I think that people tend to be happier when they go for what they want rather than going for what they think they should have.

I grew up in the Jewish suburbs of Baltimore where if you were smart and capable, you were expected to go to Medical School. My parents really wanted me to be a doctor. It didn't even occur to them that there was something else that I could do.

My uncle, who is a doctor, hooked me up with a summer internship at the University of Maryland Hospital. I didn't have any connection with science, so that same summer I went looking for a job in radio or advertising.

I ended up at NPR in 1978 working for free as a tape cutter. Back then, public radio had only existed as a national network for 6 years and I had never heard of it. I didn't come from a family that listened to public radio. I never met anyone that did broadcasting or anything creative. It didn't seem conceivable that you could get a job like that.

During that summer I spent half my time at the hospital and half in public radio - so I could directly compare my experiences.

At the end of the summer it seemed really clear which one was more appealing to me.

When you try something, some combination of luck and circumstance will step in and you won't have to choose in the end. That's what happened to me. I feel that you should put yourself in a situation to try a number of things and then one of the answers will deliver itself to you.

You don't always have to be talented in something to know it's for you, but you do have to have a couple of skills to propel you. For example, I was always a really good editor. From the beginning, I could put together lovely little 6 minute segments from long pieces of work.

Even though I was a good editor, it was not easy for me. I was really bad in every other part of radio production. I was a terrible writer - it would take me weeks to finish a story. I never moved forward. I was a terrible performer. I had no idea how to be a reporter. All of that took me years and years to figure out. Even with the stuff that you become really good at, you are not good right away

Hard work can make a person talented. When I go on tour and give talks to journalism students I play them the stuff that I did when I was their age. Do you want to hear it? You will actually hear that I was really bad - so bad that one of our producers heard this tape and told me "There is no sign that you have any talent at all. There's not even a hint."

I was 27 when I did this (Ira plays the radio piece).

My parents only told me that it was okay not to go to medical school when I was in my mid-30s. By then, I already had a national radio show.

Throughout my entire twenties, my parents thought every choice I was making was horrible. My dad would try and listen to "All Things Considered" and just hated it.

It was partly because they were raised with no money at all. They were really poor. Like a lot of people's parents, the drama of their lives was making it to the middle class. It is the whole "American Story." Once they made it to the middle class and achieved financial security, it was difficult for them to imagine a world where that was not the most important thing.

Sadly for them, they had done such a good job making it to the middle class that I was not scared of slipping back into poverty. I didn't feel worried about making money.

They were always worried and it took me a really long time to understand it. There were many bitter, bitter fights. It's hard when your parents disapprove of you. Obviously, I'm all square with them - it's all worked out - but it took a really long time.

If you are going to do creative work, you must have good taste -the taste is what drove you to do creative work in the first place.

But it's hard when you are a beginner because the work you produce isn't very good and your taste can see that it is crap. It's hard to remember that the only reason it's crap is because you are just starting. It's confusing to know what to do at that point. A lot of people never get past that challenge.

To make something that is good enough for your own standards is a huge project and can take years. For me, I couldn't make a radio story right away. I started at 19 at the network level cutting tapes and at some point I decided to teach myself to be a reporter on the radio.

It took me years. I worked as a temp secretary for years. I would work very slowly doing a story every 2-3 months and I gradually got quicker and quicker.

If I could offer you some advice, it would be to force yourself to work. Put yourself in a situation where you are forced to turn around product. That is where the skills will come. That is the hardest phase.

Always keep in mind that you just need one break. The rule of thumb in radio is that most people work for a year or two for nothing. You'll work as a temp secretary or something. That's utterly normal. During that time, you have to remember that you don't need to be granted permission to start making work.

A really important part of creative work is coming up with an idea for a story. That's just as much work as actually making stories. It's the same in movies or music.

Some people die because they think that if they just sit there, that lightening is going to hit them. That is not how it goes. People who make creative work for a living have to be in a position to make ideas. The rule of thumb is that ideas come from other ideas so you have to immerse yourself in a lot of stuff so that ideas have a chance to come into your head. Stuff like books and magazines. Make sure that you are surrounded by ideas.