Barak Obama has some sobering advice for aspiring presidential candidates: be careful what you post on Facebook, because it “might come back to haunt you”.
That’s what Obama told a ninth grader who asked how to become President, when he spent 20 minutes with 32 high school students at the US Wakefield High School.
“In the YouTube age whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life… And when you’re young, you know, you make mistakes and you do some stupid stuff,” he said.
Obama’s warning is backed by his own experience: his presidential campaign was threatened when inflammatory comments from his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright turned up on YouTube. Since then, several of his own captured off-the-cuff comments have sparked media debate.
Obama also told the students they each had a responsibility to discover what they are good at and pursue it.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
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