The Best Career Advice I Ever Got at 25 (And Ignored for Years)

When I was 25, I left my job at an investment bank called Thomas Weisel Partners. I was young, ambitious, and impatient. I had just decided to go back and work with my parents in the family business, a move that felt uncertain and, frankly, a little uncomfortable at the time.

On my way out, my boss’s boss pulled me aside. His name was Ron. He had watched me for two years and understood my wiring better than I did myself.

He said, “Good luck with whatever you end up doing with your life. Just remember this: always be greedy long term and never short term.”

I didn’t fully appreciate how good that advice was in the moment. I do now. I think about it almost every day.

Early in my career, I wanted everything to happen immediately. Promotions. Raises. Validation. If I was doing good work, I wanted the reward immediately. I wasn’t wrong for being ambitious, but I was wrong about the timeline. I never stopped to evaluate the opportunity itself or the compounding effect of staying in the game. I didn’t understand that patience paired with consistent effort is one of the highest leverage forces in a career.

Most of the best things in my life didn’t happen quickly. Building businesses. A marriage. Raising kids. Even personal confidence. None of those things arrived on demand. They showed up after years of showing up.

I’m still impatient. That part of me hasn’t gone away. The difference is that now I consciously reframe decisions through a longer lens. I try to slow myself down long enough to ask a simple question: am I being greedy short term or greedy long term?

When I look at young founders today, I see short-term greed everywhere. Big, flashy funding rounds before the product is truly great. Inflated stories about scale before there is true substance underneath. An obsession with growth hacks instead of building something that people genuinely love. The desire to “look huge” before actually being great often creates fragile companies that can’t withstand the first real test. A massive Series A sets up a painful Series B. Sometimes it ends the company entirely.

The same pattern shows up in careers. People chasing titles instead of opportunities. Constantly asking about the next promotion instead of doing the work that makes the promotion obvious. Switching jobs too quickly to build real trust, depth, or relationships. Careers are built through reputation and consistency, not speed alone.

When a young founder or employee pushes back and says, “That’s easy for you to say now, but I need momentum,” I understand the instinct. Momentum matters. But rushing rarely creates it. More often, rushing creates resets. A valuation that can’t be defended. A boss who stops investing in you. A reputation for impatience that quietly follows you.

The game of life is a long game. The goal is not to spike early and flame out. The goal is to keep advancing over the entire journey. Progress compounds when you stay in the right environments long enough for it to matter.

Being greedy long term doesn’t mean being passive. It means being ambitious with discipline. It means trading short-term ego for long-term advantage. It means choosing learning, trust, and durability over applause.

There’s no perfect advice. Everyone’s path is different. But I’ve seen this pattern repeat enough times to believe it deeply: wanting everything now often leads to getting much less later.

So here’s the filter I use, and the one I’d pass on to anyone early in their career.

Before a big decision, ask yourself: am I optimizing for the next six months, or the next ten years? What am I giving up by accelerating this? What might compound if I don’t?

Be ambitious. Be driven. Be greedy.

Just make sure it’s the right kind of greed.