The surprising secret of doing LESS

Candidate,

I'll never forget my first meeting with my advisor in college.

It was the day before my freshman year. We were sitting in her office talking about how many courses (or "units") I should take that semester.

Her advice surprised me.

"Ramit, don't take 20 units. Take 12."

Uhhh … what? This was Stanford. The reason I got in is because I pushed myself to do more.

Now my advisor wanted me to pull back?

Except that wasn't what she was saying at all. I later realized what she really meant: "Give yourself time to explore. Try different clubs. Join organizations. Make friends."

In other words, don't be so obsessed with getting As that you let the rest of the college experience pass you by.

I know, I know. "Cool story Ramit, but I'm not in college anymore." But my advisor's advice is not just about college. It's about ALL areas of your life, including right now.

Here's my rule for applying "Don't take 20 credits, take 12," no matter where you are: Keep broadening your identity.

It would've been easy at 18 to define myself as "Ramit Sethi, college student" and nothing else.

And if I did that, I'd be a 120lb engineer employee wearing a polo shirt twice my size.

Instead, when I started my first company (PBWiki), I expanded my identity to "Ramit Sethi, entrepreneur." When I launched IWT, I expanded it even further to "Ramit Sethi, blogger."

Which eventually became "Ramit Sethi, author." And finally, "Ramit Sethi, CEO."

College feels like another lifetime ago now. I'm sure it would've felt good to earn one more A, but would it matter anymore? Probably not.

Yet I can draw a direct line between the chances I took in college, and the Rich Life I'm living now.

What about you?

What fun experiment could you try to broaden how you see yourself?

I'd love to hear your ideas.