Success, dreams and a life worth living

IN the second of our four-part series to help you get through the semester, Gabriella Ariffin shares four more videos that will both inspire and keep you grounded in the pursuit of success, dreams and a life worth living. 

There is no easy way to turn our dreams into reality. The excitement can easily morph into fear when we cannot see the end of the road, or when discouragements from people around us break our spirit. So in time when you need reassurance that you have made the right choice to pursue your dream, this series is here to help you out.

Ashton Kutcher – On opportunity, being sexy and living life  

Upon receiving the Teen Choice Award, Ashton Kutcher gives a speech that will make anyone swoon. He talks about life before becoming the “Ashton”, and touches on ideas such as the relationship between hard work and opportunity, how smart is the real sexy, and how to carve out a future for yourself.

Derek Sivers – On starting a movement

How do you go from a being a “lone nut” to a big movement? Derek Sivers explains this perfectly in a five-minute video that is as enlightening as it is entertaining. Hint: It takes two.

Steve Jobs – On finding work that you love 

Steve Jobs might not be everyone’s hero, but his commencement address at Stanford University in 2005 is worth every minute of it. The fact that you’re going to spend a big part of your adult life working should be the impetus to keep looking and finding out what you love doing. “If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle,” says Jobs.

J.K Rowling – On the benefits of failure and the importance of imagination 

With equal dose of humour and wisdom wrought from experience, author of the best-selling Harry Potter series, J.K Rowling, delivers inspirational commencement address to new graduates at Harvard.

Her story would strike a chord and encourage people who have had to manage an uneasy balance between their own ambition and expectations from those closest to them.

In the pursuit of her passion, she also speaks of the pain and benefits of failure, as well as the importance of imagination. The latter is crucial not just to envision a future for yourself, but also to imagine a better world for others. For she believes that life is akin to a tale – what really matters is not how long it is, but how good it is.

“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better,” she says.