What is the best advice that you can give a young adult in just one sentence? (taken from my Quora q&a)

I wrote this answer originally on Quora

This would be the one sentence advice. Understanding this one line – “properly” can dramatically alter your life’s trajectory.

By understanding, I mean how do you define the five people you spend the most time with?

If you are like most people, you are thinking about your friends, partner, family and colleagues.

But in the internet era, this is beyond that. Consider the following:

People who’s social media post you see most often
Podcast or lectures you listen to
Books you read
Songs you listen on repeat

All of these content influence your thoughts. Their vibe becomes your vibe. If you carefully curate these content in a way that helps you, consoles you, motivates you to be more - and explore in a certain way, you will see the changes seep into your daily life effortlessly.

So if you feel like you do not have the right kind of friends, take some time and read a good book, from a writer you respect. Take some time and listen to a lecture from someone who you aspire to be like. In those moments you are having them closest to you.

When Malcolm X was imprisoned at the age of 20, because of carrying out a series of burglaries targeting wealthy families, he would not be having the best company for the next 6 years, until parole in 1952. But he utilized his time by reading all the books in the prison library - surrounding himself with some of the brightest minds in history, instead of the other violent offenders around. Eventually he became one of the most compelling black leaders in the country. Despite only studying till 8th Grade. In his own words,

“I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive…My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America.”

By surrounding his mind with the right people, he went from this:

To this:

Another case in point, Terry Crews. The ever present beloved actor from White Chicks, Old Spice commercials and Brooklyn 99, had a tough childhood with an abusive father, tough surroundings.

In multiple interviews, he said how he read hundreds of books growing up, and one of the books that helped him most was The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel. It enabled him to visualize the future he wanted for himself. As proof, he had success as a professional player, artist and now an actor that everyone knows.

From this: