I want to take this opportunity and share some advice to myself for 2020 and the next decade. I am not smart or experienced in life, so every small bit counts.

Maybe, these could be useful to someone else, too.

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1. Business relations are as important and high-stakes as marriage. Do not "partner up" on a whim. Do not just engage with someone who seems cool.

Collaboration is fantastic, but finding the right people to collaborate with is hard. Maybe even harder than finding a life partner

2. Taking investors' money is generally a bad idea. It's a solution to a problem, a nuclear, powerful solution. Make sure you actually HAVE the problem. Because if you don't, then funding will become a problem of its own.

2.2 If you're not sure whether to take investors' money, then you definitely should not.

3. If you don't learn about yourself, you will never learn about the world or other people.

Those who try to learn about other people without every learning about themselves behave very much like sociopaths. Such behavior makes everybody's lives harder.

4. Beware of people who cannot communicate clearly and don't seem to change in that regard over time. Clear communication is a sign of clear mind.

If you repeatedly do not understand someone, chances are it's them, not you.

5. Zero tolerance for threats and bullying. No, business context doesn't make it ok to threaten. No, "legal action" is not a different thing, it's a threat.

If they're wearing a suit and talk fancy, it doesn’t mean they can't be common thugs.

Bullies do not deserve your energy

6. Family first.
Sounds cliché, and it is. For a reason.

You may at some points explicitly put family second for some time. This must be clearly expressed and communicated to everybody.

7. Be aware of advice. Be aware of wisdom.

True value and wisdom are implicit, hidden. Easily accessible value and wisdom are a hoax.

Be aware of people who are full of opinions, and seem to have strong principles. Truly wise people are rarely sure.

8. There is no "real you" that you need to find. You thinking about "real you" is real you. You being unsure or insecure or lost is real you.

Real you is not a thing, it's a process. Wherever you go — there's real you.

Flow forward. Don't look for a place.

9. Your brain is not designed to take in this much data. If you're reading this on twitter, you probably doing your brain a disservice (sorry).

Nobody will save you, things are gonna get worse. Find it hard to focus and read 3 pages of a book? It's not funny, it should scare you

10. At the same time, not reading Twitter and quitting social media does not automatically add to success. Don't read in awe about all those smart people that wake up at 4am and never lose a moment.
Churchill didn't read twitter. He drank and smoked like a lunatic. Whatever works

11. Learn to be kind to yourself. Someone said "treat others the way you want to be treated".

I say "treat yourself the way you treat loved ones".

Would you push your spouse to work harder even though she's tired? Would your force her through headache? Make her feel ashamed?

12. Generally, you're on your own. There may or may not be people who support you and understand you. It's great if there are. It's okay if there are not. That's the default mode. That's where you should learn to live.

13. Take a walk. It is never a bad idea.

14. You don't have to reply to every message. If you think the other side is not doing business in good faith, ignoring them is often better than engaging in a fight.

15. Knowing what you want is hard. If you think you know what you want out of life, relationships, career, etc, then think again. Where did these ideas come from? Were they ever yours?..

16. Knowing what you value is even harder. Mindfulness is a tool that may or may not help in learning about yourself, your desires and values. There is no magic bullet.

17. Be open to the idea that you will never figure it out and die feeling as unwise as you might feel now. Maybe, life shouldn't make sense, and those who think they figured it out are delusional.

18. It's all a game.
Sometimes funny, sometimes boring, sometimes cruel. It will end. There's probably no round 2. It's a good thing.

19. Mortality is a blessing. Don't want to die, ever? Think about how horrific that actually is. Never ending existence.

Don't want to age? That's different. And will probably be solved at some point. But you and me will probably age.

20. Instead of trying to hack yourself, manufacture habits, self-improve or grow, first try to learn how to learn about existing.

Aimless growth and self-improvement is as dangerous as all those venture-capital backed growth startups. It's cancerous behavior by definition.