What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?

What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?

We asked our founder Ben Jones to write a letter to his younger self...

What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?

We asked our founder Ben Jones to write a letter to his younger self.

Dear Ben,

I know already you won’t listen to anything in this letter. If you even manage to read to the end of it, it’d be an achievement. You’re 16 and you know everything. Except Ben, you don’t.

You can’t wait to leave school and get out into the real world. But years later you’ll realise that seeing your friends at school every day was really nice. Meeting up with them becomes harder and harder to do as you get older. People get busy.

Don’t stress too much about studying. You learn more when your head is out of books.

When you get your first credit card at 18 – cut it up. It’s not a good idea. You’re not ready for one. You don’t understand how interest works. It’s not actually free money, you’ll have to pay it back. You learn this lesson the hard way.

Throw all your energy into one pursuit. Stop trying to do everything at once. It doesn’t work out for you.

Pay attention. Opportunities are going to pop up where you didn’t expect them too. Be ready to pounce. You’re good at seizing the moment.

You love playing cards with your family. These continue to be your happiest memories throughout your life. And guess what Ben? You’re going to turn it into a business. In the future, people get really busy and no one has time to hang out together. We’re all staring at our ipads (magic, wizard like flat screens that you can touch, and hold all the worlds information. But they’re mainly used for looking at funny videos of cats on skateboards.) You’re going to work really hard to get people to reconnect. You’re going to surprise yourself Ben about how much you want other people to have the strong relationships that you have.

Clean your room. As the years have gone on you’ve grown very tired of being the butt of family jokes about messy bedrooms. It’ll take you five minutes. Go on.

Don’t work too hard. You go at everything 100%. Sometimes it’s nice to look up and enjoy the people around you.

Things will work out, maybe not as you thought they might (you’re not a Formula One Racecar Driver - sorry). You’re surrounded by people who love you and you know to appreciate them.

Don’t beat yourself up over that afternoon on work experience when you try and fail to figure out a fax machine. You’ll never to need to use one again!

Have fun and enjoy the ride,

Ben