The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter--And How to Make the Most of Them Now

I felt a lot of internal pressure to figure it out, but all the thinking I did was really debilitating and unproductive. The one thing I have learned is that you can’t think your way through life. The only way to figure out what to do is to do—something.

“A little bit later,” I said. “You can go to work and be in love at the same time, you know. In fact, it would be good for you.”

When I made the decision to come to D.C., I worried that by making that choice, I was closing all the other doors open to me at that moment. But it was sort of liberating to make a choice about something. Finally. And, if anything, this job has just opened more doors for me. Now I feel really confident that I will have several iterations of my career—or at least time for several iterations—and that I will be able to do other things in life.

Those who can tell a good story about who they are and what they want leap over those who can’t.

Unthought knowns are those things we know about ourselves but forget somehow.

“You’re avoiding knowing what you know.”

A WISE MAN MAKES HIS OWN LUCK. Perhaps the single best thing we can do to make our own luck in our twenties is say yes to our weak ties or give them a reason to say yes to us.

It is scary to realize there’s no magic, you can’t just wait around, no one can really rescue you, and you have to do something.

twentysomethings who make choices are happier

Franklin decided that if he wanted to get someone on his side, he ought to ask for a favor. And he did.