When I was 18, in highschool, I was accepted to an extremely presitigious college (top 3 in the world by any metric without a doubt).

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For various rational (but ultimately dumb) reasons I went to a much lesser college instead (Top 30 but not the top 3 in the world I could've gone to). Then I started panicking. I hadn't realized how much the prestige of the more elite college would've helped me in getting the job I wanted.

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So I dedicated the next 4 years of my life to working my ass off, to put myself in the same position I would've had I gone to the more prestigious college. I had basically no social life (apart from talking to enough girls to keep myself sane). I lost tons of friends, I barely saw my family.

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In the end, I made it, but I had to sacrifice a lot to get there. But it also taught me that life is all about figuring out the cost of getting where you want to get, and then paying that cost.

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Because when I was 18, I already foresaw the price that I had to pay to make up for my fuckup. And so I was ready to pay that price.

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The other thing that I learned was to make the right decisions early. I made the wrong decision and had to spend four years making up for that wrong decision.