8 Ways To Make Money From Your Old Beater Car

this is really a two-hour presentationi give to high school students, cut down to three minutes. and it all started one dayon a plane, on my way to ted, seven years ago. and in the seat next to mewas a high school student, a teenager, and she came from a really poor family. and she wanted to makesomething of her life, and she asked me a simple little question. she said, "what leads to success?"

and i felt really badly, because i couldn't give her a good answer. so i get off the plane, and i come to ted. and i think, jeez, i'm in the middleof a room of successful people! so why don't i ask themwhat helped them succeed, and pass it on to kids? so here we are, seven years,500 interviews later, and i'm going to tell youwhat really leads to success and makes tedsters tick.

and the first thing is passion. freeman thomas says,"i'm driven by my passion." tedsters do it for love;they don't do it for money. carol coletta says, "i would paysomeone to do what i do." and the interesting thing is: if you do it for love,the money comes anyway. work! rupert murdoch saidto me, "it's all hard work. nothing comes easily.but i have a lot of fun." did he say fun? rupert? yes!

(laughter) tedsters do have fun working.and they work hard. i figured, they're not workaholics.they're workafrolics. good! (applause) alex garden says, "to be successful,put your nose down in something and get damn good at it." there's no magic;it's practice, practice, practice. and it's focus.

norman jewison said to me, "i think it all has to dowith focusing yourself on one thing." and push! david gallo says, "push yourself. physically, mentally,you've got to push, push, push." you've got to push through shynessand self-doubt. goldie hawn says,"i always had self-doubts. i wasn't good enough;i wasn't smart enough. i didn't think i'd make it."

now it's not always easy to push yourself, and that's why they invented mothers. frank gehry said to me, "my mother pushed me." serve! sherwin nuland says,"it was a privilege to serve as a doctor." a lot of kids want to be millionaires. the first thing i say is: "ok, well you can't serve yourself;

you've got to serve otherssomething of value. because that's the waypeople really get rich." ideas! tedster bill gates says, "i had an idea: founding the first micro-computersoftware company." i'd say it was a pretty good idea. and there's no magic to creativityin coming up with ideas -- it's just doing some very simple things. and i give lots of evidence.

persist! joe kraus says, "persistence is the numberone reason for our success." you've got to persist through failure.you've got to persist through crap! which of course means "criticism,rejection, assholes and pressure." so, the answer to this question is simple: pay 4,000 bucks and come to ted. or failing that, dothe eight things -- and trust me, these are the big eight thingsthat lead to success.

thank you tedstersfor all your interviews!