WEBVTT

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Now, my subject is success,

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so people sometimes
call me a "motivational speaker."

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But I want you to know right up front
I'm not a motivational speaker.

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I couldn't pass the height requirement.

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(Laughter)

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And I couldn't motivate anybody.

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My employees actually call me
a de-motivational speaker.

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(Laughter)

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What I try to be
is an informational speaker.

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I went out and found out
some information about success,

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and I'm just here to pass it on.

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And my story started over
ten years ago, on a plane.

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I was on my way
to the TED conference in California,

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and in the seat next to me
was a teenage girl,

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and she came from a really poor family,
but she wanted to get somewhere in life.

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And as I tapped away on my computer,
she kept asking me questions,

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and then out of the blue,
she asked, "Are you successful?"

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I said, "No, I'm not successful."

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Terry Fox, my hero,
now there's a big success.

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He lost a leg to cancer,
then ran thousands of miles

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and raised millions for cancer research.

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Or Bill Gates,
a guy who owns his own plane

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and doesn't have to sit
next to some kid asking him questions.

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(Laughter)

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But then I told her
about some of the stuff I'd done.

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I love communications,
and I've won lots of awards in marketing.

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I love running, and I still sometimes
win my age group,

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old farts over 60.

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(Laughter)

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My fastest marathon
is two hours and 43 minutes

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to run the 26 miles, or 42 kilometers.

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I've run over 50 marathons,
in all 7 continents.

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This was a run my wife and I did
up the Inca trail to Machu Picchu in Peru.

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And to qualify for the 7 continents,

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we had to run a marathon in Antarctica.

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But when we got there,
it didn't look nice and calm like this,

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it looked like this.

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The waves were so high,
we couldn't get to shore.

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So we sailed 200 miles further south
to where the seas were calm

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and ran the entire 26-mile marathon

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on the boat.

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422 laps around the deck
of that little boat.

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My wife and I have also climbed
two of the world's seven summits,

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the highest mountains on each continent.

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We climbed Aconcagua, the highest
mountain on the American continent,

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and Kilimanjaro,
the highest mountain in Africa.

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Well, to be honest, I puked my way
to the top of Kilimanjaro,

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I got altitude sickness.

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I got no sympathy from my wife.

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She passed me and did a lap around the top

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while I was still struggling up there.

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In spite of that, we're still together
and have been for over 35 years.

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(Applause)

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I'd say that's a success these days.

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So I said to the girl,

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"Well, you know,
I guess I have had some success."

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And then she said,
"Okay, so are you a millionaire?"

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(Laughter)

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Now, I didn't know what to say,

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because when I grew up,
it was bad manners to talk about money.

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But I figured I'd better be honest,

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and I said, "Yeah. I'm a millionaire.

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But I don't know how it happened.

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I never went after the money,
and it's not that important to me."

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She said, "Maybe not to you,
but it is to me.

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I don't want to be poor all my life.

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I want to get somewhere,
but it's never going to happen."

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I said, "Well, why not?"

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She said, "Well, you know,
I'm not very smart.

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I'm not doing great in school."

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I said, "So what? I'm not smart.
I barely passed high school.

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I had absolutely nothing going for me.

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I was never voted most popular
or most likely to succeed.

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I started a whole new category
-- most likely to fail.

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But in the end, I did okay.
So if I can do it, you can do it."

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And then she asked me the big question:

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"Okay, so what really leads to success?"

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I said, "Jeez, sorry. I don't know.

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I guess somehow I did it.
I don't know how I did it."

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So I get off the plane
and go to the TED conference,

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and I'm standing in a room full
of extraordinarily successful people

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in many fields -- business, science, arts,

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health, technology, the environment --

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when it hit me:

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Why don't I ask them
what helped them succeed,

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and find out what really
leads to success for everyone?

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So I was all excited to get out there
and start talking to these great people,

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when the self-doubt set in.

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I mean, why would people
want to talk to me?

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I'm not a famous journalist.
I'm not even a journalist.

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So I was ready to stop the project
before it even began,

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when who comes walking
towards me but Ben Cohen,

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the famous co-founder
of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

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I figured it was now or never.

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I pushed through the self-doubt,

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jumped out in front of him, and said,

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"Ben, I'm working on this project.

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I don't even know what to ask you,

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but can you tell me
what helped you succeed?"

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He said, "Yeah, sure, come on.
Let's go for a coffee."

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And over coffee and ice cream,
Ben told me his story.

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Now here we are over 10 years later,

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and I've interviewed
over 500 successful people

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face-to-face, and collected
thousands of other success stories.

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I wanted to find the common factors
for success in all fields,

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so I had to interview people
in careers ranging from A to Z.

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These are just the careers I interviewed
beginning with the letter A,

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and in most cases more than one person.

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I interviewed six successful accountants,

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five corporate auditors,
five astronauts who had been into space,

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four actors who had won
the Academy Award for Best Actor,

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three of the world's top astrophysicists,

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six of the world's leading architects

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and, oh yeah, four Nobel Prize winners.

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Yeah, I know it doesn't start with A,
but it's kind of cool.

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(Laughter)

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And I want to say a sincere thanks

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to all the great people
that I've interviewed over the years.

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This really is their story;
I'm just the messenger.

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The really big job was taking
all the interviews

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and analyzing them,
word by word, line by line,

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and sorting them into all the factors
that people said helped them succeed.

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And then you start to see the big factors
that are common to most people's success.

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Altogether, I analyzed
and sorted millions of words.

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Do you know how much work that is?

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That's all I do, day and night --
sort and analyze.

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I'll tell you, if I ever get my hands
on that kid on the plane --

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(Laughter)

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Actually, if I do, I'll thank her.

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Because I've never had so much fun
and met so many interesting people.

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And now, I can answer her question.

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I discovered the 8 traits
successful people have in common,

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or the 8 to be great:

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Love what you do; work really hard;

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focus on one thing, not everything;

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keep pushing yourself;
come up with good ideas;

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keep improving yourself and what you do;

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serve others something of value, because
success isn't just about me, me, me;

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and persist, because
there's no overnight success.

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Why did I pick these?

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Because when I added up
all the comments in my interviews,

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more people said
those 8 things helped them

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than anything else.

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The eight traits are really
the heart of success, the foundation,

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and then on top we build
the specific skills

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that we need for our particular
field or career.

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Technical skills, analytical skills,
people skills, creative skills --

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lots of other skills we can add on top,

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depending on our field.

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But no matter what field we're in,

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these eight traits will be
at the heart of our success.

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(Applause)