Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career

In this witty and sharp speeches Larry Smith doesn't hold back, calling to challenge the absurd excuses people invent when they fail to follow their Hobbies.





0:12

I want to discuss today why you can't have a great career. (Laughter)

0:21

I'm an economist. I aim the gloom. That all said, all ready for a depressing lecture. I only want to talk with those of you who want a great career. I know that some have already decided that you want a good career. You also fail. (Laughter) Because... my God, it's laughter through tears. The canadian group, undoubtedly. (Laughter) Trying to have good careers are going to fail, because, in fact, good jobs are now disappearing. There are great jobs and great careers, and still is, with terrible loads, nervotrepka, krivopishina, exhausting soul work, and almost nothing in between.

https://embed.ted.com/talks/lang/ru/larry_smith_why_you_will_fail_to_have_a_great_career

1:07

So people looking for good fun. I'm going to talk about those looking for great jobs, great careers, and why you do not come out. The first reason is that no matter how often you repeat: "If you want a great career, you have to follow your passion, you should pursue your dreams, you must pursue the greatest fascination in your life". You hear it again and again, and then decide not to do so. And no matter how many times you download Steven J.'s Stanford commencement address, you still look at it and decide not to do.

1:46

I'm not quite sure why you decide not to do so. You are too lazy. It's too hard.Fearing that sought for his passion and not finding it, you'll feel like an idiot, you're making excuses for why you're not going to find yourself a hobby. They are excuses, ladies and gentlemen. Let's go over the list of creative excuses not to do something that you really need if you want to have a great career.

2:09

For example, one of your outstanding excuses: "Well, great careers for the most part, in fact and in truth, it's just a matter of luck, so I'll be playing fool, I will try to be lucky, and if you're lucky, fall out and I have a great career. And no, it's good." But a good career is impossible, so nothing happens.

2:33

Another excuse: "Yes, there are special people who pursue their passions but they are geniuses. They are Steve jobs. I'm not a genius. It is in five years, I thought I was a genius, but my teacher has already beaten that idea out of my head." (Laughter) Mm? "And now I know I am completely competent."Now, see if this was 1950, being completely competent would ensure you a great career.But you know what? This is almost 2012, and saying to the world "I am entirely competent," is damning yourself with the faintest of praise.

3:16

And then, of course, another excuse: "Well, I'll do it, I'll do it, but but come on, after all, I'm not crazy. Everyone knows that people who pursue their passions are somewhat obsessive. A little weird? Mm? Mm? So? The very fine line between madness and genius. I'm not crazy. I read the Steve jobs biography. Well, nothing well imagine. I wasn't like that. I decent.I'm normal. I'm a nice, normal person, and nice, normal people do not have passion. Ah. But I still want to have a great career. I'm not ready to follow the dream, so I know what I'll do. I have a solution, I have a strategy. Well, that, that me mommy and daddy told me. Mommy and daddy said that if I worked hard, I'd have a good career. So, if you work hard and have a good career, if you work really, really, really hard, you'll have a great career. Well, like, mathematically make sense?"Hmm... No. (Laughter) But you managed yourself to get this.

4:24

You know what? Here's a little secret. You want to work? You want to work really, really, really hard? You know what? You will succeed. The world will give you the opportunity to work very, very, very, very hard, but if you are sure that happens you have a great career when all evidence to the contrary?

4:45

Let's deal with those of you who are trying to find your passion. Do you understand that it would be better to do it, not paying attention to excuses. You are trying to find your passion and you're so happy. You found something that you are interested in.

5:03

I'm interested! I'm interested! You say, "I wonder!" I said, "That's wonderful! And what, what do you want me to say? What are you -- " "Well, I wonder." I said, "you Have a crush?""I have an interest," you say. Compared your interest? "Well, I'm interested". What about other classes of mankind? "To me they are not interesting." You have all looked, right?"No. Not at all."

5:31

Passion is your greatest love. Passion is something that will help you create the highest expression of your talent. Hobby, interest is not the same thing. You really are going to go to your sweetie and say, "marry me! You're interesting." (Laughter) will Not work. It will not work, and you will die alone. (Laughter)

5:58

What you want, what you want, what you want is a hobby. It is beyond interest. You need 20 interests and then one of them, one of them might grab you, one of them might pull you more of whatever, and then maybe you would have found your greatest love in comparison to everything else that interested you; but this is passion.





6:21

I have a friend who made the proposal to his beloved. It was an economically rational person. He said to his sweetie: "let's get married. Let us merge our interests."

6:34

(Laughter)

6:36

Just like that. "I really love you," he said. "I love you deeply. I love tabable all other women I ever met. I love you more than Mary, Jane, Susie, Penelope, Ingrid, Gertrude, Gretel — I was in Germany on an exchange program". (Laughter)"I love you more than..." Great! She left the room halfway through his enumeration of his love for her. Recovered from his stupor, once rejected, he concluded that narrowly escaped marrying an irrational person, though, and decided to myself that next time will be to propose, might not be to list all the women who auditioned for the role. (Laughter)

7:30

But the point stands. You have to look at alternatives to find your destiny, or are you afraid of the word "destiny"? Give him the word "destiny"? Here we're talking about, and if you don't find the higher manifestations of his talent, if you settle for just "interesting" — I don't care what it is, you know, what happens at the end of your long life? Your friends and family will gather at the cemetery, and there beside your grave is a tombstone on which is engraved: "Here lies a distinguished engineer who invented Velcro." But what would be this gravestone in the alternate life. Here's what could be on it, if your talent is tremendous: "Here lies the last Nobel laureate in physics, who formulated the Great a General Field Theory and demonstrated the practicality of the engine of curved space".

8:32

(Laughter) Velcro, me too. (Laughter)

8:38

One was a great career. One was a missed opportunity. But those of you who, in spite of all these excuses, find your passion, you still will not work.

8:59

You fail because you are not going to do that, because you will come up with a new excuse; a justification for inaction, and this excuse I have heard so often. "Yes, I would pursue a great career, but I value human relationships more than accomplishments. I want to be a great friend, I want to be a wonderful family man, want to be a great parent and I will not sacrifice them on the altar of great accomplishment."

9:46(Laughter)

9:48

What do you want me to say? What do you really want me to say now? "Honestly, I swear I do not beat children." (Laughter) Hmm? Take a look at the worldview you yourself made. You are a hero without obstacles, and I, by suggesting ever so delicately that you might want a great career, must hate children. I don't hate children. I do not beat them. Yes, there was a toddler wandering around the building when I came. No, I didn't hit him.

10:19

Of course, I had to tell him that the building is adult only, and he walked out. He mumbled something about his mom, and I told him that she probably will find it

outside.Last time I saw him, he was on the stairs crying. Here are a wimp. (Laughter)

10:35

What do you want? You expect me to say? Do you think, do you really think it's appropriate that you should actually take children and use them as a shield? You know what's going to happen someday, you ideal parent, you ? Will come to you kid one day and say, "I know what I want to be. I know I'm going to do in life." You are so happy. You want to hear it from a child, because he is strong in math, and you know what you like. Your kid says: "I decided I wanted to become a magician. I want to perform magic tricks on stage." (Laughter)

11:19

What do you say? You say, "Mmm... baby, it's risky. Can't fail, kid. This will not earn much, baby. You know, I don't know, kid, you have yet to think about it, baby, you're so good at math, why would you..."

11:35

And the kid interrupts you and says: "But this is my dream. I dream to be." And what do you say? You know, what do you say? "Listen, kid. I also had a dream once, but... but..." And how are you going to finish the sentence with your "but"? "... But. I also had a dream once, kid, but I was afraid to pursue it." Or, are you so tell him? "I had a dream once, kid. But then you were born." (Laughter)

12:10

(Laughter) (Applause)

12:12

So you really want to use your family? Do you really want to always look at your spouse and your kid and see your jailers? It was something that you could say to your kid when he or she said, "I Have a dream". You could say, to face the kid and say, "Go for it, baby, as you did me." But you can't say you didn't. You can't. (Laughter)

12:55

And so the sins of the parents pass to the children of the poor. Why do you seek refuge in human relationships, if you decide not to search and not to follow your passion? You know why. Deep down you know why, and I'm extremely serious. Do you know why you will preetesh, will soften and will come in human relations. This is because you... You know who you are.

13:33

You are afraid to follow their passion. You're afraid to look ridiculous. You are afraid to try. You are afraid of possible failure. Great friend, great spouse, great parent, great career. Is that not a package? You do not it? How can you be one without the other? But you are afraid.

14:03

Therefore, it will not work you have a great career, unless... "Unless" — the most irritating both of all words. If you don't. But the words "unless" attached to that other, most terrifying phrase, "if only I had..." "if only I had..." If ever that thought will ricochet in your brain, Oh it hurts.

14:44

Here are the reasons why you will fail to have a great career, unless...

14:56

if not...

15:00

Thank you. (Applause).

 

P. S. And remember, only by changing their consumption — together we change the world! ©

Source: www.ted.com/talks/larry_smith_why_you_will_fail_to_have_a_great_career/transcript?language=ru