WEBVTT

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I want to discuss with you this afternoon

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why you're going to fail to have a great career. (Laughter)

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I'm an economist. I do dismal.

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End of the day, it's ready for dismal remarks.

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I only want to talk to those of you who want a great career.

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I know some of you have already decided

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you want a good career.

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You're going to fail, too — (Laughter) —

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because — Goodness, you're all cheery about failing. (Laughter)

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Canadian group, undoubtedly. (Laughter)

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Those trying to have good careers are going to fail,

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because, really, good jobs are now disappearing.

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There are great jobs and great careers,

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and then there are the high-workload, high-stress,

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bloodsucking, soul-destroying kinds of jobs,

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and practically nothing in between.

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So the people looking for good jobs are going to fail.

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I'm going to talk about those looking for great jobs, great

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careers, and why you're going to, why you're going to fail.

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First reason is that no matter how many times people tell you,

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"If you want a great career, you have to pursue your passion,

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you have to pursue your dreams, you have to pursue,

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the greatest fascination in your life,"

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you hear it again and again and then you decide

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not to do it. It doesn't matter how many times you download

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Steven J.'s Stanford commencement address,

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you still look at it and decide not to do it.

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I'm not quite sure why you decide not to do it.

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You're too lazy to do it. It's too hard.

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You're afraid if you look for your passion and don't find it,

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you'll feel like you're an idiot, so then you make excuses

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about why you're not going to look for your passion.

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And they are excuses, ladies and gentlemen.

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We're going to go through a whole long list, your creativity,

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and thinking of excuses not to do what you really

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need to do if you want to have a great career.

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So, for example, one of your great excuses is,

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"Well, great careers are really and truly, for most people,

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just a matter of luck, so I'm going to stand around,

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I'm going to try to be lucky, and if I'm lucky,

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I'll have a great career. If not, I'll have a good career."

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But a good career is an impossibility, so that's not going to work.

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Then, your other excuse is, "Yes, there are special people

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who pursue their passions, but they are geniuses.

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They are Steven J. I'm not a genius.

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When I was five, I thought I was a genius,

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but my professors have beaten that idea

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out of my head long since." (Laughter) Mm?

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"And now I know I am completely competent."

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Now, you see, if this was 1950,

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being completely competent,

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that would have given you a great career.

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But guess what? This is almost 2012, and saying

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to the world, "I am totally, completely competent,"

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is damning yourself with the faintest of praise.

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And then, of course, another excuse:

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"Well, I would do this, I would do this, but, but,

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well, after all, I'm not weird.

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Everybody knows that people who pursue their passions

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are somewhat obsessive. A little strange? Mm? Mm? Okay?

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You know, a fine line between madness and genius.

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I'm not weird. I've read Steven J.'s biography.

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Oh my goodness. I am not that person. I am nice.

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I am normal. I'm a nice, normal person,

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and nice, normal people

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don't have passion.

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Ah. But I still want a great career.

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I'm not prepared to pursue my passion, so I know

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what I'm going to do, because I have, I have a solution,

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I have a strategy.

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It's the one Mommy and Daddy told me about.

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Mommy and Daddy told me that if I worked hard,

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I'd have a good career. So, if you work hard

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and have a good career, if you work really, really, really hard,

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you'll have a great career. Doesn't that, like,

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mathematically make sense?"

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Hmm. Not. (Laughter)

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But you've managed to talk yourself into that.

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You know what? Here's a little secret.

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You want to work? You want to work really, really, really hard?

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You know what? You'll succeed. The world will give you

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the opportunity to work really, really, really, really hard,

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but are you so sure that that's going to give you

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a great career when all the evidence is to the contrary?

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So let's assume, let's deal with those of you

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who are trying to find your passion.

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You actually understand that you really had better do it,

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never mind the excuses. You're trying to find your passion,

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and you're so happy.

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You found something you're interested in.

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I have an interest! I have an interest! You tell me.

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You say, "I have an interest!" I say, "That's wonderful!

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And what, what are you trying to tell me? That you — "

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"Well, I have an interest."

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I say, "Do you have passion?"

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"I have an interest," you say.

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Your interest is compared to what?

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"Well, I'm interested in this."

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And what about the rest of humanity's activities?

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"I'm not interested in them."

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You've looked at them all, have you?

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"No. Not exactly."

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Passion is your greatest love.

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Passion is the thing that will help you create

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the highest expression of your talent.

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Passion, interest -- it's not the same thing.

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Are you really going to go to your sweetie and say,

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"Marry me! You're interesting." (Laughter)

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Won't happen. Won't happen, and you will die alone. (Laughter)

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What you want, what you want, what you want,

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is passion. It is beyond interest.

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You need 20 interests, and then one of them,

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one of them might grab you, one of them might engage you

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more than anything else, and then you may have found

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your greatest love in comparison to all the other things

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that interest you, and that's what passion is.

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I have a friend, proposed to his sweetie.

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He was an economically rational person.

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He said to his sweetie, "Let us marry.

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Let us merge our interests."

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(Laughter)

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Yes he did.

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"I love you truly," he said. "I love you deeply. I love you

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more than any other woman I've ever encountered.

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I love you more than Mary, Jane, Susie, Penelope,

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Ingrid, Gertrude, Gretel --

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I was on a German exchange program then." (Laughter)

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"I love you more than — "

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All right! She left the room halfway through his enumeration

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of his love for her.

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After he got over his surprise at being, you know,

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turned down, he concluded he'd had a narrow escape

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from marrying an irrational person,

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although he did make a note to himself that the next time

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he proposed, it was perhaps not necessary to enumerate

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all of the women he had auditioned for the part. (Laughter)

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But the point stands. You must look for alternatives

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so that you find your destiny,

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or are you afraid of the word "destiny"?

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Does the word "destiny" scare you?

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That's what we're talking about, and if you don't find

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the highest expression of your talent, if you settle

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for "interesting," what the hell ever that means,

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do you know what will happen at the end of your long life?

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Your friends and family will be gathered in the cemetery,

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and there, beside your gravesite will be a tombstone,

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and inscribed on that tombstone, it will say,

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"Here lies a distinguished engineer who invented Velcro."

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But what that tombstone should have said,

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in an alternative lifetime,

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what it should have said if it was your highest expression of

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talent, was, "Here lies the last Nobel Laureate in Physics,

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who formulated the Grand Unified Field Theory

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and demonstrated the practicality of warp drive."

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(Laughter)

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Velcro, indeed. (Laughter)

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One was a great career.

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One was a missed opportunity.

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But then, there are some of you,

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in spite of all these excuses, you will find,

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you will find your passion,

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and you'll still fail.

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You're going to fail, because,

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because you're not going to do it,

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because you will have invented a new excuse,

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any excuse to fail to take action, and this excuse

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I've heard so many times.

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"Yes, I would pursue a great career, but I value

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human relationships more than accomplishment.

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I want to be a great friend. I want to be a great spouse.

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I want to be a great parent, and I will not sacrifice them

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on the altar of great accomplishment."

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(Laughter)

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What do you want me to say?

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Now, do you really want me to say now, tell you,

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"Really, I swear I don't kick children." (Laughter)

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Hmm? Look at the worldview you've given yourself.

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You're a hero no matter what, and I, by suggesting,

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ever so delicately, that you might want a great career,

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must hate children. I don't hate children. I don't kick them.

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Yes, there was a little kid wandering through this building

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when I came here, and no, I didn't kick him. (Laughter)

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Course, I had to tell him that the building was for adults only

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and to get out.

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He mumbled something about his mother,

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and I told him she'd probably find him outside anyway.

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Last time I saw him, he was on the stairs crying. (Laughter)

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What a wimp. (Laughter)

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But what do you mean? That's what you expect me to say.

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You really think, you really think it's appropriate

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that you should actually take

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children and use them as a shield?

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You know what will happen someday,

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you, you ideal parent, you?

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The kid will come to you someday and say,

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"I know what I want to be.

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I know what I'm going to do with my life."

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You are so happy. It's the conversation

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a parent wants to hear, because your kid's good in math,

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and you know you're going to like what comes next.

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Says your kid, "I have decided

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I want to be a magician.

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I want to perform magic tricks on the stage."

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(Laughter)

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And what do you say?

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You say, you say,

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"Umm ... that's risky, kid.

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Might fail, kid. Don't make a lot of money at that, kid.

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You know, I don't know, kid,

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you should think about that again, kid,

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you're so good at math, why don't you — "

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And the kid interrupts you, and says,

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"But it is my dream. It is my dream to do this."

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And what are you going to say?

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You know what you're going to say?

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"Look kid. I had a dream once, too, but -- but."

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So how are you going to finish the sentence with your "but"?

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"... But. I had a dream too, once, kid, but I was afraid to pursue it."

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Or, are you going to tell him this?

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"I had a dream once, kid.

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But then you were born." (Laughter)

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(Laughter) (Applause)

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Do you, do you really want to use your family,

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do you really ever want to look at your spouse

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and your kid and see your jailers?

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There was something you could have said to your kid

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when he or she said, "I have a dream."

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You could have said, looked the kid in the face, and said,

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"Go for it, kid,

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just like I did."

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But you won't be able to say that

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because you didn't. So you can't. (Laughter)

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And so the sins of the parents

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are visited on the poor children.

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Why will you seek refuge in human relationships

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as your excuse not to find and pursue your passion?

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You know why.

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In your heart of hearts, you know why,

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and I'm being deadly serious.

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You know why you would get all warm and fuzzy

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and wrap yourself up in human relationships.

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It is because you are —

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You know what you are.

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You're afraid to pursue your passion.

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You're afraid to look ridiculous.

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You're afraid to try. You're afraid you may fail.

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Great friend, great spouse, great parent, great career.

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Is that not a package? Is that not who you are?

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How can you be one without the other?

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But you're afraid.

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And that's why you're not going to have a great career, unless --

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unless, that most evocative of all English words --

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unless.

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But the unless word is also attached

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to that other, most terrifying phrase,

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"If only I had ... "

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"If only I had ... "

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If you ever have that thought ricocheting in your brain,

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it will hurt a lot.

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So, those are the many reasons

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why you are going to fail

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to have a great career,

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unless ...

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Unless.

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Thank you. (Applause)