My fellow young people, let’s talk.
I know our 20s are hard. I know sometimes they just don’t make sense.
One minute, you feel like you’ve got it all figured out—you’re finally doing something meaningful, something that looks like purpose. The next minute, you’re sitting in your room, asking yourself, “What am I even doing with my life?”
I’ve been there. And honestly, I still have those moments.
But one thing I’ve come to believe—and it’s something my mentor always reminds me—is that your 20s are for building. Not for perfection. Not for applause. But for laying the foundation.
And building takes time. It takes focus. It takes staying when everything in you wants to jump to the next thing.
In the past year of running Youth on Sustainable Development and doing advocacy for meaningful youth engagement, I’ve seen this up close. In the beginning, it was hard. People didn’t always take us seriously. I wasn’t even sure I knew what I was doing.
But the longer I stayed, the more things started to shift.
People began to notice. The conversations became deeper. The work became clearer. It still takes a lot, but it’s no longer a fight to be seen. It’s because I stayed.
I see so many young people trying to do everything at once—starting five different projects, jumping from job to job, constantly shifting direction. And I get it—we’re hungry to succeed, to make impact, to find our thing. But here’s the truth: sometimes, results don’t come because we haven’t stayed long enough in one place to let them grow.
What if you gave yourself wholly to one path—a course, a business, a job, a cause—for just two or three years? Fully. Not 10% here and 5% there. Just one thing. And if it doesn’t work out, you move on. But at least you gave it your best.
Because a jack of all trades is a master of none—and often, a master of none gets lost in the noise.
Stay. Build. Trust time.
Maybe—just maybe—time, dedication, and focus do get the job done. And when the results come, they’ll speak for themselves.
With love and honesty,
Olivia Tutu
Founder, Youth on Sustainable Development