Penelope Trunk gave out some very bad advice.  The more I think about it, the more I object to it.  The article is so egregious that it is difficult to limit myself to a single quote, but here is a sample:

The majority of twentysomethings today move back home with their parents , job hop every 18 months, and refuse to pay their dues.

And you know what? These are all good decisions. To you, these decisions might look like decisions that losers make, but the world is different.

You know, the world isn’t really that different.  A little different, yes, but different enough to make those good decisions?  No.  

Normally, I would say that we all have different viewpoints  and let’s agree to disagree.  But in this case, here is a respected columnist giving out what looks to me like a recipe for failure, depression, and limited opportunities later on in life. 

I’m 46 years old, engaged in typical middle-aged ruminations over what I did right and what I did wrong in my youth.  When I look back, I don’t think, “I wish I had more fun when I was young”.   Instead, I say, “I wish I worked harder when I was young.”  You know how they say that you should start investing young, because the money you invest will compound and amount to much more in the future than that same amount of money invested later?  It’s the same for other things.  The amount of work you put into your career, the amount of learning you do, the contacts you make, the projects you accomplish, the skills you acquire – these all provide the basis for everything you do later in life.  You can’t make up that lost time later.

 Coincidentally, I am at this time engaged in reading Golden Steps to Respectability, written by John Mather Austin, published in 1850,   downloaded from Project Gutenberg.   Austin says:

If the young would have their career honorable and prosperous–if they would enjoy the respect and confidence of community; if they would have the evening of their days calm, serene, and peaceful–they must prepare for it early in life. They must lay “a good foundation against the time to come”–a foundation which will be capable of sustaining the edifice they would erect.

So much for “the world is different”.

Another exerpt from Austin:

Respectability, prosperity, the good opinion of community, do not come simply at our bidding. We cannot reach forth our hands and take them, as we pluck the ripe fruit from the bending branch. Neither will wishing or hoping for them shower their blessings upon us. If we would obtain and _enjoy_ them, we must _labor_ for them–EARN them. They are only secured as the well-merited reward of a pure and useful life!

When you are twenty, you don’t want to hear such stodgy advice – I didn’t want to hear it – but it’s true. 

What I would say to a twenty year old is this:  Some day you will be a 45 year old person.  Imagine yourself.  Where will you be in life?  What will you be doing?  What kind of job do you want?  Will you be working at a big company, a small company, self-employed?  How are you going to get there?  Will you be married?  Will you have children?  How many? What kind of hobbies would you like to have? Would you like to be able to travel?  What kind of house will you live in?  Now ask yourself – what kind of gift can you as a twenty year old give to your forty five year old self?  What action can you take today that your older self will look back upon and say, “Thank you, young self!”  Now, do it.  Take that class.   Save that money.  Finish that project.  Stay in touch with that friend.

Isn’t it cool to think you can give yourself a gift across time?