Staying with the career/work theme from last week (for no particular reason) Alain de Botton talks about philosophies of success and failure. Alain is a pretty smart guy (understatement) so anything he says is worth listening to, but I found this presentation to be especially engaging and relevant.

So what I want to argue for, is not that we should give up on our ideas of success. But we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas. And make sure that we own them, that we are truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it’s bad enough, not getting what you want. But it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want, and find out at the end of a journey, that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.

http://www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_a_kinder_gentler_philosophy_of_success.html

Related posts:

1. Dan Pink on Motivation (TED Tuesday)
2. Rory Sutherland on Life lessons from an ad man (TED Tuesday)
3. Janine Benyus on biomimicry in action (TED Tuesday)