Young Professionals today have a bad rep. People call them lazy, unprofessional, entitled and 100s of other negative associations. At the end of the day, young professionals have to take control of their own lives and create their own rules. In this deck, I highlight 14 things that every young professional should know about life and business.

1. 14 THINGS
should know about
LIFE & BUSINESS

2. Young professionals are living in a
different world than their parents.
The world we live in offers both new
challenges and new opportunities.

3. Too many young people are
overlooking and not capitalizing
on these opportunities.

4. Here are
14 CONCEPTS
should know about
LIFE & BUSINESS

5. 1.
TIME IS ALL YOU HAVE.
OPTIMIZE & AUTOMATE.
CONCEPT
Contrary to popular belief, money can buy you
time. Outsource the tedious tasks in your life
and business and you’ve just bought time to
invest in your career and other activities.
Time is precious. Use it wisely and spend it
doing things that will help you get closer to
the life of your dreams.

6. 1.
TIME IS ALL YOU HAVE.
OPTIMIZE & AUTOMATE.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Use systems that withdraw your savings
from each paycheck.
Use systems that save you time like
Hootsuite or BufferApp as it relates to
managing your social media accounts.
Invest in a good cell phone that will make
your quality of life better with an efficient
data plan and unlimited texting.

7. 2.
NEVER BE AFRAID
TO ASK A QUESTION.
CONCEPT
Sitting back quietly can have serious results.
During one of my first meetings with a particular
client, I couldn’t stop thinking how he was looking
at the wrong target market. Being new to the
game and lacking the confidence to speak up,
I kept it to myself. Ten minutes later, someone
else brought up my exact point.
Next month they got a promotion.

8. 2.
NEVER BE AFRAID
TO ASK A QUESTION.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Ask questions.
Raise points.
Contribute to the conversation.
It’s better to say something to show you’re actually
engaged than to sit there and add little to no value
to the existing conversation.
Sitting back quietly can have serious results.

9. 3.
REALIZE YOU’RE NOT JAY-Z.
BE HUMBLE.
CONCEPT
We’re a generation that is called narcissistic,
egotistic and self-entitled. While it may not be
true of the entire generation, it’s not going to be
a stereotype that we can shake tomorrow.
For that reason, young professionals
need to understand the importance of
self-awareness.

10. 3.
REALIZE YOU’RE NOT JAY-Z.
BE HUMBLE.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Understanding your skillset.
Truly know your value to an industry or
employer.
Talk to others in the industry and don’t feel
guilty when you go down an interview process
to find out how much competitors are paying.
Know your worth. Don’t be obnoxious about it.

11. 4.
FAIL FAST.
LEARN FASTER.
CONCEPT
Most young professionals aren’t tied down with
responsibilities for the first couple years of their
career. As such, you have the time to work late
and put in the hours to take on new challenges
and projects that will force you out of your
comfort zone.
When you do this, you’re able to learn more as
you’ll fail at times and be able to look at that
failure as a lesson.

12. 4.
FAIL FAST.
LEARN FASTER.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Don’t get caught up on the act – get caught up
on the lesson.
Ask yourself why you didn’t reach that deadline.
Ask yourself why a client didn’t buy into your
work for them.
Learn as you go. If you can learn faster than
your colleagues and learn about things they’re
resisting, you have an opportunity to stand out.

13. 5.
LEARN WHAT THE
VETERANS RESIST.
CONCEPT
Look closely at what trends are changing
your profession. Most likely, there are a
handful of industry Veterans who are sitting
back getting ready for retirement and paying
no attention to them.

14. 5.
LEARN WHAT THE
VETERANS RESIST.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Watch for trends changing in your profession.
Educate yourself on these trends.
Make yourself a specialist. These trends
could be what differentiates you from being
disposable or not.

15. 6.
WATCH YOUR
BANK ACCOUNT WEEKLY.
CONCEPT
It’s important that you know where your
money is going and where your money is
coming from. Money management is
something that isn’t really taught in High
School or University but it’s something that
is extremely important for young
professionals to understand.

16. 6.
WATCH YOUR
BANK ACCOUNT WEEKLY.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Stop pretending money isn’t important.
Accept the fact that you need to look at your
finances.
Get your money in order for not only your own
sanity but also the sanity of your future
partner.

17. 7.
DISREGARD GRADES.
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS & REPUTATION.
CONCEPT
Business is run on a web of relationships.
The relationships with your colleagues,
employers, clients and acquaintances will
all combine to be a representation of you
and your stamp in the professional world.

18. 7.
DISREGARD GRADES.
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS & REPUTATION.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Find people who inspire you and push you to
become and do better each and every day.
Spend time with people who challenge your
thinking and will push you to do things that are
outside of your comfort zone.
Nurture these relationships and ensure that
they are authentic and pure.
Strive to give more than you take.

19. 8.
DON’T EMULATE
KANYE WEST.
CONCEPT
If you’re actually driving results and offering up
clear value through your work – Well done. That’s
the goal. But it’s also your job. Don’t forget that.
It’s your job to create value. It’s your job to do
something right. When you go above and beyond,
take note of the humble brag or let someone else
do the talking for you.

20. 8.
DON’T EMULATE
KANYE WEST.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Stop telling people how great you are. It’s okay to
self-promote. It’s not okay to make outrageous
claims like “I’m the Steve Jobs of this generation.”
Let your actions do the talking along with
your work ethic. People lie. Numbers don’t.

21. 9.
BE PATIENT.
BUT NOT NAÏVE.
CONCEPT
It’s important to be patient in an industry
you love especially if you’re happy, but it’s
not necessary to be patient if you’re like a
hamster running on a wheel.

22. 9.
BE PATIENT.
BUT NOT NAÏVE.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Ask yourself if you see your next step within
your existing employer. Is it clearly identified?
Do you know how long it will take to get there?
Don’t be afraid to look elsewhere if you’re
actually providing value to the company and
feel you’re getting nowhere in your career.
Don’t think of leaving as being disloyal.
Think of it as knowing your worth and going
somewhere to be compensated for just that.

23. YOUR WORD.
ALL YOU HAVE IS YOUR WORD.
CONCEPT
Your reputation is everything. Hold on to what
you built to get the job and evolve that into
something that allows you to stand out as a
true leader in your profession. It’s easy to work
your way up the corporate ladder and forget
about the things you did to get there.

24. YOUR WORD.
ALL YOU HAVE IS YOUR WORD.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Be there for your meeting if you schedule one.
It’s called respect.
Bend your back to deliver your promises.
Focus on keeping your promises instead of
brushing off interns or appointments with
sales reps.
Gain respect by keeping your word.

25. THINGS WON’T JUST
“WORK OUT.”
CONCEPT
Everything will not always work out in the
end. You have to do things to make them
work. Yes, everything happens for a
reason, but you can and have to influence
what those things are.

26. THINGS WON’T JUST
“WORK OUT.”
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Spend the extra time to make your work
better. It won’t just all work out if you go home
early because you’re not interested in working
late.
Don’t justify laziness with excuses.
Successful leaders and professionals work
the hardest.

27. CREATE MULTIPLE
STREAMS OF REVENUE.
CONCEPT
What would you do if you lost your job
tomorrow? It would be the end of your biggest
stream of revenue and what keeps the lights
on in your home and gas in your tank. It’s
important to have more than one stream of
revenue, also known as a side-hustle.

28. CREATE MULTIPLE
STREAMS OF REVENUE.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Take advantage of the internet’s ease of starting
a side hustle. You can rent your home on sites
like AirBnB, sell your services on sites like Elance
or Odesk, or even sell your homemade arts and
crafts on sites like Etsy.
Start a side hustle and maybe someday
it could become your main hustle!

29. SET NO EXPECTATIONS.
CREATE YOUR OWN STORY.
CONCEPT
Society is filled with expectations. Specifically,
there are expectations at every stage in our
lives. Forget that noise. Focus on what you
really want out of life and don’t let external
forces influence what you want to do.

30. SET NO EXPECTATIONS.
CREATE YOUR OWN STORY.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Don’t try to keep up with the “Joneses”.
Take a deep breath and spend some time
looking at the person in the mirror.
Set short and long term goals.
Make the short term goals tangible
accomplishments that will help you get closer
to achieving those longer term goals.

31. MENTAL HEALTH IS NO JOKE.
MANAGE YOUR BRAIN.
CONCEPT
You need to look at your brain for what it is, an
organ, and like any other organ, it requires
nutrients and exercise to stay healthy.
Sometimes you’re lucky enough to have a
support system in place to keep you grounded
but some people aren’t that fortunate.

32. MENTAL HEALTH IS NO JOKE.
MANAGE YOUR BRAIN.
PUT IT IN
ACTION
Accept the fact that you have flaws and that
nothing is perfect.
Understand that it’s okay to be depressed and it’s
okay to talk about it. Everyone goes through ups
and downs and that it’s just the way life works.
Focus on your sanity. Focus on what makes you
happy. Focus on you.

33. In a competitive job market and at a
time when life can be more confusing
than straight forward, young
professionals are forced to juggle a wide
range of roles and wear multiple hats.

34. Take these concepts, put them into
action, and be well prepared.
Set goals, work hard, and reap
the successes.

35. ROSS SIMMONDS
www.rosssimmonds.com
@TheCoolestCool