How to Retire by 20 | Kristen Hadeed | TEDxUF 

This video came out when I was 22. I was doomed before I even started.

This is TED folks. Privileged, well-fed business people giving themselves endless lipservice and "power of positive thinking" self-help style motivation and expecting clockwork like applause. Its a secular church, except worshiping the doctrines of market economics, social engineering and utopianism (futurism, feminism and so on)

"i didnt grow up with rich parents, my dad was only a lawyer" - things rich people say

option 1: have rich parents so you can hire web designers and make Facebook option 2: have rich parents who own Hilton Hotels so you can socialite w/o having to retire from anything option 3: be one out of 10,000,000 and win a huge lottery option 4: do what you enjoy so you don't want to retire Just some suggestions.

"The more curious you are - the more creative you will be." True.

love reading the comments before i totally waste my time

if youre in a job where retiring seems desirable, is it really your passion?

I, too, was a little disappointed to find out there is no actual plan to retire at 20, but after summing up her entire speech, I believe her point is "how to mentally retire from the pressures of cultural norms, traditions, and other massively influential societal expectations to become "successful", by age 20. In other words, instead of being another average person that graduates college with a bachelor's degree only to land an insignificant 9-5 type job, think about what YOU would like to do for a living, what you'd actually love to study in college, what gives you happiness, and what might inspire you to look forward to another day of work. In her case, I'm assuming that running a cleaning service for charitable purposes is part of her dream, and that's great. Also, know that nothing needs to be set in stone. For example, she may be working for charity now, but she later may develop a an interest for medical assisting, engineering, environmental sciences, or anything else which she then may decide to pursue (which I also believe is part of her point). I really appreciate this idea, and it gave me inspiration to seriously think about what ' I ' want to do with my life, as opposed to what my parents, peers, local trends, or the rest of the world say. This is definitely something we should all apply in our lives, and if one's dream happens to be a career or something that might be useful in the world, great. It's also a good idea to think about how what you want to do is relevant to our ever-changing world.

Behold the product of a privileged home.

It amazes me, or actually saddens me, how cynical people are. She's 23. Who cares if her talk isn't perfect? Who cares if the things she says are rehearsed? Maybe you watched this because you were looking to attack someone, or troll people, and that's pretty pathetic in itself. What have you done with your life that was so great? What had you done by the time you were 23? I personally watched it because I thought it might benefit me positively. I thought it might have a good message; and because I have a daughter, and I thought that I might find something that would be beneficial to her. Granted, it wasn't the most amazing TED talk I've seen, but she still made some good points. Work hard. Be curious. Be creative. Follow your passion. Lead a meaningful life These are ideals that I try to instill in my daughter. And another one that Kristen didn't mention, but that my daughter, at twelve, already knows... Don't be an asshole.

The amount of 'I' in this video is just too much.

She had it ALL figured out before her 10th birthday. That's nothing. Before I was born, I had half of it figured out.

Despite the misleading title of her talk, she has not retired at 20, nor would she have the funds to do so if she did. The pointless jive and buzzwords and catchphrases that followed the pointless autobiography of someone who seems to have had a very wealthy upbringing had me screaming for her to get to the actual point of her talk. Kristen instead spoke about her feelings and how she takes advantage of people to get ahead. She probably doesn't even know she's doing it and would come up with some bogus excuse or not care if it were explained to her. While other TED talks have people talking about how they are creating new things to help the world or explaining some very interesting research and its implications, Kristen goes on about how she has become successful by exploiting people; starting with her friends who trusted her.

Such strange criticisms here. She's talking about herself? That's not egotism. She's sharing her story! You want her to talk about someone else? Someone else can speak for themselves. She's bitchy looking? Attractive? None of that has anything to do with the content of the talk. Cliche? Predictable? Well, success stories will have stuff in common. "Follow your dreams" can never be told enough. Unrehearsed? Too rehearsed? Whatever. Just hear her out. She's done more good going up there than she would by keeping it to herself, and certainly more good than most of these comments.

i took a small loan of 1 million from my dad when i was young and some time after that i became a millionaire

The daughter of a former boss of mine once made plenty of photocopies of her hands when she was 6 or 7. When her dad caught her in the act, she was told it would cost her let's say 10 cents for each photocopy she made. The total would be reduced from her pocket money. Three days later, her mom heard from neighbours, the same little daughter was selling the photocopies of her hands for 1 dollar each, and indeed sold some. In the end, her father even gave her a reward, because as a shop owner, he could appreciate the entrepreneurial flair and initiative of his child .... I always liked that story.

Why is she taking so much flak? All of you harsh commenters are insecure enough to bash this woman who you don't know personally, which is pretty pathetic. It's not the greatest TED Talk I've ever seen, but it's a good message and it hits home for me. She's telling us to follow our dreams rather than taking a job that pays well that doesn't inspire us. Money isn't everything.

who the fuck would want to retire at 20? your job should be your passion, you should LOVE what you do. you SHOULDN'T want to retire

Literally anyone can be a TED speaker now...

I don't like when people complain about others being "born rich". Sometimes those that are "born rich" have a lot of good points and helpful tips that can actually help a lot of people.

Retire at 20? It's a good thing we're all born to wealthy families, have lots of friends, and the natural ability to manipulate our peers!

I'm four minutes in to this presentation, and the urge to click away from it is overwhelming. The only reason I've stayed THIS long is because it's a TED event, and TED has a reputation for quality. Then again, nobody's perfect. The problem with this speech is that she spends a significant portion detailing her personal experiences as a child. This is the first person equivalent of showing other people your childhood family videos. Maybe if she were Bill Gates or someone similar, that sort of context might engender the idea that the stories are worth sticking with. But she isn't. So far, she's an anonymous person talking about their childhood. Not exactly something people go out of their way to hear. Hopefully it will get better.

They should change the title of this video to “ Me bragging about all of my accomplishments in life and trying to pass it off as self-help advice”

I think many people are missing the point and taking the title way too literally.....she's not telling you How To Retire by 20.... this was a list she wrote as a child. She tells us her stories of how she discovered her passion for life through her childhood experiences to demonstrate that you should never limit yourself. We get too boring as we age. Think back to when you were a child and anything was possible. This is the mindset we should carry with us! I thought this talk was very inspirational. Thank you for sharing your experiences Kristen.

These comments make me wonder if anyone actually watched this all the way through, I found it to be a really good talk.

Message of this video: "The world is your doormat!"

The Title should be "Kristen brags about her life" because she so smart

What a beautiful talk by a beautifully-minded person who defies stereotypes! Every one who clicks on this video expecting "get rich" advice will find...just that. The thesis of this talk could be: Real retirement is passion and contributing and lifting others up. Good job, Ms. Hadeed!

I didn't take the title seriously from the beginning so I wasn't disappointed. She talks about something very true which is to listen to your inner child. That voice that speaks to you kind of like a warning when you are about to make a decision that compromises your beliefs. Basically if your heart isn't in it it isn't worth doing despite what others may tell you. You shouldn't allow to betray yourself.

All her business endeavors as a child make it sound like she was more interested in money and having power than in what curiosity really is - which is finding things out. If one was curious, she might think "I wonder what makes my teacher's breast cancer so hard to treat" not "it's now time to reveal that it was me and my friends behind project pink the whole time!".

this ted talk is like an autobiography that I didn't ask to listen to

"my inner child knows what's best for me, and I think yours does too.." NO. when i was a child I wanted to be The Terminator and jump over Mac trucks on a motorbike with a shotgun.

Not too helpful. Sorry to say, but misleading title and little to no practical advice. Disappointed.

Ask yourself "What can I do right now to keep me happy?" and courageously trust your inner wisdom. You know what is right for you. Let go of fear, anger, jealousy, blame, guilt, tension, stress, sorrow, resentment, irritation, criticism and allow your true path, your passion, your calling, your purpose to unfold in front of you. I wish for you peace, love and harmony. I love you xxx

I've never heard of a single person that actually believes curiosity is a bad thing. Also, the last 5 minutes was her delivering the same message over and over but just switching her wording.

Brilliant speech!!! I have to admit, the feeling you get when you do something nice for people, can not be bought but makes you feel so good.

"If you've never failed, you've never lived"

While I admire her starting her own business at a young age and making it work, I think she's just full of herself. It's like a 14 minute Ted Talk of her talking about how awesome she is with trite self help advice. I actually expect a lot more from Ted Talks. I wanna go watch the one about the 16 year old that invented a cancer test again. That's so much better than some girl that just worships herself.

EXCELLENT resolution at the end! I wish more TED talks used this technique. I liked the talk. It was someone's experience that I could relate to and admire.

"we were most human when we were kids" great quote

A friend told me I needed to watch this, sure glad I did. Her message is extremely powerful. As an entrepreneur myself I can say that her points are very accurate. A business will not thrive without passion, excitement, and the willingness to follow what makes you curious. I will be sharing this talk with my entire network. It is remarkable that this young woman grasps these concepts at such a young age.

I admire confidence, however I can see that it has somewhat deluded her into having a sense of over-confidence. Being a small business owner is great, however this story not the majestic fairy tale she makes it out to be. From which her sole happiness comes from helping others. She attributes her success to entrepreneurial skills, however she failed to see the pattern in which her whole life story comprised of using other people for her self gain without actually creating anything innovative. It went from using her little sister, to using her family and friends, and now using poor college students. Innovation is true genius. This story has none. I'm not bashing, Im just trying to bring this story back down to planet earth.

I looked up her website, she runs a student cleaning business. "Along the way, she’s endured defeats and setbacks so devastating that most people, especially a college student, would have thrown in the towel." "From being denied a bank loan to hearing others in the business world say her dream was impossible, Kristen learned to see the word “no” as empowering." Mild peer disapproval and a bank reluctant to give her free money! Devastating setbacks indeed!

How everyone missed the biggest and most repetitive message of this ted talk is completely beyond me. Funny how THEY seem to be upset that the speaker has had a pretty fulfilling life thus far. HOWEVER. FOR CLARIFICATION, HOW TO RETIRE BY 20 ---- FOLLOW YOUR PASSION, HAVE FAITH AND BELIEF IN YOURSELF, NEVER GIVE UP, STAY CURIOUS. Thanks Kristen.

Speaking of curiosity, as I'm listening to this, I'm making my coffee and beside my cup was the orange skins from the Orange i just ate, and i said, I wonder what it would taste like if I put the skins in my coffee? It taste awesome!! a new experience born out of curiosity! entrepreneurs rule the world! :)

Imagine a 40-year old, well-dressed male entrepreneur standing on that stage and relating the exact same story, and you'll find out that the reason y'all are so skeptical, is simply because you aren't fond of a 23-year old fresh graduate teaching you to do things!

She reminds me of the person in school you don't really like. She really only talked about what she did without discussing why/how they were good. And it's easy to value curiosity over all else when you already have a secure life. Go tell someone who's lost their home that they should value curiosity over all else. Or someone who has nothing to eat, or someone who has no money. Focus on this moment? Don't worry about the future or the past? That's the voice of someone who's never wondered if they'd eat tomorrow or if they'd suffer tomorrow. This is the voice of someone who's never suffered. And so what if your employees donate their time? That's messed up in it's own right. You should do it yourself! Pay your employees to clean houses for cancer patients, then refuse payment form the cancer patients. Don't ask your employees to work for free, that's messed up!

Wow, what a self congratulatory lady.

I think the point she's trying to get across is to think of the bigger picture. I started thinking this when she gave the example of her wanting to be a waitress at a young age, then thinking why be a waitress when you can own the diner! I think if you get this meaning out of the video, it's a good watch!

So, this isn't so much a talk as it is a rambling, autobiographical bragging session?

Step 1. Have parents w money. Step 2. Take all the credit. Step 3. Still working... Not retired... This video has 2 mil views because of the title. Not the content.

She seems like a really focused woman and a hard worker who like to help people. Kudos

Yikes. So much for inspirational talks from TEDx. Not only did she NOT retire by 20, or give instructions how to, or "change the world" with her "pray on students" cleaning business, or even make an impact, she simply tooted her horn for 15 minutes and said "be curious". Wow. Such a novel idea... and tried to "prove" being curious is a good thing with such deep thought such as "the NASA rover to Mars is named, guess what? curiosity, see?" Wow. Amazing insight, if you we're 5.

I love how you talk about being creative as kids. You are right, we worked on projects and played with friends for hours because there was nothing else getting in the way. We were excited. It is important to have that same excitement in our adult life. I also like how you say that in order to be creative we have to connect dots that normally wouldn't be connected. It's so true...the only thing that will expose us to those dots is by being curious and experiencing new things. Bravo! Tremendous job!

Translation: As a kid I was a mini manager and made everyone else do the work for me

Are u kidding me? I'm 24 and I haven't even started :( I'm getting a science degree in 2 yrs but.. when I was 10 yrs old I was just playing Nintendo, I wasn't even interested in money because everything I wanted was given to me by my family. She was a very special 10 yr old, tbh.

Change this to: How to Manipulate and Alienate Strangers

The comments here are terrible. So much hate and ignorance.

I came to this TED Talk after reading Kristen's book, "Permission to Screw Up: How I Learned to Lead by Doing (Almost) Everything Wrong. I love both the book and the talk because Kristen isn't perfect. Other people below complain that her talk isn't the height of sophistication or inspiration. But she's up there doing it, telling her story, and she's out there running a company. I adore her story because it makes me think, 'hey if she can do that, I can to" or... "if she can make all those mistakes and yet succeed overall, then maybe I should stop beating myself up about the mistakes I'm making. I actually found the TED Talk entertaining in getting a glimpse of Kristen as a little kid. She was way more adventurous and money-oriented than either I or my kids were. I'm in the thumbs up category!

She said we can't change the future... what?

6 minutes in.... Is there a friggen point to this noise?

I zoned out after like 30 seconds. She looks and sounds like a gold digger, that's all I took from this

I loved this!!! I can definitely relate to following that feeling and seeing all the dots connect when I look back over my life and childhood!!

what she is saying: Curiosity + Trusting yourself + Using your intuition = Success

Notably she doesn't answer the question 'How to Retire by 20' or is that just the title? If she's 23 and owns her own business she's not retired. I agree that this is basically just an ego trip for the first 11:45 and even what comes after that is no better than I could get from asking a stranger in a bar.

This is a list I made 10 minutes ago. I called it "why ted takes so much heat because some stories aren't important enough to be told on a stage especially when the speaker isn't talented enough to give public speeches". 1. You supposedly own a business worth millions (300 employees right?) yet your hair and clothes look like you just stepped out of a cheap salon in jersey or long island. Can't even see your face with that stringy hair. You are the prime example of the saying "you can't buy taste". 2. You had nothing opposing you. You are the definition of priviledged. Your daddy was a lawyer who was successful enough to turn down cases on a whim and your mother had enough fortune to quit a job because she was bored. You were also voted class president so you were probably the hippy popular chick. Literally, if you had failed in life it would have been more of a story than your "success". You even mentioned that you milked people for extra money at your lemonade stand as a kid so you understood how to manipulate and use your gender to your advantage at very young age. Congrats. 3. You tried to counter the bragging of your success by mentioning charity work you did, (which shouldn't have to be mentioned- see the late Paul Walker). Instead, try to be more humble. You also tried to counter it by making it seem like it was an effort to promote fortune cookie rhetoric about following our inner child and curiousity, which along with your annoying voice made the 15 minutes of this video very painful to watch. Now, bring on the next Kardashian wanna be, TED....

This is fantastic! I wish my upbringing was like that. The things we get from our childhood have a huge impact on our lives.

To retire at 20 you need a mindset that doesn’t separate life and fun from work. That way you won’t ever need to retire and focus on collecting the maximum amount of positive memories.

I think it's time to find our passion instead of wasting our lives in something we hate

Well I think I get the overview of this talk. If you are born to two parents in a free county where one is a lawyer and makes over six figure income and a stay at home mom, live in a wealthy area where people will give you extra money for no reason cause they have so much, live in a environment where your parents are open-minded, accepting and allows for you to express yourself and go through trails and error. While taking advantage of other people to satisfy your craving for purpose or satisfaction, then use this newly gained self confidence to get people to do promote your "business," thus making your life awesome. The problem with this mindset is of such. One, kids are not born into prosperity. There parents work minimum wage jobs and have no realistic way of being financially successful. Another is peoples habitat will hinder child development and the people as well will prevent growth and desire. On top of that, some people grow up with compassion and empathy for others to the point they don't live in a false world of "gimme" "gimme" "gimme". Some people don't get everything they want or have an attitude that resembles it. Im glad she made her dream come true, but she has no idea what price id came to. It most likely cost her parents a ton of time, patience, money, and effort that most of the worlds families cant afford to do because of bills, debt, deadlines, stress and so on. Let alone the people she stomped on and only imagined herself as the victor. But were her mentality to become universal and everyone had her way of thinking, the world would eat itself up. People would destroy one another. She needs people like me who don't like taking advantage of others and use people for selfish goals. So in my conclusion, I respect her intentions for pursuing your passion, but try and put yourself in another persons shoes and imagine how you might feel and want to be treated. I'm sure you would feel very bad about your goal in life.

Learned something today... the rejoiner after the 'curiosity killed the cat'... 'but satisfaction brought it back'! Thanks!!!

this is just one horrible, rambling autobiography session...

4 minutes in and I cannot stand another meaningless childhood story.. if she had invented the internet maybe Id be encouraged to stick around but who the hell is this woman and why am I listening to her?

To sum up talk. How to retire by 20.... Don't work yourself, utilize slave labor.

I love all Ted talks videos. seriously I could spend hours watching Tedtalks videos, like women watch glee!!

Great advice! That is, if you are fortunate to see this while single, no kids, nothing to tie you down, etc. If you see this at 33 with multiple kids and already in the grind...well, follow your passion when you're retired.

This is so rehearsed and stale. I was disengaged thirty seconds through. And this is so self-serving. Not to mention how incredibly cliche the content is.

She knows passion all right. Pretty sure she doesn't know what compassion means though.

Thank you for wasting 15 minutes of my time where I could engineer something nice. Nice regards from Germany.

soo is she retired by 20..? Was kinda hopping for some economic or business advice or insight not some auto biography,

Very well done. The key is finding and doing what makes you excited and never losing track of your inner child--the part of you that isn't afraid of risk or judgement. Some of these comments are so ignorant and I am willing to bet those of you who left them are not successful in your own lives. Incredible talk.

Curiosity+Common sense= Success

all my mom says is "stop asking questions and go wash the dishes!" ._.

Title is totally misleading. This is just a platform for this girl to talk about how awesome she is.

This talk is all about how smart and unique she thinks she is.

These TED talks seem to be giving less and less valuable practical advice and give it an inflated title just to pull in views. This video doesn't really provide advice on "how to retire by 20" so much as 15 minutes of "let me give you my life story anecdotes" which would never get the same number views. Other "let me give you my life story anecdotes" have similar titles. ie "how to trade for a living". The main point 12 minutes into this? Curiousity translates to creativity translates to success and it is never too late. 13:00 "Read more, ask more questions, be open to new experiences. Follow your inner child." This is the kind of TED advice we have in so many videos?

You're amazing. You have found your passion and purpose, and that matters more than retiring before you're 20.

I think she has helped a lot of students find work and the improtant message is to find work you are passionate about and to be persistant.

This so describes my childhood! I love it. Fantastic speaker. Thank you!

A completely unimaginative, vapid, and derivative talk by a self-serving woman.

she spoiled topic entirely talking about self

Well it's an interesting autobiography and all, but I wanted to know how to retire early...

this is such a misleading title, the content is actually about imagination and following your heart in business...

awesome talk! don't understand all the hate. she speaks well!

While everyone is spraying this video with hate, I think the only problem in this video is the title. Should've been called "Curiosity and Passion" or whatever...

her message is follow your intuition basically. don't be sold by a good opportunity for making money if it doesn't make you happy. she was offered to make great money in the finance industry but she knew that wouldn't make her happy even if others considered it a dream job. she stuck to her feeling and passed up a great opportunity to make money to do what she wanted to do which is to start her own cleaning company by employing college students to go around and clean houses. she is now doing what she wants to do because she didn't settle for the first thing that came to her.

What's with all the hate on this? It was an inspiring talk!

How to not retire by 20: Watch this video.

I read the comments and I see a bunch of you scared to listen to the message here...this was awesome and inspiring, and for those that judge or assume...you will never get it and rightfully so

I learned that Creativity and Curiosity are crucial.