[Applause]
when I was in secondary school by 15 or
so my favorite subject was English
absolutely loved us whether it was
Shakespeare or literature or poetry
writing essays about any subject
I loved us I would have happily spent
all of my time in school sitting in any
English class that was going hmm Matt’s
on the other hand was something
different I just avoid scraped through
maths in what was then the intermediate
certificate and I was on the road to
actually failing maths at leaving
certificate I was no good at it I hated
us it bored me witless and I you sit
down the back of the class allowed and
just not pay attention to what was going
on because I wasn’t any good at it my
English teacher rather crumpled twinkly
man called mr. lemon obviously was it
yeah that was his real name mr. lemon he
was a lot sweeter than that though he
obviously was aware of the challenge
that maths presented to me because he
asked me to stay behind after class one
day after English class and he said more
I hear you’re struggling with maths it’s
so boring and I’m no good at it and I
don’t like it and no sympathy he just
said that doesn’t matter if you want to
get your leaving search you’re going to
have to pass maths and from what I hear
at the moment that’s not going to happen
so here’s what you need to do you’ll
have no problem in English so take some
of the time that you’re studying English
at home and devoted to maths the more
time you spend doing maths the better
you’re going to get at it the better you
get the more you like it the more you
like it the more you’ll do it and the
more you do it the better you get so on
and so forth needless to say I didn’t
like what he was saying but I thought
I’m going to have to do it anyway
because he’s going to be chasing me on
this so I did it I did exactly what he
suggested I do and I came out with a
very respectable B in past maths
which was thank you which was way more
than I could have anticipated but more
importantly than that I came to like
Matt’s I started looking forward to the
classes I started to enjoy the challenge
of figuring something out and the sense
of pride and delight when I had it
figured out and that was all new to me
and that was the first time at about 16
years of age that I learned the lesson
that persistence begets passion no I
didn’t understand the value of that
lesson for a long time but in the last
couple of years in particular I have and
a lot of that is done to social media
are you on Facebook Instagram
any of them I’m sure you’ve all seen
those lovely pictures I think they’re
called MEMS or memos I can never
pronounce that word right I want to call
it Mimi’s because that’s how it’s spelt
but you know all of those lovely
pictures of people doing yoga poses on
the top of mountains and the sun is
shining or there’s a beautiful river and
it says follow your passion find your
passion and never work a day in your
life dream big both sides grace doesn’t
it trouble is none of those come with an
instruction manual
none of them tell you how to go about
that and when you see the words passion
and persistence in the same lovely
picture or the same sentence the passion
always comes first so there’s an
assumption being made there and the
assumption is that we all have a grand
passion that we want to find or follow
and even those words suggest that we’re
passive in that whole thing you know
it’s just going to appear on our
doorstep someday and that if we have
that passion then we use persistence to
go and make that passion into a reality
but for most of us that’s not the case
according to statistics only 1 in 10
person 1 in 10 people does that work for
so I think there’s about 100 people in
the room not even that it’s only a
handful
of you have passions and I think Alison
is definitely one of them have a passion
that you went for the rest of us does
that make us less worthy of experiencing
passion does it make us less intelligent
less capable no it just means that we
have to think differently about what
passion is and what I want to tell you
is passion is not an outcome all of
those lovely pictures and phrases and
quotes and slogans would have you
believe that it is passion is a feeling
it’s an experience and you can be
passionate about many things there is
this pressure I think honest to think of
passion as something that is going to
completely transform our lives and even
change the world
even if it’s only our little corner of
it and that that passion also must be
something that we can make a living from
what if your passion is collecting
buttons
how on earth do you translate that into
a living and yet does that diminish your
passion in any way but if you persist at
something like I did with maths mmm you
can’t become passionate about it or you
may indeed be passionate about something
that you’re absolutely no bloody use of
whatsoever I always wanted to learn how
to swim but I was terrified of water I
couldn’t even put my face under the
shower I’d wash my hair like this you
know and this bit of my hair never got
washed because I couldn’t risk the water
coming onto my face I go into fold one
panic mode but I still want to learn to
swim I’ve lost count of the number of
courses I went to you know these six
weeks or eight weeks or says you go
along once a week and they start you
with a float and all of the rest of it
but every time I said to the instructor
I’m afraid to put my face under the
water the same response would come back
as sure once you know the strokes should
be grant never worked
I would leave after the six or eight
weeks still no closer to been able to
swim than I had at the start until
finally I find an instructor who took my
fear seriously
and she said okay no problem and very
very slowly she got me to put my face in
the water now when I say slowly I mean
four or five weeks we started with my
chin and at times I was going to give up
because I thought I remember the first
time I put my mouth into the water I
panicked and I came up again but she
persisted and I persisted I think I had
to sign up for three courses before I
actually got on to the swimming part and
now I swim in the sea two or three times
a week all year round all right yes so
my persistence developed in me a real
passion for swimming it was something I
wanted to do yeah but I wouldn’t have
said I was passionate about it but just
this thing that I needed to do and now I
get into the water all year round
no wetsuits butter swimsuits
and the world just falls away and I am
in bliss that’s the only word I can
describe it a friend of mine actually
told me once that my face changes when I
get into the water myself and my little
dog swim two or three times a week em
look I only love a few minutes from the
beach over in the West and that’s what
we do and it’s persistence that got me
there and its persistence that got me to
a B and maths
it wasn’t passion in neither case was a
passion but in both instances I became
passionate about what I had been
persistent about so is there something
in your life whether you’ve been
thinking about doing something with that
mess of a back yards and you want to
turn it into a lovely garden or is there
some part of your job a job that maybe
you love but there’s one part of it that
you know makes you groan inwardly every
time you have to do it I’ll set you a
challenge promise yourself before you
leave here that you’re going to tackle
that thing that makes you groan inwardly
that you’re going to persist with it
until you get good at it and then as you
get good at it you’re going to start to
love it and you’re going to become
passionate about it and as that happens
as that unfolds you are going to get
better and better and better and you
will prove what I’ve been saying here
tonight
persistence begets passion thank you [Applause]
when I was in secondary school by 15 or
so my favorite subject was English
absolutely loved us whether it was
Shakespeare or literature or poetry
writing essays about any subject
I loved us I would have happily spent
all of my time in school sitting in any
English class that was going hmm Matt’s
on the other hand was something
different I just avoid scraped through
maths in what was then the intermediate
certificate and I was on the road to
actually failing maths at leaving
certificate I was no good at it I hated
us it bored me witless and I you sit
down the back of the class allowed and
just not pay attention to what was going
on because I wasn’t any good at it my
English teacher rather crumpled twinkly
man called mr. lemon obviously was it
yeah that was his real name mr. lemon he
was a lot sweeter than that though he
obviously was aware of the challenge
that maths presented to me because he
asked me to stay behind after class one
day after English class and he said more
I hear you’re struggling with maths it’s
so boring and I’m no good at it and I
don’t like it and no sympathy he just
said that doesn’t matter if you want to
get your leaving search you’re going to
have to pass maths and from what I hear
at the moment that’s not going to happen
so here’s what you need to do you’ll
have no problem in English so take some
of the time that you’re studying English
at home and devoted to maths the more
time you spend doing maths the better
you’re going to get at it the better you
get the more you like it the more you
like it the more you’ll do it and the
more you do it the better you get so on
and so forth needless to say I didn’t
like what he was saying but I thought
I’m going to have to do it anyway
because he’s going to be chasing me on
this so I did it I did exactly what he
suggested I do and I came out with a
very respectable B in past maths
which was thank you which was way more
than I could have anticipated but more
importantly than that I came to like
Matt’s I started looking forward to the
classes I started to enjoy the challenge
of figuring something out and the sense
of pride and delight when I had it
figured out and that was all new to me
and that was the first time at about 16
years of age that I learned the lesson
that persistence begets passion no I
didn’t understand the value of that
lesson for a long time but in the last
couple of years in particular I have and
a lot of that is done to social media
are you on Facebook Instagram
any of them I’m sure you’ve all seen
those lovely pictures I think they’re
called MEMS or memos I can never
pronounce that word right I want to call
it Mimi’s because that’s how it’s spelt
but you know all of those lovely
pictures of people doing yoga poses on
the top of mountains and the sun is
shining or there’s a beautiful river and
it says follow your passion find your
passion and never work a day in your
life dream big both sides grace doesn’t
it trouble is none of those come with an
instruction manual
none of them tell you how to go about
that and when you see the words passion
and persistence in the same lovely
picture or the same sentence the passion
always comes first so there’s an
assumption being made there and the
assumption is that we all have a grand
passion that we want to find or follow
and even those words suggest that we’re
passive in that whole thing you know
it’s just going to appear on our
doorstep someday and that if we have
that passion then we use persistence to
go and make that passion into a reality
but for most of us that’s not the case
according to statistics only 1 in 10
person 1 in 10 people does that work for
so I think there’s about 100 people in
the room not even that it’s only a
handful
of you have passions and I think Alison
is definitely one of them have a passion
that you went for the rest of us does
that make us less worthy of experiencing
passion does it make us less intelligent
less capable no it just means that we
have to think differently about what
passion is and what I want to tell you
is passion is not an outcome all of
those lovely pictures and phrases and
quotes and slogans would have you
believe that it is passion is a feeling
it’s an experience and you can be
passionate about many things there is
this pressure I think honest to think of
passion as something that is going to
completely transform our lives and even
change the world
even if it’s only our little corner of
it and that that passion also must be
something that we can make a living from
what if your passion is collecting
buttons
how on earth do you translate that into
a living and yet does that diminish your
passion in any way but if you persist at
something like I did with maths mmm you
can’t become passionate about it or you
may indeed be passionate about something
that you’re absolutely no bloody use of
whatsoever I always wanted to learn how
to swim but I was terrified of water I
couldn’t even put my face under the
shower I’d wash my hair like this you
know and this bit of my hair never got
washed because I couldn’t risk the water
coming onto my face I go into fold one
panic mode but I still want to learn to
swim I’ve lost count of the number of
courses I went to you know these six
weeks or eight weeks or says you go
along once a week and they start you
with a float and all of the rest of it
but every time I said to the instructor
I’m afraid to put my face under the
water the same response would come back
as sure once you know the strokes should
be grant never worked
I would leave after the six or eight
weeks still no closer to been able to
swim than I had at the start until
finally I find an instructor who took my
fear seriously
and she said okay no problem and very
very slowly she got me to put my face in
the water now when I say slowly I mean
four or five weeks we started with my
chin and at times I was going to give up
because I thought I remember the first
time I put my mouth into the water I
panicked and I came up again but she
persisted and I persisted I think I had
to sign up for three courses before I
actually got on to the swimming part and
now I swim in the sea two or three times
a week all year round all right yes so
my persistence developed in me a real
passion for swimming it was something I
wanted to do yeah but I wouldn’t have
said I was passionate about it but just
this thing that I needed to do and now I
get into the water all year round
no wetsuits butter swimsuits
and the world just falls away and I am
in bliss that’s the only word I can
describe it a friend of mine actually
told me once that my face changes when I
get into the water myself and my little
dog swim two or three times a week em
look I only love a few minutes from the
beach over in the West and that’s what
we do and it’s persistence that got me
there and its persistence that got me to
a B and maths
it wasn’t passion in neither case was a
passion but in both instances I became
passionate about what I had been
persistent about so is there something
in your life whether you’ve been
thinking about doing something with that
mess of a back yards and you want to
turn it into a lovely garden or is there
some part of your job a job that maybe
you love but there’s one part of it that
you know makes you groan inwardly every
time you have to do it I’ll set you a
challenge promise yourself before you
leave here that you’re going to tackle
that thing that makes you groan inwardly
that you’re going to persist with it
until you get good at it and then as you
get good at it you’re going to start to
love it and you’re going to become
passionate about it and as that happens
as that unfolds you are going to get
better and better and better and you
will prove what I’ve been saying here
tonight
persistence begets passion thank you [Applause]
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