Skip to content

The question

What counsel would you give your twenty-year-old self — and what should they ignore?
Sylvia Earle

Marine biologist and oceanographer; first woman to serve as Chief Scientist of NOAA

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
They encouraged me, the way I do others now, that if you really have something that you like to do, that’s what you probably should do. Despite what everybody says, that you can’t make a living, or that’s not practical, or a thousand reasons why you may not do this or this or this. If that’s what your heart says you should do, chances are that you ought to listen.

Academy of Achievement interview, 27 January 1991 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 78 →
Desmond Tutu Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
Dream. Dream. Dream. Be like God, dream because God believes in you young people. Most of God’s best collaborators and partners have been young people. Joseph, David, Jeremiah, St. Francis. They are young, young, young. And in many ways Jesus was young. Many of those who have been God’s best works — fellow workers have been young. And don’t allow oldies to fill you with their cynicism and disillusionment. Dream. Dream that this world can become better as you do dream, in fact. I mean, when these young people go off and work as Peace Corps and other volunteering groups in poverty stricken places where they don’t get any better headlines for dreaming the good things. Dream. Dream. Dream. Dream that this can be a world without poverty. Dream that this can be a world without war. Dream that this is a world that will recognize that every human being matters.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗
Frank M. Johnson Jr. United States district judge, Middle District of Alabama, 1955–1979; judge of the Eleventh Circuit
Study. Be honest. Don’t violate the laws and get in trouble. Get you a good spouse that will support you, because you never stop working and studying. The fact that you get the place just means you’ve started as far as the work and the pressure is concerned. That’s the only advice I’d know to give.
Recorded Academy of Achievement recorded interview, American Academy of Achievement, 16 March 1991 source ↗
Reid Hoffman Co-founder of LinkedIn; partner at Greylock Partners
The challenge of a big, over-arching vision is that it's hard to know where to start. And your biggest opportunity will change from year to year. Technology changes. Competition changes. You change. My advice: Just start. Find a single unmet need that nudges the world closer to where you believe it's going. And if you hit a dead end, pivot.
Recorded Hoffman's own Medium publication, Reid Hoffman on Medium source ↗
Richard Ford Novelist and short-story writer
Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer’s a good idea.
Recorded The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 source ↗

More from Sylvia Earle

View profile →
Question Which book reshaped how you think, and in what way? Taste & recommendation
I fell in love with the stories by William Beebe, who was an ocean explorer. He discussed what it was like to go down inside a submersible, and peer out of a port hole and see beautiful, luminescent fish, with lights down the side like ocean liners. Bizarre creatures of the sort that you just don’t see walking down the street, or going into the forest, or even looking around in shallow water.
Recorded Academy of Achievement recorded interview, American Academy of Achievement, 27 January 1991 source ↗

More on time & hindsight

Also answered this

Paul Farmer, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Richard Leakey, Shinya Yamanaka, Mario Molina, Ellen Ochoa

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

Report this answer