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You know what the greatest secret of history is?

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It's that history can be changed.

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And, yeah, yeah, I know,

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everyone says history can't be changed,

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but it can.

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And today we're going to talk about

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how history isn't just something that goes backwards,

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history goes forward too.

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And all those great things that haven't happened yet,

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that's history that's just waiting to be written.

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So how do you change history?

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I'm going to tell you by sharing with you

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the three things that I tell my kids every night

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when I tuck them into bed.

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It's true.

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I stole the idea from a friend of mine

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who told me what his father used to share with him.

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Every single night, when I tuck my kids into bed,

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I tell them these three things:

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dream big,

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work hard,

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and stay humble.

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So let's look at them all.

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First, dream big.

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You know who has the biggest, best dreams of all?

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You, young people.

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You know how old Martin Luther King, Jr. was

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when he became the leader

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of the most famous bus boycott in history?

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He was 26.

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You know how old Amelia Earhart was

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when she broke her first world record?

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25

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You know how old Steve Jobs was

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when he co-founded Apple Computer?

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21

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And you know how old Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were

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when they came up with their idea for the greatest superhero of all time,

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the first one, that they named "Superman"?

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These guys were 17 years old!

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Two 17-year-old kids created Superman.

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They weren't good looking.

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(Look at the picture, right?)

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They weren't popular.

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They had no money,

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but they were two best friends with one dream.

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And with just their imaginations,

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they gave the world Superman.

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And I know, creating Superman is a once-in-a-lifetime big dream,

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so I want to tell you about Alexandra Scott.

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She goes by Alex.

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Alex was diagnosed with cancer

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before she was even a year old,

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and that was the only life she knew:

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sickness, chemotherapy, and surgery.

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When she was four, Alex asked her parents

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could she put a lemonade stand in the front yard?

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She didn't want to buy anything for herself,

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she wanted to use the money

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to give it to doctors to help other kids with cancer.

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OK, in a single day, Alex's lemonade stand raised $2,000!

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But, here's what I love:

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soon after that, other lemonade stands started popping up,

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all with Alex's name on it.

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Eventually, they raised $200,000.

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And then Alex had a new goal.

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She said let's raise $1,000,000.

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On June 12, 2004,

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hundreds of lemonade stands started opening up

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in every state in the country.

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Ordinary people selling water and sugar and lemons

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to help kids with cancer.

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Nearly two months later,

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Alex died while her parents were holding her hands.

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She was 8 years old.

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But before she died, Alex said that next year's goal

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should be $5,000,000.

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Today, her dream has raised over $45,000,000

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and it is still going strong!

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One idea, one girl, one big dream.

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And you know what she said?

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This is a direct quote before she died.

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She said, "Oh, we can do it!

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If other people will help me, I think we can do it.

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I know we can do it!"

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You dream big,

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I don't care how old you are,

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and don't let anyone tell you otherwise,

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you will change history.

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And that leads me to the second thing I tell my kids:

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work hard.

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Such a simple one, everyone knows this one.

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Work hard.

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I saw this one for my father

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and my father died a few months ago.

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When I was growing up in Brooklyn,

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ok, my father, he worked hard.

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He had no money, we had, no money growing up.

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He worked every Saturday, every Sunday.

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I watched first-hand every weekend what hard work was.

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And I saw that the hardest work of all

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is being resilient when you're facing failure.

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When I started writing my first book,

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my first book got me 24 rejection letters.

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To be clear, there are only 20 publishers,

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I got 24 rejection letters, OK?

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That means that some people were writing me twice

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to make sure I got the point.

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But it wasn't until I was writing my ninth book,

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a book of heroes for my son,

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that I found my favorite story of working hard through failure.

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It was a story that a friend told me about the Wright brothers.

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That every time the Wright brothers went out to fly their plane,

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they would bring enough extra materials for multiple crashes.

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That means for every time they went out,

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they knew they would fail.

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And they would crash and rebuild,

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and crash and rebuild,

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and that's why they took off.

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I love that story.

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I wanted my son to hear that story,

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I wanted my daughter to hear that story,

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I wanted everyone to know that if you dream big

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and you work hard and you fight failure,

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you will change history

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and do what no one on this planet has ever done before.

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And that leads me to the final thing I tell them:

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stay humble.

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Here's the thing:

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if you invent the world's first airplane,

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or Superman,

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or a multi-million dollar lemonade stand,

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you don't need to be humble.

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You can get a tattoo on your face that says, "I'm the best!"

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Right?

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But pay attention here:

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no one likes a jerk.

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In fact, the world needs fewer loudmouths,

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so stay humble!

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When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence,

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you know he never took credit for writing it while he was alive?

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It wasn't until he died and it was in his obituary

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that the average American found out that he was the author.

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That's humble.

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So there's the big secret:

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dream big,

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work hard,

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stay humble.

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"Wait," you're saying, "that's it?"

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"What, you tell me a bunch of stories and what?

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How do I change history?"

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Here's the answer:

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all history ever is

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is a bunch of stories,

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conflicting stories,

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big stories,

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little stories,

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our stories.

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So how do you change history?

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All you got to do is write your story.

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OK? No, I'm serious, this is it.

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If people think history is a bunch of facts and dates you got to memorize,

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that's not what history is at all.

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History is a selection process,

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and it chooses every single one of us every single day.

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The only question is, do you hear the call?

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And that leads me to the most important thing I'm going to tell you here:

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you will change history.

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Some of you will change it in big ways,

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affecting millions of people.

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Others of you will do it in more personal ways,

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helping a family member or someone who needs it.

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But let me tell you right now,

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one is not more important than the other.

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If you help people in mass or one-by-one,

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that's how history gets changed,

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when you take action.

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But when you start writing your story

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and you get scared, as we all inevitably do,

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I want you to know one thing:

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no one is born a hero.

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Every single person that we talked about today,

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whether they were a 26 year old preacher,

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or two 17 year old nerds,

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or little girl who had cancer,

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every single one of them had moments

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where they doubted themselves,

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like you, like me.

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They had moments where they worried about school

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and friendships

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and would they be accepted by others,

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like you, like me.

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They had moments where they worried about loneliness and failure

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and would they ever succeed,

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like you, like me.

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But the best part is, you don't have to start

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a multi-million dollar lemonade stand to change the world,

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all you got to do is help one person,

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be kind to one person, that's the answer.

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It's my core belief,

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it is in every story I just told you.

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I believe ordinary people change the world.

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I don't care how much money you have,

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I don't care where you go to school,

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that is all nonsense to me.

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I believe in regular people and their ability to affect change in this world.

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I believe in my father,

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and a 25 year old daredevil named Amelia,

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and a little girl who sells lemonade like nobody's business.

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And it's why I believe in that very first hero we were talking about today, Superman.

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To me, the most important part of the story isn't Superman.

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The most important part of the story is Clark Kent.

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And you want to know why?

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Because we're all Clark Kent.

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We all know what it's like to be boring and ordinary

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and wish we could do something incredibly beyond ourselves.

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But here's the real news:

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we all can do something incredibly beyond ourselves.

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I got 24 rejection letters on my first book,

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24 people who told me to give it up,

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and I don't look back on the experience and say,

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"I was right, and they were wrong, and haha on them."

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What I look back and realize is that every single one of those rejection letters

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told me to work harder, to dream bigger,

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and you better believe it,

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made me more humble,

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but it also made me want it more than anything.

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So whatever it is you dream big about,

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whatever it is you work hard for,

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don't let anyone tell you,

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you're too young

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and don't let anyone tell you no.

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Every life makes history.

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And every life is a story.

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Thank you.