Sadhana Smiles, International CEO of Property Management Harcourts International
What would I tell me 16 year old self.
I do love this question as it makes you really think about what you would tell your 16 year old self, keeping in mind that when most of us were 16 years old, we didn’t really think we need to listen to anyone. The world was our oyster and many of us had enormous amounts of self belief and confidence. I left home (Fiji) at the age of 16 to attend boarding school here in Melbourne.
Knowing everything I know now, here is what I would tell my 16 year old self.
Life is an adventure, meant to be lived with gusto. Throw yourself into everything, embrace all the experiences, good, bad, ugly, they are all lessons for your future life. No matter what happens to you, how bad it is, how low you get, the sun will come up, and life will go on.
Be smart with money, financial freedom and independence is important, invest wisely, put money away for rainy day and keep some to travel and experience the world with.
Family cannot be replaced, that no matter what happens, it will be your family that will always be there for you. Most importantly when you have children make sure that you create humans who are independent, confident, adventurous, who love to spend time with you because you fill each other’s buckets, not because you are their mum.
PS….. do the right thing by others and you will always do the right thing by yourself, this is the lesson of equal firsts, it is ok to put yourself first and have your family, kids, partner right alongside with you.