I had to go to see the careers woman at school, and when she asked me what I wanted to do after school, I told her flat: 'I want to be a professional footballer.' I can remember her being silent for a few seconds, just looking at me.
I went to this rubbish school. I asked the careers master what he thought that I was going to do with my life, and he said I could always visit criminals in prison.
The amazing thing about IBM is that it's a company where I have had 10 different careers - local jobs, global jobs, technology jobs, industry jobs, financial services, insurance, start-ups, big scale. The network of talent around you is phenomenal.
Why do scuba divers fall backwards off a boat? Because if they fell forwards they'd still be in the boat.
I remember everything about it—with an effort. I see it all, as divers see what is going on above them, through a medium, dense, rippling, but transparent.
Why is it that scuba divers and surfers are some of the strongest advocates of ocean conservation? Because they've spent time in and around the ocean, and they've personally seen the beauty, the fragility, and even the degradation of our planet's blue heart.
I remember throughout middle school and high school how excited my mom, sister and I would be when a UNC game was on TV. It was required viewing.
Every person goes through a bad phase. Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan, too, had a rough phase in their careers. In my case, it was unfortunate that my personal problems came up at a time when I took a break to rejuvenate myself.
I wanted to be an endurance athlete from a young age. I remember being in a careers class at school and saying I wanted to be a professional athlete and the teacher replying, 'You're not going to make it; it's not possible.'
There appears to be a disturbing trend in this nation to try to force single moms to choose between their children and their careers. If they take their careers seriously, they are labeled as bad mothers. If they spend time with their children, they are labeled as people who can't be serious about careers outside the home. This is a sexist double standard. No such guilt trip is imposed on men, who are generally not forced to choose between their children and their jobs.
For my new book 'Pirate Hunters', I follow John Chatterton and John Mattera, two world-class scuba divers, who teach themselves to think and act as pirates while searching for what would be only the second pirate ship ever found and positively identified.
Time travels in divers paces with divers persons.
By 2018, automation is going to be in full swing in the United States and around the world. There are estimates that it could replace 50 percent of our jobs. That is an enormous shift. But even if we go through a phase where we have an unemployment valley from automation, there will be new jobs and new things for us to do.
There are some great divers in Europe and I'm really excited about going to Eindhoven.
I often think about the class differences involved in "jobs" vs. "careers."
Current education in science treats all students as if they were going to have scientific careers. They are required to solve problems and memorize lists. For many of them, this kills interest very quickly.