Advice to Young People — Part 2

In the previous issue, my dear friend Türker from the Venture Science Deep Dive podcast asked me what advice I would give young people trying to build meaningful and successful lives in an era when careers are being disrupted by AI. This week, I’ll carry on sharing my reflections and suggestions.

Is there a formula for success?

From what I’ve observed, the only way to succeed in something is to become obsessed with it. Success doesn’t come easily. Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success (translated into Turkish as Çizginin Dışındakiler: Başarının Hikâyesi) argues that becoming a world-class expert in any field requires about 10,000 hours of deliberate, consistent practice.

He gives the example of The Beatles. To become The Beatles, they spent years playing music across Europe, often just for beer and a place to sleep, constantly honing their craft until they broke through. In the start-up world, Angry Birds only became successful on their 52nd attempt. The first 51 apps failed, but the last one was downloaded 4.5 billion times, and the company later sold for 700 million euros.

Seen this way, success demands persistence, commitment, and resilience.

(Of course, there are shortcuts, some luck, some opportunism, but in my view, those don’t really count as “success.”)

So let’s underline this: true success requires energy and sustained effort.

How do we stay strong in the face of challenges?

There is an old Māori saying, “Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.”

Resilience has many components, but the most important is, I believe, a positive outlook. The way you experience the world depends on the ‘spectacles’ you wear.

Take Istanbul, for example. If you look at the city through the lens of its problems, you’ll see endless issues. But if you look at it with joy, you can have an amazing day. It all comes down to selective perception.

One practice I recommend is keeping a ‘gratitude day’. Every evening, write down three things you were grateful for that day. It could be something as small as finding a taxi just when it started raining. In Istanbul, that’s rare, so it’s something to appreciate. Or maybe there wasn’t that much traffic and you got somewhere in 45 minutes instead of the usual two hours; that’s another win.

These small exercises train your mind to notice the good, to strengthen your “positivity muscle.”

This isn’t about fooling yourself or being manipulative. Even now, I could list forty current problems, but if I choose to notice three good things, those alone can make me genuinely happy. That’s selective perception. If you choose to see life as beautiful, life becomes beautiful. You become better. And there are biological effects too: the better your mindset, the more harmoniously your hormones and body work together, making you healthier, stronger, and even younger.

Looking at the world through dark glasses is easy. I know people who do this constantly: they complain when it rains, when it’s hot, when it snows. Everything is bad. But imagine saying, “How wonderful the earth smells after the rain,” or, “The sun is strong, so I’ll swim and get a nice tan.” The difference is huge.

Personally, I even buy my sunglasses with rose lenses. It’s a reminder to keep seeing the brighter side of life. 

✨ Note: A short pick-spectacled walk through TheLifeCo gardens 😊

Facilitators of success: minimalism and learning to say no

To avoid falling into dissatisfaction in everyday life, I suggest building two more muscles:

Minimalism. Less is always better. The fewer possessions, ideas, or complications you have, the faster and freer you are. The more things you own, be it cars, clothes, gadgets, whatever, the more headaches you invite: upkeep, expense, tracking them, tagging them, worrying about them.

Saying no. Many young people exhaust themselves trying to do everything. That dinner, that event, that conversation, that task. Learning to say no—especially to yourself—is liberating. It’s harder than saying no to others, but when you manage it, you suddenly feel free. “I don’t need to go there. I don’t need to eat that. I don’t need to attend that meeting. I don’t need to let this upset me.”

Once you can say no to yourself, your life opens up.

Let’s wrap up: minimalism, learning to say no, and choosing to see the world through rose-coloured spectacles are simple yet powerful practices. They help you stay resilient and enjoy a measure of success in uncertain times.