I came across this Ted Talk by Larry Smith about career, the importance of failure and how indispensable it becomes as you succeed more in life. I have watched a plenty of videos, loved a lot of them but this one, made me trip and fall all over, there is a list of excerpts some of which I have paraphrased, but I suggest you watch the first three mins for me, if you are not impressed, you can shout at me all you want, I promise I am not going to spam the comment ;).
Here is a list of reasons we all give for not going after what we want and how we rationalize them…
Geniuses
– People who have a great career are geniuses, they are special, they have something in them which I don’t! We all have those geniuses in us. At a point in this video, Larry says – “When I was 5, I thought I was a genius, but my professors have beaten that idea out of me long since ;)”. I guess we all let our lives be decided by so many external factors that we forget the most important one in them, US.
But I am not weird!
Every great achiever in the world is weird, they have done some things which a normal person wouldn’t do. I am not a different person like that! I am a very simple, very straightforward person, I can’t have something great unless I am weird! What I am going to do instead is this ->
I have a solution – My mommy and daddy told me
-This is what all our seniors have told us over and over again Work hard -> good career, work really really hard -> Great career.. Well if you want to work really really really hard, the world is ready to give it to you :). But that is not going to mean that you are going to have a great career!
I have an interest
– Your interest and passion are not the same – Will you go to the person you want to marry and say – “Marry me cos I find you really interesting?” You’ll need plenty interests and only one of them transforms into a passion.
You’ll find your passion, you will still fail
– Cos you have invented a new excuse and this excuse which I have heard more than often “I value human relations more and I will not sacrifice those for a great career!”. Stop using this as human shield as a rationalization!
I had a dream once too, BUT…
– Watch this video from 10:45 to 12:15, this is THE BEST part! :) and that is going to answer everything we just talked about here..
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Thanks for sharing.
I will go through the video when i leave office Vinay; however, i went through your excerpts and I fully agree with them. Will surely check the video tonight :)
Good plan Deekay, I am sure your boss would not really appreciate the video, esp when it says to quit what you do to follow the dreams and passion you have. No one wants to lose a strong performer ;).
The video is amazing Deekay, more than the write up, I am happy promoting the video cos it has got a lot of essence to it.
Why you are not going to have a great career! http://t.co/RH15EX29ne via @spidyvinay
Wow what a thought provoking video! There are often these mental wars happening between our interests and passions which we never address properly. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Vinodini.. I am glad you liked the video. This video now ranks as my favourite one this month :)
That really is a great video..thanks for sharing..
” Your interest and passion are not the same “..bull’s eye..we often has a tendency to mix up the two ..
I loved the whole video Maniparna, esp the last few mins were simply stunning! And this one line is so true.. And I have felt so fed up when people easily say that they are passionate about so many things. I wonder how they get that much of time to be passionate about so many. Just having one or two passions makes up my whole day.. Maybe that’s probably when we need to draw that line between a passion and interest..
Thanks Vinay that you shared this video. It’s truly amazing. As you said “I guess we all let our lives be decided by so many external factors that we forget the most important one in them, US.” it is very much true that we really forget our self only.
To be very frank a great career, or money, or position is not everything which we need in our life. There are so many live things around us in our life who seriously look towards us to get motivation. Running behind great career might spoil so many things from our life.
I am glad you liked the video Alok, I loved the last part esp when he talks about a child coming and asking about following a dream. I just couldn’t stop holding my stomach and laughing out loud. It is one of the best lines I have heard in the recent past.
I agree, sometimes even I do feel that the idea of a great career is a misconception, an ideal world created as an escape by many people. The reality is what is in front of us, that in due time can be the most amazing work ever. I think that there is one governing logic behind all work we do and it is as simple as “Love” or we may choose to call it – Passion!
Such a humorous talk… with a very important message!! :D
Yes Prateek, I loved the way he spoke. My god, only a few people can blend in humor with life lessons in such a brilliant way!
Why you are not going to have a great career! http://t.co/ubetmvVt0d via @spidyvinay
Ted talks are very inspiring!!
Why you are not going to have a great career! http://t.co/6MftFHmsy4