Most successful young people don’t look inside and then plan a life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life…
Most people don’t form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling. by David Brooks http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/advice-for-high-school-graduates/
Got some good advice for new graduates?
Post it here (No funny stuff, Greg and Dave;))
I used to have a plan for my life. But it was too dependant on other people and blew over.
For a couple of years I just followed the trail of opportunities that presented themselves, which is also a lot of work, but worked quite well.
Now I have a plan again. The risk is a lot lower than the original one, though. It involves less people and more unicycles.
My advice, don’t plan on anything that depends on someone else. Shape your life around the things that are within your own power to achieve.
I also have advice, not only for new graduates, but everyone. Don’t go into a thread in a public forum and blindly follow a link in some eccentric crackpot’s post. If a person really has something to say, they’ll say it in their own words. Some posters don’t have their own words. Instead they write a brief and rarely clever phrase and then attach a link to god knows where that, by association, is supposed to be connected.
Oh, sorry, the IP already made this evident.
Define successful
Advice…
Well, I went against Harper’s advice and followed Billy’s link. I found the discussion there to be very informative.
One of the definitions of wisdom is to learn from other people’s mistakes. I hope that young people will learn to consider the more important dimensions of humanity, versus just focusing on material possessions, vanity, power, and prestige.
It’s been said that if you help enough other people get what they want, you will get what you want. I believe this is very true, and along the way as you give of yourself to others you are blessed along the way. Altruistic behavior is ingrained in all of us, but to find it we have to take the focus off of ourselves.
Just my two cents. 
By graduates do we mean people who have graduated, after three or more years intensive studying, from a university with a degree or are we talking American style graduates; kids who have left school?
My advice to kids who have left school is go to university and get a good degree. My advice to graduates from university is get yourself an enjoyable well paid job and settle down with the person you love.
My advice to both is try not to die prematurely in some terrible accident or as a result of contacting a nasty disease. Do what I did and get old secure in the knowledge that, whether you got a well paid job and married the love of your life or not, your knees, hairline and future will never be as good as they once were and your inevitable demise is gets closer every day.
Sorted. Everyone is full of advice - most of it useless.
My advice would be to invest early for retirement. Take 10% of what you make and put it in a IRA or 401k. Let it be and before long you should be a millionaire in time.
I’d like to hear your definition.
All good advice.
In america, kids who dropped out are called “drop outs” not graduates.
Easy to said… I wish I could find a job that I enjoy most!
I think it can vary widely. A monk considering himself a success at his chosen path of monasticism would, perhaps, be considered to be a very unsuccessful venture capitalist. It would depend on what the person in question wanted to be successful at, or what attainment the observer(s) considered to qualify as having succeeded.
Can a person, or a person’s life, be considered a success by some people and not by other people?
The Lord loves a working man.
Don’t trust Whitey.
See a doctor and get rid of it.
Get 2-3 years experience in your industry and then set up on your own while you’re still young and don’t have too many commitments. I’ve been running my own business for 4 months now and it’s the best decision I ever made!
Thanks, Billy.
Pick the one thing you love most, and give it everything you’ve got.
Don’t keep changing your mind hopping from one thing to another so you have to keep starting from square one over and over again.
…and Rubix is right.
I work with teens and have a couple of my own, so my advice is actually for the parents, since the kids tend to be a lot less “limited” in their vision of the future:
Nothing is forever
Most things can be recovered
Don’t take things so seriously
Let mistakes happen
Allow people to stand on their own
Plan to work until you can’t
And for the kids:
Don’t go to college unless it will increase your income
Read books and write
Learn to set limits
Live a balanced life
Exercise, eat well
Travel as much as possible
Practice safe sex and use birth control
I am a high school drop out and have done just fine
are you really? wow. My income is starting to look good for my age 
:Dunicycle:D 
:p;)
C’mon, get off it. Were you born yesterday.
They should have told you the objective standard of success. It holds across the board for everyone.
rate your happiness on a scale from one to 10, 10 being the most happy you can imagine, 1 being no happiness, and 5 being a mid point.