

I always wondered about that....a lot of people say "they'd buy more real estate" but they didn't have much money at that time in the first place.

But yes, buying a small investment duplex or something for a 21 in their hometown would probably be a good investment 20 years later (well....not all the time).

Hindsight is 20/20 :)

Well in hindsight yes buying Bitcoin when it was worth $00001 cents would've been good!

That's awesome you're doing it at such a young age Andrew, you have NINE years before you turn just 30.....so you're way ahead of the game :)

Have you stopped procrastinating now and monitor your income and expenses?

Hopefully you stopped doing both at some point :)

Media Studies? New York is definitely the place to take advantage of that!

Writing can be a lot more than just journalism....I never would've kept writing if I just had to write "journalistic" style articles.

I always suggest to anyone who thinks they want to write to JUST START A BLOG on Blogger.com for free. You'll quickly find out if you enjoy writing or not!

I would have been bolder and would have bogarted my way into an advertising agency and learned copywriting much sooner!

I would have started reading 50 books per year. I wouldnt have underestimated the power of social media.

Hey Luca, I accredit reading tons of books from the time I was in middle school with expanding my mind outside what I normally would've thought.

Especially back in the days when there wasn't anything like YouTube or social media where you can see how other people live and do things.

I still read a ton. Are you reading more now Luca??

Hey Denise! I totally agree, wish I'd learned about copywriting more around high school!!

yikes.......well on the plus side you learned that lesson early and got it out of your system. Now you won't make that mistake again!

That's true Sergiu, gaining traction for a niche back in the day was easier than it is now that there are a lot of competitors.

Great idea!

Great personal advice for people Andy! Traveling 100% changes your views on the world. I think that's why it's nearly mandatory for people to do in a lot of Nordic and European countries!

Hahahha.....note to all 21 year olds: SKYDIVE!

Hindsight is 20/20 huh? :-)

Great suggestion Gilberto! The It's easy to view in hindsight that gold was going up and also bitcoin, but studying how humans place value on things would definitely help in a lot of extra areas of life.

Possibly shirt-worthy comment Gilberto!