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What It Takes To Get Rich In Your 20s

Dan Koe20:10Added Aug 31, 2026

If you want to get rich in your 20s or 30s, it must be your number one overwhelming desire.Research, write, and schedule content with your AI strategist (giv...

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  1. How to actually get rich

  2. 00:00The only way to get rich is to one,
  3. 00:03value your time at a delusional dollar
  4. 00:05amount, two, be obsessed with getting
  5. 00:08rich, and three, give yourself no other
  6. 00:11option but to get rich. That's what this
  7. 00:13entire video is about is getting rich
  8. 00:16and the truth behind it. And now I know
  9. 00:19there are going to be people in the back
  10. 00:21who are like money isn't everything or
  11. 00:23they're regurgitating some shallow
  12. 00:25advice that they heard about how money
  13. 00:27doesn't buy happiness that they got from
  14. 00:30someone who doesn't have money nor
  15. 00:32happiness. But this video isn't for
  16. 00:34those who just decided to click on this
  17. 00:36video and get angry and completely waste
  18. 00:39their time. This video is for those who
  19. 00:41want to get unapologetically rich. Not
  20. 00:44because you're a terrible or an evil
  21. 00:47person, but because the only other
  22. 00:49option in your head is to be valued at
  23. 00:51what the market thinks you're worth. And
  24. 00:54that's terrifying. For myself, I
  25. 00:56realized pretty early in my life that I
  26. 00:58was not okay with breaking my back for 8
  27. 01:01to 10 hours a day to make 80 to $150,000
  28. 01:04a year in a job where I own nothing
  29. 01:06doing work I don't care about.
  30. 01:08Especially when I can see as clear as
  31. 01:10day that there are people doing
  32. 01:12meaningful work who make 100x that
  33. 01:14amount while working a fraction of the
  34. 01:16time. I may not have had that much value
  35. 01:19to offer when I was young, but I knew it
  36. 01:21was possible because I could just look.
  37. 01:24I could just observe. I could just see
  38. 01:26that other people had a life that I
  39. 01:28could potentially want. And if other
  40. 01:30people had done it, then that means
  41. 01:32there is a series of steps that I can
  42. 01:35personally take. Especially in this
  43. 01:36world of technology and the internet and
  44. 01:39social media, I could take a series of
  45. 01:41steps to achieve close to the same
  46. 01:43thing. Not even the full thing, but I
  47. 01:46could at least have some control over my
  48. 01:48money. Therefore, I could have some
  49. 01:50control over my day, my routine, my
  50. 01:54mind, my emotions, and especially my
  51. 01:57time. And the thing here is that the
  52. 01:59people who endlessly moralize or
  53. 02:02spiritualize money can't fathom a life
  54. 02:05where they aren't bound to it. Now, the
  55. 02:07unfortunate thing with this video is
  56. 02:09that I can't tell you exactly what to
  57. 02:11do. I mean, I can I can tell you what I
  58. 02:14did, right? That's what anyone can do.
  59. 02:16Nobody can tell you what to do. They can
  60. 02:17only tell you what they did. But
  61. 02:19instead, I want to give you something
  62. 02:21that I think is more helpful. I want to
  63. 02:23give you three ways to rewire how your
  64. 02:27mind thinks about money because that's
  65. 02:30what you need to make the right
  66. 02:32decisions to get rich or make a lot of
  67. 02:34money or achieve really anything that
  68. 02:36you want. I don't want to give you the
  69. 02:38way. I want to give you the tools that
  70. 02:41will help you create your own way so
  71. 02:43that it's sustainable. In other words, I
  72. 02:45want to install the beliefs in your mind
  73. 02:47that allow you to test the inputs that
  74. 02:51are much more likely to spit wealth out
  75. 02:53of reality as the output. The first and

  76. The aspirational hourly rate

  77. 02:56most practical way to prime your mind to
  78. 02:59get rich is to adopt an aspirational
  79. 03:02hourly rate. Now, this is a concept that
  80. 03:04I got from Naval Ravocant. So, I'll
  81. 03:06start with a quote from him which says,
  82. 03:08"Set and enforce an aspirational hourly
  83. 03:11rate. If fixing a problem will save less
  84. 03:14than your rate, ignore it. If
  85. 03:16outsourcing a task will cost less than
  86. 03:18your hourly rate, outsource it. My
  87. 03:20aspirational rate was $5,000 an hour.
  88. 03:23Now, this will honestly baffle most
  89. 03:25people, but I'm at a point, and I try to
  90. 03:27say this without sounding arrogant.
  91. 03:29That's kind of impossible online, but
  92. 03:31just know that I try to say this without
  93. 03:33sounding arrogant, but I've reached a
  94. 03:35point where someone could offer me
  95. 03:38$5,000 for an hour of my time and I
  96. 03:42wouldn't do it. Not because I couldn't
  97. 03:44use the money or that I'm better than
  98. 03:46the money, but because there is time,
  99. 03:49focus, and an obligation to deliver
  100. 03:52$5,000 worth of value in an hour on the
  101. 03:54line. And that's a big responsibility
  102. 03:57that pulls my time, focus, energy away
  103. 04:00from things that could potentially make
  104. 04:02me more than $5,000 an hour. Since I
  105. 04:05have the knowledge to do so, it would be
  106. 04:07stupid of me to do that instead of the
  107. 04:10thing that would not only have more
  108. 04:12impact on more people rather than just
  109. 04:15one person because I know exactly what
  110. 04:17to do that would make me that much or
  111. 04:20more in an hour. And that's the exact
  112. 04:22purpose of the aspirational hourly rate.
  113. 04:25It's not so you just magically make your
  114. 04:28aspirational hourly rate. This isn't
  115. 04:29about manifesting. This is about framing
  116. 04:31your mind to make the decisions that
  117. 04:34would lead to you acquiring the
  118. 04:36knowledge and taking the actions that
  119. 04:38would lead to you making that much an
  120. 04:40hour. It helps your mind notice and
  121. 04:43choose the opportunities that put you in
  122. 04:45a place of leverage. So let's imagine a
  123. 04:47pretty common scenario, right? You
  124. 04:49purchase an item, let's say off of
  125. 04:50Amazon for 50 bucks and it's defective
  126. 04:53or it's broken, are you going to return
  127. 04:55it? Are you going to take the 30 to 60
  128. 04:58minutes to return it? If so, you value
  129. 05:01your time at about $50 or less an hour?
  130. 05:04Because if you had the knowledge to make
  131. 05:07more money in that hour and the $50 that
  132. 05:10you lost wasn't a problem, then you
  133. 05:12would do so. And this is where people
  134. 05:14with a poor relationship with money just
  135. 05:16go insane. It's like, what? you're just
  136. 05:18going to waste $50. Like, you purchased
  137. 05:20this. Shouldn't you be mad at the seller
  138. 05:22for it? Shouldn't you take it back and
  139. 05:24make sure they send you the right item?
  140. 05:26Like, to go through all of that and
  141. 05:28waste that mental, energy, time, focus,
  142. 05:30attent. That's important. That is so
  143. 05:33much more valuable than a measly $50 and
  144. 05:36going through all of that just to get
  145. 05:38something just reorder the item and make
  146. 05:41more money than that. And I know I'm
  147. 05:42saying that in an arrogant way. I'm just
  148. 05:44trying to get the point across as to
  149. 05:46something that you could do that is a
  150. 05:49better decision. It's not a bad thing to
  151. 05:52not return an item that you spent money
  152. 05:55on just so you can get that money back
  153. 05:57or get the same item. Instead, it's an
  154. 06:00opportunity that shines a light on a
  155. 06:02more important fact that you aren't
  156. 06:05conscious of a problem that you can
  157. 06:07solve that would make you 50 to500 to
  158. 06:10$1,000 an hour. because if you were, it
  159. 06:13wouldn't make sense to return that item.
  160. 06:16Now, the thing here is that if your
  161. 06:17aspirational hourly rate doesn't seem
  162. 06:20impossibly high or delusionally high,
  163. 06:24you're doing it wrong. Why? Because
  164. 06:26delusional goals rewire your brain. Your
  165. 06:29brain is literally rewiring itself based
  166. 06:32on what you're thinking about and
  167. 06:33learning about right now. This video
  168. 06:35included. Every single thing that you
  169. 06:38allow into your mind shapes who you are
  170. 06:41and what you do. Now, when you imagine a
  171. 06:44better future, it activates the same
  172. 06:46brain networks as if you were
  173. 06:48experiencing that future. Every single
  174. 06:50moment of focused attention is a chance
  175. 06:52to rewire your brain in alignment with
  176. 06:54the person you want to become. That's
  177. 06:56one of many reasons that doomcrollers
  178. 06:59and people who don't actually pay
  179. 07:01attention to what they allow into their
  180. 07:03environment, both physical and digital,
  181. 07:06are digging their own grave one moment
  182. 07:08at a time. And beyond that, dopamine
  183. 07:10spikes more when you're in pursuit of a
  184. 07:13goal rather than when you achieve it.
  185. 07:15But that's exactly where it gets
  186. 07:17dangerous because you can visualize your
  187. 07:19goals all day. And that definitely helps
  188. 07:21with learning. But you have to match
  189. 07:24that visualization with a level of
  190. 07:27challenge in reality to act and solidify
  191. 07:30that knowledge. In other words, it's
  192. 07:32being in the game. You have to be in the
  193. 07:35game if you want your visualization or
  194. 07:37your imagination to take any kind of
  195. 07:40form in reality. Because if you don't,
  196. 07:42then that's where mental masturbation
  197. 07:44comes into play, which is the act of
  198. 07:46telling everyone about your goals, but
  199. 07:49never actually doing anything about it
  200. 07:50because you already got your dopamine
  201. 07:52hit from telling people about it. The
  202. 07:54golden zone for challenge, and remember,
  203. 07:56challenge in the real world is how you
  204. 07:58solidify this visualization or this
  205. 08:01aspirational hourly rate. And that
  206. 08:03challenge is at about 85% difficulty.
  207. 08:06So, not so high that you get anxious,
  208. 08:08but not so low that you get bored. This
  209. 08:11is good because the stress from the
  210. 08:12progressive overload of challenge
  211. 08:14releases neurepinephrine which enhances
  212. 08:16learning further and helps you adapt
  213. 08:18into that new state of mind. So the
  214. 08:20entire point is that you can't just
  215. 08:22think about your aspirational hourly
  216. 08:24rate and expect to make more money. You
  217. 08:26need to make difficult decisions with
  218. 08:30your rate in mind. So the best way to
  219. 08:32start is just by not returning the $50
  220. 08:35item. You'll be fine. Now the second

  221. Concentration of force is the only way to get rich

  222. 08:37point to help you with getting rich is
  223. 08:40that the concentration of force is the
  224. 08:43only way to get rich because if you want
  225. 08:46to get rich it needs to be your number
  226. 08:49one overwhelming desire. I remember
  227. 08:51watching some of Ali Abdoll's video on
  228. 08:53how to get rich. It's a video of his
  229. 08:55that did pretty good recently. And just
  230. 08:58in the first 5 minutes he tal he he felt
  231. 09:01bad kind of about saying it, but he's
  232. 09:03like honestly if you want to get rich
  233. 09:06then you kind of have to be obsessed
  234. 09:08with it. And when I first listened to
  235. 09:10that I was like eh that's not really
  236. 09:13true. And then I sat with it and thought
  237. 09:14about it more and I'm like actually
  238. 09:16that's exactly what I did. And
  239. 09:18personally a moment of vulnerability
  240. 09:20here is that I feel like I've been kind
  241. 09:23of hiding from that. I was kind of
  242. 09:25obsessed with making money for a long
  243. 09:27time. But I never really registered it
  244. 09:30as that because that just sounds so
  245. 09:32shallow. Oh, you have to become obsessed
  246. 09:34with getting rich. In reality, I was
  247. 09:37learning. I was growing. I was acquiring
  248. 09:38these skills. I was becoming a better
  249. 09:40person. That's what getting rich is for
  250. 09:43in a lot of cases is becoming a good and
  251. 09:47better person to the point where you
  252. 09:49have so much value that you can't stop
  253. 09:53attracting wealth. So for those who have
  254. 09:55this like hangup in their mind of like
  255. 09:57oh getting rich is bad right that's just
  256. 10:00the direct connection the direct
  257. 10:01association society has been telling me
  258. 10:03my parents have been telling me my
  259. 10:05pastor has been telling me everyone's
  260. 10:07been telling me oh you don't need to get
  261. 10:08rich you don't need to do that and
  262. 10:09somewhere in the back of your mind you
  263. 10:11realize and you know what what do you
  264. 10:14mean I'm learning these skills I'm doing
  265. 10:16great things I'm helping other people
  266. 10:18whether it be for business or really
  267. 10:20anything else I'm exchanging value But
  268. 10:24you, the one who is projecting these
  269. 10:26beliefs on me, have this notion that
  270. 10:28it's it's for some reason evil to engage
  271. 10:32in a mutually beneficial transaction.
  272. 10:35And I think that says a lot more about
  273. 10:37them than it does you. So we have to
  274. 10:40become obsessed with getting rich. We
  275. 10:42need concentration of force because you
  276. 10:46do this until the point of it becoming
  277. 10:48second nature to you. Think of a
  278. 10:50basketball player, right? They don't.
  279. 10:52They practice so much. They've been
  280. 10:54obsessed with basketball for so long
  281. 10:56that it doesn't take any mental energy
  282. 10:59or really any effort at all to shoot
  283. 11:02three-pointers over and over again. They
  284. 11:04have like a 99% success rate with
  285. 11:06hitting a three-pointer. And if getting
  286. 11:08rich is synonymous with becoming a
  287. 11:10professional basketball player, 50%
  288. 11:13making 50% of the shots isn't going to
  289. 11:16cut it, right? They're never going to
  290. 11:17make it into the NBA. You have to give
  291. 11:19it your all. you have to become obsessed
  292. 11:21with it so that you can make it pro. You
  293. 11:24can still make a lot of money. There's a
  294. 11:26spectrum here, right? There's super
  295. 11:28extraordinarily rich. And then there's
  296. 11:30welloff and both goals are fine. But if
  297. 11:33your goal is to get rich and that's a
  298. 11:35perfectly viable goal because it's not
  299. 11:37about the outcome, it's about the
  300. 11:38journey, it's about who you become in
  301. 11:40the process, then that's what you need
  302. 11:41to do. You need to be obsessed with it
  303. 11:43in order to reach the highest level.
  304. 11:45Now, the question here is like, okay,
  305. 11:47well, what about going out? What about
  306. 11:49quote unquote enjoying life? What about
  307. 11:51being social or just in general chasing
  308. 11:53the western notion of happiness, which
  309. 11:55is this just these endless dopamine hits
  310. 11:58that create euphoria? That's not what
  311. 12:00happiness is. Happiness is being fine.
  312. 12:03It's being calm. It's being in a good
  313. 12:05mood. It's not euphoria. Well, the thing
  314. 12:07is, you can obviously do those, but
  315. 12:10you're not going to get wealthy because
  316. 12:12it's not your priority. you are
  317. 12:14prioritizing those things over what it
  318. 12:17takes to reach the goal of getting
  319. 12:19wealthy. And that's okay. You don't need
  320. 12:22to have the goal of getting rich, but
  321. 12:24many people do. And that's valid. You
  322. 12:26don't need to project your goals and
  323. 12:28your beliefs on those people. Someone
  324. 12:30without that as their priority isn't
  325. 12:33going to get rich. That doesn't mean
  326. 12:35that you can't invest a bit of your
  327. 12:37money into the stock market over 40
  328. 12:39years and see some kind of wealth in
  329. 12:41your future. But the people with the
  330. 12:43goal of getting rich don't want it to
  331. 12:45come 40 years later because they realize
  332. 12:49that if they have the knowledge to do
  333. 12:50so, they can do it 30 years earlier than
  334. 12:53that. And the other thing here is that
  335. 12:55getting rich as a priority doesn't make
  336. 12:57your life worse like many people think.
  337. 12:59It actually makes your life infinitely
  338. 13:02better because just think about it. Does
  339. 13:03a professional athlete have a terrible
  340. 13:06life? Probably not. Because they're
  341. 13:08doing what they love most of the time.
  342. 13:10They're at this level of challenge.
  343. 13:12They're competing. They're playing a
  344. 13:14game. They're having fun. Their entire
  345. 13:17life revolves around their main
  346. 13:19priority. And that's not a bad thing.
  347. 13:21You don't see a bodybuilder hating their
  348. 13:23life for eating healthy food and being
  349. 13:25disciplined in the gym. That's what they
  350. 13:27want to do. That's what makes them
  351. 13:30happy. Just because they don't play
  352. 13:31video games all day or eat junk food or
  353. 13:34engage in the the finer things in life
  354. 13:37that you think are good doesn't mean
  355. 13:40they aren't happy. In fact, they are
  356. 13:41probably much happier than the average
  357. 13:43of the population because if you
  358. 13:45understand psychology and flow states
  359. 13:47and what singular focus the enjoyment
  360. 13:50that that brings into your life, then
  361. 13:51you understand what I'm saying here. The
  362. 13:53problem here is that most people don't
  363. 13:55apply that logic to business. They see a
  364. 13:58professional athlete and they think,
  365. 13:59"Oh, he's living his best life." But
  366. 14:02then they see a businessman who's
  367. 14:03dedicated his life to performing well as
  368. 14:07an athlete, as a intellectual athlete,
  369. 14:10you could say, in business. And you
  370. 14:11don't think that is in the same realm as
  371. 14:14being a professional athlete. Now,
  372. 14:16making getting rich your one true
  373. 14:18priority doesn't mean that you just stop
  374. 14:20doing other things in life. There's
  375. 14:22obviously things that you're going to
  376. 14:23have to do aside from trying to get
  377. 14:25rich, but that pain of not wanting to do
  378. 14:29those things are a way to orient your
  379. 14:32decision-m because the more you tolerate
  380. 14:35something in your life, the more okay
  381. 14:37you are with not changing it. So to make
  382. 14:40this tangible and to guide your
  383. 14:42decision-m more, I want you to create a
  384. 14:45list of things that you just don't do.
  385. 14:47And these are things that are literally
  386. 14:49just not worth your time based on your
  387. 14:51aspirational hourly rate. So this is
  388. 14:53coffee meetings or returning items or
  389. 14:56scrolling because you're bored or
  390. 14:58partying because you lack novelty and
  391. 15:00stimulation or even things like texting
  392. 15:02everyone back on time. Right? That is
  393. 15:04something that you do not need to do. We
  394. 15:07aren't wired to instantly respond to
  395. 15:09people and we definitely aren't wired
  396. 15:11for people to have access to our mind at
  397. 15:14any time that they see fit. put your
  398. 15:15phone on do not disturb and check it
  399. 15:18when you want to. So when these things
  400. 15:20come up, you just have to firmly state
  401. 15:22to yourself or the person involved, I
  402. 15:24don't do that. After that, you need to
  403. 15:26create a list of things that you will
  404. 15:29do. These are things that merge your
  405. 15:31real hourly rate with your aspirational
  406. 15:33hourly rate. So you study information
  407. 15:35that drastically increases your earning
  408. 15:37potential. You need to self-educate,
  409. 15:39practice skills that make you
  410. 15:40self-reliant. Start a business, join a
  411. 15:43startup, push for an executive role. You
  412. 15:45just learn and you build. And the more
  413. 15:47you think about your actions now, the
  414. 15:50more you will realize why you're not
  415. 15:52rich. And then you can change that. Now,

  416. Give yourself no other option but to succeed

  417. 15:54the last and final point for how to get
  418. 15:57rich is to give yourself no other option
  419. 15:59but to succeed. Because the best
  420. 16:02decisions I've made always involved
  421. 16:03using money as a forcing function to
  422. 16:06make more. In other words, I invested in
  423. 16:09things that I couldn't afford, and I
  424. 16:11learned to trust myself to make that
  425. 16:13money back much faster. I always talk
  426. 16:16about the story of how I moved into an
  427. 16:18apartment that was two times what I
  428. 16:20could afford to kind of go allin on my
  429. 16:23business and force myself to make more
  430. 16:25and be comfortable with that amount. But
  431. 16:28I actually did this one time before
  432. 16:30around when my business was first
  433. 16:32starting. And I wanted to invest in this
  434. 16:35email marketing software that was like
  435. 16:37$1,500 a year. And at the time, my
  436. 16:40business wasn't doing that good. Like
  437. 16:42that was big. That was a lot of money to
  438. 16:44me. And it deeply pained me to see
  439. 16:47$1,500 go out of my bank account to
  440. 16:50invest in something that I didn't even
  441. 16:52know if I could make work. But I trusted
  442. 16:54myself and I paid for the software. And
  443. 16:57what that did was I felt this pressure,
  444. 17:01this good pressure, this good stress to
  445. 17:03learn the skills and acquire the
  446. 17:04knowledge that would allow me to
  447. 17:06maximize the use of that software. So
  448. 17:08that meant learning things like landing
  449. 17:10page design, funnel design, copywriting,
  450. 17:13and those things paid off massively.
  451. 17:15Most normal people only see money as a
  452. 17:18way to survive or to buy nice things.
  453. 17:21They don't see it as a way to create
  454. 17:24pressure for you to become a better
  455. 17:26version of yourself. And when it came to
  456. 17:28moving into the apartments that I
  457. 17:30couldn't afford, on the surface, it
  458. 17:32looked like I was just another victim of
  459. 17:34lifestyle creep. Like people still, it's
  460. 17:37actually really annoying and you just
  461. 17:38have to brush it off. Like people see
  462. 17:41what you're doing, like friends and
  463. 17:42family, and they don't even have to say
  464. 17:44it for you to understand what they
  465. 17:47think. They're just like, "Oh, you're
  466. 17:48stupid. Why would you make that stupid
  467. 17:50decision?" What they don't understand is
  468. 17:52that most of the time when I was making
  469. 17:54those irresponsible purchases, I was
  470. 17:57imposing a deadline on a challenge that
  471. 17:59I knew I could take on that would force
  472. 18:02me to learn skills and acquire knowledge
  473. 18:05so that that purchase was no longer
  474. 18:08irrational or stupid. I was physically
  475. 18:11putting myself in the environment of my
  476. 18:14future self and allowing time to bridge
  477. 18:16the gap. So those three decisions, an
  478. 18:19aspirational hourly rate, concentration
  479. 18:22of force, and giving myself no other
  480. 18:24option but to succeed, created the
  481. 18:26perfect conditions to make more money
  482. 18:28than my younger self thought was
  483. 18:30possible. None of those involved
  484. 18:32obsessing over what skill should I learn
  485. 18:35or what business model should I choose.
  486. 18:37I didn't have time to think about that.
  487. 18:40I simply had to make the decisions that
  488. 18:42aligned with my hourly rate, forced me
  489. 18:44to focus on my goal, and put me in a
  490. 18:47situation where I had no other option
  491. 18:49but to make it work. With those three
  492. 18:51things, it's it becomes very obvious
  493. 18:54what skills you should learn, what
  494. 18:56business model you should try. It
  495. 18:57doesn't really matter for any of those
  496. 18:59because it's not like you're learning
  497. 19:01one skill. You don't take one class in
  498. 19:03college and expect yourself to be good.
  499. 19:05You continue learning skills for the
  500. 19:07entirety of your life. So, if you
  501. 19:09haven't started that snowball process of
  502. 19:12skill acquisition and knowledge
  503. 19:13acquisition, you aren't learning and
  504. 19:14building every day, then you're just
  505. 19:16delaying the amount of time it will take
  506. 19:18to get rich. Doesn't matter what
  507. 19:19business model you choose or which one
  508. 19:21you start with because they all work.
  509. 19:23The first one is just a prototype. You
  510. 19:25try it. It's probably going to fail, but
  511. 19:28then you correct yourself next time. You
  512. 19:30choose a different one and slowly you
  513. 19:32understand what you want to do and then
  514. 19:34you do it. Now, the thing here is that
  515. 19:36I'm not a proponent of getting rich
  516. 19:38quick, but you would be surprised how
  517. 19:40quick you can get rich with the
  518. 19:42conditions that you set that we went
  519. 19:44over in this video. In fact, I would
  520. 19:46argue that you can learn any skill in 2
  521. 19:49weeks. And that's what we're going to
  522. 19:51talk about in next week's video. So,
  523. 19:53subscribe for that. Like the video
  524. 19:54because you're already here and the
  525. 19:56button's right there. So, just click it.
  526. 19:58I would appreciate it. and join my
  527. 19:59Substack link in the description for
  528. 20:02weekly letters on human potential,
  529. 20:04business, future proofing yourself, so
  530. 20:06on and so forth. Thank you for watching
  531. 20:08this video. I'll see you in the next
  532. 20:09one. Bye.
What It Takes To Get Rich In Your 20s — Transcriptly