Tytan Smith admits he’s never heard of the “success sequence” but his lived experience confirms research findings that say achieving certain milestones can help ensure a happy and successful life.

The “success sequence” includes graduating from high school, full-time employment and marriage before having children.

Research by nonprofit and government agencies shows 97% of young people who follow this sequence do not experience poverty in adulthood.

So far, Smith has ticked off two of those boxes — high school graduation and full-time employment. As for the third, Smith and his wife, Lauren, married two years ago and plan at some point to start a family.

He and his wife are also homeowners after purchasing a town home in Davis County in 2021, a couple of weeks after his 19th birthday.

The Smiths met in high school and planned to marry after graduation but “she didn’t want to get married unless I bought her a house,” he said.

The summer before his senior year of high school, Smith wanted to find a summer job so he could make some money to buy things for his girlfriend and himself. While serving as the team manager for his school’s girls soccer team, which is how he met his now-wife, the mother of one team member encouraged him to apply for a job at her husband’s electrical company.

“I started there, right after high school got out. I never thought it was gonna be a full time thing,” he said.

The plan was to work through the summer and then “figure out what I wanted to do with my life after that.”

But after a couple of months of working with master electricians and others in the trade, “I was hooked. I loved it. I loved going out, working hard every day and coming home tired.”

He especially enjoyed the work environment, which enabled him to get to know his co-workers. They gave him career advice: “If you want to do this long term you need to get into electrical school because being an apprentice forever is not a career.”

Smith’s senior year of high school, he enrolled in Davis Technical College’s electrical apprenticeship program, attending to his high school classes during the day and taking technical college at night. He was also working.

Despite disruptions in school schedules due to the pandemic, Smith managed to complete high school and Davis Tech’s electrical apprenticeship. After that, he passed the residential journeyman electrician licensing exam on his first attempt.

Smith also was honored as Davis Tech’s 2023 Student of the Year and won multiple gold medals in SkillsUSA competitions and placed in the top 30 among some 35,000 electricians in the Ideal National Championship.

He just completed his first semester at Weber State University, where he is seeking an associate of applied science in construction management. Smith, 21, continues to work full time, mostly wiring houses. Earning his associate degree will enable him to sit for the residential master electrician exam sooner and he’ll be able to advance in his career faster.

Sutherland Institute, a Utah-based think tank, recently commissioned a public opinion poll on the “success sequence.” According to the poll results, most Utahns agree with the concepts.

The survey of 1,210 Utah likely voters conducted Oct. 12 through Nov. 10 by Y2 Analytics found the vast majority agree that high school graduation and full-time employment were important for individuals to secure a successful and happy life, 89% and 86%, respectively.

As for the third milestone, 68% of the Utahns polled agreed that postponing parenthood until after marriage is important for individuals to secure a successful and happy life.

The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

According to research by Mathematica Policy Research for the Department of Health and Human Services, groups of young adults with the lowest poverty rates are those who have completed some combination of high school, employment and marriage.

“The groups with higher poverty rates are those who have completed only a single milestone or have had children in combination with only one other milestone. These associations play a predominant role in explaining why poverty rates are lower for some groups than others and help expand available evidence on how the pathways young adults take in their transitions to adulthood relate to their economic outcomes in adulthood,” according to the findings.

The poll also asked if the economic outcomes of the “success sequence” should be taught in middle school and high school. Seventy-three percent of the respondents agreed it should be taught, according to the poll for Sutherland Institute, which seeks to “advance principled public policy that promotes the constitutional values of faith, family and freedom,” its website states.

Support dropped to 60% among people in single or cohabiting households, as well as 60% among Democrats. Among Republicans surveyed, 80% agreed with including the economic outcomes of the success sequence in school curriculum.

Among parents polled, 74% agreed with including the success sequence in school curriculum, which was just ahead of people with less than a college degree.

Meanwhile, there was little difference between whites’ and ethnic minorities’ support of teaching the curriculum, which polled at 74% and 73%, respectively, according to the poll results.

The biggest split was between people who self-identified as liberal and those who identified as conservative, with just 56% of liberals supporting the inclusion of the “success sequence” in school economics curriculum and 89% support among conservatives.

Smith said he wholeheartedly believes students should be taught this information in school.

“Yeah, I would agree with that 100%. I had never heard of the success sequence before or have seen a title like that but those are definitely three things that I, thankfully, was taught as a kid and I’ve been able to learn for myself,” he said.

He admits that high school graduation wasn’t a sure thing after he entered technical college classes because he became increasingly convinced that he wanted to become an electrician, plus he was working making good money.

But he doubled down and accomplished both. Although he often joked about dropping out, Smith said he fully intended to earn his diploma.

“I just thought that’s what we were supposed to do so that’s what I did,” he said.