Why you will fail to have a great career!

[Andrew]

Why you will fail to have a great career!

In this funny and blunt talk from TEDxUW, Larry Smith pulls no punches when he calls out the absurd excuses people invent when they fail to pursue their passions.

[DimosT]

Great jobs with great careers... We could very easily select the job we would want to do the most and develop a splendid career. But, why finding excuses when our passion for what we do is lost and we want to "apologise" for failing in our career?
Mr.Larry Smith responds to that question and also decides to include some nice examples of excuses we mainly use after failing... His humorous way of illustrating those facts makes the video even more interesting.

[AlexiaG]

Well, obviously this man is talking about desires, or dreams, that have never been fulfilled. He explains that people don’t try to find and pursue their passion because they are afraid that they might fail. He also states that those people, use their family as an excuse saying that they don’t want to sacrifice them so that they reach a great accomplishment. They make up excuses that are not even true, only because they are afraid. So they prefer to compromise with an interest rather than their passion. In this way they miss their opportunity to find their destiny and to do something that they love in their life.

The worse thing is that they don’t let their children fulfill their passion and they stop them from doing what they really want, because of their missed chance.

Anyway, I think that the message he wants to pass is, never be afraid to go after our dreams, dare to try, even if we fail sometimes and never let anyone or anything stop us from fulfilling our greatest passion. It’s really not fair to do something that we don’t love and not be passionate about, in our life, sacrificing our dream.

It’s sad because nowadays, that’s what everyone does...

[ChrisS]

Great jobs, great careers. That's what we've been dreaming about since we were kids but as the years pass that "great career" we've been dreaming of somehow fades away. Why is this happening ? The answer is simple, fear. What happens is that throughout the whole process of pursuing our career we tend to loose our courage to continue, thinking things like: 'What am I doing, am I ever gonna make it?' And then we create excuses to hide ourselves from the embarrassment of failing to continue, such as: 'It was too difficult' or 'I had to focus more on my family.' When we have to understand that great careers and a good family life is actually a package that goes together.

[EmilyN]

Well I really like this video. I think that the speaker is really good at expressing what he wants to say in a funny and clever way. I completely agree with him. To start off with I think that a career is not a matter of luck as the speaker said. To choose your career you need to have many interests in your life and to have many different experiences to finally choose a job that you will be happy with.

But why do people think that they don’t have a great career or why do they fail to have a great career? (That’s the big question that the speaker answers in a clever way). There are many reasons!!! One of them has to do with the fear. The fear everybody has in finding a passion. And even worse the fear of failing. People are afraid to fulfill their passions and they don’t even try they are just content with themselves, with a job that provides them a living and they accept being happy with that. But they are not… Another great reason that many people fail to have a great career is because of their family and the attitude they have. In some cases young people with dreams and passions are discouraged from their parents and they eventually don’t follow their dreams. But why is that happening? I thought that parents always care about their children and their future life so why do they let young people down like that? Maybe because many years ago they were in the same situation and they failed to follow their own dreams. But doesn’t it sound so unfair not to encourage their children to follow their dreams because they were afraid to pursue theirs? So mainly that’s what the speaker gives as reasons of failing to have a good career and these are so important.

I also wanted to add that people choose their jobs based on the income it has. That’s another great mistake many people make nowadays. They believe that to be a good parent you have to be able to provide your family with whatever they want. But this attitude can lead people into following a career that they don’t really love and as time passes they understand that something is wrong, but they don’t know what. Well they simply don’t love what they are doing, that’s what’s going wrong and in the end they fail to have a great career for themselves.

So to sum up, in my opinion the speaker implies that if you want to be successful in your life you have to always follow your dreams and try to make them come true… No matter what, never give up. And when you find that one thing that gets you really excited and you love doing then you will have surely chosen the right job for you and yes… I think you will have a great career!!!

[Michael]

It is not that simple - having found a passion and combining it with a career is not that easy. For example I might have a passion in creating miniature models or reading books, that alone cannot bring me an income I would have to do something else in order to make a living and that might be something that has nothing to do with just reading books. I could work in a bookstore but still that is not a great job and with no real future. There are many interests/passions that I can come up with that just won't work regarding a job career.

I also wanted to add that people choose their jobs based on the income it has. That’s another great mistake many people make nowadays. They believe that to be a good parent you have to be able to provide your family with whatever they want.

I strongly disagree with this statement, why is it bad for a parent to believe that their family should have whatever they want. Making sure their kids have everything then they get the chance to live experiences and find out what their passions are. The way the system works it's logical for people to choose jobs with a good income otherwise in most cases they won't be able to exercise their passion/interest.

I am not flaming Larry Smith, it is important to be positive and what best than to combine passion with work. My statement is that many passions and interests just won't make you enough money plus with no real future.

[EmilyN]

I also wanted to add that people choose their jobs based on the income it has. That’s another great mistake many people make nowadays. They believe that to be a good parent you have to be able to provide your family with whatever they want.

I strongly disagree with this statement, why is it bad for a parent to believe that their family should have whatever they want. Making sure their kids have everything then they get the chance to live experiences and find out what their passions are. The way the system works it's logical for people to choose jobs with a good income otherwise in most cases they won't be able to exercise their passion/interest.

I actually agree with what you are saying… But when I wrote that I had something else in mind. The case with a family where parents, let’s say dad chooses a job with a very good income and he is able to provide everything to his family. This is not bad of course, but if he is not that happy because he has chosen the job based on the income and not what he loves doing, and eventually he does not like his “great” career… That’s what’s wrong for me… and I know that it is hard to combine these two things. Doing what you love and you are passionate with it and your job. But at least we should always try, be optimistic and never give up on following our dreams and parents should always try to encourage their children while providing them with many incentives so that they can find interests/passions…!