Are you young and a loser?

In my opinion, success when you’re young starts with finding something you think is great and spending a lot of time getting good at it. I put it very bluntly in this video from August 2012, which I had been asked to make about youth, ambition and finding your way in life.

I was 42 myself, had a lovely family and a job I looked forward to every morning. I had made money and tried plenty of exciting things. My advice came from my own life as an entrepreneur.

The hunt for the quick fix annoyed me

I thought too many young people believed success came from dropping their trousers on a reality show or taking out a payday loan so they could afford whatever they wanted straight away. I used strong language about taking the easy way out.

A quick fix can feel easy right now. It can give you money to have fun. But I believed that what you skipped today would often cost you more later, whether in money, time or fewer opportunities.

I wasn’t saying you should stop going out and having fun. You should do that too. My advice was to make a reasonable effort alongside it: keep up with school, perhaps get a part-time job, learn more and have some ambition.

I was also sceptical about relying on gambling and quick wins as a way forward. My tone was very blunt. I wanted you to build something rather than constantly look for a shortcut.

Even seemingly easy success takes effort

I used reality stars as an example. You might think things seem to have come easily to them. But in my view, the ones who actually succeed have also learned how to get noticed, practised and worked for it.

I mentioned Paris Hilton and said she could seem stupid without actually being stupid. I then drew a very sweeping conclusion that successful people weren’t stupid and that some were playing a role. That was my provocative interpretation, not an assessment of every famous person’s abilities.

My point was that it often takes years, planning and hard work, even when the result looks effortless.

My own life didn’t come from nothing either

I said I had appeared on TV-Avisen many times, written books and done lots of exciting things. I had tried paragliding, diving, fishing and bungee jumping, and driven Ferraris and Porsches.

I thought I had a fantastic life. For me, it was connected to a decision I had made relatively early on: I wasn’t going anywhere unless I put in the effort.

But when I said hard work, I didn’t mean you should find something you hated and spend your whole life doing it. The key was to find something that made you want to put in the effort.

Success when you’re young: find what makes you happy

Look at your school subjects. Is there anything you enjoy? When you come home one day feeling really happy, think about what made you happy. Are there things pointing you in a particular direction?

You don’t need to be afraid of choosing the wrong thing. You can change direction later. Life is long, and you don’t have to do everything straight away. You need to find something exciting to get started on. Also read Skab din egen succes about finding your own path and making the most of your opportunities.

I compared it to computer games. You can sit there for six to eight hours, sweating and with aching arms, and it still doesn’t feel like a chore. Or you can train hard at a sport you love while time simply flies.

Work can be like that too. You put in a lot of effort, but because you’re absorbed in it, it feels different. That was the feeling I wanted you to look for.

You need to find your own direction

Instead of only listening to everyone else’s advice about what you should become, you also need to explore what you want. Once you’ve found something that interests you, give it time and keep going.

I believed that the skills you developed through that effort could also open up financial opportunities. I talked about money, respect and influence as things you could achieve by developing yourself. It was encouragement based on my own experience, not a guarantee of any particular result.

Putting everything off can make life hard

I turned the idea of a hard life on its head. In my opinion, the hard part wasn’t necessarily working a lot at something you liked. It could be letting things slide now and later getting stuck doing something you didn’t enjoy.

When you live with your parents, it can be easy to overlook what it takes to support yourself. I painted a very bleak picture of adult life with payday loans, debt, a bad credit record, bills arriving in the post and a job you hated.

I also used the word loser very provocatively. I wanted to shake up those who thought avoiding the effort was the easy option. The words were harsh, but my argument was that putting problems off could limit your opportunities later.

I also made a very emphatic prediction that in five to ten years Denmark wouldn’t be able to afford the public benefits people were counting on. That was my prediction in 2012, not a description of today’s welfare entitlements or evidence that the prediction came true. I used it as another warning against building your future on the assumption that other people would simply sort things out.

Making an effort early could create more opportunities later

If you start with something you enjoy, you can spend your time improving while having fun. Perhaps you also start making money along the way. That was the path I believed in.

I talked about cars, travel and the option of working less if you wanted to. I also used a superficial remark about a better-looking partner as part of my picture of success. It was my very outspoken way of talking about opportunities, not a recipe for a good relationship.

What I valued myself was the freedom to experience things with my family. I had come home from a four-and-a-half-month trip with my wife and our two children. Among other places, we had spent a month in Australia, a fortnight in New Zealand and a month in California.

I had met people who had built something

On the trip, I had met interesting Danish entrepreneurs. I highlighted the man behind the jewellery company Nialaya, who had moved to the US and built a business. I talked about jewellery for Madonna and an expensive Bentley as examples of the success I had seen.

At the time, I referred to my interview on Amino TV. For me, the story was an example of someone who had gone all in on something he thought was great. I didn’t believe the result had come from nothing.

Have fun while putting in the effort

Whenever someone promised easy money or an easy path, I wanted you to consider whether a bill would come later. It might come in money, but also in time and opportunities, just when you needed them more.

So my message was: find something you like. Learn to enjoy working at it, and put in the effort to get good. There can still be room to go out and have fun at the weekend.

I ended by asking you to make me proud and get out there and go for it. To me, putting in an effort you enjoyed now was a more attractive path than putting everything off and paying the price later.