Things you wished you would have done when you were younger.....

I lost $25,000 investing in pornographic giftwrap, so... I'm not speaking from a position of strength. Like, I won't be ever again.

 

While we're okay, given that we're doing wishes:

1. saved more $$ whatever age; and
2. bought a few rental properties.

 

Along that same line....bought a car wash.

 

Wish I would have started to play guitar in high school. I took piano for exactly one year when I was young (elementary school), never practiced ... but did learn to read sheet music. Would occasionally goof around on the piano, while my sister took it seriously and became a pretty good musician, playing cello in h.s. orchestra. I concentrated on sports.

Then in my mid-20s, my wife bought me an acoustic guitar for Christmas, and I found that I liked it. Once I learned the basic chords, I could hear songs on the radio and recognize them. I also could look at sheet music and eventually figure it out on guitar.

But all of my guitar playing had to be balanced with (at first) a heavy workload, then with work and parenthood. Now that my kids are young adults, I'm finally getting into it again ... but I could have learned more and had more fun with it as a teenager.

 

I sometimes wish I’d gone out for wrestling (the real amateur kind). In eighth grade, we did wrestling in gym. I was a short skinny kid with glasses, so I had to take them off when we were practicing wrestling and really couldn’t see anything the gym teacher was demonstrating.

Then I had a couple of matches, one against a kid on the junior high team, and I lost, but I wasn’t pinned. Then I remembered the cradle was an effective move, and in the third match, also against a kid on the team, I kept trying to cradle the kid and nearly had him pinned at one point before I ran out of gas, he reversed and I ended up losing on points again.

Later in the locker room, our teacher came over to me and a couple other kids and said we all should go out for the wrestling team. I wasn’t too sure, so my teacher encouraged me to watch a practice. I went, saw the coach yelling at the kids, making them do push-ups when they messed up, and I left.

Looking back now, the coach was probably just trying to get the best out of the kids, but eighth grade me wasn’t interested in getting yelled at and punished with pushups.

 

Come out earlier than 24.

 

Are we talking, like, pornographic pens where the ladies are clothed but when you turn them upside down they are naked, or are we talking full-on penetration stills? And how the hell did I not know about this before now?

 

Obviously the marketing plan left something to be desired.

 

I don't really like to boast about it. It was wrapping paper that from a distance looked like normal wrapping paper. So, say, one looked like Valentine's Day paper, with lots of hearts and stuff. But when you got close to it, it was filthy. They were supposed to be funny ways to wrap wedding presents or sexy birthday presents or whatever. My favourite looked like Sphinx cats—rows and rows of hairless cats. But when you looked closer... well, you can imagine.

We took it to four local adult stores, and they all raved about the designs. Said it would sell like crazy. I got something like 12,000 sheets printed (had to go to Montreal to find someone who would print it) of a dozen designs and sold maybe 50 sheets. Ended up recycling the rest. I should have played in the World Series of Poker instead. Like, I basically lit a car on fire. Dumbest single financial move I've ever made, not counting getting married.

 

I wish I'd studied sports medicine or occupational therapy - I think I had the right kind of mind for it if not the maturity ages 19-23.
And I wish I learned how to bake.

 

You're crushing it, Mod. You make me want to get my ass on a bike.