[codingdave]

> I'm also cautiously thinking how your earning potential lowers as you age.

Be wary of that thinking -- It is not your earning potential that wanes, but your chance of a huge startup exit. And aging doesn't mean you cannot try for those opportunities, it means older people have also seen that a good salary, with good savings, and decades of compound interest will still make you a multi-millionaire. But the thought of 20, 30, 40 years of watching interest slowly grow sounds horrible in your twenties. Yet once you've lived 20-30 of those years, it sounds like common sense. Many of us older folk choose to "only" be wealthy, not stinkin' rich, because we feel it is a better life than giving up your twenties chasing unicorns.

> how to suceed at your life.

Find something to do for work that pays decently and doesn't give you mental health problems. Do it well. Do it 40ish hours a week. And then put it away and go live "your life". Make friends/family. Enjoy hobbies. Go enjoy this world, and whatever interests you have in it. Nobody sits on their deathbed wishing they had worked more.