1. Focus on Future-Proof Skills

Focus on learning skills and knowledge that are “future-proof.” It seems self-explanatory, but it pays off in the long run. You don’t see many elevator operators around anymore for a reason.

2. Watch for a Growth Mindset

Seek out people who have a growth mindset and add them to your social network. They will help create a growth mindset culture that pulls you higher and faster. Your social influences tend to become your destiny, so intentionally surround yourself with role models for your future self.

3. Understand Your Unique Personality

As you study different personality models, you start to realize just how unique yours is. You begin to see more clearly which aspects of reality are obvious to you but invisible to others.

4. Living at the Edge

The biggest opportunities require you to be at the edge of your comfort zone—and potentially the edge of others’ comfort zones as well. The edge is where opportunity lives.

5. Avoid “Opportunity Shock”

Imagine walking into a grocery store—you wouldn’t take home everything on the shelves. Similarly, you cannot pursue every opportunity. More choice can actually create less happiness and lead to paralysis. Be prepared for “opportunity shock”—the feeling of immobilization that comes from facing too much of a good thing.

6. Luck and Success

Luck is often a matter of perspective. In one study, “lucky” people found a hidden message in a newspaper in seconds, while “unlucky” people took minutes because they were too focused on a specific task. Lucky people are more relaxed and open to seeing what is actually there, rather than just what they are looking for.

7. Prepare for Cycles of Change

Most people become fearful and conservative when things change rapidly because they haven’t been anticipating or mentally rehearsing for it. To avoid failure, you must create success in surroundings that inspire you and build collaborative relationships.

8. The Power of Masterminds

Masterminds are one of the most effective tools for success, built on six ideas: group influence, since we’re all shaped by our tribal wiring and have to be careful who we expose ourselves to; seeking out high achievers who have consistently succeeded in domains you admire; meeting regularly, since regular interaction creates a collective intelligence higher than any single member’s mind; sharing and supporting in a spirit of genuine contribution, which tends to become a cycle that benefits everyone; working purposefully, since a mastermind is more powerful with a tactical or strategic purpose rather than just socializing; and collaborating—finding people with different types of intelligence and turning those differences into complementary combinations.

9. Take Personal Responsibility

Assume responsibility for where you are and where you are going. Your situation is largely the result of your past decisions; your future is the result of the responsibility you assume today.

10. Return on Experience

In an accelerating world, we can’t afford to have experiences we don’t learn from. When evaluating an opportunity, ask whether it will grow you as a person, build valuable relationships, and teach you skills for your future. Real learning comes from getting feedback and integrating it into your process.

11. Patience Plus Action

Save your capital and wait for great investments. It takes courage to wait for years, but it also takes nerve to commit fully once the right opportunity finally appears. Don’t invest in things you don’t understand.

12. The Three Evaluation Checks

Run any opportunity through three checks: an instinctive check—does it make your body expand or contract; an integrity check—is it aligned with your core values and how you want to feel; and a higher-self check—from the perspective of a future, more actualized version of yourself, does this support who you want to become.

13. Time Is Money

Understand the hourly value of your time. If spending five extra minutes saves you 20 dollars, you are effectively earning 240 dollars an hour. In negotiation, seeing money laid out in front of them often makes the other side more flexible.

14. Disruptive Innovation

Innovation almost always comes from outsiders. Just as the automobile disrupted the horse-drawn carriage, new entrants consistently beat established players because they aren’t tied to the old way of doing things.

15. Embrace Futurism

Study the models of futurists like Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis. We no longer live in a local and linear world; we live in an exponential and global one. The rate of change is accelerating, and the only constant is change.

16. The Knowledge Worker

The future involves creating value through knowledge and education. Most of us are now knowledge workers, paid for what we do with our minds rather than our hands. Anyone has the ability to turn their expertise—even a trade like plumbing—into an information business via digital products or social media.

17. The Greatest Opportunity

Our greatest opportunity is to be alive. We should use that gift to reduce suffering and contribute to the growth of fellow beings.

Bonus: Avoiding the “Lottery Trap”

Opportunity doesn’t usually sit in plain sight; you have to think in particular ways to unlock it. Many people gravitate toward the lottery or gambling because they want a reward without having to learn, change, or leave their comfort zone.

Real opportunity requires leaping off the edge and putting yourself in situations where you must adapt or fail. Entrepreneurship is the new form of literacy. It isn’t just for business people anymore—it’s a mindset of purposeful opportunity-seeking that everyone will need to master to become “financial adults” in the coming years.