Background, Research, and Scope of 30 by 30

About Me

This website and its contents were created by Parker Schaffel. You can read more about me on my website: www.parkerschaffel.com. Everything you read is my intellectual property and is not a product of AI/LLMs.

Background

In 2018, I published the book Get After It: Seven Inspirational Stories to Find Your Inner Strength When It Matters Most. The book comprised seven of the most important stories of my life, and each story ended with several lessons that readers could apply to their own lives.

While feedback on the book was generally positive and readers enjoyed the stories, most readers felt the powerful parts of the book were the lessons at the end of each chapter. They felt they needed to be drawn out and highlighted more than they were.

This new work, 30 by 30: Thirty Questions Every Twenty-Something Needs to Answer by 30 Years, aims to address that. Some of the questions are inspired by the lessons contained in Get After It, others come from interviews and research.

Research

Before I began this project, I read The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter And How to Make The Most of Them Now, by Meg Jay, Ph.D. The books thesis is that what you do in your twenties sets you up for the rest of your life. The amount of money you make in your twenties determines future salaries, the relationships you develop form your long-term partnerships, etc. I think the book did a great job on explaining why your twenties is so important, but I think it lacked the very specific things that twenty-somethings need to think about. It also focused on relationships and touched on spirituality.

In early 2022, I began interviewing twenty-somethings and young thirty-somethings asking them about the ideas I had for a book, one that would give very specific questions for them to answer. Some of the questions would be answered for them because research indicated it was the best way to do something. Most questions, however, would be things for them to figure out on their own. Through several hundred interviews, the questions were formed, edited, reformed, changed, and refined. I asked what questions they had and the answers they wanted to know. It would be quite ignorant and arrogant of me to think that I knew all the questions and answers that twenty-somethings should know. Therefore, I have done my own share of the research. Their names, where they have let me, are shared below.

I’ve also looked into other psychologists’ work, read other books on the decade in life, and researched various studies that have focused on people in their twenties. The questions herein and a culmination of everything.

Scope

Powerful questions – These 30 questions walk the fine line between being too lofty (what is my purpose in life) and surface-level (how do I grow my brand through social media posts). The questions identify the things that matter most, the stuff that will actually help you learn more about yourself and, I think, put you in a position to be successful in life. It’s also not a Buzzfeed listicle. You won’t learn the 454 ways to be successful or the 389 things to buy on Amazon to increase your productivity. The questions are written in a professional, yet engaging manner because that’s who I think will read (and benefit from) them.

It’s not all about me - Some authors focus their work too much on themselves, especially of these type of advice-style books. I’m guilty of doing this in my first book, and I learned my lesson. I’m not famous. Nobody cares about my personal story or journey. I’m just a guy who has done some cool stuff in life, spent a lot of time journaling and writing about it (and in therapy), and thought I had some interesting perspectives to share. Some of the questions involve my personal experiences, but most do not.

Spirituality plays no part - This book makes no references to any god or religion. I’m not a theologian and it’s not my place to opine on things with which I do not have experience . Other books of a similar topic offer things like this.

Contributors

A special thanks to everyone who spoke with me about their experiences and thoughts. This list is not inclusive, as some interviewees declined to have their names published.

Abby Schaffel, Madison Harding, Kate Minutillo, Liza Zhytkova, Greg Siegman Forbes, Sam Black, Logan Wild, Meghan McGonagle, Lia Collen, Hannah Rayhill, John Neyer, Jason Kazi, Zach Schultz, Garrett Schaffel, Ilan Dubler-Furman, Indigo Pavlov, Kiki Marlam, Zainab Syed, Emily Henson, Abbey Buchholz, Cara Satullo, Rene Gonzales, Sasha Blachman, Abby Schaffel, Samantha Dean, Emma Coghlan-Schaffel, Diane Lutz…