For me they normally happen, these career crises, often, actually, on a Sunday evening, just as the sun is starting to set, and the gap between my hopes for myself and the reality of my life starts to diverge so painfully that I normally end up weeping into a pillow.
Za mene one se normalno dešavaju, mislim na krize u karijeri, često u nedelju uveče, kad sunce počinje da zalazi, i razlika između nade u budućnost i realnosti, počinje da se povećava tako da obicno završim jecajući u jastuk.
I'm mentioning all this -- I'm mentioning all this because I think this is not merely a personal problem; you may think I'm wrong in this, but I think we live in an age when our lives are regularly punctuated by career crises, by moments when what we thought we knew -- about our lives, about our careers -- comes into contact with a threatening sort of reality.
Sve ovo spominjem, jer mislim da ovo nije samo moj problem. Vi možda mislite da grešim. Ja mislim da živimo u vremenu kad naši životi redovno upadaju u krize karijere, i da na momente kada mislimo da znamo, o našim zivotima, o našim karijerama, dodjemo u kontakt sa surovom realnošću.
It's perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living. It's perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety. I want to look now, if I may, at some of the reasons why we might be feeling anxiety about our careers. Why we might be victims of these career crises, as we're weeping softly into our pillows. One of the reasons why we might be suffering is that we are surrounded by snobs.
Verovatno je lakše danas, nego ikada pre, da se dobro živi. Verovatno je mnogo teže danas nego ikada pre, da se ostane smiren, oslobodjen od anksioznosti u karijeri. Želeo bih da bacim pogled sada na neke od razloga zašto se osećamo anksioznim kad je u pitanju naša karijera. Zašto postajemo žrvte tih kriza, dok tiho jecamo u naš jastuk. Jedan od razloga zašto mi možda patimo je zato što smo okruženi snobovima.
In a way, I've got some bad news, particularly to anybody who's come to Oxford from abroad. There's a real problem with snobbery, because sometimes people from outside the U.K. imagine that snobbery is a distinctively U.K. phenomenon, fixated on country houses and titles. The bad news is that's not true. Snobbery is a global phenomenon; we are a global organization, this is a global phenomenon. What is a snob? A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you, and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are. That is snobbery.
Na neki način, imam lose vesti, naročito za svakog ko je došao u Oxford iz inostranstva. Tu danas postoji problem sa snobizmom. Ljudi koji nisu iz Britanije zamišljaju da je snobizam fenomen samo u Britaniji vezan za kuće u prirodi i titule. Loša vest je da to nije tačno. Snobizam je svetski fenomen. Ovo je globalna organizacija, a to je globalni fenomen. Šta je to snob? Snob je svako ko na osnovu malo informacija zaključi sve o tebi. To je snobizam.
The dominant kind of snobbery that exists nowadays is job snobbery. You encounter it within minutes at a party, when you get asked that famous iconic question of the early 21st century, "What do you do?" According to how you answer that question, people are either incredibly delighted to see you, or look at their watch and make their excuses.
Dominantni snobizam danas je poslovni snobizam. Nakon nekoliko minuta na okupljanju vas pitaju to čuveno famozno pitanje 21. veka: "Čime se bavite?" I u zavisnosti od odgovora ljudi su ili oduševljeni ili nadju razlog da odu.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
Now, the opposite of a snob is your mother.
Suprotnost jednom snobu je vaša majka.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
Not necessarily your mother, or indeed mine, but, as it were, the ideal mother, somebody who doesn't care about your achievements. Unfortunately, most people are not our mothers. Most people make a strict correlation between how much time, and if you like, love -- not romantic love, though that may be something -- but love in general, respect -- they are willing to accord us, that will be strictly defined by our position in the social hierarchy.
Ne baš vaša majka, ili moja, ali idealna majka. Koju ne zanimaju vaša dostignuća. Nažalost, ljudi nisu naše majke. Mnogo ljudi ispoljava korelaciju izmedju koliko vremena, pa čak i ljubavi, ako hoćete, ne romantične ljubavi, ali generalno poštovanja, i spremni su da nam se posvete u skladu sa tim,
And that's a lot of the reason why we care so much about our careers
a od toga zavisi i naš status u društvu.
and indeed start caring so much about material goods. You know, we're often told that we live in very materialistic times, that we're all greedy people. I don't think we are particularly materialistic. I think we live in a society which has simply pegged certain emotional rewards to the acquisition of material goods. It's not the material goods we want; it's the rewards we want. It's a new way of looking at luxury goods. The next time you see somebody driving a Ferrari, don't think, "This is somebody who's greedy." Think, "This is somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of love."
I to je razlog zašto mi brinemo o karijeri. I razlog zašto počinjemo da obraćamo pažnju na materijalne stvari. Često cujemo da živimo u materijalnom svetu, i da smo svi pohlepni. Ja ne mislim tako. Mislim da živimo u drustvu koje je spojilo emotivne nagrade sa sticanjem materijalnih dobara. Nije novac ono sto želimo, već su to nagrade. I to je nov način gledanja na luksuzne stvari. Sledeći put kad vidite nekog ko vozi Ferrari nemojte da mislite, "Ovaj je pohlepan." Mislite, "Ovo je neko ko je vrlo ranjiv i kome treba ljubav."
(Laughter)
Odnosno, (Smeh)
Feel sympathy, rather than contempt.
saosećajte se sa njima,
There are other reasons --
radije nego da ih prezirete.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
There are other reasons why it's perhaps harder now to feel calm than ever before. One of these, and it's paradoxical, because it's linked to something that's rather nice, is the hope we all have for our careers. Never before have expectations been so high about what human beings can achieve with their lifespan. We're told, from many sources, that anyone can achieve anything. We've done away with the caste system, we are now in a system where anyone can rise to any position they please. And it's a beautiful idea. Along with that is a kind of spirit of equality; we're all basically equal. There are no strictly defined hierarchies. There is one really big problem with this,
Postoje drugi razlozi zašto je teže danas osećati se smirenije nego ikada pre. Jedan od razloga je što se svi nadamo uspešnim karijerama. Nikada pre očekivanja nisu bila toliko velika o tome šta ljudi mogu da urade u njihovom životu. Govore nam da svako može da postigne sve. Završili smo sa kastama. Živimo u sistemu gde svako moze da dostigne bilo koju poziciju koju zeli. I to je lepa ideja. Iz toga proizilazi ideja o jednakosti. Mi smo svi faktički jednaki. Ne postoje strikno definisane neke vrste hijararhije.
and that problem is envy. Envy, it's a real taboo to mention envy, but if there's one dominant emotion in modern society, that is envy. And it's linked to the spirit of equality.
Postoji jedan veliki problem. A taj problem je zavist. Pravi je tabu spomenuti zavist, ali zavist je dominantna emocija u modernom društvu. I povezana je sa idejom jednakosti. Pojasniću.
Let me explain. I think it would be very unusual for anyone here, or anyone watching, to be envious of the Queen of England. Even though she is much richer than any of you are, and she's got a very large house, the reason why we don't envy her is because she's too weird.
Mislim da bi bilo veoma čudno, da zavidimo Kraljici Engleske. Iako je ona mnogo bogatija od svih nas. I ima veoma veliku kuću. Razlog zašto joj ne zavidimo je
(Laughter)
što je previse čudna.
She's simply too strange. We can't relate to her, she speaks in a funny way, she comes from an odd place. So we can't relate to her, and when you can't relate to somebody, you don't envy them.
Ne možemo da se poistovetimo sa njom. Priča čudno. A kada ne možete da se poistovetite sa nekim, ne možete da im zavidite. Što su dvoje ljudi bliže, po godinama, po poreklu,
The closer two people are -- in age, in background, in the process of identification -- the more there's a danger of envy, which is incidentally why none of you should ever go to a school reunion, because there is no stronger reference point than people one was at school with. The problem of modern society is it turns the whole world into a school. Everybody's wearing jeans, everybody's the same. And yet, they're not. So there's a spirit of equality combined with deep inequality, which can make for a very stressful situation.
veća je opasnost od zavisti. To je razlog zašto niko od vas ne treba da ide na godišnjice mature. Jer ne postoji jača veza nego izmedju ljudi koji su išli zajedno u školu. Problem modernog drustva je da pretvara ceo svet u školu. Svi nose farmerke, svi su jednaki, ali ustvari nisu. Postoji prividan duh jednakosti, zajedno sa velikim nejednakostima.
It's probably as unlikely that you would nowadays become as rich and famous as Bill Gates, as it was unlikely in the 17th century that you would accede to the ranks of the French aristocracy. But the point is, it doesn't feel that way. It's made to feel, by magazines and other media outlets, that if you've got energy, a few bright ideas about technology, a garage -- you, too, could start a major thing.
Podjednako je neverovatno da danas postanete bogati i kao Bill Gates, kao što je bilo neverovatno u 17. veku da postanete Francuska aristokratija. Ali to ljudi ne osećaju. Ustvari mediji stvaraju osećaj, da ako imas energiju, nekoliko ideja o tehnologiji, i garažu, i ti možes da započnes veliku stvar.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
The consequences of this problem make themselves felt in bookshops. When you go to a large bookshop and look at the self-help sections, as I sometimes do -- if you analyze self-help books produced in the world today, there are basically two kinds. The first kind tells you, "You can do it! You can make it! Anything's possible!" The other kind tells you how to cope with what we politely call "low self-esteem," or impolitely call, "feeling very bad about yourself."
I posledice se osećaju u knjizarama. u sekciji sa knjigama "kako da sami sebi pomognete". a ponekad ih obiđem, i ako analizirate te knjige, postoje samo dve vrste knjiga. Prva kaže: "Ti to možes! Uspećes! Sve je moguće!" A druga kaže kako da se suočite sa tzv. "nedostatkom samopoštovanja", tj. misliti loše o sebi.
There's a real correlation between a society that tells people that they can do anything, and the existence of low self-esteem. So that's another way in which something quite positive can have a nasty kickback. There is another reason why we might be feeling more anxious -- about our careers, about our status in the world today, than ever before. And it's, again, linked to something nice. And that nice thing is called meritocracy.
Postoji realna korelacija, izmedju društva koje govori da mogu sve da postignu, i nedostatka samopoštovanja. I to nije mnogo dobro. Postoji još jedan razlog zašto smo mi danas previse anksiozni u vezi sa našim statusom u društvu. A razlog je meritokratija (merit (eng.) = zasluga), i to je opet u vez sa nečim dobrim.
Everybody, all politicians on Left and Right, agree that meritocracy is a great thing, and we should all be trying to make our societies really, really meritocratic. In other words -- what is a meritocratic society? A meritocratic society is one in which, if you've got talent and energy and skill, you will get to the top, nothing should hold you back. It's a beautiful idea. The problem is, if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top, you'll also, by implication, and in a far more nasty way, believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom also get to the bottom and stay there. In other words, your position in life comes to seem not accidental, but merited and deserved. And that makes failure seem much more crushing.
Danas se svi, pa i političari, slažu da je meritokratija dobra stvar, i da naše društvo treba da bude meritokratsko. A šta je to meritokratsko društvo? Meritokratsko društvo je ono u kome ako imaš talenta i energije i veštine, uspećeš da dodjes na vrh. Dobra ideja, ali problem je da ako stvarno verujete u društvo gde ljudi koji zaslužuju da dodju na vrh, dodju na vrh, onda takodje misite, implicitno, da oni koji zaslužuju da dodju na dno, dodju na dno. Vaša pozicija u životu više nije slučajna, vec zaslužena. I to čini neuspeh jos težim.
You know, in the Middle Ages, in England, when you met a very poor person, that person would be described as an "unfortunate" -- literally, somebody who had not been blessed by fortune, an unfortunate. Nowadays, particularly in the United States, if you meet someone at the bottom of society, they may unkindly be described as a "loser." There's a real difference between an unfortunate and a loser, and that shows 400 years of evolution in society and our belief in who is responsible for our lives. It's no longer the gods, it's us. We're in the driving seat.
U srednjem veku, kada vidite siromašnu osobu, kaze se da "nema sreću", nesrećnik. Drugim rečima, neko ko nije bio blagosloven srećom. Danas, pogotovu u SAD, kada sretnete nekog siromašnog, ljudi kažu da je "luzer". Postoji realna razlika izmedju nesrećnika i luzera. I to pokazuje 400 godina evolucije u društvu, i verovanja ko je odgovoran za naše živote. To vise nisu bogovi, to smo mi.
That's exhilarating if you're doing well, and very crushing if you're not. It leads, in the worst cases -- in the analysis of a sociologist like Emil Durkheim -- it leads to increased rates of suicide. There are more suicides in developed, individualistic countries than in any other part of the world. And some of the reason for that is that people take what happens to them extremely personally -- they own their success, but they also own their failure.
To je vrlo uzbudljivo ako nam ide dobro, i veoma surovo u suprotnom slučaju. U najgorem slučaju, po analizi sociologa kao što je Emil Durkheim, to vodi ka povećanom broju samoubistava. Više samoubistava se dešava u razvijenim individualističkim zemljama nego u bilo kom drugom kraju sveta. I jedan od razloga za to je što ljudi sve što im se desi doživljavaju veoma lično. Oni su zaslužni za svoj uspeh, ali i neuspeh.
Is there any relief from some of these pressures that I've been outlining? I think there is. I just want to turn to a few of them. Let's take meritocracy. This idea that everybody deserves to get where they get to, I think it's a crazy idea, completely crazy. I will support any politician of Left and Right, with any halfway-decent meritocratic idea; I am a meritocrat in that sense. But I think it's insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic; it's an impossible dream.
Ali ja mislim da postoji olakšanje od ovih pritisaka. I hteo bih da spomenem nekoliko njih. Uzmimo za primer meritokratiju. Ideju da svako dobije onoliko koliko radi i zaslužuje. To je po meni luda ideja, Podrzaću svakog političara, sa bilo kakvom meritokratskom idejom. Ja sam meritokrata i to je to. Ali mislim da je ludo da verujemo da će naše društvo ikada biti meritokratsko. Ideja da ćemo napraviti društvo
The idea that we will make a society where literally everybody is graded, the good at the top, bad at the bottom, exactly done as it should be, is impossible. There are simply too many random factors: accidents, accidents of birth, accidents of things dropping on people's heads, illnesses, etc. We will never get to grade them, never get to grade people as they should.
gde su svi klasifikovani, dobri na vrhu, a loši na dnu, i da smo sve ispravno uradili - to je nemoguće. Postoji suviše slučajnih faktora. Nesreće, bolesti, slučajnost da ti padne stvar na glavu, itd. Nikada nećemo moći da klasifikujemo ljude kako treba.
I'm drawn to a lovely quote by St. Augustine in "The City of God," where he says, "It's a sin to judge any man by his post." In modern English that would mean it's a sin to come to any view of who you should talk to, dependent on their business card. It's not the post that should count. According to St. Augustine, only God can really put everybody in their place; he's going to do that on the Day of Judgment, with angels and trumpets, and the skies will open. Insane idea, if you're a secularist person, like me. But something very valuable in that idea, nevertheless.
Sv. Augustin u knjizi "Božiji grad" kaže: "Greh je oceniti nekoga sudeći po njegovom stubu". Na modernom engleskom to znači greh je donositi zaključke o nekom sudeći po njihovoj biznis kartici. Nije stub taj koji treba da se računa. I po Sv. Agustinu, samo je Bog taj koji može da sudi. I to će se desiti kad dodje Sudnji Dan. sa andjelima i trubama, i nebo će se otvoriti. Luda ideja, za nekog ko je sekularan, kao ja. Ali ipak postoji nešto veoma vredno u toj ideji.
In other words, hold your horses when you're coming to judge people. You don't necessarily know what someone's true value is. That is an unknown part of them, and we shouldn't behave as though it is known. There is another source of solace and comfort for all this. When we think about failing in life, when we think about failure, one of the reasons why we fear failing is not just a loss of income, a loss of status. What we fear is the judgment and ridicule of others. And it exists.
a to je: ne žuri kad donosiš zaključke o ljudima. Moguće je da ne znaš u prvi mah kakav je neko. To je nepoznati deo njih. I mi ne treba da se ponašamo kao da je poznat. Postoji još jedan izvor utehe kada razmišljamo o neuspehu u životu, jedan od razloga zasto se plašimo neuspeha nije samo gubitak prihoda i statusa. Ono čega se plašimo je osuda i ismejavanje od drugih. A broj jedan medij za ismejavanje
The number one organ of ridicule, nowadays, is the newspaper. If you open the newspaper any day of the week, it's full of people who've messed up their lives. They've slept with the wrong person, taken the wrong substance, passed the wrong piece of legislation -- whatever it is, and then are fit for ridicule. In other words, they have failed. And they are described as "losers." Now, is there any alternative to this? I think the Western tradition shows us one glorious alternative, which is tragedy.
su novine. Ako otvorite novine bilo koji dan u nedelji, prepune su ljudi koji su uradili nesto pogrešno. Spavali su sa pogrešnom osobom. Uzeli su pogrešnu supstancu. Doneli su pogrešan zakon. I oni su pogodni za ismejavanje. Drugim rečima, okarakterisani su kao gubitnici. Da li postoji neka alternativa za ovo? Ja mislim da nam zapadna tradicija pokazuje jednu veličanstvenu alternativu.
Tragic art, as it developed in the theaters of ancient Greece, in the fifth century B.C., was essentially an art form devoted to tracing how people fail, and also according them a level of sympathy, which ordinary life would not necessarily accord them. A few years ago, I was thinking about this, and I went to "The Sunday Sport," a tabloid newspaper I don't recommend you start reading if you're not familiar with it already.
A to je tragedija. Tragična umetnost, koja je nastala u teatrima stare Grčke, u Petom veku p.n.e. je u suštini umetnost posvećena ljudima koji doživljavaju neuspeh. i koja im pripisuje odredjen nivo saosećanja. Saosećanje koje im obican život obično ne bi dao. Pre nekoliko godina otišao sam da vidim redakciju jednih novina, koju ne preporučjem da počnete da čitate, ako već niste upoznati.
(Laughter)
I otišao sam da razgovaram
And I went to talk to them about certain of the great tragedies of Western art. I wanted to see how they would seize the bare bones of certain stories, if they came in as a news item at the news desk on a Saturday afternoon.
o odredjenim poznatim tragedijama Zapadne umetnosti. I hteo sam da vidim kako oni vide suštinu odredjenih priča, ako bi se pojavile kao vesti
I mentioned Othello; they'd not heard of it but were fascinated.
u njihovoj redakciji. I počnem sa Otelom.
Oni nikad čuli ali im se svidela priča.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
I asked them to write a headline for the story. They came up with "Love-Crazed Immigrant Kills Senator's Daughter." Splashed across the headline. I gave them the plotline of Madame Bovary. Again, a book they were enchanted to discover. And they wrote "Shopaholic Adulteress Swallows Arsenic After Credit Fraud."
I pitao sam ih kako bi oni napisali naslov za Otelo. Smislili su: "Ludo-zaljubljeni imigrant ubio senatorovu ćerku" ogromnim slovima preko naslovne strane. Slično i za Madam Bovari. Opet, nikad čuli ali im se svidelo. Kažu: "Razvratna preljubnica popila arsenik posle kredine malverzacije"
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
And then my favorite -- they really do have a kind of genius of their own, these guys -- my favorite is Sophocles' Oedipus the King: "Sex With Mum Was Blinding."
I moj favorit. Ti ljudi stvarno imaju neku genijalnost. Sofokleov "Kralj Edip" "Seks sa majkom je bio zaslepljujući"
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
In a way, if you like, at one end of the spectrum of sympathy, you've got the tabloid newspaper. At the other end of the spectrum, you've got tragedy and tragic art. And I suppose I'm arguing that we should learn a little bit about what's happening in tragic art. It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser. He is not a loser, though he has lost. And I think that is the message of tragedy to us, and why it's so very, very important, I think.
Na neki način na jednom kraju imate tabloidne novine. A na drugom kraju tragediju i tragičnu umetnost. I ovim želim da skrenem malo više pažnju na tragičnu umetnost. Bilo bi ludo da nazovemo Hamleta luzerom. On nije gubitnik, iako jeste mnogo izgubio. I to je poruka tragedije za sve nas, i mislim da je ona veoma bitna.
The other thing about modern society and why it causes this anxiety, is that we have nothing at its center that is non-human. We are the first society to be living in a world where we don't worship anything other than ourselves. We think very highly of ourselves, and so we should; we've put people on the Moon, done all sorts of extraordinary things. And so we tend to worship ourselves. Our heroes are human heroes.
Još jedna stvar modernog društva, koja prouzrukuje anksioznost, je da nemamo ništa u centru društva što nije čovek. Kao moderno društvo mi ne obožavamo ništa drugo osim nas samih. i imamo visoko mišljenje o nama. A i treba. Poslali smo ljude na mesec, i svašta još zanimljivo. I zbog toga sebe obožavamo.
That's a very new situation. Most other societies have had, right at their center, the worship of something transcendent: a god, a spirit, a natural force, the universe, whatever it is -- something else that is being worshiped. We've slightly lost the habit of doing that, which is, I think, why we're particularly drawn to nature. Not for the sake of our health, though it's often presented that way, but because it's an escape from the human anthill. It's an escape from our own competition, and our own dramas. And that's why we enjoy looking at glaciers and oceans, and contemplating the Earth from outside its perimeters, etc. We like to feel in contact with something that is non-human, and that is so deeply important to us.
Naši heroji su ljudi. Medjutim, druga društva su imala tašno u njihovom centru, nešto transcedentno kao Bog, duh, prirodnu silu, univerzum. Šta god da je, nije čovek koji je obožavan. Mi smo tu naviku izgubili. Što je razlog zašto smo naročito privučeni prema prirodi. Ne zbog koristi za naše zdravlje, kako ljudi obično misle. Nego zato što je to beg od "ljudskog mravinjaka". od našeg sopstvenog nadmetanja od naše sopstvene drame. I to je razlog zašto uživamo u prirodi, i razmišljamo o Zemlji izvan njenih granica. Mi osećamo potrebu da smo u kontaktu sa nečim sto nije ljudsko. I to je veoma važno za nas.
What I think I've been talking about really is success and failure. And one of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. If I said that there's somebody behind the screen who's very successful, certain ideas would immediately come to mind. You'd think that person might have made a lot of money, achieved renown in some field. My own theory of success -- I'm somebody who's very interested in success, I really want to be successful, always thinking, how can I be more successful? But as I get older, I'm also very nuanced about what that word "success" might mean.
Do sada sam govorio o uspehu i neuspehu, ali jedna interesantna stvar u vezi sa uspehom je sto mi mislimo sta to znači. Ako vam kažem da je neko uspešan, odredjene ideje bi vam odmah pale na pamet. Mislili biste da je taj neko bogat, ili slavan u nekoj oblasti. Ja imam svoju teorija uspeha, a ja sam neko ko je veoma zainteresovan za uspeh. ali što sam stariji, postajem više iznijansiran šta ta rec "uspeh" zapravo znači.
Here's an insight that I've had about success: You can't be successful at everything. We hear a lot of talk about work-life balance. Nonsense. You can't have it all. You can't. So any vision of success has to admit what it's losing out on, where the element of loss is. And I think any wise life will accept, as I say, that there is going to be an element where we're not succeeding.
Evo šta ja mislim. Ne možete da budete uspešni u svemu. Slušamo puno o balansu u životu. Gluposti. Ne možete imati sve. Ne možete. Bilo koja vizija uspeha mora da kaže gde to gubimo, I mislim da će svako ko je mudar, da prihvati ovo što kažem, da uvek postoji deo života u kome nismo uspešni.
And the thing about a successful life is that a lot of the time, our ideas of what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They're sucked in from other people; chiefly, if you're a man, your father, and if you're a woman, your mother. Psychoanalysis has been drumming home this message for about 80 years. No one's quite listening hard enough, but I very much believe it's true.
I jedna stvar u vezi sa uspešnim životom, je što vrlo često, naše ideje o tome sta znači živeti uspešsno, nisu ustvari naše. One su usisane od drugih ljudi. Prvenstveno, ako ste muškarac od vašeg oca. A ako ste žena od vaše majke. Psihoanaliza dobošari ovu poruku vec 80 godina Niko ustvari ne sluša dovoljno pažljivo.
And we also suck in messages from everything from the television, to advertising, to marketing, etc. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves. When we're told that banking is a very respectable profession, a lot of us want to go into banking. When banking is no longer so respectable, we lose interest in banking. We are highly open to suggestion.
Takodje, mi usisavamo poruke sa svih strana počev od televizije, preko reklama, do marketinga, i tako dalje. Sve ovo su ogromne moćne sile koje definišu sta hoćemo, i kako mi vidimo sebe. Kada nam kažu da je bankarstvo popularno puno nas hoće da se bavi bankarstvom. Kada bankarstvo vise nije popularno, mi gubimo interesovanje. Mi smo veoma podložni sugestijama.
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 the journey, that it isn't, in fact, what you wanted all along.
Ono za šta hoću da se založim, nije da odustanemo od naših ideja o uspehu. Nego da utvrdimo da su te ideje potekle od nas. Treba se fokusirati na naše ideje. Utvrditi da su samo naše, i da smo mi pravi autori. Zato što je dovoljno loše ne dobiti ono što hoćete. Ali je još gore imati ideju o tome šta je to što hoćete, i saznati na kraju puta, da to ustvari nije ono sto šte stvarno želeli.
So, I'm going to end it there. But what I really want to stress is: by all means, success, yes. But let's accept the strangeness of some of our ideas. Let's probe away at our notions of success. Let's make sure our ideas of success are truly our own.
Tako da ću tu i da završim. Ali ono što stvarno hoću da naglasim je biti uspešan, svakako. ali hajde da prihvatimo čudnost naših ideja. Hajde da stavimo na test neke od naših ideja o uspehu. Hajde da utvrdimo da su te ideje stvarno naše.
Thank you very much.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
Chris Anderson: That was fascinating. But how do you reconcile this idea of it being bad to think of someone as a "loser," with the idea that a lot of people like, of seizing control of your life, and that a society that encourages that, perhaps has to have some winners and losers?
Chris Anderson: Fascinantno. Kako se ova ideja da je loše misliti o nekom kao o luzeru, može pomiriti sa idejom koju mnogi ljudi vole, a to je kontrolisati sopstveni zivot. I da društvo koje to podstiče možda mora da ima pobednike i gubitnike.
Alain De Botton: Yes, I think it's merely the randomness of the winning and losing process that I want to stress, because the emphasis nowadays is so much on the justice of everything, and politicians always talk about justice. Now I'm a firm believer in justice, I just think that it's impossible. So we should do everything we can to pursue it, but we should always remember that whoever is facing us, whatever has happened in their lives, there will be a strong element of the haphazard. That's what I'm trying to leave room for; otherwise, it can get quite claustrophobic.
Alain de Botton: Ja mislim da je sama slučajnost da neko dobije ili izgubi ono što ja hoću da naglasim. Zato sto je naglasak danas previše na pravdi u vezi sa svime. I političari stalno govore o pravdi. Ja sam čvrst vernik u pravičnost. Samo što mislim da je nemoguća. Tako da mi moramo da učinimo sve što možemo da dostignemo pravdu. Ali na kraju dana moramo da se uvek setimo da šta god se nekom desilo u zivotu, postojaće velika doza slučajnosti. I to je ono za šta hoću da ostavim malo prostora. Zato sto u suprotnom postaje jako klaustrofobično.
CA: I mean, do you believe that you can combine your kind of kinder, gentler philosophy of work with a successful economy? Or do you think that you can't, but it doesn't matter that much that we're putting too much emphasis on that?
Chris: Da li veruješ da možeš da ukombinuješ tvoju vrstu brižljive, nežnije filozofije rada, sa uspešnom ekonomijom? Ili misliš da ne možeš ali to nije ni bitno jer mi stavljamo previše naglaska na ekonomiju?
AB: The nightmare thought is that frightening people is the best way to get work out of them, and that somehow the crueler the environment, the more people will rise to the challenge. You want to think, who would you like as your ideal dad? And your ideal dad is somebody who is tough but gentle. And it's a very hard line to make. We need fathers, as it were, the exemplary father figures in society, avoiding the two extremes, which is the authoritarian disciplinarian on the one hand, and on the other, the lax, no-rules option.
Alain: Najgora misao je da će se zaplašivanjem ljudi naterati da rade najbolje. I da na neki nacin, što je okrutnije okruženje to će ljudi više da daju svoj maksimum. Treba razmišljati ovako: koga bi vi voleli za vašeg idealnog oca? I vaš idealan otac je neko ko je čvrst ali opet blag. I veoma je teško da povučete crtu izmedju ta dva. Nama trebaju očevi, primeri očinskih figura izmedju ta dva ekstrema. A to su diktatorski i strog, sa jedne strane. I sa druge, labav i spontan.
CA: Alain De Botton.
Chris: Alain de Botton.
AB: Thank you very much.
Alain de Botton: Hvala mnogo.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)