# Lessons from Year 29  ## About - Author: Nat Eliason - Title: Lessons from Year 29 - Tags: #articles - URL: https://www.nateliason.com/blog/29 ## Highlights while it is scary to walk back down the mountain to try again, you at least should have some good hiking muscles. You never know how the skills you built on one mountain will help you on the next one. --- One mentality I’ve often railed against is the long-term career plan encouraged in college. You need to study hard to get good grades to get that first job so you can get promoted over the next 20 years and become a partner and then all your problems will be solved and you’ll be eternally happy. Something like that. I’m more a fan of the driving in the fog analogy. You have a rough idea of where you are and where you want to go towards, but you can only see a little bit ahead of you, and you have to keep making progress based on that. And the less committed you are to a certain outcome, the freer you are to take the roads that make the most sense for you. ---