Why you will fail to have a great career Larry Smith
I want to discuss with you this
afternoon why you’re going to fail to
have a great career I’m I’m an economist
I do dismal end of the day it’s ready
for dismal remarks I only want to talk
to those of you who are who want a great
career I know some of you have already
decided you want a good career you’re
gonna fail too because goodness you’re
cheery about failing a Canadian group
undoubtedly those trying to have good
careers are going to fail because really
good jobs are now disappearing there are
great jobs and great careers and then
there are the high workload high stress
blood sucking soul-destroying kinds of
jobs and practically nothing in between
so the people looking for good jobs are
going to fail i want to talk about those
looking for great jobs great careers and
why you’re going to why you’re going to
fail first reason is that no matter how
many times people tell you you if you
want a great career you have to pursue
your passion you have to pursue your
dreams you have to pursue that you’re
the greatest fascination in your life
you hear it again and again and then you
decide not to do it it doesn’t matter
how many times you download steven j’s
Stanford commencement address you still
look at it and decide not to do it I’m
not quite sure why you decide not to do
it you’re too lazy to do it it’s too
hard you’re afraid if you look for your
passion and don’t find it you’ll feel
like you’re an idiot
so then you make excuses about why
you’re not going to look for your
passion and they are excuses latest gen
we’re going to look for whole long list
your creativity and thinking of excuses
not to do what you really need to do if
you want have a great career so for
exactly so for example what if your
great excuses is well great careers are
really and truly
for most people just a matter of luck so
I’m gonna stand around I’m gonna try to
be lucky and if I’m lucky I’ll be having
great career if not I’ll have a good
career but a good career is an
impossibility so that’s not going to
work then your other excuses yes there
are special people who pursue their
passions but they are geniuses they are
Steven J I’m not a genius when I was
five I thought I was a genius but my
professors have beaten that idea out of
my head long since hmm and now I know I
am completely competent now you see if
this was 1950 being completely competent
that would have given you a great career
but guess what this is almost 2012 and
saying to the world I am totally
completely confident is damning yourself
with the faintest of praise and then of
course another excuse well I would do I
would do this I would do this but but
well after all I’m not weird
everybody knows that people who pursue
their passions are somewhat obsessive a
little strange hmm hmm okay you know a
fine line between madness and genius I’m
not weird I’ve reread Steven J’s
biography oh my goodness I’m not that
person I am nice I am normal I’m a nice
normal person and nice normal people
don’t have passion ah but I still want a
great career I’m not prepared to pursue
my passion so I know what I’m going to
do because I have I have a solution I
have a strategy it’s the one mommy and
daddy told me about mommy and daddy told
me that if I worked hard I’d have a good
career
so if you work hard have a good career
if you work really really really hard
you’ll have a great career doesn’t act
like mathematically makes sense not but
you’ve managed to talk yourself into
that you know what here’s a little
secret you want to work you want to work
really really really hard you know what
you’ll succeed the world will give you
the opportunity to
really really really really hard but are
you so sure that that’s going to give
you a great career when all the evidence
is to the contrary so let’s assume let’s
deal with those of you who are trying to
find your passion you actually
understand that you really had better do
it never mind the excuses you’re trying
to find your passion and you’re so happy
you found something you’re interested in
I have an interest I have an interest
you tell me you say I have an interest I
say that’s wonderful
and what what are you trying to tell me
that you well I have an interest I say
do you have a passion I have an interest
you say your interest is compared to
what well I’m interested in this and
what about the rest of humanity’s
activities I’m not interested in them
you’ve looked at them all have you no
not exactly
passion is your greatest love passion is
the thing that will help you create the
highest expression of your talent
passion interest it’s not the same thing
are you really going to go to your
sweetie and say marry me you are
interesting
won’t happen won’t happen and you will
die alone what you want what you want
what you want is passion
it is beyond interest you need twenty
interests and then one of them one of
them might be grab you one of them might
engage you more than anything else and
then you may have found your greatest
love in comparison to all the other
things that interest you and that’s what
passion is have a friend proposed to his
sweetie
he was an economic a rational person he
said to his sweetie let us marry let us
merge our interests yes he did I love
you truly he said I love you deeply I
love you more than any other woman I’ve
ever encountered I love you more than
Mary Jane Susie Penelope Ingrid
Gertrude Gretel I was on a German
exchange program then I love you more
than penneth all right she left the room
halfway through his enumeration of his
love for her after he got over his
surprise at being hit up turned down he
concluded he’d had a narrow escape from
marrying an irrational person although
he did make a note to himself that the
next time he proposed it was perhaps not
necessary to enumerate all the women he
had auditioned for the part but the
point stands you must look for
alternatives so that you find your
destiny or are you afraid of the world
that were destiny the real destiny the
word destiny scare you and that’s what
we’re talking about and if you don’t
find the highest expression of your
talent if you settle for interesting
what the hell ever that means do you
know what will happen at the end of your
long life your friends and family would
gather in the cemetery and there beside
your gravesite will be a tombstone and
inscribed on that tombstone it will say
here lies a distinguished engineer who
invented
velcro but what that tombstone should
have said in an alternative lifetime
what it should have said if it was your
highest expression of talent was here
lies the last Nobel laureate in physics
who formulated the grand unified field
theory and demonstrated the practicality
of warp drive velcro indeed one was a
great career one was a missed
opportunity but then there are some of
you in spite of all these excuses you
will find you will find your passion and
you’ll still fail you can fail because
because you’re not going to do it
because you’ll have invented a new
excuse any excuse to fail to take action
and this excuse I’ve heard so many times
yes I would pursue a great career but a
value human relationships more than
accomplishment I want to be a great
friend I want to be a great spouse I
want to be a great parent and I will not
sacrifice them on the altar of great
accomplishment what do you want to just
say no do you want me to say now tell
you really I swear I don’t kick children
huh look at the world view you’ve given
yourself you’re a hero no matter what
and I by suggesting ever so delicately
that you might want a great career
let’s take chilled I don’t hate children
I don’t kick them yes there was a little
kid wandering through this building uh
when I came here and no I didn’t kick
him of course I had to tell him the
building was for adults only and to get
out he mumbled something about his
mother and I told him she’d probably
find him outside anyway
last time I saw Mia’s on the stairs
crying what a wimp well but that what do
you mean that’s what you expect me to
say do you really think you really think
it’s appropriate that you should
actually take children and use them as a
shield you know what will happen someday
you you ideal parent you the kid will
come to you someday and say I know I
want to be I know what I’m gonna do with
my life you were so happy it’s a
conversation a parent wants to hear
that’s your kids good at math and you
know you’re going to like what comes
next says your kid I have decided I want
to be a magician I want to perform magic
tricks on the stage and what do you say
you say you say um that’s risky kid
might fail kid don’t make a lot of money
at that kid you know I don’t know kid
you should think about that again kid
you’re so good at math why don’t you end
a kid interrupts you and says but it is
my dream it is my dream to do this and
what are you going to say you know what
you’re gonna say look kid I have a dream
ones too but but it’s how you gonna
finish the sentence with your but but I
dream too once kid but I was afraid to
pursue it or are you gonna tell them of
this I had a dream once kid
but then you were born do you really do
you really want to use your family do
you really ever want to look at your
spouse and your kid I’d see your jailers
there was something you could have said
to your kid when he or she said I have a
dream you could have said look the kid
in the face and said go for it kid
just like I did but you won’t be able to
say that cuz you didn’t so you can’t
and so the sins of the parents are
visited on the poor children
why will you seek refuge in human
relationships as your excuse not to find
and pursue your passion you know why in
your heart of hearts you know why and I
being deadly serious
you know why you would get all warm and
fuzzy and wrap yourself up in human
relationships it is because you are you
know what you are you were afraid to
pursue your passion you’re afraid to
look ridiculous you’re afraid to try
you’re afraid you may fail great friend
great spouse great parent great career
it’s not not a package it’s not not who
you are help you be one without the
other but you are afraid and that’s why
you are not going to have a great career
unless unless that most evocative of all
English words unless what the unless
word is also attached to that other most
terrifying phrase if only I had if only
I had if you ever have that thought
ricocheting in your brain it will hurt a
lot so those are the many reasons why
you’re going to fail to have a great
career unless unless
thank you