The concept of deferred life which is the notion of putting off today what you really want to do, because you believe that what you need to do today is what’s expected of you.

It is not the notion of “not paying your dues” or not working hard to build a foundation for success, those are two different ideas.

It’s important to understand that what’s deferred is your sense of passion, what’s deferred is your sense of enthusiasm – the integration of what you believe and what you care about.

I believe it is a deferred life plan to go off and sell a product you don’t believe in, or to study an area that is of no interest to you because you believe that it is somehow going to prepare you for an opportunity yet to be determined.

I think it is not the deferred life plan to work very very hard to get experience in an area that you care about, or to work your way up through a business where there is a product or principle or service that you truly believe in.

So working hard is not inconsistent with deferred life plan, paying dues is not inconsistent with the deferred life plan, but simply failing to do what you believe in is the deferred life plan.

Source: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1791