Jim Carrey Commencement Speech: It’s Better to Fail at What You Love Than Fail at What You Don’t

The comedian Jim Carrey, who remains dedicated to the practice of Transcendental Meditation, gave a commencement speech at the Maharishi University of Management, which combines teaching traditional subjects (math, business administration, etc.) with less conventional topics like TM and “Sustainable Living.” In the speech, Carrey put some things in perspective for the graduates: “The decisions we make in this moment are based in either love or fear. So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect so we never ask the universe for it.” And then, drawing on his own personal experience, particularly as a child, he offers this advice: “I learned many, many lessons from my father, but not least of which is that you can fail at something you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance doing what you love.” You can watch the full speech here.

via Devour

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‘This Is Water’: Complete Audio of David Foster Wallace’s Kenyon Graduation Speech (2005)

Jim Carrey Sings a Pretty Damn Good Cover of The Beatles “I Am the Walrus”

Alan Watts Introduces America to Meditation & Eastern Philosophy (1960)


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  • Sam says:

    Jim Carey was actually quoting George Burns or his dad was. The quote from Mr. Burns is, “Truly I think it is better to fail at something you love than to succeed at something you hate.”

    Thanks Jim

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