That doing something you're good at and love is more important than doing something you're good at, not really passionate about, but makes a crap ton of money.

When I was younger, money is all I cared about (I come from fairly modest means). But when my friends and I started making decent money we started to think, what's next? Why are we doing what we're doing right now...

And ditto on the connections part (not just for space you're interested in, but also all across everywhere/anywhere. You never know when those connections will come in handy, especially if you're in the startup space.)