5 Valuable Skills to Acquire in Your 20’s

Everyone has a different definition for success and respective list of skills in their mind required to achieve it. Our 20’s are an awesome decade when most of us are relatively free of the responsibilities and that’s why it is a great time to experiment, fail, and bounce back. When we are in our twenties, plethora of thoughts comes in our mind related to our future and career. Sometimes we use to look for a job and sometimes we want to be self-employed or start our own business. Whatever you are going to choose, these key skills will help you a lot to build a solid foundation in your 20’s and to become successful in your life.

1. Communication Skills 

You can always improve the way you speak and write irrespective of your profession. Every-day we communicate with people through a phone call, a text message, a face to face conversation, or even through an email. The ability to convey your ideas or messages clearly and effectively is useful for both day-to-day conversations and also for social media interactions. It helps you to grow your influence and network as you grow in your career.

It’s not only about a conversation with an individual but also about public speaking while attending a meeting or delivering a presentation in front of a group of people. You should also train yourself to be an active listener in order to communicate more effectively. This approach will help you in starting an interesting conversation with strangers and thus enables you to make a long lasting impression among them.

2. Negotiation Skills

Be it your business, career or your life, to be able to properly negotiate for the things you want is a major aspect of success. A competition for money or business resource is not a true negotiation. In fact, the best negotiators are ones who are able to create win-win situation in which everyone feels satisfied. Being a good negotiator, you need to be absolutely clear about the outcome that you desire from the negotiation. It’s also very crucial to know the background and needs of other parties as well.

We all must try our level best to adopt negotiation skills in order to build, maintain and improve relationships which allow us to avoid conflicts and increase our efficiency.

3. Selling Skills

Understanding the sales process is incredibly important regardless of the industry or career you choose. We live in a world that is filled with competition and being able to sell effectively is a crucial point of difference for any business. That’s why every business requires some type of selling platform. You don’t need to be a salesperson to acquire these skills. Selling is an art; it’s not about what you want perhaps it is about how you can best serve the needs of your customer and clients. Selling your product, service or idea is about doing the right things for everyone involved in the deal.

4. Network Building

To build a network is not just beneficial in developing a career or advancing your professional life but can also play a positive role in your life as a whole. With each person you meet, you learn something new and this enhances your knowledge, and further your skills. In the era of digital media, there are lots of ways to build network including social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. It is always recommended to connect only with relevant & like-minded people with some productive intent instead of irrelevant folks. Making authentic connections early on will widen your professional circle and you will be able to learn from their experiences.

Networking allows you to practice your communication skills in multiple professional settings which leads to more opportunities in the future. It also makes you feel comfortable & confident while talking about yourself, your career and your business.

5. Financial Intelligence

Luxuries are a wonderful thing only if you can truly afford them. Don’t be a slave to funding a lifestyle that will not last. As you start working and earning money, you’ll eventually need to learn how to properly manage it. In your 20’s, you don’t have major responsibilities with plenty of years for power of compounding to work for you. That’s why it is the best time to effectively save and invest your money. Financial intelligence is all about using your intelligence while handling or solving a different kind of money problems. Many people use their credit cards or bank loan when they are short of money which often results in building a large unwanted debt. This approach is a short-term solution for a long-term financial problem and we need to avoid such mistakes.

It’s also about your mindset when you have enough money that how are going to invest in a right way. There are different types of loans for different purposes and banks are providing lots of captivating offers on credit cards to their customers. That’s why having the right financial education today is more important than ever.

These skills are not taught or emphasized in schools/colleges but are actually helpful for us in a long run. Always remember that every master was once a learner. So patience is key to get skilled in any field and there is always a scope for improving these skills. The world is always in need of influential people. So let’s strive to be one.