Don't Follow Your Passion; Embrace the Struggle. | Akash Thakkar | TEDxYouth@NorthCreek

Often, following your passion is not as fun as it is made out to be. Akash Thakkar's talk is about the rocky path to success because sometimes you have to embrace the struggle in order to reap the benefits of your passion.
Akash Thakkar is an award-winning composer, sound designer, and public speaker within the video game industry. Inspired at a very young age by the music of his favorite video games, he eventually married his two loves, video games and music, to find his career.
He is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music and now a leader in the video game industry, having the honor of speaking at events and conferences around the world.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@AkashThakkarAudio]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

[@ulyssesatsea]

Fire talk, someone ring the alarm

[@Appollochan]

I never really equated passion with pleasure. Passion for me is having such an insatiable curiousity about something that you'll force yourself through the difficult parts (which is most of it). Following my passion has been one of the hardest things I've ever done, but not following was soul crushing.

[@danipinto]

Akash, as a fellow Indian born in Canada and pursuing a career in sound and music, I just want you to know seeing your success inspires me a lot! Thank you for being visible and making your voice heard.

[@AkashThakkarAudio]

YES! AWESOME!!! Contact me if you ever have any questions. www.akashthakkar.com/

[@herica4870]

That's so true that follow our passion most of the time doesn't make us stronger. On the opposite, go on against the struggle, it's a real courageous step, and we can learn more at the end!

[@xinli5827]

I can really relate to this. There were so many moments when I questioned myself whether I was capable of following my passion.Every time I wanted to give up, I reminded myself of why I started.

[@melissajhaynes]

Excellent speech, embrace the struggle, it won't always feels good, sometimes it really sucks following our passion - and that's normal. Not oft spoken about - the toil, the futility and even boredom. Great job! Thank you for this speech!

[@DMRoper1]

Hours of toil and boredom goes with every territory. That's exactly right. But until now, I never really appreciated that fact. Good points.

[@djriggsy]

Brilliant video and great story. I can relate it to my own journey. I'm finally feeling like recently I'm getting some 'real' recognition and I'm closer to where I imagined I'd be all those years ago playing drums and guitar 24/7 annoying my parents with my 4 track borrowed tape recorder from school making random noisy demos. I've been lucky enough now to have DJ'd all over the world and do some great gigs and have fine tuned my craft along the way. I mainly now run my own studio producing and songwriting for top artists all over the world and I'm also working towards pitching stuff to games and tv. Getting things done! :) Keep the videos coming mate. Inspiring.

[@DMRoper1]

Good points. Kudos for following your passions. It takes courage. It really does.

[@mmafox1018]

Where is the next hyper light drifter AKASH! IM WAITING

[@xinli5827]

I can really relate to this. There were so many moments when I questioned myself whether I was capable of following my passion.Every time I wanted to give up, I reminded myself of why I started.