Choose your own path and succeed on your own terms.

[Music]

i

felt pressurized by society’s needs and

did something you didn’t have your full

interest in

have you ever felt the need to pursue

someone else’s dreams for yourself

because that is what society expects of

you

hi i’m rather venkatesen and together

let’s explore how we should not let

society’s standards of happiness

and success dictate our life choices

when i first started playing in golf

tournaments i wanted to know what i

should be scoring so i asked my dad

he gave me a very broad answer and told

me to just enjoy the game and have fun

i wasn’t satisfied with this answer so i

asked my coaches

they gave me a much more specific answer

and then i told my dad what my coaches

told me

then he said that i shouldn’t have asked

them because now

i will feel pressurized to achieve what

they expect of me and i won’t be

focusing

on the bigger picture during my

tournament

my main thought throughout the whole day

was only

what my coaches had said to me the

moment i hit a bad shot

i was immediately brought down by this

thinking i wouldn’t score what i needed

to

which greatly affected my performance

in the end my dad was right i did not

score well

because i was pressurized and i felt

stressed about matching up to my coach’s

standards

a few weeks later i had another

tournament and this time

i decided to listen to my dad i stayed

calm

and i enjoyed the game and guess what i

placed first

and i won the tournament from this i

learned that happiness was the key to

unlocking my success

success shouldn’t be confined to the

conventional ideas of being wealthy

living an upper class lifestyle living

up to society’s beauty standards

or being famous success should be a

personal standard

reaching for the highest status in us to

achieve the most we can

by unlocking our fullest of our maximum

potential

everyone’s success should be unique and

significant to themselves

i strongly believe that each of us are

incomparable

so why are our achievements compared

if we are all unique then why are we

weighed on the same scale

of prosperity accomplishments fame and

popularity

let’s dig in deeper for a while now i’ve

noticed that many of us

are under society’s influence we do

things that others want us to do

even if we don’t enjoy it some people do

what others want them to do

because it makes them happy seeing

others happy by fulfilling their

expectations

but sometimes it is okay to just be

selfish

and do what you truly want to do in life

we only have one life

so let’s make use of it social media

plays a big role when it comes to

standardizing success

especially among the youth in my

generation

bill gates once said don’t compare

yourself to anyone else in this world

if you do so you’re insulting yourself

when we see these influencers posting

about their privileged lifestyles

we begin to think that people will only

love us if we are exactly like those

influencers

we also start to compare ourselves but

success

is about learning to define ourselves

through constructing our own identities

by working hard being happy and being

unique

not working towards being like other

people through the 14 years of my

experience so far

i have learned that i cannot do

something and not enjoy it

and expect to find happiness and success

within myself

we should all know that our future lies

in our own hands

and we have the capability to do

whatever we want to do with it

we shouldn’t have to follow the

stereotypes and standards of society to

be successful

as long as your success makes you happy

and

satisfied with yourself that is all that

matters

so as i conclude my speech today i would

like us all to remember

that success is not the key to happiness

but happiness

is the key to success thank you

you