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