so what do you want to be when you grow
up when I was in the seventh and eighth
grade in an effort to get me out of the
house more often during the summer my
mom would actually help me get jobs at
retail stores or factories or warehouses
and it’s an experience that I’ll never
forget
through that I gained something that I
would never have gained anywhere else a
perspective about how young people are
seen and not only in society but in
large companies and what you find is
that people ask a lot of questions and
the question I got almost every single
day was what do you want to be when you
grow up I had a decent idea I have loved
Investment Banking since before I was
born and I have and I’ve worked for it
practically forever so that’s what I did
I told people about my drive to be an
investment banker and what I wanted to
accomplish with it but after a while
that got a little boring because you
keep telling person after person after
person after person the same answer it
feels you feel desensitized to what’s
being asked to you you feel desensitized
about what you’re truly saying so I
decided to see what the question what do
you want to be when you grow up was
truly asking so I split it up into three
specific phrases what do you want to be
when you grow up and if you summarize
each of these phrases and then put them
back together you find that the entire
question is simply asking about what you
aspire to be what do you aim to be at
some random point in the future and
that’s what it was once for some reason
when we think about answering this
question we simply answer with an
occupation doctor lawyer engineer artist
photographer but you don’t have to you
can just as easily answer this question
with an emotion or a status so that’s
what I proposed an answer that would be
universally correct for all of us and
that was becoming successful something
we all drive for we all work for every
single day and that’s truly what I found
was the most important part of answering
the question
but when you propose a new answer like
this there’s a lot of questions that
come up what the success really mean how
do you define it
how do you achieve it and those are all
things I work towards so what really is
success just an idea a theory a concept
well a little bit of both or all of them
you can mix them all together and that’s
what success truly is why do we go to
school every single day we have a goal
to graduate but there has to be
something bigger than that that we all
work for but you can’t recognize it yet
and that’s what it is that goal you
can’t recognize you kind of clump up and
all these goals in your life everything
you do all everything you can’t
necessarily pinpoint falls under the
realm of success so how do you define it
every single person in this room look on
your left and your right who’s in front
of you who’s behind you every single
person in this room has a different
definition of success we all see the
word differently because of our specific
connotations so I look to see what was
the best definition of success I could
find what’s the best example and I found
it with a small company called Microsoft
worth over five hundred billion dollars
today and founded in 1975 on the mission
the principle their idea of success was
to put a computer on every desk in every
house seems quite ambitious but 42 years
later today Satya Nadella the current
CEO of Microsoft talked about in his
book hit refresh how this idea of
putting a computer on every desk in
every home was only a goal it wasn’t
truly their mission for success because
it was too easy to accomplish so then
what really is success what is success
to us we’re not Microsoft we’re not
billion-dollar groups we’re individual
people were ordinary people who have
ideas who have a drive to do what we
want to so to us how do we find success
how do we gain it what do we have to do
so it’s a combination of a lot of
different things but in my research with
people who talk about who are really
interested and people who we commonly
define
as successful they will they will say
that it’s two different elements
it’s our aspirations and our consistency
to work hard and reach them as we aspire
to be bigger and better those
aspirations keep developing there is no
end for what you begin you can never
become the best at something because you
can always be better and with that logic
you also have this idea of your
aspirations but you have to work hard
and be consistent at meeting every
single benchmark you set for yourself
because otherwise you’ll never reach
that idea of success and you’ll never
truly fulfill your ambitions and
aspirations the best way to put it is in
these 96 red squares every single square
amounts for a part of your everyday life
whether that be going to school or
getting your dream job every single one
of those is represented by a box but the
thing is this chart will always be empty
you can never truly fill any square in
this box because the second you check
one off say you get your dream job what
about the promotion what about getting a
raise what about owning the company
later these are all things so once you
check one box off another one floats in
and replaces it so you’re always left
with this blank slate so then isn’t
success just like a mindless trance that
we continue following endlessly for
absolutely no reason
well yeah you could say that but we
don’t do it for no reason we do this
because it’s just our human nature to
continue to drive to be better every
single time imagine imagine if Apple
stopped releasing devices because
they’re just too good they’re good
enough for the future they don’t need to
continue to innovate but they don’t
every single year companies like Google
Apple and Microsoft released technology
that state-of-the-art it’s the best of
the best nothing’s better than it but
then the year later they released a new
line of products was completely Dwarfs
what we saw before and that’s the
biggest thing because if these top lever
engineers and data scientists can one-up
themselves why can’t we so if we set the
sky as the limit then why did we care
about sending people to the moon and if
we’re only going to limit our
elves – reaching for the stars then why
do we care so much about what you can
find beyond it the sky and the stars are
simply our expectation of what we want
to achieve that the minimum benchmark
but what we can achieve is essentially
limitless and with that I’d like to
leave you on two points of advice as
future world leaders thinkers innovators
creators I urge you to match and couple
your aspirations and your dreams with
hard work and consistency because that’s
truly the only way you will ever acquire
the success you’ve so greatly desire and
to think about it long and hard because
one day someone’s gonna be asking you
what do you want to be when you grow up
thank you
you
up when I was in the seventh and eighth
grade in an effort to get me out of the
house more often during the summer my
mom would actually help me get jobs at
retail stores or factories or warehouses
and it’s an experience that I’ll never
forget
through that I gained something that I
would never have gained anywhere else a
perspective about how young people are
seen and not only in society but in
large companies and what you find is
that people ask a lot of questions and
the question I got almost every single
day was what do you want to be when you
grow up I had a decent idea I have loved
Investment Banking since before I was
born and I have and I’ve worked for it
practically forever so that’s what I did
I told people about my drive to be an
investment banker and what I wanted to
accomplish with it but after a while
that got a little boring because you
keep telling person after person after
person after person the same answer it
feels you feel desensitized to what’s
being asked to you you feel desensitized
about what you’re truly saying so I
decided to see what the question what do
you want to be when you grow up was
truly asking so I split it up into three
specific phrases what do you want to be
when you grow up and if you summarize
each of these phrases and then put them
back together you find that the entire
question is simply asking about what you
aspire to be what do you aim to be at
some random point in the future and
that’s what it was once for some reason
when we think about answering this
question we simply answer with an
occupation doctor lawyer engineer artist
photographer but you don’t have to you
can just as easily answer this question
with an emotion or a status so that’s
what I proposed an answer that would be
universally correct for all of us and
that was becoming successful something
we all drive for we all work for every
single day and that’s truly what I found
was the most important part of answering
the question
but when you propose a new answer like
this there’s a lot of questions that
come up what the success really mean how
do you define it
how do you achieve it and those are all
things I work towards so what really is
success just an idea a theory a concept
well a little bit of both or all of them
you can mix them all together and that’s
what success truly is why do we go to
school every single day we have a goal
to graduate but there has to be
something bigger than that that we all
work for but you can’t recognize it yet
and that’s what it is that goal you
can’t recognize you kind of clump up and
all these goals in your life everything
you do all everything you can’t
necessarily pinpoint falls under the
realm of success so how do you define it
every single person in this room look on
your left and your right who’s in front
of you who’s behind you every single
person in this room has a different
definition of success we all see the
word differently because of our specific
connotations so I look to see what was
the best definition of success I could
find what’s the best example and I found
it with a small company called Microsoft
worth over five hundred billion dollars
today and founded in 1975 on the mission
the principle their idea of success was
to put a computer on every desk in every
house seems quite ambitious but 42 years
later today Satya Nadella the current
CEO of Microsoft talked about in his
book hit refresh how this idea of
putting a computer on every desk in
every home was only a goal it wasn’t
truly their mission for success because
it was too easy to accomplish so then
what really is success what is success
to us we’re not Microsoft we’re not
billion-dollar groups we’re individual
people were ordinary people who have
ideas who have a drive to do what we
want to so to us how do we find success
how do we gain it what do we have to do
so it’s a combination of a lot of
different things but in my research with
people who talk about who are really
interested and people who we commonly
define
as successful they will they will say
that it’s two different elements
it’s our aspirations and our consistency
to work hard and reach them as we aspire
to be bigger and better those
aspirations keep developing there is no
end for what you begin you can never
become the best at something because you
can always be better and with that logic
you also have this idea of your
aspirations but you have to work hard
and be consistent at meeting every
single benchmark you set for yourself
because otherwise you’ll never reach
that idea of success and you’ll never
truly fulfill your ambitions and
aspirations the best way to put it is in
these 96 red squares every single square
amounts for a part of your everyday life
whether that be going to school or
getting your dream job every single one
of those is represented by a box but the
thing is this chart will always be empty
you can never truly fill any square in
this box because the second you check
one off say you get your dream job what
about the promotion what about getting a
raise what about owning the company
later these are all things so once you
check one box off another one floats in
and replaces it so you’re always left
with this blank slate so then isn’t
success just like a mindless trance that
we continue following endlessly for
absolutely no reason
well yeah you could say that but we
don’t do it for no reason we do this
because it’s just our human nature to
continue to drive to be better every
single time imagine imagine if Apple
stopped releasing devices because
they’re just too good they’re good
enough for the future they don’t need to
continue to innovate but they don’t
every single year companies like Google
Apple and Microsoft released technology
that state-of-the-art it’s the best of
the best nothing’s better than it but
then the year later they released a new
line of products was completely Dwarfs
what we saw before and that’s the
biggest thing because if these top lever
engineers and data scientists can one-up
themselves why can’t we so if we set the
sky as the limit then why did we care
about sending people to the moon and if
we’re only going to limit our
elves – reaching for the stars then why
do we care so much about what you can
find beyond it the sky and the stars are
simply our expectation of what we want
to achieve that the minimum benchmark
but what we can achieve is essentially
limitless and with that I’d like to
leave you on two points of advice as
future world leaders thinkers innovators
creators I urge you to match and couple
your aspirations and your dreams with
hard work and consistency because that’s
truly the only way you will ever acquire
the success you’ve so greatly desire and
to think about it long and hard because
one day someone’s gonna be asking you
what do you want to be when you grow up
thank you
you
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