I’ve just graduated 2 years ago from Nanyang Business School with a business degree specializing in Banking and Finance.

Over these 2 years running my own business and being a full-time investor, I learned a couple of things that I wish I knew when I was studying in NTU and NUS.

I want to share with you these 3 things.

1. Learn From Real Life Practitioners &From Failing

Some of the best lessons that I’ve gained throughout the years were learned by making mistakes. I know that in school you’ll get penalized for it but I don’t want you to bring this fear into real life.

A lot of us are conditioned to avoid mistakes when in fact mistakes are the best thing we need for us to learn faster and more effectively.

So what if you look stupid and feel humiliated after failing? Then so be it.

The most successful people in the world were once masters of overcoming failure.

After graduating, I just stopped reading textbooks and instead switched to reading books written by people who have been through the school of hard knocks.

My degree helped me build the foundation to understand the principles but in order to learn the practical skills, you need to learn from people who have been there and done that because somebody with a PHD in a subject does not guarantee that they have the real-life experience for it.

If you don’t know how to do something, learn the basics, go out there and just do it. If you fail, then so be it. You’re young. You can afford to fail.

2. Network Like You Own a Business

It doesn’t matter whether you are an employee or running a business, a lot of the opportunities that will be presented in your life will be a result of who you know rather than what you know.

When I was still studying, I’ve gotten job offers without me even sending out a single CV. I got that just based on referrals alone. Somebody heard about me and recommended me.

Imagine companies inviting you to join their company instead of you sending out CVs to apply for a job?

Being a speaker by profession, a lot of my media interviews and speaking engagements were acquired from referrals.

I know…I know. School never taught you that but I’m going to teach you this secret weapon.

When you go to a networking event, don’t be like everybody else who is just there to get something from other people.

Instead, be there with the mindset of “How can I add value to this person?”. When you add value to another person without asking for anything in return, eventually you’ll get the opportunity you deserve.

Of course, once in a while you’ll come across some clowns and jokers who take advantage of you so please be careful of that.

Stop taking and start serving.

3. Learn Everything that You Can About Finance

If you didn’t graduate with a finance degree, chances are your school has never taught you how to manage your finances, what more pick the right investments for your future.

In this day and age where almost everything is about money (You can see people going crazy about bitcoin), you can’t afford to ignore this topic anymore.

Even if you do hand your money to your financial advisor, how do you know whether he/she is doing a good job for you if you don’t know a single jargon that they spit out from their mouth?

Now, I’m really bad at golf. If somebody shows me their swing, I wouldn’t know how a bad swing or good swing looks like until I understand the basic elements of a good swing. Get me?

Same thing with your finances. You wouldn’t know whether a 1% admin charge on your unit trust account is high or low until you understand how the calculation works.

Don’t get ripped off just because you are too “busy” to learn about this topic. If you can find time for Facebook, Instagram or Fortnite then you can find time to learn the most important thing that you need to know.

You can continue spending your time crushing candies on your phone and it won’t change your life or you can spend 1 hour a day learning about this that can potentially change your financial destiny.

You decide.

I’ll share more about this in one of my most recent Youtube videos below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-tOr3Xffd