From Boys to the Man: Obama Takes Questions From Young Minorities

President dispenses advice based on personal experience.

President Barack Obama: August 4 - The leader of the free world turns 53. (Photo: Larry Downing/Landov/Reuters)

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Big Brother - President Obama on July 21 announced a new slate of supporters for his My Brother's Keeper initiative. He also took the opportunity to speak with young men of color at the Walker Jones Education Campus in Washington, D.C. During the town hall meeting, he imparted words of wisdom about how to set and achieve goals; how to handle people who get judgmental; learning how to become a good dad; being an authentically Black man; and more. —Joyce Jones (@BETpolitichick)  (Photo: Larry Downing/Landov/Reuters)

Leveling the Field - The only difference between me and extraordinarily talented young men that I see all across the country is I was living in a pretty forgiving environment. So if I made a mistake, I often had a second chance, or I often had a third chance. And some of the costs of making mistakes, they weren't deadly. I wasn't going to end up shot. I wasn't going to end up in jail. And as a consequence, for the last five, six, 10 years, I've constantly been thinking about how can I make sure that I'm evening out the odds a little bit for other young men who could end up being a doctor or a lawyer or a senator or an attorney general or a secretary of education. (Photo:Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)

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Leveling the Field - The only difference between me and extraordinarily talented young men that I see all across the country is I was living in a pretty forgiving environment. So if I made a mistake, I often had a second chance, or I often had a third chance. And some of the costs of making mistakes, they weren't deadly. I wasn't going to end up shot. I wasn't going to end up in jail. And as a consequence, for the last five, six, 10 years, I've constantly been thinking about how can I make sure that I'm evening out the odds a little bit for other young men who could end up being a doctor or a lawyer or a senator or an attorney general or a secretary of education. (Photo:Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)

Keep It Real - You know, sometimes African-Americans in communities where I’ve worked, there’s been a notion of “acting white,” which sometimes is overstated but there’s an element of truth to it where, OK, if boys are reading too much then, well, why are you doing that, or why are you — why are you speaking so properly? And the notion that there’s some authentic way of being Black, that if you’re going to be Black you have to act a certain way and wear a certain kind of clothes, that — you know, that has to go, because there are a whole bunch of different ways for African-American men to be authentic.  (Photo: the White House.gov)

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Keep It Real - You know, sometimes African-Americans in communities where I’ve worked, there’s been a notion of “acting white,” which sometimes is overstated but there’s an element of truth to it where, OK, if boys are reading too much then, well, why are you doing that, or why are you — why are you speaking so properly? And the notion that there’s some authentic way of being Black, that if you’re going to be Black you have to act a certain way and wear a certain kind of clothes, that — you know, that has to go, because there are a whole bunch of different ways for African-American men to be authentic.  (Photo: the White House.gov)

Roots - You need to know your culture but you can also be part of this larger world. And there’s some cultures, frankly, who have done this better than others. I do think, for example, Jewish culture has been very powerful. If you look in this — in our society, the ability to transmit traditions through synagogues and the Torah and bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs so that people have a sense of 2,000 years of history but everybody is still part of today and America and the world.… So I think this is something that we have to spend some time thinking about, making sure that we understand there’s a way of knowing your history, knowing your culture, being proud of it, using it as a strength but not thinking that there is just one way of you then having to act.  (Photo: the White House.gov)

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Roots - You need to know your culture but you can also be part of this larger world. And there’s some cultures, frankly, who have done this better than others. I do think, for example, Jewish culture has been very powerful. If you look in this — in our society, the ability to transmit traditions through synagogues and the Torah and bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs so that people have a sense of 2,000 years of history but everybody is still part of today and America and the world.… So I think this is something that we have to spend some time thinking about, making sure that we understand there’s a way of knowing your history, knowing your culture, being proud of it, using it as a strength but not thinking that there is just one way of you then having to act.  (Photo: the White House.gov)

Setting Goals - I actually didn’t set a lot of goals for myself when I was very young. As — when I got to be about your age, a lot of my goals revolved around basketball, which were probably misplaced goals because I did not have Chris Paul’s talent. But as I got older, so by the time I got to be a junior or a senior in — in high school, I realized that I did need to go to college, and that required me to buckle down a little bit. And then when I got to college, my first two years I was still kind of enjoying myself a little bit too much and was still a little too casual about my studies. (Photo: Jewel samad/AFP/Getty Images)

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Setting Goals - I actually didn’t set a lot of goals for myself when I was very young. As — when I got to be about your age, a lot of my goals revolved around basketball, which were probably misplaced goals because I did not have Chris Paul’s talent. But as I got older, so by the time I got to be a junior or a senior in — in high school, I realized that I did need to go to college, and that required me to buckle down a little bit. And then when I got to college, my first two years I was still kind of enjoying myself a little bit too much and was still a little too casual about my studies. (Photo: Jewel samad/AFP/Getty Images)

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Growth - It wasn’t probably until I was about 20 that something happened inside me where I really said, you know, if I want to be serious, if I want to make a contribution, if I want to be proud of myself looking back on my life, then I’m going to have to change how I do things. (Photo: the White House.gov)

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Growth - It wasn’t probably until I was about 20 that something happened inside me where I really said, you know, if I want to be serious, if I want to make a contribution, if I want to be proud of myself looking back on my life, then I’m going to have to change how I do things. (Photo: the White House.gov)

Baby Steps - Sometimes initially, I didn’t know how to do that. But that’s where the goal-setting came in because — you know, you’d start small. I’d say to myself, all right, my goal is to read a certain number of books a month, or, my goal is to, you know, boost my — my GPA in college this much, or, my goal is to, you know, interact with my peers a little differently than I had been doing in terms of how often I went out at night — so it could just be simple goals, initially, and over time those goals became more ambitious. And the truth is I still set goals every day.  (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

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Baby Steps - Sometimes initially, I didn’t know how to do that. But that’s where the goal-setting came in because — you know, you’d start small. I’d say to myself, all right, my goal is to read a certain number of books a month, or, my goal is to, you know, boost my — my GPA in college this much, or, my goal is to, you know, interact with my peers a little differently than I had been doing in terms of how often I went out at night — so it could just be simple goals, initially, and over time those goals became more ambitious. And the truth is I still set goals every day.  (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

How to Become a Good Father When You Grew Up Without One - I think that two things happen. One is, the values my mother taught me, I thought to myself, well, those are values that any parent should have. So it doesn’t matter whether you’re the dad or the mom, loving your child, being responsible for your child, teaching them how to be honest and how to be responsible themselves and how to treat other people with kindness and how to respect themselves but respect others, how to work hard — you know, those weren’t values that were just for moms to teach. Those were values for dads to teach as well, right?  (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP Photo)

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How to Become a Good Father When You Grew Up Without One - I think that two things happen. One is, the values my mother taught me, I thought to myself, well, those are values that any parent should have. So it doesn’t matter whether you’re the dad or the mom, loving your child, being responsible for your child, teaching them how to be honest and how to be responsible themselves and how to treat other people with kindness and how to respect themselves but respect others, how to work hard — you know, those weren’t values that were just for moms to teach. Those were values for dads to teach as well, right?  (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP Photo)

To Thine Ownself Be True - When you’re young, it is natural to care a lot about what your peers think of you. That’s — that’s just human. And there’s nothing wrong with that.… But I do think that as you get older, part of what you have to determine is what’s important to you. Who are you? How do you want to live? What are the principles that you abide by? What’s the “North Star” that steers you, so that when things happen that aren’t always according to plan, and when you have tough times and when you are struggling, what is it that’s going to keep you going and keep your bearings? (Photo: the White House.gov)

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To Thine Ownself Be True - When you’re young, it is natural to care a lot about what your peers think of you. That’s — that’s just human. And there’s nothing wrong with that.… But I do think that as you get older, part of what you have to determine is what’s important to you. Who are you? How do you want to live? What are the principles that you abide by? What’s the “North Star” that steers you, so that when things happen that aren’t always according to plan, and when you have tough times and when you are struggling, what is it that’s going to keep you going and keep your bearings? (Photo: the White House.gov)

Achieving Goals - Number one is work. It's a pretty simple concept. There is nothing worthwhile where it just falls in your lap. Maybe once in a while somebody wins the lottery, but for the most part, everything you do that’s worthwhile requires work. Number two is figure out what it is that you care about passionately, something that you think is important to you, because if nothing’s important to you, you’re not going to put in the work. And I’ve got a longer list, but here’s the third thing that’s pretty important. Understand that you will not achieve by yourself, which means that you’ve got to be able to invest in relationships with other people who you can learn from, who will support you, who you will support in turn.  (Photo: Kasim Ileri/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

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Achieving Goals - Number one is work. It's a pretty simple concept. There is nothing worthwhile where it just falls in your lap. Maybe once in a while somebody wins the lottery, but for the most part, everything you do that’s worthwhile requires work. Number two is figure out what it is that you care about passionately, something that you think is important to you, because if nothing’s important to you, you’re not going to put in the work. And I’ve got a longer list, but here’s the third thing that’s pretty important. Understand that you will not achieve by yourself, which means that you’ve got to be able to invest in relationships with other people who you can learn from, who will support you, who you will support in turn.  (Photo: Kasim Ileri/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)