The following piece is a transcription of an interview on the American Dream and how a person must find self-satisfaction, not particularly wealth, in order to achieve it. The interviewee is Chicago school teacher Richard Mertz.

The irony of me being a high school teacher just drips from the walls. Drip, drip, drip. I would have laughed at you if you told me years ago, "You're going to be a high school teacher." I was incorrigible, I was rude, and I was probably depressed as a high school student. I didn’t know the value of learning or being intellectually curious.

I grew up in a Jewish community, middle class, small-business owners, where everyone on my street was Jewish. Growing up, I was taught to live in an insular community; it’s discreet and protective. We shopped at Jewish stores, and my dad owned a kosher bakery. It was really just Jewish, Jewish, Jewish, Jewish, Jewish. I grew up in a family that didn't read a newspaper and didn't read a book. Ever. I don't remember there ever being books in my house. I knew I was going to go to college, because I knew that's what I was supposed to do. I just didn't know how I was going to get there. I’m the first Mertz to go to college. My dad and my mom would say, “Go to college, go to college, go to college,” but they didn’t know what that meant. They didn't understand what it took to be successful.

Later, I'm 22, and I don't really know what to do with my life. I was on a lazy river, so I just jumped on that little raft, applied to Michigan State, went to Michigan State, and lazed over to that world. Going to Michigan Law School, this is the joke that professor Cooly shared the first day: "At some universities they will tell you to look to your right, look to your left, at the end of the first year, one of you won't be here. At Michigan Law School, we have a different moto. Look to your right, look to your left, after three years you'll all be makin' lots of money, because you'll all get great jobs." We had a class of 360 and 700 employers would come. Lazy river. I didn't have to make a choice.

My debate coach called while I was in college still and said, “Hey Rich, do you want to make 800 bucks?” And I said, "Sure." They needed a debate coach. It was a mile and a half from my house. So I spent eight months with these four high school kids – a girl named Susan, a girl named Maya, a girl named Juliette, and I can't remember the last girl – working 50-60-70 hours a week, after school, after my classes, after their classes. Meeting, arguing, traveling, and taking them to debate tournaments. Watching them grow. Put the experience away, done. Didn't think about it again. Graduated law school, got a high-paying job, and was miserable from day two.I left that job and got one at another law firm because I thought it was the law firm and not me.

I was at a bachelor party in January of 1991. My friend Chris Makaris, who was in the Peace Corps in Togo, Africa, was at this bachelor party and he was telling me about Africa and said, "Rich, I'm going on this trip. I'm going to fly to Paris, buy a Toyota Corolla, drive across the Sahara dessert, and then I'm going to hang out in Togo and come back home." And I said, "Oh that's cool. Can I come?" And he said, “Sure.” So I called up the law firm I was going to go to and they said, “Sure, you don’t need to start right away, start in three months.”

I was so dumb, so dumb. I had no idea how big Africa was. I thought we were going to drive to Togo and drive back. In old movies they have that little car that drives across the desert and goes slow. That was us. We drove for 15 hours one day. Africa's gigantic and when you're driving? Two inches on a map.

I was in a town called Zinder, which is in Niger, which is one of the poorest countries in the world. If you asked me what I would have seen before – I was going to see despair and horror and poverty and all of that stuff, but I didn't see despair. I saw unhealthiness, but not unhappiness. They were happy and tight knit, and I reflected that Americans are on a treadmill to retirement: I'm going to work really hard, not enjoy my life, and not enjoy my family. I had partners in law firms that didn't see their families or got divorced and now their kids are making money and they get to be spoiled, but if you can aggravate all the happiness with all the unhappiness of your life, you could miss out on a lot.This is this big moment, this epiphany that you have to be responsible with every day of your life.

Being a lawyer was suffocating. I wasn't happy. I reflected on anything in my life that made me happy. I had to figure something out. I remembered being a debate coach, making no money, and working my butt off. That, to me, said something was magical, something was fulfilling, something was successful. And I went back to school. For me, the search for happiness, professionally, is solved through education. So when I was a lawyer – go back to school. That's the solution. Go back to school. School training and learning will solve all the problems. It opens more doors. It’s about collecting keys to doors, and you want to have as many keys and as many doors – it doesn't mean you have to go through every door, but you want to have access to every door that you can. Everything is a reaction to everything.

You better do something you like and have passion for it because there’s a disconnect if you have a job but just no passion – and I don't mean to sound bad – but you're kind of like a whore. You're making money, but you're not happy. I didn't want to prostitute myself. Every day is a part of your life. That's the American Dream – to be able to live in a world in which you have passion and enjoy every aspect of your life, and it doesn't mean every day is good, but it means that every day I'm already disposed to be in a good mood because I already have everything I want. It's the pursuit of happiness. You know you always joke, infinity plus one is still infinity because you can't exceed infinity? I'm full.

I didn't understand what it meant to care about learning until I went back to become a teacher. I get paid money and I get paid joy. That's what this job's about. I know it sounds so goofy and I feel like a 10-year-old when I talk like this because it seems so naive.

That's why the VISA commercial works – priceless.

This is priceless.