I had a friend in high school that had a 15' vertical ramp. He liked to climb to the roof of his 3 story Victorian to drop in, around 40'. Another friend's ramp had a big tree next to it, he liked to grab it >30' up and sit down to rest, then drop back in from the branch. He never looked scared at all.

When you're doing what you love, the fear of failure dissolves.

That's how I was able to drive 140 over unknown uneven terrain with +- 3% traction and feel good about it. It was horrifically unsafe, but some of the best times of my life I would repeat in a heartbeat if I was still able. Thanks to various broken parts including my back, that's a pipedream now. (Hilariously, maybe ironically, I broke it working on my house, not off road racing, not downhill biking, not whitewater kayaking, just removing a cast iron bathtub.)
At least there are some decent off-road video games now to keep me out of the buggy.

Bob.
Stop being stupidly catty. Many investigators are Republicans including Mueller.
<1/6 of the Clinton investigation over a legal real estate deal, which found zero, amounted to zero, and you want to reopen it and investigate a private citizen with another special council with no target or budget limits...but this investigation was over treason and a felon filled administration that's committed uncountable (and been convicted of uncountable) felonies since Trump was elected, run by Trump appointees he only called Democrats when they wouldn't illegally do his bidding, then ended by two Trump sycophants that said it should be quashed before being appointed.

And you still whine like a little bitch. WTF, man, grow up. Your children are more adult. I bet they don't whine and pout when they get what they want.

Trump underhandedly won a single legal round, out of how many? He's almost as exonerated as Jussie is, which is barely at all legally and only that because of special treatment, and not a bit factually.
The report said they found no proof of illegal "collusion" with Russia and Trump directly over the election interference his friend Putin undertook for Trump's sole benifit, but also said he committed obstruction, but Mueller was instructed he could not indict Trump himself, and his bosses who told him that they must be the one's to indict blatantly prejudged the investigation publicly long long ago, it's why they were chosen for the positions, so there never was jeopardy, yet Trump fought tooth and nail against it making it take 4 times longer, wasting far more than necessary because he simply can't ever testify without perjuring himself dozens of times, not even to clear himself. He simply cannot tell the truth, or even avoid lying for an entire sentence, so we had to investigate his actions, and will again.
Sad, very sad.

Now he's tossing another promise and going after pre-existing condition protections like he repeatedly specifically promised to never do....and you love it I'm sure. So very very sad.

Where is the option for the cotton planter to change careers to something they find interesting and challenging?

Does it matter? If you have a job that you studied for in college and suddenly notice it doesnt fit you, you have to work a lot to correct that for no pay, you actually have to pay for it. Also if youre 40+ and want to start a new career human resource managers will rather take someone who didnt have the issues like you and has the years experience in actual work at the same job. So you will always be at a huge disadvantage if you decide to change professions.
All these "super successful" people you see on TV that proudly talk about how they did all that so well, "just because they worked soooooo hard" (everyone either does that, or claims it), are exceptions to the rule!



Where are the benefits of infrastructure?

Uhm, those infrastructures are mostly used to get to your job or do your job anyway. What good are they if you work where you live, like those slaves?



How about healthcare?

AFAIK slaves got good healthcare, since they were property and the owner would lose money if they "broke" and couldnt be fixed.
Also I wouldnt call American healthcare good. People have to pay for it. And often have to take huge debts on themselves and their family to survive or be still able to work.



How about individual's rights?

Individual's rights? Yeah, maybe against other "slaves", but not against the state or rich people. They will always have a huge advantage compared to you. And actually they do what they want all over the world. Just look at those cesspools Syria, Libya, Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Millions killed for what? Are you safer now than before 9/11? No. The whole world is actually MUCH MUCH unsafer now. All thanks to your masters that care so much about the "individual's rights".
They even have the audacity to threaten NATO countries with invasion if they ever dared to bring one of them before an international tribunal.



How about protection from hostility?

Hostility from whom? Terrorists? Are you kidding me? Terrorists who are only created due to inhumane politics aswell? Criminals? Do you know that crime is actually not something we are born with, but we actually learn to do, because of our surroundings? If a lot of people feel treated unfair and cant do anything about it, crime rate will skyrocket. It has been that way for thousands of years. Look at other countries that treat their people much more humane and actually even pay then enough to live a good life even if they dont work, or have never worked! They shudder when seeing American crime rates. You can compare yourself more to Brazil than to Europe.



How about ever improving quality of life?

Most people are extremely stressed in their life, due to their job, not having enough time because of their job, being frustrated because other people have more then them, while working less (or not at all), having health issues due to their work and they know they cant change the job because they wont get another one, they simply hate their job, but also know they cant get a better one, etc, etc, etc.
There was a study a few years ago where they found out that people 500-1000 years ago were actually very happy. They didnt have to work nearly as much as we do nowadays! It wasnt rare that they only worked 6 months a year, and even if they worked they had MUCH longer breaks every day and didnt work as long. And they lived a good life for those times. Of course nowhere near as good as the monarchs, but it wasnt nearly as bad as its commonly claimed.

One thing has changed though: If youre smart and/or lucky (as in having a rich family) you can open your own company, do what you love. But even that gets harder and harder because the competition gets higher in numbers and in quality.

Well, Let's see.
They are actors. They act for money.
That's what their entire career was built on.

I wouldn't call acting, for money, a sell out.
I mean, they're actors. That's what they do.

If they've fooled you in some way, then they're just really good actors.
I mean, hey, if someone offered you that kind of money for a script that was that short for you to do what you love to do and are good at..., wouldn't you do it too....?

Jim's advice to "follow your passion" is, IMHO, a terrible idea and is, perhaps dangerous and destructive career advice. But who could expect Jim to suggest anything else, seeing as how he became highly successful doing what he loves?

How many people do what they love, but never achieve success? Probably far more than those that do, except we never hear from them, because they're never selected to give commencement speeches at universities...

This is particularly pernicious in tournament-style fields where there are only a few big winners in comparison to the many many losers (e.g., media, athletics, startups, etc.).

These students would be better advised to "Do what contributes" (i.e., focus on the beneficial value created for other people and not just to satisfy one's own ego). People who contribute the most are often ultimately the most satisfied with what they do — and eventually find their way into fields with high remuneration (i.e., tend to make the most $).

Sadly, advising people to focus on others rather than oneself is not all that popular, especially given the endemic narcissism that characterizes modern culture (and, to be sure, much of what's behind Jim's own 'performances'). Focusing on what is best for others, rather than oneself, requires us to delay gratification (and short-term happiness) and perhaps even toil for many years to get the payoff of contributing value to the world.

Too often, people follow their passions into fields that are simply too competitive for where their skills are in those things. Instead, one should "do what contributes" — follow the thing that provides the most value to others.

In other words, "Follow your effort," "Don't do what you love, love what you do," and other suggestions to adopt a more complicated if more realistic calculus of doing what you're good at so long as it gives you some amount of satisfaction.

IMO, the best commencement speech of the season is the one delivered by Adm. William McRaven, the head of U.S. special operations, at the University of Texas, who said, "You can't follow anything until you've made your bed."

I upvoted for doing what you love but yes, that was a very long 4mins.

I'm begining to think I missed a line in the videosifts terms of agreement that says "must be able to play an instrument".

Good for you Ching! You do need better recording equipment though....but I'm just being a dick....good for you for doing something you love.

Just as in the old model, the unknown band down the road wouldn't have gotten signed.

The concept of business has been around just long enough (longer than anyone alive) that people take it for granted. A sense of entitlement has arisen where we have somehow gotten the idea that business is the natural order of things. Almost like a machine where you put your hard work in on one end, and cold hard cash comes out the other end - and if it doesn't, then it must be somebody else's fault.

This is no more apparent than in the publishing industries. For a couple of generations they fell into a business model that worked so well for them - the ability to reproduce and control the supply of creative works on a physical medium; and be able to stick a large margin on it, enabled by marketing drives - that they begun to believe that being paid for somebody's creativity is the normal way of things. How they have forgotten that the service they provided was in an absolute sense, extremely new and so fundamentally reliant on a handful of fleeting technologies that are neither natural or fundamental to the works that they published.

Now it is normal to listen and to share music and other media, in the same way that it wasn't 20 years ago. The same way that 20 years ago it was possible to control the supply of music on a magnetic tape or plastic disc in the same way that it wasn't 50 years before that.

The talent, skill, experience and hard work required to create things that other people find interesting or entertaining is no less appreciated now than it ever was; but the talent, skill, experience and hard work required to then turn that into a viable business is a completely separate thing that should not be taken for granted, and one must adapt to the way things are now; not the way they used to be, in order to be successful.

If you are a creative person and you find a way to make a living doing what you love best then you should be grateful for having that chance. If you can't stand the idea of people appreciating your work without paying you - then find something else to do.

Thank you Steve for doing what you loved to do.

Well I know my death will not come
'Til I breathe all the air out my lungs
'Til my final tune is sung
That all is fleeting
Yeah, but all is good
And my love is my whole being
And I've shared what I could
But if you give a little love, you can get a little love of your own
Don't break his heart
Yeah if you give a little love, you can get a little love of your own
Don't break his heart

Well my heart is bigger than the earth
And though life is what gave it love first
Life is not all that it's worth
'Cause life is fleeting
Yeah, but I love you
And my love surrounds you like an ether
In everything that you do
But if you give a little love, you can get a little love of your own
Don't break his heart
Yeah if you give a little love, you can get a little love of your own
Don't break his heart
Yeah if you give a little love, you can get a little love of your own
Don't break his heart
Yeah if you give a little love, you can get a little love of your own
Don't break his heart

Well if you are (what you love)
And you do (what you love)
I will always be the sun and moon to you
And if you share (with your heart)
Yeah, you give (with your heart)
What you share with the world is what it keeps of you

Don't give him a hard time, guys; you gotta do what you love.

Stop doing that!

>> ^Xax:
I'm 30 and have only ever done work that I hate, and always for very little money... I have nothing to show for it. That really sucks. If the next 30 years go by and I can only say the same thing... well, fuck.

We live in a society where most of us can basically find a job doing what we like and the money won't matter much, it's still way above what we "need", it's just the degrees of luxury that comes from it. And doing what you love is a damn fine luxury that's hard to put a price tag on.

"He died doing what he loved.

We should all be so lucky."

I think it'd be better to do what you love until you reach an extremely old age, then die of natural causes.

I'm sure Steve Irwin would have taken that option too, given the choice.