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Why you will fail to have a great career | Larry Smith | TEDxUW - YouTube
Channel: TEDx Talks
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Transcriber: Camille Mart铆nez
Reviewer: Lalla Khadija Tigha
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Thank you.
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I want to discuss with you this afternoon
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why you're going to fail
to have a great career.
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(Laughter)
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I'm an economist.
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I do dismal.
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End of the day, it's ready
for dismal remarks.
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I only want to talk to those of you
who want a great career.
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I know some of you have already decided
you want a good career.
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You're going to fail, too.
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(Laughter)
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Because -- goodness,
you're all cheery about failing.
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(Laughter)
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Canadian group, undoubtedly.
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(Laughter)
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Those trying to have good careers
are going to fail,
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because, really, good jobs
are now disappearing.
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There are great jobs and great careers,
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and then there are the high-workload,
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high-stress, bloodsucking,
soul-destroying kinds of jobs,
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and practically nothing in-between.
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So people looking for good jobs
are going to fail.
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I want to talk about those
looking for great jobs, great careers,
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and why you're going to fail.
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First reason is that no matter
how many times people tell you,
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"If you want a great career,
you have to pursue your passion,
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you have to pursue your dreams,
you have to pursue
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the greatest fascination in your life,"
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you hear it again and again,
and then you decide not to do it.
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It doesn't matter
how many times you download
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Steven J.'s Stanford commencement address,
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you still look at it
and decide not to do it.
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I'm not quite sure
why you decide not to do it.
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You're too lazy to do it. It's too hard.
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You're afraid if you look
for your passion and don't find it,
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you'll feel like you're an idiot,
so then you make excuses
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about why you're not going
to look for your passion.
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They are excuses, ladies and gentlemen.
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We're going to go through
a whole long list --
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your creativity in thinking of excuses
not to do what you really need to do
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if you want to have a great career.
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So, for example,
one of your great excuses is:
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(Sigh)
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"Well, great careers are
really and truly, for most people,
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just a matter of luck.
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So I'm going to stand around,
I'm going to try to be lucky,
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and if I'm lucky,
I'll have a great career.
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If not, I'll have a good career."
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But a good career is an impossibility,
so that's not going to work.
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Then, your other excuse is,
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"Yes, there are special people
who pursue their passions,
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but they are geniuses.
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They are Steven J.
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I'm not a genius.
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When I was five, I thought I was a genius,
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but my professors have beaten that idea
out of my head long since."
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(Laughter)
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"And now I know
I am completely competent."
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Now, you see, if this was 1950,
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being completely competent --
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that would have given you a great career.
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But guess what?
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This is almost 2012,
and saying to the world,
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"I am totally, completely competent,"
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is damning yourself
with the faintest of praise.
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And then, of course, another excuse:
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"Well, I would do this,
I would do this, but, but --
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well, after all, I'm not weird.
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Everybody knows that people
who pursue their passions
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are somewhat obsessive.
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A little strange.
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Hmm? Hmm? OK?
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You know, a fine line
between madness and genius.
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"I'm not weird. I've read
Steven J.'s biography.
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Oh my goodness --
I'm not that person. I am nice.
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I am normal.
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I'm a nice, normal person,
and nice, normal people --
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don't have passion."
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(Laughter)
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"Ah, but I still want a great career.
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I'm not prepared to pursue my passion,
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so I know what I'm going to do,
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because I have a solution.
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I have a strategy.
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It's the one Mommy
and Daddy told me about.
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Mommy and Daddy told me
that if I worked hard,
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I'd have a good career.
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So, if you work hard
and have a good career,
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if you work really, really, really hard,
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you'll have a great career.
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Doesn't that, like,
mathematically make sense?"
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Hmm. Not.
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But you've managed
to talk yourself into that.
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You know what? Here's a little secret:
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You want to work? You want to work
really, really, really hard?
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You know what? You'll succeed.
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The world will give you the opportunity
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to work really, really,
really, really hard.
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But, are you so sure
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that that's going to give you
a great career,
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when all the evidence is to the contrary?
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So let's deal with those of you
who are trying to find your passion.
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You actually understand
that you really had better do it,
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never mind the excuses.
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You're trying to find your passion --
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(Sigh)
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and you're so happy.
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You found something you're interested in.
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"I have an interest! I have an interest!"
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You tell me.
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You say, "I have an interest!"
I say, "That's wonderful!
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And what are you trying to tell me?"
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"Well, I have an interest."
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I say, "Do you have passion?"
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"I have an interest," you say.
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"Your interest is compared to what?"
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"Well, I'm interested in this."
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"And what about the rest
of humanity's activities?"
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"I'm not interested in them."
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"You've looked at them all, have you?"
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"No. Not exactly."
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Passion is your greatest love.
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Passion is the thing
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that will help you create
the highest expression of your talent.
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Passion, interest --
it's not the same thing.
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Are you really going to go
to your sweetie and say,
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"Marry me! You're interesting."
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(Laughter)
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Won't happen.
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Won't happen, and you will die alone.
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(Laughter)
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What you want,
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what you want, what you want,
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is passion.
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It is beyond interest.
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You need 20 interests,
and then one of them,
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one of them might grab you,
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one of them might engage you
more than anything else,
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and then you may have found
your greatest love,
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in comparison to all the other things
that interest you,
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and that's what passion is.
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I have a friend, proposed to his sweetie.
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He was an economically rational person.
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He said to his sweetie, "Let us marry.
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Let us merge our interests."
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(Laughter)
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Yes, he did.
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"I love you truly," he said.
"I love you deeply.
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I love you more than any other woman
I've ever encountered.
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I love you more than Mary,
Jane, Susie, Penelope,
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Ingrid, Gertrude, Gretel --
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I was on a German exchange program then.
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I love you more than --"
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All right.
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She left the room
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halfway through his enumeration
of his love for her.
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After he got over his surprise
at being, you know, turned down,
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he concluded he'd had a narrow escape
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from marrying an irrational person.
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Although, he did make a note to himself
that the next time he proposed,
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it was perhaps not necessary
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to enumerate all of the women
he had auditioned for the part.
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(Laughter)
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But the point stands.
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You must look for alternatives
so that you find your destiny,
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or are you afraid of the word "destiny"?
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Does the word "destiny" scare you?
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That's what we're talking about.
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And if you don't find
the highest expression of your talent,
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if you settle for "interesting,"
what the hell ever that means,
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do you know what will happen
at the end of your long life?
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Your friends and family will be
gathered in the cemetery,
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and there beside your gravesite
will be a tombstone,
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and inscribed on that tombstone
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it will say, "Here lies
a distinguished engineer,
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who invented Velcro."
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But what that tombstone should have said,
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in an alternative lifetime,
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what it should have said if it was
your highest expression of talent,
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was, "Here lies the last
Nobel Laureate in Physics,
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who formulated
the Grand Unified Field Theory
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and demonstrated
the practicality of warp drive."
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(Laughter)
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Velcro, indeed!
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(Laughter)
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One was a great career.
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One was a missed opportunity.
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But then, there are some of you who,
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in spite of all these
excuses, you will find,
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you will find your passion.
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And you'll still fail.
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You're going to fail, because --
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because you're not going to do it,
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because you will have
invented a new excuse,
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any excuse to fail to take action,
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and this excuse, I've heard so many times:
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"Yes, I would pursue a great career,
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but, I value human relationships --
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(Laughter)
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more than accomplishment.
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I want to be a great friend.
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I want to be a great spouse.
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I want to be a great parent,
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and I will not sacrifice them
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on the altar of great accomplishment."
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(Laughter)
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What do you want me to say?
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Now, do you really want
me to say now, tell you,
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"Really, I swear I don't kick children."
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(Laughter)
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Look at the worldview
you've given yourself.
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You're a hero no matter what.
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And I, by suggesting ever so delicately
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that you might want a great career,
must hate children.
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I don't hate children. I don't kick them.
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Yes, there was a little kid
wandering through this building
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when I came here, and no,
I didn't kick him.
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(Laughter)
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Course, I had to tell him
the building was for adults only,
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and to get out.
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He mumbled something about his mother,
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and I told him she'd probably
find him outside anyway.
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Last time I saw him,
he was on the stairs crying.
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(Laughter)
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What a wimp.
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(Laughter)
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But what do you mean?
That's what you expect me to say.
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Do you really think it's appropriate
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that you should actually take
children and use them as a shield?
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You know what will happen someday,
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you ideal parent, you?
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The kid will come to you someday and say,
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"I know what I want to be.
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I know what I'm going to do with my life."
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You are so happy.
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It's the conversation
a parent wants to hear,
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because your kid's good in math,
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and you know you're going to like
what comes next.
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Says your kid,
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"I have decided I want to be a magician.
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I want to perform
magic tricks on the stage."
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(Laughter)
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And what do you say?
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You say, you say,
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"That's risky, kid.
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Might fail, kid. Don't make
a lot of money at that, kid.
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I don't know, kid, you should
think about that again, kid.
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You're so good at math, why don't you --"
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The kid interrupts you and says,
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"But it is my dream.
It is my dream to do this."
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And what are you going to say?
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You know what you're going to say?
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"Look kid. I had a dream once, too, but --
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But --"
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So how are you going to finish
the sentence with your "but"?
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"But. I had a dream too, once,
kid, but I was afraid to pursue it."
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Or are you going to tell him this:
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"I had a dream once, kid.
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But then, you were born."
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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Do you really want to use your family,
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do you really ever want to look
at your spouse and your kid,
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and see your jailers?
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There was something
you could have said to your kid,
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when he or she said, "I have a dream."
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You could have said --
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looked the kid in the face and said,
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"Go for it, kid!
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Just like I did."
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But you won't be able to say that,
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because you didn't.
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So you can't.
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(Laughter)
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And so the sins of the parents
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are visited on the poor children.
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Why will you seek refuge
in human relationships
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as your excuse not to find
and pursue your passion?
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You know why.
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In your heart of hearts, you know why,
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and I'm being deadly serious.
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You know why you would get
all warm and fuzzy
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and wrap yourself
up in human relationships.
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It is because you are --
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you know what you are.
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You're afraid to pursue your passion.
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You're afraid to look ridiculous.
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You're afraid to try.
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You're afraid you may fail.
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Great friend, great spouse,
great parent, great career.
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Is that not a package?
Is that not who you are?
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How can you be one without the other?
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But you're afraid.
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And that's why you're not
going to have a great career.
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Unless --
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"unless," that most evocative
of all English words --
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"unless."
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But the "unless" word is also attached
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to that other, most terrifying phrase,
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"If only I had ..."
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"If only I had ..."
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If you ever have that thought
ricocheting in your brain,
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it will hurt a lot.
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So, those are the many reasons
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why you are going to fail
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to have a great career.
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Unless --
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Unless.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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