Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - 140. What I would Tell My 20 Year Old Self

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

You don’t need more advice, you need a blueprint.Most people waste their 20s chasing approval, chasing pleasure, and chasing distractions. And then they wonder why their 30s are filled with regret, debt, and disappointment.In this episode of The Bedros Keuilian Show, I’m breaking down the 12 hard-hitting lessons I wish someone told me in my 20s. These are truths that would’ve saved me years of pain and put me on the fast track to success. This is the roadmap I’d hand to my younger self and now I’m handing it to you.If you're in your 20s (or still paying for mistakes you made back then), this episode will punch you in the face in the best way possible.REGISTER FOR THE LEGACY TRIBEGet the Life, Money, Meaning & Impact You Deservehttps://bedroskeuilian.com/legacytribeJOIN MY FREE 6-WEEK CHALLENGE:Transform into a Purpose-Driven Manhttps://bedroskeuilian.com/challengeTHE SQUIRE PROGRAM: A rite of Passage for Your Son as He Becomes a ManA Father and Son Experience That Will Be Remembered FOREVERhttps://squireprogram.com/registerTruLean Supplements | https://www.trulean.com/pages/bedrosGet 50% Off Trulean Subscribe & Save BundleUse Code: BEDROS Few Will Hunt Apparel | https://fewwillhunt.com/Get 20% Off Your Entire OrderUse Code: BEDROSOPEN A FIT BODY LOCATIONA High-Profit, Scalable Gym Franchise Opportunity Driven By Impacthttps://sales.fbbcfranchise.com/get-started?utm_source=bedrosPODCAST EPISODES:https://bedroskeuilian.com/podcast/STAY CONNECTED:Website | https://bedroskeuilian.com/Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/bedroskeuilian/LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/bedroskeuilianTwitter | https://twitter.com/bedroskeuilian

The people who take care of their bodies tend to win more in life than the people who treat their bodies like a dumpster. Welcome to the Bedroes-Coolian show. Back when Q was rolling with Lorenzo and a Benzo, I was banging with a gang of instrumental. If I can go back and talk to the 20 or 25-year-old version of myself, these are the things that I would tell them to give him a massive advantage. Guys, welcome to the Bedros-Coolean show. I'm Bedros-Culian. Today's episode is about the 12 things that I would tell my younger self if I were in my 20s. what to do to have a massive advantage as I got older. I'm currently 50 years old.

I've started many companies. I've sold a handful of them and I'm in a place that I live a great life. But I could have had an even better life sooner, dealt with less stress, less frustration, less friction and had even more advantages in my life if I would have followed these 12 life lessons, 12 life lessons in my 20s.

So here we go. Number one, stop seeking permission from others. You're going to seek permission from your mom and dad. You're going to seek permission from school teachers. You're going to seek permission from best friends because you want to get their buy-in on what you should do. And these people are going to give you input that you're not necessarily going to be excited to hear because they're not living the life that you want.

And so if you're like, hey, I'm going to go over there and I'm going to conquer that mountain and I'm going to build my kingdom there, they're like, are you crazy? You can't do that. You don't have the skills to do that. How are you going to do that? You don't have the time. You don't have the money. You don't have the resources.

You don't have the ability. right and soon they're going to put out your fire so when you're seeking permission from others who have not achieved what you want to achieve you will see that they will put out your fire and soon suck you into a world of average and as you know average is for the week number two here is is super important which is play the long game right I want you to go out and conquer but I don't want you to fall for what 20 year olds fall for which is if I can make money fast if I could get results quick right the day and we live in now, you see young 20-year-old dudes, 20-21, 23-year-old dudes taking so much testosterone

and growth hormones and trend and all this stuff to put on muscle that would take the rest of us like into our 30s to gain, right? That's because they want the results quick. Play the long game. When you play the short game, you end up getting really bad results over the long haul, right? You might see some good results in the beginning, but if, whether it's steroids in your early 20s, or you're trying to do this make money quick scheme in your early 20s, you end up really squandering the money and destroying your health and your body if you don't play the long game. Remember, you plan on being on this planet for 80, 90, 100 years.

Play the long game. And if you do that, you're going to build a foundation on a very strong concrete block instead of building a foundation on quicksand. Number three, learn sales and leadership. If you can learn sales and leadership now, you will start working for organizations where you can literally write your own paycheck. If you could lead other people's employees or you could sell other people's products and services, you will have more money coming in in your 20s than you would if you were working at a McDonald's or if you were working at a car wash or just doing some other 20-year-old job, right? So learn the skills of sales and leadership now. Both of those you can learn from books, podcasts, YouTube shows, right?

And you could acquire those skills within 30 days. You've got to lock in three to four hours a day and really commit to learning these skills. And when you do, you become more hireable to big organizations who will pay you well to lead and to sell. Thing number four, I wish I knew in my 20s. I need to shut up more and listen. Like in our 20s, we're too ignorant and arrogant to realize that we don't know shit. Right. Now that I'm 50, I realize I didn't know shit in my 20s.

But I thought I did and I would always challenge people and I wouldn't ask for advice from the people who were already where I wanted to be because I felt like I already know how they got there and I could do it better and faster myself. And it cost me so much time, money, energy and effort. I just needed to have shut the fuck up and listened more. So I'm telling you right now, if you're in your 20s, be curious. Ask questions. Shut the fuck up and listen.

And when you do, you will gain years of knowledge, experience and wisdom that you could not get if you open your big fat mouth. Number five, choose pain now or regret later. No matter what it is you want to do, you're going to be experiencing either pain and frustration now or regret later because time passed by and you can't go back in time, right? I know so many people that I grew up with from high school and in my 20s who now, unfortunately, are living a very destitute life because they chose pleasure back then instead of purpose and pain. Choose the the pain now, be more disciplined, the pain of discipline, the pain of consistency, the pain of focus, the pain of showing up on nights and weekends and early mornings, choose that pain because regret

in your 30s, 40s, and 50s and beyond is a son of a bitch, man, I'm telling you right now. Also, audit your circle. Number six, audit your circle, the people that you hang around with, the people that are in your network right now, your circle of influence, they're probably losers, right? They're not driven. They're not growing. They're not holding you to higher standards. You've got to cut them off.

I understand that loyalty to your homies is a cool thing right now in your 20s. But let me tell you, as you all move on and get married and start families, you're going to see that, oh, that loyalty wasn't so deep after all. And so these losers that you're hanging out with, if you don't agree with the lifestyle, with the drinking, the weed, the staying up late, doing dumb, stupid shit, like cut them out. Audit your circle. and I'd rather you be alone with your own thoughts, desires, goals, and dreams, than to be able to hang out with losers that you call friends who are going to delay and potentially completely derail your progress and success in life. I don't want that for you.

Lesson number seven that I would share with myself is take care of your body like it's a business. You know, it's funny, we start a business and we do our best to take care of it, right? We want to get systems in place. We want to make sure that we show up on time. We want to make sure that marketing funnels are working, sales processes working. The clients and customers are getting what they expected. Yet your body, which is this temple, this machine that you live in that helps produce all of those things in your business. Your body, you guys are destroying.

You're vaping. You're eating a whole bunch of junk food, drinking shitty energy drinks that are loaded with, God knows what, like poisons and caffeine and stimulants that are just completely. completely destroying your body, right? Processed food. Like treat your body like a temple, man. If you could take better care of your body, sleep, train, eat right, stay sharp, read. And when you do these things, you have higher energy, you have a better outlook on life, and you tend to win. The people who take care of their bodies tend to win more in life than the people who treat their bodies like a dumpster. Guys, quick interruption to the Bedrose Cooling show. I took some time to go to the local

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Just take one packet, pour it in four ounces of water and shoot it, and you're good to go. Best of all, $1.69 per packet instead of twice the price of those other inferior one. I want you to get 50% off your first 30-day supply. So go to trulean.com, use my name Bedrosse, and you can get 50% off plus free shipping, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and $1 gets donated to Shriners Children's Hospital. Best of all, if you like the Trulene Wellness shots, and I know you will, like thousands of other people who are part of the Trulene tribe, every month will send you a new supply at 20% off free shipping. So go to truleen.com, use my name Bedros and get your 50% discount code before it goes away. Back to the show.

Lesson number eight, own everything. It's all your fault. It's all your responsibility. Absolute maximum accountability, period, right? Blame no one, no excuses. Take extreme responsibility for everything because that is how you gain control and freedom. If you want control over every outcome in your life, for the most part, I understand that you could be walking down the street and then boom,

something the car jumps the curb and hits you. I get that. Freaky weird shit happens. But by and large, you need to own everything. It's all your fault. The wins are your fault. The losses in your life are your fault. Everything can be traced back to a decision.

What that decision was was up to you. A decision that you made two years ago, you might be paying for that price today. Or a decision that you made two years ago. might be paying you today, right? So once you own responsibility and go absolute ham on accountability, personal accountability, dude, your life will be so fucking different. It's crazy. Lesson number nine, invest in assets, not liabilities.

Cars, clothes, flexing, watches, right? These things drain you. And I get it on social media. You want to flex and look like a badass. But the reality is assets. Like, I don't have a lot of car keys. I've got one to, whatever. For the amount of success that I have,

I've got whatever, four cars personally myself, right? But, but I don't go around buying more cars, more high-end watches. It's easier to lay down a whole bunch of timepieces and lay down 10 or 15, 20 car key fobs and flex on social media. Now, what I do have are deeds, deeds to buildings, commercial and residential. I have a lot of deeds. It wouldn't be so sexy if I laid those deeds down and flexed, right? But those are assets that are appreciating, going up in value that I can leverage and do a cash out refinance and sell and and flip and buy something bigger. And so understand that if I could have started doing that, I bought so much shit in my 20s.

Like, you know, I get lucky and I, you know, I was in sales towards the latter part of my 20s, right? And so I'd get a big commission. I'd go buy wheels for my, for my, for my. Chevy Tahoe. I remember getting my first set of 20 inch deep dish wheels. And I was like, man, this is awesome. This is great. Well, guess what happened? A year and a half later, someone crashed into my Chevy Tahoe and totaled it. Those wheels went along with it, right? Went along with it. So whatever it was that I spent back then, 1500 or two grand for those wheels and tires, imagine if I had just invested that in something else, right? Either in my personal growth,

either in my knowledge and wisdom or in some kind of, you know, just the S&P 500 for crying out loud. Just the S&P 500, I would have compounded that. So invest less on liabilities, go all in on assets that produce long-term value and freedom for you. Lesson number 10. Bet on yourself relentlessly. Far too often you think someone else has the answer, that someone else is better than you, that they have more capacity and capabilities than you. And the reality is they don't.

I want you to start betting on yourself more. You have everything you need to win in life. You have drive. You have desire. You have consistency. You have discipline. You have effort. You have all of it.

Like, yeah, but I don't have some of those things. I bet if I came and put a gun to your head, you would have all those things immediately. If I said, stay disciplined for as long as I have those gun to your head and do this work, you would lock in on that work and you would not do anything else. No social scrolling, no bull. No nothing because that gun is about to go off if you don't stay disciplined. So you have it in you. You just choose not to bring it out.

Instead, you take the path of least resistance, which is screen sucking and and wasting time and hanging out with goofballs and not going to bed on time and not eating right, not training, not doing the self-growth. And before you know it, a decade has gone by. You're in your 30s and you're a fucking loser, right? Lesson number 11. Set your standards now. the sooner you can set your standards for yourself, the sooner you will reach and maintain your goals.

Standards are everything. Most people don't set their standards. They just kind of fall to the standards of the people around them. So if the people around you are okay with being in debt, people around you are okay with being 10, 15, 20, 30 pounds overweight, people around you are okay with having shitty relationships. People around you are okay with having this like negative and depressed and anxiety riddled mindset. You end up accepting those standards. If you start setting standards for yourself, that I will always be lean and jacked, that I will always focus on having a surplus of money so that I could serve the people around me that I love and care for, that I will always be in a positive mental state because I don't want to be negative Nancy. I want to be a positive influence on people. Set the standards. And if I come across people who don't meet those standards, I will keep myself away from them. I will eliminate them out of my circle of influence and I will edit their relationships so that I am not impacted by their negative juju. Right. If you, you have standard set, then you will not deviate. If you don't have standard set, then you will deviate at the earliest or the lowest common denominator, which is obviously average, average. And we all know that average is the enemy, right? And number 12, lesson number 12, let go and move on. Don't hold on to anger, resentment and rejection from your youth. You know, maybe you come from a

divorced family. Maybe you come from trauma. Maybe you come from weird setbacks. Maybe you're an immigrant like I was. Whatever it is that you were angry about. Maybe you're come from a blue call her family. Maybe you were told that you'll never make it in life by the people that you looked up to. Who gives a shit? Let go of all of it and move on. The sooner you guys can learn to let go and move on in life, the happier you will be. When you carry anger, resentment, rejection with you, it is like if I asked you to go do a mud run or a Spartan race, but then said, hey, here's a giant burlap bag with bricks and cinder blocks in it that you have to carry over your shoulder while doing this, doing this Spartan race.

There's no way you're going to be anywhere near the pack of winners at the end. No way. That is what carrying this anger and resentment and rejection is. So the sooner you can let go and move on in life, the better. Learn to let go and move on. And if you do, because most people hold on to pain and trauma, divorce, abuse, and therefore develop this crippling identity for themselves, the sooner you can let go and move on and say, guess what,

they hurt me, but I'm not going to hold it against them. because when you do, it's like you're holding a bag of bricks and cinder blocks that are weighing you down. Because as sooner you can let go of all this stuff and move on, you develop a healthier, a better identity, of the identity of the type of person who wins in life. And you, my friend, if you're in your 20s and you decide to let go and move on faster so you can start winning more in life, you will get to higher levels of success decades before some of us have. And I want to see you win because I love you, I care for you. And I know that when you win, you will bless others around you so that they will win in life too.

Gang, thank you for watching and listening to this episode of The Bedros-Coolin show. If you got any value from this episode, be sure to subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube. Leave us a comment and a review across all the podcast platforms so that we can reach more hearts and minds and impact and influence more men to reach their highest potential in life. And always remember this, that averages the enemy. Success is your responsibility. And change can take place in an instant if you are willing. to flip the switch. I'll see you next time.