Are you a wunderkind?

If you are not familiar with this word, you should need to start watching “The Office”.

Wunderkind | A person who achieves great success when relatively young.

Now, this all depends on what you define as success. I personally would describe success as “Achieving your goal”. My goals as a young adult are:

• Create an emergency fund of three months salary
• Invest monthly in Index funds as primary fund for retirement
• Travel to a new country annually with my partner
• Enjoy life (Yes, it’s cliche, but it is the most important goal)

So, do I consider myself a wunderkind? I sure do.

I do not make the most money nor do I drive the nicest car for my age, however, I achieved the majority of my goals. Comparing yourself to others is just a bad idea.

The people you are comparing yourself to are usually “acquaintances” you recently seen on Linkedin or Instagram. It’s easy to post achievements like a new job or milestone, but in reality, they could be going through something like depression.

How do I know this? I have seen a former co-worker at a restaurant a few days after he got a new job at an amazing company. Naturally, I congratulated them and told them how envious I am of their new position. They said “Don’t be. I am not getting along with my boss and I want to quit. If I do, it will look bad to potential employers. I have to stay there for at least a year.”

I gave them advice and I was on my way. I couldn’t help but feel awful for being jealous of someone’s job without any context. All I saw was “Your friend now works at your dream job”, but now I see “Your friend started a new job! Congratulated them and follow up with them soon.”

This is why I compare myself to myself. Here is an example why I only compare myself to myself. You start going to the gym to become a bodybuilder and you’re doing everything that professional bodybuilders do. After a year, you still look nothing like them. Not even close. You’ve done everything and no results! You give up.

This way of thinking often leads to people giving up on their goals. Two reasons why.

1. You are comparing yourself to professionals/experts, so it’s hard to see results. Compare your current to yourself a year ago. You are your only competition.
2. Smaller goals. Instead of “Becoming a bodybuilder”, the first goal should be to create a workout plan or to gain 10 pounds. The more goals, the better you will feel once accomplished. That sense of accomplishment will motivate you until the end.

Creating and accomplishing my goal makes me a wunderkind! Not if I made $100,000 before the age of 25 years. Over the years, I will create new goals and I won’t accomplish all of them. I know that. As long as I tried and learned why I did not meet my goal, I consider that a success.

So, I’ll ask again, Are you a wunderkind?