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9 life lessons
An 18-minute graduation speech on finding your way without a big dream
Why it’s worth your time
Not having a big career dream can feel like falling behind, and this speech makes a good-humored case that it isn't. Tim Minchin, the comedian and songwriter, gave nine lessons to graduates at his old university, and the first argues for throwing yourself into short-term goals while keeping an eye on the edges. Watch it for the jokes, and you may come away less worried about not knowing what comes next.
No big dream? Start with a short-term goal
- Watch the speech.
The first lesson, on not needing a dream, comes right after a short, self-mocking introduction and carries the career advice. Listen for what he says about the next worthwhile thing showing up off to the side. The ninth lesson, don't rush, comes back to the same idea.
- Pick one goal you can finish this month.
Choose something real from your current work, like a report you could make properly good, a process you could fix, or a tool you could get decent at. Write it down with a date. Then note one thing at the edge of your job that has caught your interest lately, and keep it on the list.
Good moments for this: when someone asks where you see yourself in five yearsafter a career-planning exercise leaves you blankin the first month of a new job
Keep going with Truest
Small actions add up. Truest helps you find the next thing worth doing, make the space to do it, and keep a record of your progress. It’s a private place to work on your career, and it’s yours, not your employer’s.
- It actually happensWe’ll put it on your calendar and remind you before it starts.
- The longer sessionCareer Compass is the guided session for working out what you want next.
- It’s yours to keepEach thing you do is saved to your private record, there when your next review or job search comes around.
Anything else we can help you with this week?
Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
If the job gives you little to be proud of, this month's goal can sit outside it, like a course, a side project or a skill your next role will need.
What might make this harder
Write this month's goal and the next one as the plan, with a line on what you'd like to learn next. A near-term plan you'll follow usually reads better than a five-year one invented for the form.
Questions people ask
What are Tim Minchin's 9 life lessons?
They come from his 2013 address to graduates at the University of Western Australia, built from his own jokes and stories: you don't have to have a dream, don't seek happiness, remember it's all luck, exercise, be hard on your opinions, be a teacher, define yourself by what you love, respect people with less power than you, and don't rush.
What does Tim Minchin mean by micro-ambitious?
Putting real effort and pride into short-term goals instead of chasing one long-term dream, partly because he thinks the next worthwhile thing will probably turn up in your peripheral vision.
What should I do if I don't know what I want in my career?
Pick a goal you can reach in the next month or two, do it well, and notice what you enjoyed and what caught your eye along the way. Direction often gets clearer from doing than from deciding in advance.
Is there swearing in the speech?
A little. The text he published has some mild swearing and a couple of crude jokes, so it may not suit every room.
What it says, and how it holds up
Career advice often starts with the dream: picture where you want to be, then work backwards. Tim Minchin's first lesson turns that around. He says he never had one of those big dreams, and he argues for putting your head down on short-term goals and doing them with pride, while keeping an eye on the periphery, where he expects the next worthwhile thing to turn up. For someone who can't answer the five-year question, a goal with an end date this month is often easier to commit to than a picture of the future.
He gave the address in 2013 at the University of Western Australia, his old university, and says up front that he isn't there to give career advice, since he's never really had a proper job. The other lessons range well beyond work, taking in luck, exercise and arguing against your own opinions. One that carries straight into an office is respecting people with less power than you: he says some of his important decisions about agents and producers have rested largely on how they treat restaurant staff. He later gathered this address and two others into a book named after its first lesson.
Advice like this has a cost worth noticing. Goals picked one at a time can add up to years spent on whatever happened to be in front of you, which suits some careers and quietly costs others. Fields with long, gated paths, like medicine, law or academic research, tend to reward early long-term planning in a way the speech doesn't cover. If you're at the foot of one of those ladders, someone a few years ahead of you in it is likely to be more help than a commencement speech.
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Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.