Groups Use Cash Prizes To Encourage Saving

NPR

By: Pam Fessler

Correspondent, National Desk

Audio Link: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=288637271&m=288712997

When it comes to getting ahead in the world, a lack of savings can be a big hurdle, especially for low-income families. Most don’t have enough money set aside for emergencies, let alone for college or a house. Some people think the answer is to make savings more fun, like the lottery, with the chance to win big prizes.

It’s called prize-linked savings, something that’s been available in Great Britain for decades. Now, it’s starting to catch on in the United States.

One of the newest programs is called SaveYourRefund, launched recently by a nonprofit group called Doorways to Dreams. It’s one of many organizations trying to find ways to encourage low- and moderate-income people to save more, especially at tax time. For some people, their federal tax refund is the biggest check they’ll see all year.

So the group is offering one $25,000 grand prize and 10 weekly $100 prizes for those who agree to put some of their tax refund into savings, using Form 8888 on their tax return. The program is being promoted especially at free tax preparation sites that cater to low-income working families.

Joanna Smith-Ramani, of Doorways to Dreams, says for these families, even a little savings can make a big difference.

“At a basic level, people need savings to get them through even the smallest of financial shocks or their life just goes into total chaos and catastrophe,” Smith-Ramani says.

Just one unexpected bill, she says, can set things off.

In Britain, ‘Savings With A Thrill’

Actor Roger Moore, who played James Bond, poses for a photo promoting Britain’s Premium Bonds program.

National Savings and Investments

The United Kingdom has had a prize-linked savings program for decades, and its success has drawn the attention of those interested in expanding savings among low- and moderate-income families in the U.S.

Introduced to Britons as “savings with a thrill,”the Premium Bond program was started in 1957 to encourage savings and fight inflation.

But instead of getting interest on their accounts, investors get a chance to win a prize. Individuals invest a minimum of £100 (about $150) to enter a raffle for monthly tax-free prizes, ranging from £25 to £1,000,000. Every £1 invested is another chance to win and over a million people win each month.

The bonds are extremely popular. Nearly 40 percent of Britons held them in 2006. The average bondholder invested the equivalent of about $2,330. Today, there are close to $70 billion in total holdings.

The program is also cloaked in a bit of British “Bond-like” intrigue.

Winners of the £1 million jackpot get a visit from an anonymous individual identified only as “Agent Million,” who informs winners confidentially that they have won the jackpot. Agent Million also advises winners on investments and other options for handling the money.

In a 2012 interview with the Daily Mail, the woman who held the Agent Million job said it was great to see people’s reactions when she gave them the good news.

“It can be emotional and a lot of people cry. One of my favorites was a woman who had just sold her house as she couldn’t afford to keep it — and then with the news, her financial worries were gone.” she told the paper.

— Andrew Small, NPR

“Your car breaks down. You can’t pay for it. You can’t access other credit. Your family can’t help you. How are you going to get to work?,” she says, adding that could then lead to loss of a job.

But getting people with so little money to save can be a challenge.

“I need every penny, I need every penny, ” says Baltimore truck driver Wilbert Braxton, who’s waiting for free tax help at a site run by the Baltimore CASH Campaign (the acronym stands for Creating Assets, Savings and Hope). He says he tries to save money, but always needs it before too long.

“Bills, bills, and bills. You know, that’s my life. I work and pay bills. I got two kids in college. They need everything. You know, loans have to be paid back,” he says, adding that he also has car payments to make.

And his comments are pretty common.

Still, research shows that low-income people, who might think they can’t save, do spend a disproportionate share of their income on lottery tickets and gambling, on the off chance they’ll hit it big. And it’s that desire to win that proponents of prize-linked savings are trying to harness.

Maya Gaines, with the Baltimore CASH Campaign, tells her clients that they can do both — save and maybe win — if they split off some of their tax refund into savings.

“If you split it, you get entered to win this contest, this amazing contest, over $25,000. I mean who doesn’t want to enter a chance to win $25,000?” she tells 62-year-old Carlos Jordan.

At first, Jordan is skeptical. But then, about an hour later, he’s changed his mind. His tax preparer has convinced Jordan that it makes sense to use $50 of his refund to buy a U.S. savings bond. Like everyone else at this site who decides to save, he’s greeted with bells and cheers.

“Well you know, money grows” Jordan says. “And savings bonds are where it’s at, for now. I just thought it was a good thing.”

And others seem to think so too. The Baltimore CASH Campaign says tax-time savings jumped almost 500 percent, to $34,000, the first year it offered cash awards.

And in Michigan, almost three dozen credit unions have seen a big growth in savings since offering prizes as part of another program called Save to Win. Now credit unions in three other states are doing the same.

And there’s a bipartisan effort in Congress to pass legislation that would allow banks to offer such programs as well.

Lori Wesp, a single mother in Rochester, N.Y., says the prizes make a difference to low-income people like her.

“It’s hard, paycheck to paycheck, paying everything, so when you get a little incentive like this, it helps out tremendously,” she says. Wesp recently won $100 in the SaveYourRefund promotion in Rochester, after setting aside half of her tax refund to help pay for her daughter’s summer camp.

The prize isn’t much, but Wesp already knows how she’s going to spend it.

May 8, 2014May 7, 2014

The Changing Picture Of Poverty: Hard Work Is ‘Just Not Enough’

NPR

From npr : War on poverty, 50 years later

Audio Link: Click on photo

There are 46 million poor people in the U.S., and millions more hover right above the poverty line — but go into many of their homes, and you might find a flat-screen TV, a computer or the latest sneakers.

And that raises a question: What does it mean to be poor in America today?

Take Victoria Houser, a 22-year-old single mother who lives in Painted Post, a small town in western New York. At first glance, her life doesn’t look all that bad. She lives in a cozy two-bedroom apartment. She has food, furniture and toys for her almost 2-year-old son, Brayden. He even likes playing a game called Fruit Ninja on her electronic tablet.

War On Poverty, 50 Years Later

One Family’s Story Shows How The Cycle Of Poverty Is Hard To Break

“He just likes touching it because he always sees me on my computer, my iPad or something,” Houser says.

Brayden’s father is out of the picture, and Houser knows she could be a lot worse off. At least she has a job earning $10 an hour preparing food in a company cafeteria.

Still, you don’t have to look too far to see that her life is teetering on the edge. Her nice-looking apartment? “It’s kind of not a very safe place to live,” she says. “There’ve been quite a few drug busts here.”

Houser says she’s scared to let her son play outside. Her next-door neighbor was recently arrested for allegedly murdering someone and stuffing the body in a cupboard.

Victoria Houser and her son, Brayden, may have food to eat and toys to play with, but she says she feels like she’s teetering on the edge.

Pam Fessler/NPR

But this subsidized housing is all she can afford. Most of Houser’s paycheck goes for things like food, diapers and gas. And she says what look like luxuries are necessities for her. They’re also mostly gifts from family or friends. She says she has a car to get to work, a computer to take online college courses, a cellphone to check up on her son.

But there’s one thing Houser doesn’t have, and that’s a lot of hope for the future.

She says she feels stuck in a never-ending cycle, constantly worried that one financial emergency — like a broken-down car — will send everything tumbling down.

“Poor to me is the fact that I’m working my butt off. I’m trying to go to school. I’m trying to take care of my son, and that’s just not enough,” she says.

And it’s this frustration and despair that those who work with struggling families say is the true face of poverty today — that it’s not just a lack of material things.

“It used to be that if you were poor, you just didn’t have the basic things, like maybe you didn’t have a washer and dryer, and you were able to get by,” says Kelly Wells, a case manager for Pro Action, a nonprofit community action agency that’s trying to help Houser and others like her.

“Now what I see with families is if you’re poor, you’re poor in every avenue: emotionally, supportwise, familywise,” Wells says.

She and other social service providers in western New York say they’re seeing more families ripped apart — by drug abuse, domestic violence and mental illness.

50 Years Later, Poverty Looks Different

The face of being poor has changed since the 1960s, when President Johnson declared a war on poverty. For example, in 1960, 63 percent of poor people had hot and cold piped water, 65 percent had a bathtub or shower and 69 percent had an indoor flush toilet.

In 2010, nearly 100 percent of poor families lived with similar amenities.

And in 1960, only half of poor people had phones; in 2010, 95 percent did.

The Cycle Of Poverty

At the Family Resource Center in the town of Bath, N.Y., where Pro Action is located, a young mother plays with her giggling 9-month-old son. The mother is petite with long, curly brown hair. And she has a huge black eye.

Right now, the mother gets to visit her son at the center once a week. She lost custody because of suspected drug abuse and violence in the home. The father is in jail. The father’s stepmother now cares for the boy.

The stepmother, who has come to pick him up, says he was in a lot of danger at home, and child protective services “basically told me I either take custody or he has to go to foster care, and I wasn’t going to let that happen.”‘

She says she and her husband now care for three of their grandchildren.

“We want them to have a good work ethic, morals, values. We don’t want them learning the kinds of things they would learn at home,” she says.

Social workers say they see lots of stressed-out families, with kids paying the price.

Marsha Patrick runs the local Head Start program. She says she had to hire nine extra classroom workers this year to deal with growing behavioral problems among the children.

“Everything will be fine, and then all of a sudden they are literally off the wall. They might be walking on the tables. They might run up and down on the radiators,” she says. “They just cannot control whatever it is that’s making them go off like that.”

Patrick suspects that it’s the strain of living with adults who are overwhelmed by life or who don’t have the skills they need to raise children because they themselves came from troubled homes.

Her program is trying to break the cycle. But Patrick says it’s difficult, especially with factory jobs that used to support a middle class in this region disappearing in droves.

“Unless we have those jobs to offer those folks, that they’re going to feel good about and want to go to work for and do, the kids are going to be the ones who are suffering, and we’re seeing it,” she says.

Isolated And Disconnected

But, of course, poverty is about more than a lack of jobs. It can also mean isolation.

Frank and Amber Adams live in a trailer home in rural Hammondsport, also in western New York. The yard is filled with chickens and ducks, cats and dogs.

Frank, 41, has been poor his entire life. He says it’s been a lot of ups and downs, but mostly downs. He survives by selling scrap and doing odd jobs and masonry work.

Frank and Amber Adams of Hammondsport, N.Y. He sometimes has to redeem empty soda cans to buy gas to take Amber to counseling classes.

Pam Fessler/NPR

The Adamses have seven children between them, from other relationships. But the children are scattered about, and right now, Amber’s goal is to regain custody of her youngest three. But first she has to clean up her act. She’s a recovering crack addict. So is Frank. He says it’s pretty common in this part of the state.

“There’s lots of people that just aren’t happy with themselves or what have you,” he says. “Maybe they don’t have a job, so they gotta sell some of the drugs to make money, and then they get addicted to the drug themselves.”

He says drugs are readily available, but about a year ago, he and Amber looked at each and asked, “What the hell are we doing?”

They got married, and now he’s helping her through counseling. But it’s a struggle. Frank says sometimes he has to redeem empty soda cans just to buy gas to take Amber to counseling classes.

He says he thinks it’s harder being poor today than when he was young.

“People aren’t as outgoing and gracious as they were back in the day. Back in the day, your neighbors helped each other,” he says.

And that’s a big difference for poor families today. They might have TVs and cellphones, but researchers say they can be more disconnected than ever — from neighbors, work, family, all of the social networks that help people through life.

Amber takes a picture off the wall, which shows six of their seven children dressed up for their wedding last summer. And she reads the words written on the side: Family, together, we have it all.

For now, it’s something they can hope for.

May 7, 2014May 13, 2014

Do You Value The Women In Your Life?

By Felix a. Montelara

Author: Potencial Millonario (Spanish Edition)

www.potentialmillionaire.net

Today I want to talk to you about work. What is work? Why do we work? What kind of work do we value? What work are we willing to pay for? Why is work so important to us? When you think about yourself, do you define yourself by your work? Do you work for a living, do you live to work, do you have a career, or do you work just to pay the bills? Is there a difference between your job and your work? These are questions worth pondering. Believe it or not, your job probably is a big part of how you define yourself. Your job, and how you feel about your job, probably define much of your self-worth and your self-esteem. The ins and outs of your day at work probably determine whether you have a good day or a bad day. The million dollar question is: should we define ourselves in this way?

Let’s think about how work has been defined in the past. Actually, long ago work was thought of as something that really important people didn’t do. In ancient cultures such as Greece and Rome, the truly important people didn’t labor or do work. That would be beneath them. Important people had servants to do their work, from running their land to running their household. These people definitely did not define themselves by their work, so why do we?

The role of work in people’s lives has changed. After the period in history known as the Renaissance came the Reformation in the 1500s. It was then that work began to be acceptable both socially and morally. This was a turbulent time in all aspects of art, science, religion and culture. From this time period comes our modern view of work which is to say that people began to “do” things and then defined themselves by what they did.

Later on, with the advent of mechanization and industrialization, the major means of employment became paid labor. The definition of work became associated with being paid. It was then that tasks for which payment did not occur became devalued by society. For example, no one was paid to clean their own house, so cleaning the house was not considered work.

No one was paid to take care of their children, or to care for the sick or elderly of the family. So caring for family members was no longer considered work. Everyday tasks and chores, primarily the responsibility of the female caregivers of the household, became things that women were expected to do – while men went outside the home to work and get paid.

Now we need to ask ourselves a few more introspective questions about how we define work today. Let’s not just think about ourselves. No, I want you to think about how you define the work of women and mothers in particular. Soon it will be Mother’s Day. Women and their role in our homes, workplace, and society should be on our minds. Do the mothers in your life a real service on Mother’s Day this year. Not just flowers or a card, or a quick sentiment that lasts a day only. Instead, do some real soul-searching about the real, honest work that the women in your life do. How many responsibilities does she have that go unpaid and unacknowledged? How many roles does she fulfil, and do you expect her to fulfil them just because she is a woman? How many sacrifices does she make on a daily basis that go unnoticed? Let’s take some time to think about the history of work and our attitudes toward it, as I have reflected on here. Let’s take some time to think about how the roles of men and women in the home have developed and the historical background for why we view these roles the way we do today. Then, let’s take the time to examine whether we are really fair to the women in our lives, especially the mothers. Give this some real thought, and then approach the mothers that you know with some real respect. And rather than a box of chocolates, take responsibility yourself for one of those things you ‘expect’ her to do. Not for a day, but from now on. If you truly want to honor the mother’s that you know, then honor them making a lasting change to how you value the unpaid work they do every day and night. Then prove yourself worthy by doing some of this work yourself.

April 30, 2014April 30, 2014

Minimum Wage Debate. What Do You Think?

Watch the videos and let me know what you thing about the minimum wage.

April 30, 2014April 30, 2014

World Views @ Potencial Millonario

This list represents all countries from which https://www.potencialmillonario.com/ has been viewed.
Top world views from USA, Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico And Argentina make the top five list. See complete list below.

Thank you all and keep viewing because we all Potencial Millonario.

United States
Spain
Mexico
Puerto Rico
Colombia
Venezuela
Argentina
Peru
Chile
China
Guatemala
Slovenia
Canada
Costa Rica
Ecuador
Bolivia
Paraguay
Philippines
United Kingdom
Panama
Mongolia
Japan
United Arab Emirates
Dominican Republic
Iceland
Indonesia
Uruguay
Hong Kong
Brazil

April 30, 2014April 28, 2014

Financial Literacy Month… Last Few Days

There are only a few more days left to this 2014 Financial Literacy Month But do not dismay The Potential Millionaire will be here year round and 24/7 to provide you with the personal finance information that you can put into practice. Here is a tip on getting your finance in shape. You can also find lots of information: https://financiallit.org/

Financial Literacy (via Repost Video News)

Caroline Feeney, President of Agency Distribution join us to give with tips on how to get your house in financial order.

Continue reading “Financial Literacy Month… Last Few Days”

April 23, 2014April 19, 2014

Fun Friday Links: Financial Spring Cleaning, Innovation and Easter Eggs, and What Successful People Do on the Weekend

Fun Friday Links: Financial Spring Cleaning, Innovation and Easter Eggs, and What Successful People Do on the Weekend (via blog.mindjet.com)

Welcome to Conspire’s Super Happy Fun Friday Link Time, a weekly collection of cool discoveries from around the Web. Most times the goal is to get you thinking differently about communication, collaboration, culture, and life in general. Other times…

April 14, 2014April 13, 2014

Do You Have What it Takes To Become a Financial Literacy Award Winner? Here Are The 2014 Education In Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Awards Winners

The Institute for Financial Literacy® 2014 Excellence In Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Awards winners are honored for their distinguished accomplishments in developing, implementing and promoting successful financial literacy education worldwide.

The EIFLE Awards were established in 2007 and have since become one of the most prestigious and sought after awards in the industry. Each year, the Institute for Financial Literacy presents EIFLE Awards to individuals and organizations that have shown exceptional innovation, dedication and commitment to the field of financial literacy education.

The work of these authors, educators, organizations and researchers inspires others to strive toward excellence as well, increasing the availability and effectiveness of financial literacy education in communities across the country.

I had the pleasure attending the Annual Conference on Financial Education. I met and interviewed some of the award winning individuals (see below) and I will make the interviews available in future blog posts and podcasts of The Potential Millionaire / Potencial Millonario – www.potentialmillionaire.net. In my conversations with the award winners it was made very clear that helping the underprivileged was a staple of their commitment to producing, teaching, and funding financial literacy programs. I learned that it was the core of their individual beliefs and corporate visions. On behalf of The Potential Millionaire, I congratulate and commend all of the EIFLE winners.

The Institute for Financial Literacy website can be reached at www.Financiallit.org for detailed information on the EIFLE awards. If you know any of the award winners or just wan to say congrats, please leave a comment below.

Here are the 2014 EIFLE award winners:

For Profit Organization of the Year:

ING Bank Turkey

Organization of the Year, Corporate Leadership:

Discover

Instructional Game of the Year:Tabletop

MoneyWorks

Goodwill Industries of West Michigan, Inc.

Nonprofit Organization of the Year:

Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada)

Education Program of the Year:Children, General

Hartford Stage Financial Literacy Program

Hartford Stage

Education Program of the Year:

Children, Financial Responsibility & Decision Making

TrueWealth-KIDS

TrueWealth Ventures, Inc.

Education Program of the Year:Children, Income & Careers

CU 4 Reality™ Financial Education Program

America’s Credit Union Museum

Education Program of the Year:

Children, Saving & Investing

Delaware BANK AT SCHOOL

Delaware Financial Literacy Institute

Education Program of the Year:Adult, General

Adelante con tu future, Educacion Financiera

BBVA Bancomer

Education Program of the Year:

Children, Planning & Money Management

Youth Financial Camp

A+ Federal Credit Union

Book of the Year:Adult, General

Pocket Change: Using the Science of Personal Change to Improve Financial Habits

by Heidi T. Beckman, PH.D.

Book of the Year:

Children, General

The Money Tree

by LaDonna Smith

Legacy:

Hon. John C. Nifo II

Credit Abuse Resistance Education (CARE)

Book of the Year:

Adult, Money Management

The $1,000 Challenge: How One Family Slashed Its Budget Without Moving Under a Bridge or Living on Government Cheese

by Brian O’Connor

Educator(s) of the Year:

William Daniel

William R. Boone High School

Educator(s) of the Year:

Ingrid Adade

Leominster Credit Union

April 12, 2014

Boxing Legend Felix “Tito” Trinidad Brought To His Knees By A 68 Million Investment Loss

Posted By Felix A. Montelara

Author: Potencial Millonario

Boxing legend Felix “Tito” Trinidad is brought to his knees by a 68 million investment loss. However, the knockout blow may be the reported debt of approximately nine million dollars.

Felix Trinidad, in an attempt to be responsible with his assets obtained a brokerage firm, “Popular Securities,” to manage his well-earned fortune. Now I’m going to explain how it is possible to lose an estimated 68 million dollars even if it is invested by a third party and you (or in this case Trinidad) are not monitoring the account. According to reports, José ‘Pepe’ Ramos was assigned by Popular Securities to handle Trinidad’s account. Ramos invested most if not all the money in bonds, according to news reports in Puerto Rico. The truth is that until September 2013, this type of investment was not risky on face value. The problem began in September 2013 when the markets (Moody’s and the S&P 500) downgraded Puerto Rico’s bonds to junk bond status, hence reducing Trinidad’s wealth (fortune). It is said that Trinidad began to see losses in his statement. Really? Red flag, anyone?

The second problem is that if it is true that Ramos invested 100% of Trinidad’s money in bonds only, we can all see an issue with assets allocation. In lay man words, Ramos placed all the eggs in one basket (Puerto Rico bonds). The right thing to do was to diversify into many assets across the market and invest in several different market sectors, as I would say, “A little of this and a little of that.” Truth be said it is unknown at this time if Trinidad asked to be conservative with his investments, or even if Ramos was authorized to invest without Trinidad’s consent. No one knows why Ramos decided to place everything into bonds. It is true that before September 2013, Puerto Rico bonds had good ratings in the market and benefited from a triple tax exemption and could be enticing- or as I would say it would have been “sexy” to invest in them for any portfolio at that time; however, never at 100% of any portfolio.

One must understand that Trinidad is a former professional athlete and a marvelous boxing World Champion. He is not a finance expert. He took prudent steps to preserve his fortune but that was not enough. The last blow brings Trinidad to his knees by a man without gloves in a suit. The lack of basic personal finance education hurt Trinidad as much as it hurts everyone else. Trinidad would have most likely have avoided this type of situation if he was well trained in personals finances. Its like training for a championship bout and not knowing the opponent. It is alleged that Trinidad noticed losses on his statement. In the boxing world that is like telegraphing a cross punch. With personal finance training Trinidad may have seen the knee dropping blow coming his way. When Trinidad

received his earning statement reports with some personal finance training he could have determined that all the eggs were in one basket and we all know in personal finances that is not a good thing.

Also with a good personal financial education a millionaire worth 68 plus may have not carried with an estimated nine million in debts. Why would Trinidad? Anyone trained or educated in the basics of personal finance knows that the debt is the most powerful opponent, who most likely provides the knock out blow when you are already down on your knees. But as they say in my neighborhood: “to late,” the money was invested and lost. The only controversy is whether Ramos was authorized by Trinidad to place the eggs in one basket. Ramos, along with Popular Securities, will defend themselves as if they were in a championship bout and the truth will be known in court.

If you were in Trinidad’s shoes, would you have the know-how to foresee that ultimately it is your responsibility to watch over your money?

Finally, we are celebrating Financial Literacy month in April. Wise up! Get educated in personal finance and do not allow yourself to be victimized due to financial ignorance. Remember, we all have “The Potential Millionaire.”

April 12, 2014November 24, 2014

Why You Will Fail To Have A Great Career

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

Larry Smith, Professor of Economics, University of Waterloo

A professor of economics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, Larry Smith coaches his students to find the careers that they will truly love.

0:16I want to discuss with you this afternoon why you’re going to fail to have a great career. (Laughter)

0:25I’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 want a great career. I know some of you have already decided you want a good career.You’re going to fail, too — (Laughter) — because — Goodness, you’re all cheery about failing. (Laughter) Canadian group, undoubtedly. (Laughter) 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, bloodsucking, soul-destroying kinds of jobs, and practically nothing in between.

1:11So the people looking for good jobs are going to fail. I’m going 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, “If you want a great career, you have to pursue your passion, you have to pursue your dreams, you have to pursue, 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.

1:50I’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, ladies and gentlemen. We’re going to go through a whole long list, your creativity, and thinking of excuses not to do what you reallyneed to do if you want to have a great career.

2:13So, for example, one of your great excuses is, “Well, great careers are really and truly, for most people,just a matter of luck, so I’m going to stand around, I’m going to try to be lucky, and if I’m lucky, I’ll have a great career. If not, I’ll have a good career.” But a good career is an impossibility, so that’s not going to work.

2:37Then, your other excuse is, “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.” (Laughter) Mm? “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 competent,” is damning yourself with the faintest of praise.

3:20And then, of course, another excuse: “Well, 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? Mm? Mm? Okay? You know, a fine line between madness and genius. I’m not weird. I’ve read Steven J.’s biography. Oh my goodness. I am 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 and have a good career, if you work really, really, really hard, you’ll have a great career. Doesn’t that, like, mathematically make sense?” Hmm. Not. (Laughter) But you’ve managed to talk yourself into that.

4:28You 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 work 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?

4:49So 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.

5:07I 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 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.”

5:35Passion 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’re interesting.” (Laughter) Won’t happen. Won’t happen, and you will die alone. (Laughter)

6:02What you want, what you want, what you want, is passion. It is beyond interest. You need 20 interests, and then one of them, one of them might 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.

6:25I have a friend, proposed to his sweetie. He was an economically rational person. He said to his sweetie, “Let us marry. Let us merge our interests.”

6:38(Laughter)

6:40Yes 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.” (Laughter) “I love you more than — ” All right! She left the room halfway through his enumeration of his love for her. After he got over his surprise at being, you know,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 enumerateall of the women he had auditioned for the part. (Laughter)

7:34But the point stands. You must look for alternatives so that you find your destiny, or are you afraid of the word “destiny”? Does the word “destiny” scare you? 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 will be gathered 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.”

8:36(Laughter) Velcro, indeed. (Laughter)

8:42One 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.

9:03You’re going to fail, because, because you’re not going to do it, because you will 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 I 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.”

9:50(Laughter)

9:52What do you want me to say? Now, do you really want me to say now, tell you, “Really, I swear I don’t kick children.” (Laughter) Hmm? Look at the worldview 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, must hate children. I don’t hate children. I don’t kick them. Yes, there was a little kid wandering through this building when I came here, and no, I didn’t kick him. (Laughter)

10:23Course, I had to tell him that 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 him, he was on the stairs crying. (Laughter) What a wimp. (Laughter)

10:39But what do you mean? That’s what you expect me to say. 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 what I want to be. I know what I’m going to do with my life.” You are so happy. It’s the conversation a parent wants to hear, because your kid’s good in 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.”(Laughter)

11:23And what do you say? You say, you say, “Umm … 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 — ”

11:39And the 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 going to say? “Look kid. I had a dream once, too, but — but.” So how are you going to finish the sentence with your “but”? “… But. I had a dream too, once, kid, but I was afraid to pursue it.” Or, are you going to tell him this? “I had a dream once, kid. But then you were born.” (Laughter)

12:14(Laughter) (Applause)

12:16Do you, do you really want to use your family, do you really ever want to look at your spouse and your kid and 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, looked the kid in the face, and said, “Go for it, kid, just like I did.”But you won’t be able to say that because you didn’t. So you can’t. (Laughter)

12:59And 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’m being deadly serious. You know why you would get all warm and fuzzyand wrap yourself up in human relationships. It is because you are — You know what you are.

13:37You’re 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. Is that not a package? Is that not who you are? How can you be one without the other? But you’re afraid.

14:07And that’s why you’re not going to have a great career, unless — unless, that most evocative of all English words — unless. But 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.

14:48So, those are the many reasons why you are going to fail to have a great career, unless …

15:00Unless.

15:04Thank you. (Applause)

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