Dara Curran, also known as the Guinness Guru, shares his personal journey of finding the right career by first exploring many wrong options. He emphasizes the importance of trial and error in discovering one's true passion and details his own experience of working through a self-made list of career ideas—from personal training and event planning to videography—before ultimately finding fulfillment in content creation. His honest storytelling touches on the challenges, failures, and unexpected turns that make the process of career discovery both daunting and rewarding.

The narrative offers an inside look into how Dara navigated obstacles, especially in transforming a passion into a sustainable career. He describes the perseverance required during slow periods, the impact of external events like the Covid-19 pandemic, and the courage needed to adapt and pivot when boredom struck or audience engagement waned. With practical advice and real anecdotes, he demonstrates the necessity of persistence and flexibility, whether through changing content styles, leveraging new platforms like TikTok, or enduring periods of uncertainty and reinvention.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. nuanced [ˈnuː.ɑːnst] - (adjective) - Having subtle differences in meaning or expression; not simple or black and white. - Synonyms: (subtle, refined, delicate)

It's a bit of a nuanced kind of job.

2. inevitable [ɪnˈɛvɪtəbl] - (adjective) - Certain to happen; unavoidable. - Synonyms: (unavoidable, inexorable, destined)

And the inevitable next question that always comes, especially maybe if you're sitting in the pub and there's an outlet there and you're trying to explain the social media job to him. He says, well, how do you make money from that?

3. transparency [trænˈspærənsi] - (noun) - The quality of being open and honest; not hiding information. - Synonyms: (openness, clarity, candor)

I say, okay, well, complete transparency. The way I make my money is through kind of brand sponsorship deals across various social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok.

4. premise [ˈprɛm.ɪs] - (noun) - A statement or idea that something is based on; a reason for doing something. - Synonyms: (assumption, proposition, basis)

Got up to the Giants Causeway with no premise or rhyme or reason.

5. elimination [ɪˌlɪm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən] - (noun) - The process of removing or getting rid of something; the act of resolving by excluding options. - Synonyms: (removal, exclusion, eradication)

Success in finding the right career often involves a process of elimination and self-discovery through trying—and discarding—different paths

6. pivotal [ˈpɪv.ə.təl] - (adjective) - Of crucial importance in relation to the development or success of something else; central or key. - Synonyms: (crucial, critical, central)

It was a bit of a pivotal moment in September of 2023.

7. discern [dɪˈsɜːrn] - (verb) - To recognize or find out something with difficulty or effort. - Synonyms: (perceive, detect, distinguish)

And the moral of the story of part one is that the last thing I put on my list was the thing that ended up being the thing I was most passionate about. And to be honest, I just never would have figured that out if I didn't grab a pen and paper, write out a simple list and just follow that list over two or three years.

8. satisfactory [ˌsætɪsˈfæktəri] - (adjective) - Fulfilling expectations or needs; acceptable though not outstanding or perfect. - Synonyms: (acceptable, sufficient, adequate)

And the main thing was it just wasn't giving me that satisfactory feeling that I thought it would.

9. implement [ˈɪmplɪˌmɛnt] - (verb) - To put a plan or system into operation. - Synonyms: (execute, apply, carry out)

through certain kind of practices over the last few years that I've implemented that I'm going to share with you all today, I've managed to find what I'm passionate about and more importantly, I've managed to find a way to make it a career.

10. perseverance [ˌpɜːsɪˈvɪərəns] - (noun) - Persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. - Synonyms: (determination, tenacity, endurance)

He describes the perseverance required during slow periods, the impact of external events like the Covid-19 pandemic, and the courage needed to adapt and pivot when boredom struck or audience engagement waned.

11. reinvention [ˌriːɪnˈvɛnʃən] - (noun) - The process of changing something so much that it appears to be entirely new; making something over again in a different way. - Synonyms: (transformation, overhaul, remaking)

With practical advice and real anecdotes, he demonstrates the necessity of persistence and flexibility, whether through changing content styles, leveraging new platforms like TikTok, or enduring periods of uncertainty and reinvention.

The importance of finding the wrong career first - Daragh Curran - TEDxTUDublin

So the quickest way to finding the right career for me is by finding all of the wrong ones first. My name is Dara Curran. I am also known online as the Guinness Guru. I am a full time content creator, whatever that means, and I've been doing it for full time for about three years, but doing the whole content crack for about six. I am, for lack of a better phrase, a full time dosser who is very lucky to be able to say that I actually really enjoy the work that I do. I have, I would say I'm the furthest thing from having my career fully figured out, but through certain kind of practices over the last few years that I've implemented that I'm going to share with you all today, I've managed to find what I'm passionate about and more importantly, I've managed to find a way to make it a career.

So my talk is going to consist of two parts. Part one is the whole kind of part of exploring your passion, finding your passion. And then part two is about turning it into a career because let's be honest, it's all well and good finding me passion, Dara, but you know, show me the money. How do I make a few quid for me?

So part one, it works. Trial and error. When people ask me, what do you do for a living? It's always that kind of, I'm not too sure what. It's a bit of a nuanced kind of job. You could say you meet someone at a party, how's it going? Darren, nice to meet you. What do you do for a living? And I kind of pause and I say, what do I do for a living? Influencer. But I feel a bit kind of cringe saying that. Content creator, not a whole lot better. Tiktoker. I mean, I'm a 32 year old bloke so I don't really feel comfortable calling myself a tiktoker. But so I usually just say I do social media. And the inevitable next question that always comes, especially maybe if you're sitting in the pub and there's an outlet there and you're trying to explain the social media job to him. He says, well, how do you make money from that? I say, okay, well, complete transparency. The way I make my money is through kind of brand sponsorship deals across various social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. And it sounds pretty straightforward, but to be honest with you, the journey over the Last kind of 8, 9, 10 years has been the furthest thing from straightforward.

I'm going to Take you back to how it all kind of began. It's a long way back. I'm a lot older than I look. Even though I just said I was 32. I'm going to take you back to a young 23 year old Dara traveling the world, gallivanting. Look at the head of hair on that. Gallivanting around the world, having a time of my life. I was living in New Zealand at this stage and working in a kiwifruit factory, just having a crack. Didn't really think a whole lot about where my career was going. I didn't really care. I was a young lad but was just having a good time. That's what being young is about, eh? But something kind of came over me when I was in New Zealand, I guess you could say I found myself, yikes. But I was sitting on the bedroom floor of my musky, smelly eight bed hostel room that I was sharing with a load of other blokes and something just kind of came over me and I kind of had this mindset switch of thinking I was happy enough, just kind of freewheeling my jobs and career. Doing a year doing this, six months doing that. I went from kind of freewheeling to actually really wanting to give it a shot. Now I just had to figure out what it was.

So all I could think to do was I grabbed a pen and paper, I wrote down a list and I just put whatever on that list. I didn't know it was going to be a hundred things or one thing, but I wrote on that list all the things that I was anyway passionate about and stuff that I thought I could potentially turn into a career. So here's my great list. So it was one personal trainer, two events, three videographer and four YouTuber. Kind of obviously a bit of a pipe dream, but sure, we'll stick it down for the crack.

So I got back to Ireland in 2017, 24 years old and I have a pretty vague plan. I'm going to work through this list. I obviously have to get a job to pay the bills, unfortunately. Boo hoo. But I'm going to get a job and I'm going to work through this list on the side. So a friend of mine, Gavin was his name is his name. He's not dead. He was running a painting and decorating business and he said, look, if you want to do a couple of days with me while you're finding your feet, you just got home from New Zealand. That's Grange for coming along. I said, just grind, Gav. I'LL do a couple of days. That couple of days turned into five years, five years of painting and decorating and it actually turned out to be the perfect job because while I was painting, I was able to work on my list on the side and it was perfect. Painting was paying the bills and I was working on my little passion list on the side.

So first thing on the list, personal trainer. I'd always kind of enjoyed going to the gym, as you can tell. And my friends, when we would go to the gym, would always say, you're pretty good at showing how to do the exercises, stuff like that. Would you consider maybe being a personal trainer or something like that? I said, maybe. That must be it. Light bulb in the head. That's obviously what I'm supposed to do. It's top of my list. So I signed up for a fitness instructor course. I was painting by day, learning by night. I was really invested in it, I loved it and I got a job. I was doing free classes on the weekends down the local community centre, just trying to learn how to teach a gym class. I got a job in a local gym doing that on the weekends, still painting during the week. I was loving it and I thought, this is it, I'm working in a gym in three or four years time, I'm going to own my own gym, I'm going to be loaded and I found my passion and job done. About a year went by and I just wasn't fully clicking the whole gym stuff. It wasn't really what I maybe thought it was going to be. And the main thing was it just wasn't giving me that satisfactory feeling that I thought it would. So unfortunately, personal trainer chopped off the list and we went on.

The next thing was events. I remember vividly, remember walking through some of the younger clientele in the room, might remember, might know, have this experience walking through the Longitude Festival good few years ago and just walking through and just taking it all in and like the vastness of it, the scale of it. I was like, there's like 60, 70,000 people here and a team of people has put this whole thing together and I thought, this is incredible, I would love to be behind something like this. So I said, that's it, light bulb moment. It's on the list, it's on the passion list. I'm going to explore events. So I ran a couple of charity events and they actually went really well. Painting by day, running events by night. And after a few months I'd ran a couple of charity events, raised a good bit of Money, fair play to me. Good man. And we. I kind of, when I went to actually go to do an event to raise. Not to not raise money, to actually profit, to make a bit of profit for myself, cash in the pocket, it was a flop. It just didn't work at all. I won't even tell you what the event was. It was a bit of a crazy idea, but sure, God knows what goes on in here. And so, yeah, it definitely didn't give me that satisfactory feeling that I was looking for. To be honest, the stress that that one small event put on my little brain was enough for a lifetime. So that was that. Gone off the list. So that's personal trainer and events both gone off the list. The two things I taught. These are the things I'm most passionate about. These are probably what I'm going to make a career out of. They were gone. And I said, right, we plow on. Keep going on the list.

Next up was videography. I'd always had a passion for video. I loved when I was a kid making videos, I begged my mom for one of those little camcorders. Some people might remember them. And when I was like in my early 20s, I got a GoPro. I was just, I was traveling, I was loving making videos. So I started creating a few little free videos for, like, local companies and artists at different gigs and stuff. Again, painting by day, doing this sort of stuff by night, making free videos. And don't get me wrong, I was enjoying the kind of creative side of it, but just again, a few months went by, a few videos later, and something still just wasn't clicking. It still wasn't giving me that satisfactory feeling that I was looking for. And I figured out the problem. My ego was too big to be behind the camera. I wanted to be in the videos. Thanks for the clap then. Last thing on the list. So videography, gone off the list, Last thing on the list, no other Options, and a YouTuber or whatever the hell that even means. And so when I started making my own YouTube videos, this is before I was doing any of the Guinness Guru stuff. I was doing a YouTube channel that was getting absolutely no views. No one cared. But I still had that fire in the belly feeling that this is right and I'm gonna do this for as long as I need for it to be successful while I'm painting. And the moral of the story of part one is that the last thing I put on my list was the thing that ended up being the thing I was most passionate about. And to be honest, I Just never would have figured that out if I didn't grab a pen and paper, write out a simple list and just follow that list over two or three years. So that is part one.

Part two is, like I said, all well and good, finding the passion, but it's a whole different ball game turning it into a career because it's really just about navigating the kind of hard times until you can actually start making a bit of an income from it. And then, trust me, it only gets worse. So part two, hang in there. So we're talking like a six year period of literally times where not a whole lot of progress. You just hang in there, not really giving up and just sticking it out. So we're gonna go back to the start of 2019 and I'm doing my first little YouTube channel. No one's really watching. I'm doing a load of random stuff, one of which was a little series called Buckle up where I was doing a complete rip off of the James Corden carpool karaoke. I was going around with comedians and singers and stuff. And were the videos very well made? Probably not, but I was kind of learning my trade, getting my feet wet, whatever cliche you want to use. And I was loving it. Now, the views weren't great, as you can see, 42 on that one. Someone go and watch that for me. But I was loving it. And I knew, I didn't care that they weren't getting the views. I was like, this is what I want to do. I want to make videos. And the more I do it, the more I'm going to improve. Skip to the end of 2019. I started doing these random Guinness reviews around pubs around Dublin. Again, the videos were probably terrible. I didn't have a clue what I was talking about. The traction was low, but I was loving it. I was learning how to make videos. I also didn't have a clue how to utilize different social media platforms. But we were learning as we went. Then around Christmas 2019 into January 2020, February 2020, these videos finally started to get a bit of attention. Like maybe 500 views here, a thousand views there. I was buzzing. I was like, we're on the absolute path. This is just perfect. And we all know what happened in March 2020. Ultimate smack in the face, Covid hits. And the only thing I'm creating content around is to do with me being in a pub. And we couldn't go to pubs. So I thought, right, what's the move here, big fella? I said, two options. Either just stop posting for a little bit. Stop posting for a few weeks, as we all thought it would be, or just kind of hang in there. Keep that kind of hang in there mentality and just post anything. You've gained about three or 400 followers, keep them around. The content will probably be not great, but just keep posting. So I went down to the local off license. I bought a load of random beers. I was posting them on YouTube. Views weren't great. Nice thumbnails, though. Views weren't great, but I just knew it was keeping me going. And we're all bored at home. There was nothing else to do, so I was doing that. And then that kind of led into summer of 2020 and I was hearing all these murmurs and anyone really young in here will think this is funny because I was hearing murmurs of this brand new app called TikTok, which is obviously the big thing now. And I was thinking, TikTok, there's a lot of kids dancing around. State me joining that. But again, I was severely bored. So I said, right, sure, I'll join TikTok, I probably won't do the dancing part. But I had this. Someone kind of had suggested this other idea and I think any of you in the room who kind of know me whatsoever from anything online, this is possibly. There's a good chance this is where you would have seen me first. I joined TikTok and started creating the most diabolical concoctions known to man. Guinness and 7Up Guinness and Monster Guinness and absolutely anything. I'd say Arthur Guinness was rolling in his grave. But for some crazy reason, these videos went fairly viral. Some of them got hundreds of thousands of views, some of them got millions of views. I couldn't believe it. And the best part was about a year later when I could start going back to the pubs, I could go back to doing the content I actually really wanted to do. I had this massive audience that I didn't have from before COVID and it was great. Like a thousand times. Probably a million times more people follow me than before.

So we go into 2021, times are good. We're absolutely flying. The views have improved. Go on, the lads. I'm going to all the major cities around Ireland, Europe, the UK. It's absolutely phenomenal. And in early 2022, because the views were doing quite well, I was approached by a couple of different companies wanting to sponsor the videos. I'm thinking, oh my God, this is great. So I Finally, in January 2022, I got to hang up the paintbrush and I got to pick up the pint and go full time as the Guinness guru. And I'm thinking, I am full time now. Was the money great? No. But I was living at home with my mom, so the bills weren't very high. But I was like, how have I achieved this? I'm full time drinking pints. Unbelievable. And so not bad. The pinnacle of this kind of era was November 2022. People had always said, where is the place that you would absolutely love to feel film Guinness review videos. And I always said, there's only one place in my mind that I'm aiming for, and it was NYC, the Big Apple. And all of a sudden, November 2022, I find myself standing in the middle of Times Square with a camera and I'm about to go off filming videos, drinking pints and getting paid for it. I was like, top of the world, lads. I'm on top of the world. It cannot get any better. And it didn't get any better. It didn't get any better. It got worse pretty much because I had hit that peak and that was what I always wanted to do with that kind of video. The kind of desire just died off. I was pretty much getting bored of doing the exact same video over and over and over. So in 2023, I made the pretty big risk to kind of change up the content. I had people saying, this is a really stupid idea. The Guinness stuff is working. But I. I was bored of it, to be honest. And I was thinking, like, 10 years down the line, is this all I'm going to be doing? But anyway, I made the switch. I took the leap of faith. I changed my profile names from the Guinness Guru to Dara Curran. And I knew it would be a bit of a trial and error, kind of hang in there, period. But Jesus, I didn't know it was going to be as bad as it was. It was losing followers. The content was all over the place. I didn't have a clue what to go out and film. I was doing chicken wing reviews. Got up to the Giants Causeway with no premise or rhyme or reason. Just there. We lads, we're at the Giants Causeway. But I kind of knew if I just kind of hang in there and keep going with the content, we might kind of figure it out. It was a bit of a pivotal moment in September of 2023. I had always wanted, since I started even doing Guinness stuff, I really wanted to expand my content into kind of sport and rugby. I'm a big fan of rugby. So I bought the cheapest playing ticket and the cheapest Match ticket to the Rugby World cup in France in September 2023. I went to Ireland, Romania, Ireland, beaten by about 90 points. And I did videos outside the stadium, inside the stadium. And were they great videos? Not really, but it was kind of getting the message out there on my profile that I just. Guinness fella, he's actually kind of doing content around sport and rugby and stuff like that.

Fast forward about eight or nine months, I'm in a room with Bundiacki doing a video with Elvir's, I'm doing a thing with Eviva with the Irish rugby lads. Look at the bleeding state of me with the scroll cap on my head. And that was again, just because I kind of hung in there. And then I kind of refound my love for the pub style videos and I'm back doing a lot of that sort of stuff. I have joined a fantastic management agency. I have to say, they're fantastic. She's in the front row. And now I get the chance, the opportunity to work with all these huge brands that I genuinely wouldn't have dreamed of even 18 months ago. And I honestly put it down to the fact that I just hung in there, Timed that well, to be fair. I just hung in there. There was times where I was like, where is this all going? But I guess the thing was I didn't stop posting. Even if I didn't think it was great, I didn't stop. And I think, I honestly think the only way to know that whatever you're trying, if you really have a burning passion for it and you want it to work, if through all the hard times, the only way to know that it won't work is by stopping, by throwing in the towel. If you don't stop, if you keep going, there's maybe not a cue chance, but there's a, there's a chance. Dumb and Dumber, he's saying there's a chance, there's a chance that it might work and you just gotta hang in there. And that was very true to the fact. Even back in 2019 I was doing the Guinness videos, going around Temple Bar, getting absolutely drenched in the rain, going from pub to pub, filming videos, posting videos, getting about 10 views. And the only comment was from pointlover42 saying, you're having a clue, pal. And he was probably right, to be fair to him, not bitter.

So I'm going to finish on this because I'm going way over time and you guys have been really good laughing at my jokes. Appreciate that. Let's get serious now. In a world where it is, this is the rehearsed bit. In a world where I genuinely think we're in a world in a time where it is easier than ever to find your passion, I think you really owe it to yourself to explore all of your interests if that's really what you want to do. Now don't get me wrong, making a career out of your passion, this crack, it's not for the faint hearted. You got to really take time to figure it out what it is that you want and then you got to take time to put the work in through all the sort of obstacles. I would love if, even if you're someone in the room who's just come along for the crack, your career is fully figured out or else you're someone in college or you're in a job you're unsure of, no matter who you are. I would love that. Over the weekend, maybe not tonight, maybe I have a few pints over the weekend or next week, sit down and just write a list. Whether it's 20 things, a list of at least three or four things that you are passionate about and that you could possibly see turning into a career and make the list drive on. When you're doing your college, when you're doing your studies, you're working, if you really want to find a career out of that passion, you do this side list on the weekends, on the weekdays and all that stuff.

My final word to you is our parents, our grandparents, they didn't have the same opportunities that we have to go out in the big bad world and explore our passions. And my final message to you is, proper final message. Start finding all of the things. Start finding all of the wrong things first. And that will eventually lead to finding the right thing. Thank you.

INSPIRATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, EDUCATION, CONTENT CREATION, TIKTOK, CAREER ADVICE, TEDX TALKS