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1. You Do Not Know What Your Future Self Will Want – But She Will Want Resources and Options

Society doesn't encourage women to look forward to getting older. But when you get there, you'll still feel like yourself – and how awesome your life will be depends greatly on what you do now. It's hard to know exactly what you'll want when you're 35 or 55 or 105. A desire to travel in your twenties may turn into a deep lust for a townhouse in a good neighborhood – or maybe you'll sell everything and spend a decade building schools or clinics in a needy community. You can't know exactly what your future self will want, but she will want money in the bank, a network of personal and business connections to help her out, a professional reputation to bank on, and the freedom to make choices. She wants resources and options. Set her up!If you have a hard time standing up for yourself, or if you feel "greedy" asking for a raise or leaving a just-okay job to look for a better one, don't just think about you – think about her. Your future self is an amazing person and she needs your help now.

2. Cultivate Multiple Income Streams

When you invest, you don't put all your money in one place. You also don't want all your money coming from one place. That's risky, and makes you dependent. Being dependent makes you a weak negotiator. Corporations depend on that.You want multiple income streams. That could be a side gig, but make sure you're not just giving yourself a low-paying part-time job – can you start a business on the side that's scalable, that can provide passive income, or that can grow to be a large enterprise? Can your expertise be turned into products, such as ebooks or video courses? Can you be a consultant? Think about the vendors your employer regularly uses – could you start a firm that would replace one of them? Starting a side business in a different industry from your main gig means that you may be able to receive support from your coworkers – a lot of people would hire their company's graphic designer as a wedding photographer, for instance.If you're just starting out, it's okay to focus on getting a job and developing one major income stream. But once that's in place, don't get soft. You need multiple income streams.

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3. Think of Work-life Balance Over the Course of Your Entire Life

No one wants a boss who steals all your free time, but that doesn't mean you should aim to leave every day at 5 and get your fill of yoga and relaxing hobbies.If you live in a brutal capitalist system – and in the U.S., you do – your twenties is no time to think about work-life balance. Think of "balance" over the course of your entire life. If there's ever going to be a time you work less or not at all (caring for children or aging parents, for instance), maybe you should work more now, and set your future self up with options and resources. Working more now doesn't mean giving all your free time to a boss. Only do that if it will get you raises and promotions. Your other options include aggressive networking, pursuing mentors and sponsors, gaining additional education and training, or starting a side hustle or your own company.

4. Hard Skills and Hard Numbers: No One Can Take Them From You

It's much easier to break in to an industry if you have skills that can be quantified, certified, or otherwise counted and measured. There are too many young women flooding the freelance writing and English-degree-but-no-business-skills markets. Professions that are both dominated by women and involve fuzzy, nonquantifiable skills are likely to pay poorly.Quantifiable, hard skills are doubly important if you are likely to be discriminated against in the job market for any reason, or if you suspect you might just not have one of those "likable" personalities. No one can deny your Github contributions or your sales figures. That won't solve every problem, but it's a good start.And if you have problems with confidence, you need a hard skill that doesn't change with your feelings or circumstances. It's not too late for a coding bootcamp, a career change, or a skill boost. 

5. Your “Aggressive” is Probably Their “Assertive”

Articles for women always talk about being "assertive." This is a weak word that offends no one. It's not good enough. "Assertive" will keep you a basically obedient mid-level employee forever. If you've been socialized to be pleasant and accommodating, what you think of as being "assertive" probably doesn't even register. Even what many women think of as "aggressive" is only barely assertive.If your social circle is made up of excellent people who care a lot about being respectful to others, that's great – for your friendships. But it leaves you unprepared to stand up for yourself (and others) in a work world that doesn't play by those rules. You need to recalibrate.Spend some time around the most entitled, privileged, hard-charging business bros you can get access to, even if you hate them. Attend venture capital information nights or investment club meetings. Learn from them. Don't be afraid to get aggressive.

6. The Best Opportunities are Not Advertised

If someone has already advertised it on a job board or turned it into a contest, it's no longer a good opportunity. The balance of power is against you.Amazingly, there is much less competition at the very top of most things than in the middle. A million people want an unpaid internship at a fashion magazine. No one but you is going to track down a startup founder and convince him over coffee that you know how to get his product in the press.You must pitch. Make your own opportunities. Make mutually beneficial offers to strangers, including people way above you. Let rejection roll off; you're on to the next pitch. The best job will be one created for you. The best client will be one who feels you understand them perfectly – you just swooped in out of nowhere and solved their problem. There is no Prince Charming of work. Do not wait to be picked.

7. Entrepreneurship is Part of the Modern Career Lifespan 

If you're going to work for 40+ years, you will have to be an entrepreneur at some point, even if you don't want to now. There will come a time that you can't work full-time and the part-time jobs are not good, or a time that your company treats you so badly you want to quit and go crush them, or just a time that you feel very confident and have a great idea, and it seems silly and stale and illogical to keep making money for someone else. It'll happen before you're 65. It will. Even if you're happy now being an employee, having an entrepreneurial plan in your back pocket makes you ballsier when you negotiate. You should go into a salary negotiation knowing that, if it doesn't go the way you want, you're ready to go out into the marketplace and start your own damn company. Entrepreneurship is not optional. If you're employed, go ahead and ease into it. Read books. Attend pitch nights and startup events. Save those great ideas. Never get too comfortable. Everything changes; you need to be ready to get up and start something.

8. Always Be Willing to Walk Away

The way to win at negotiating isn't to use "power poses" or memorize some magic words. It's to be very, very valuable in the marketplace – and for everyone to know it. And for you and the boss to work together, as peers, to find a mutually agreeable arrangement. A lot of negotiating advice begins with the idea that you are an employee who really wants a job, or is already in a job. At that point, you have no chips. You want that entrepreneurial plan in your back pocket. You want a reputation as a game-changer or intellectual contributor in the field. Your boss should come in motivated to keep you at any cost. That means you've been networking, and contributing to your field outside of your job, even when things are good. Especially when they're good.It's also not a coincidence that the number one skill, in general, for thriving in life is the ability to emotionally break away from toxic people and dead-end situations. There are controlling families, and partners, and companies, who want to exploit your capacity for emotional attachment in order to hold you back. Don't let them.

9. Money is Not Evil

Money is a tool. It does not inherently corrupt. Having it does not need to change your identity. A lot of people who care about social justice have mixed feelings about this. Try this: Who do you admire? Mindy Kaling, Toni Morrison, Jon Stewart, and Amy Poehler are each worth over $15 million. And everyone you admire who doesn't have a lot of money is someone whose projects could use money from people like you. Pick an awesome famous rich person as a money role model. Then unabashedly pitch yourself for projects, ask for raises, and look for ways to generate income. Aim for the top prize. Be persistent. Keep your role model in mind. Money is not evil. It just magnifies the personality of whoever holds it. And you have a pretty great personality.

10. Being Good is Not the Same as Being Nice

The best way to make the world better is not to be nice to everyone who happens to be around you right now. Some of those people are assholes. Some of those people are fine, but helping them will not change the world. Sometimes, you must do better than all of those people to get the best job, the most money, the most influence, the most resources – and become someone who actually has enough power to create real change. Doing good often requires the opposite of being nice – it requires scaring the shit out of people who are making the world worse. The world needs you to be able to be more intimidating.Do you feel bad that you don't give to charity? Well, how much money do you have? Would it be better to give $20 now, or to buckle down and become a multimillionaire (or just a $200,000-a-year-aire) who swoops in and solves problems? A lot of problems – helping a friend with cancer, paying bail for someone wrongfully imprisoned, helping a kid with their education – are greatly improved with a couple thousand bucks. It's okay to put off philanthropy while you gain money and influence. Go do that. You don't have to be nice. Be good. 

This slide presentation was written by GetBullish founder Jennifer Dziura.

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