Why you will fail to have
a great career UNLESS...UNLESS...UNLESS
내가 사랑하는 Ted talk. 주옥같은 강연들 중 단 하나를 추천하라면 나는 래리스미스의 "왜 당신은 멋진 커리어를 갖는 것에 실패할 것인가" 를 당당히 선택할 것이다.
진로고민이 많은 청소년, 취업준비중 대학생/사회 초년생들, 어린 자녀들이 있는 부모님은 물론,
삶과 커리어에 대해 생각하고 있는 모든 이들에게 깊이 와 닿을 수 있는 강연이다.
참고로 이 강연은 6백만 뷰를 넘고, 38개국어로 자막이 나온다. 한국말로도 자막이 있으니 아직 영어가 서투신 분들도 꼭 보시길 권하다.
https://www.ted.com/talks/larry_smith_why_you_will_fail_to_have_a_great_career
래리에 따르면 세상에는 멋진 커리어 Great career와 good career 가 있었다. 하지만 이제는 great career멋진 커리어와 중노동을 하는 커리어 두개밖에 남지 않았다고 한다. 그래서 good career를 가지기로 결심한 사람들도 당연히 실패할 것이라고 한다.
우리 부모님과 선생님들께서 말씀하셨던,
공부를 열심히 해서, 좋은 대학에 들어가고 졸업 후 정규직으로 취업하던 좋은 커리어들은 사라지고 있다.
멋진 삶, 멋진 커리어를 갖으려면 "열정"passion이 필요조건인데, 많은 이들이 열정을 찾고/가지고 멋진 커리어를 갖지 않기고 결정하는데, 많은 이들은 다양한 핑계로 멋진 커리어를 갖지 않기로 한다.
나는 평범해.
나는 평범하고 착한 사람이야.
그리고 평범하고 착한 사람들은 열정이 없지.
래리에 따르면 열정은 최고의 재능을 발휘할 수 있게 도와주는 것이고 great career에 필요조건이며
열정은 우리가 결혼하고 싶을 만큼 간절히 원하는 것이다.
Passion is the thing that will help you create
the highest expression of your talent.
What you want, what you want, what you want, is passion.
Passion is your greatest love!
열정은 단순 관심과 다르다.
국제기구 취업에 관심있는데요, 해외 취업에 관심있는데요..
이렇게 생각하고 있다면 단순 관심인지 아니면 진정으로 원하는 것인지 고민해 보아야 한다.
세상에 수백, 수천명들의 사람들이 국제기구 취업, 해외 취업의 꿈을 이루기 위해 분투하고 있다.
단순 관심만으로는 항상 그림의 떡을 바라보는 처지가 될 수 밖에 없다.
래리에 따르면 우리는 사랑하는 사람들을 핑계로 댄다고 한다.
나는 엄마이고, 부인이고, 딸이고, 친구인데,
내 열정을 위해 그들을 포기할 수 없어.
래리는 두가지 이론으로 반박한다.
언젠가 우리 아이들이 꿈이 생겼을 때,
"엄마, 나 꿈이 있어요" 라고 했을 때.
당신은 "나도 꿈이 있었지. 그런데 네가 태어나 버렸어."
라고 말할 것인가?
아니면
"그래. 너의 꿈을 마음껏 펼쳐봐. 엄마처럼"
이렇게 당당하게, 용기와 희망을 줄 것인가?
우리가 우리에게 어떠한 핑계를 대고 꿈을 포기했다면, 우리는 후자의 조언을 할 수 없을 것이다.
그리고 래리는 멋진 친구, 멋진 배우자, 멋진 부모, 멋진 커리어는 한 팩키지라고 한다.
처음으로 이 강연을 들었을 때 나의 가장 큰 고민은 "나는 열정이란게 있나? 내 열정은 무엇이지?"였다.
그리고 많은 고민과 분석과 생각 끝에 열정을 찾았다 ㅋ (열정 찾기도 브런치 글감 후보에 이미 올려두었다.)
지금은 엄마와 회사원의 두 역할로도 벅차하고, 매일 매일 하루살이를 하고 있는 워킹맘이지만,
우리 사랑하는 따님에게 자랑스러운 엄마가 되기 위해 발전하는 모습을 보이기 위해 노력하고 있다.
I know some of you have already decided you want a good career. You're going to fail, too. 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.
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.
"Well, great careers are really and truly, for most people, just a matter of luck."
"Yes, there are special people who pursue their passions, but they are geniuses.
They are Steven J. I'm not a genius."
"I'm not weird. I've read 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."
" 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?"
"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?"
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're interesting."
What 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.
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."
Velcro, indeed!
One was a great career.
One was a missed opportunity.
"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."
Do 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 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."
And what do you say?
You say, you say,
"That's risky, kid.
Might fail, kid. Don't make a lot of money at that, kid.
I don't know, kid, you should think about that again, kid.
You're so good at math, why don't you --"
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."
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."
You'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.
NB. 강연중 내가 동의 하지 않는 두 가지 내용이 있다.
"goodness, you're all cheery about failing. (Laughter) Canadian group, undoubtedly."
물론 재미있으라고 한 이야기이지만, 글로벌 커리어, 특히 국제기구에서 커리얼를 키울려면 이런 한 국가에 대한 유머도 자제해야 한다.
"Velcro, indeed!"
벨크로. 우리 일상에 얼마나 유용한 개발인가? 물론 노벨상을 타지 못 했다 하더라고, 나는 충분히 great career라고 생각한다.
