WEBVTT 00:00:10.940 --> 00:00:12.149 Wow, what an honor. 00:00:12.173 --> 00:00:14.229 I always wondered what this would feel like. 00:00:14.253 --> 00:00:18.806 So eight years ago, I got the worst career advice of my life. 00:00:18.830 --> 00:00:20.236 I had a friend tell me, 00:00:20.260 --> 00:00:23.242 "Don't worry about how much you like the work you're doing now. 00:00:23.266 --> 00:00:25.282 It's all about just building your resume." 00:00:25.306 --> 00:00:27.972 And I'd just come back from living in Spain for a while, 00:00:27.996 --> 00:00:29.903 and I'd joined this Fortune 500 company. 00:00:29.927 --> 00:00:31.379 I thought, "This is fantastic. 00:00:31.403 --> 00:00:33.432 I'm going to have big impact on the world." 00:00:33.456 --> 00:00:36.024 I had all these ideas. And within about two months, 00:00:36.048 --> 00:00:38.939 I noticed at about 10am every morning I had this strange urge 00:00:38.963 --> 00:00:42.367 to want to slam my head through the monitor of my computer. 00:00:42.760 --> 00:00:44.665 I don't know if anyone's ever felt that. 00:00:44.689 --> 00:00:48.187 And I noticed pretty soon after that that all the competitors in our space 00:00:48.211 --> 00:00:51.072 had already automated my job role. 00:00:51.096 --> 00:00:54.899 And this is right about when I got this sage advice to build up my resume. 00:00:55.300 --> 00:00:57.117 Well, as I'm trying to figure out 00:01:00.142 --> 00:01:03.879 what two-story window I'm going to jump out of and change things up, 00:01:03.903 --> 00:01:07.896 I read some altogether different advice from Warren Buffett, and he said, 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:12.805 "Taking jobs to build up your resume is the same as saving up sex for old age." 00:01:13.122 --> 00:01:14.966 (Laughter) 00:01:14.990 --> 00:01:17.288 And I heard that, and that was all I needed. 00:01:17.312 --> 00:01:20.528 Within two weeks, I was out of there, and I left with one intention: 00:01:20.552 --> 00:01:22.472 to find something that I could screw up. 00:01:22.496 --> 00:01:23.818 That's how tough it was. 00:01:23.842 --> 00:01:26.995 I wanted to have some type of impact. It didn't matter what it was. 00:01:27.019 --> 00:01:29.533 And I found pretty quickly that I wasn't alone: 00:01:29.557 --> 00:01:32.395 it turns out that over 80 percent of the people around 00:01:32.419 --> 00:01:33.716 don't enjoy their work. 00:01:33.740 --> 00:01:35.462 I'm guessing this room is different, 00:01:35.486 --> 00:01:38.565 but that's the average that Deloitte has done with their studies. 00:01:38.589 --> 00:01:41.713 So I wanted to find out, what is it that sets these people apart, 00:01:41.737 --> 00:01:44.393 the people who do the passionate, world-changing work, 00:01:44.417 --> 00:01:45.983 that wake up inspired every day, 00:01:46.007 --> 00:01:48.048 and then these people, the other 80 percent 00:01:48.072 --> 00:01:50.110 who lead these lives of quiet desperation. 00:01:50.134 --> 00:01:53.449 So I started to interview all these people doing this inspiring work, 00:01:53.473 --> 00:01:55.362 and I read books and did case studies, 00:01:55.386 --> 00:01:58.069 300 books altogether on purpose and career and all this, 00:01:58.093 --> 00:02:02.178 totally just self-immersion, really for the selfish reason of ... 00:02:02.940 --> 00:02:05.436 I wanted to find the work that I couldn't not do, 00:02:05.460 --> 00:02:06.996 what that was for me. 00:02:07.020 --> 00:02:10.078 But as I was doing this, more and more people started to ask me, 00:02:10.102 --> 00:02:11.692 "You're into this career thing. 00:02:11.716 --> 00:02:13.982 I don't like my job. Can we sit down for lunch?" 00:02:14.006 --> 00:02:16.212 I'd say, "Sure." But I would have to warn them, 00:02:16.236 --> 00:02:18.912 because at this point, my quit rate was also 80 percent. 00:02:18.936 --> 00:02:22.486 Of the people I'd sit down with for lunch, 80 percent would quit their job 00:02:22.510 --> 00:02:23.732 within two months. 00:02:23.756 --> 00:02:27.084 I was proud of this, and it wasn't that I had any special magic. 00:02:27.108 --> 00:02:29.157 It was that I would ask one simple question. 00:02:29.181 --> 00:02:31.798 It was, "Why are you doing the work that you're doing?" 00:02:31.822 --> 00:02:33.758 And so often their answer would be, 00:02:33.782 --> 00:02:36.185 "Well, because somebody told me I'm supposed to." 00:02:36.209 --> 00:02:38.416 And I realized that so many people around us 00:02:38.440 --> 00:02:42.056 are climbing their way up this ladder that someone tells them to climb, 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:44.616 and it ends up being leaned up against the wrong wall, 00:02:44.640 --> 00:02:45.912 or no wall at all. 00:02:46.320 --> 00:02:49.302 The more time I spent around these people and saw this problem, 00:02:49.326 --> 00:02:51.582 I thought, what if we could create a community, 00:02:51.606 --> 00:02:54.032 a place where people could feel like they belonged 00:02:54.056 --> 00:02:56.189 and that it was OK to do things differently, 00:02:56.213 --> 00:02:58.998 to take the road less traveled, where that was encouraged, 00:02:59.022 --> 00:03:00.595 and inspire people to change? 00:03:01.160 --> 00:03:03.856 And that later became what I now call Live Your Legend, 00:03:03.880 --> 00:03:05.547 which I'll explain in a little bit. 00:03:05.571 --> 00:03:09.256 But as I've made these discoveries, I noticed a framework 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:10.661 of really three simple things 00:03:10.685 --> 00:03:13.841 that all these different passionate world-changers have in common, 00:03:13.865 --> 00:03:16.496 whether you're a Steve Jobs or if you're just, you know, 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:18.762 the person that has the bakery down the street. 00:03:18.786 --> 00:03:21.072 But you're doing work that embodies who you are. 00:03:21.096 --> 00:03:24.222 I want to share those three with you, so we can use them as a lens 00:03:24.246 --> 00:03:26.943 for the rest of today and hopefully the rest of our life. 00:03:26.967 --> 00:03:29.743 The first part of this three-step passionate work framework 00:03:29.767 --> 00:03:32.362 is becoming a self-expert and understanding yourself, 00:03:32.386 --> 00:03:34.782 because if you don't know what you're looking for, 00:03:34.806 --> 00:03:36.296 you're never going to find it. 00:03:36.320 --> 00:03:38.940 And the thing is that no one is going to do this for us. 00:03:38.964 --> 00:03:42.605 There's no major in university on passion and purpose and career. 00:03:42.629 --> 00:03:45.136 I don't know how that's not a required double major, 00:03:45.160 --> 00:03:46.976 but don't even get me started on that. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:49.976 I mean, you spend more time picking out a dorm room TV set 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.936 than you do you picking your major and your area of study. 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:55.576 But the point is, it's on us to figure that out, 00:03:55.600 --> 00:03:58.613 and we need a framework, we need a way to navigate through this. 00:03:58.637 --> 00:04:02.543 And so the first step of our compass is finding out what our unique strengths are. 00:04:02.567 --> 00:04:05.578 What are the things that we wake up loving to do no matter what, 00:04:05.602 --> 00:04:09.108 whether we're paid or we're not paid, the things that people thank us for? 00:04:09.132 --> 00:04:12.256 And the Strengths Finder 2.0 is a book and also an online tool. 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:16.028 I highly recommend it for sorting out what it is that you're naturally good at. 00:04:16.052 --> 00:04:20.228 And next, what's our framework or our hierarchy for making decisions? 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:24.780 Do we care about the people, our family, health, 00:04:24.804 --> 00:04:26.986 or is it achievement, success, all this stuff? 00:04:27.010 --> 00:04:29.753 We have to figure out what it is to make these decisions, 00:04:29.777 --> 00:04:31.659 so we know what our soul is made of, 00:04:31.683 --> 00:04:35.110 so that we don't go selling it to some cause we don't give a shit about. 00:04:35.840 --> 00:04:38.937 And then the next step is our experiences. 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:42.976 All of us have these experiences. We learn things every day, every minute 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:44.688 about what we love, what we hate, 00:04:44.712 --> 00:04:46.860 what we're good at, what we're terrible at. 00:04:46.884 --> 00:04:49.276 And if we don't spend time paying attention to that 00:04:49.300 --> 00:04:50.836 and assimilating that learning 00:04:50.860 --> 00:04:53.836 and applying it to the rest of our lives, it's all for nothing. 00:04:53.860 --> 00:04:56.516 Every day, every week, every month of every year 00:04:56.540 --> 00:04:59.072 I spend some time just reflecting on what went right, 00:04:59.096 --> 00:05:01.259 what went wrong, and what do I want to repeat, 00:05:01.283 --> 00:05:02.879 what can I apply more to my life. 00:05:02.903 --> 00:05:05.910 And even more so than that, as you see people, especially today, 00:05:05.934 --> 00:05:08.377 who inspire you, who are doing things where you say 00:05:08.401 --> 00:05:11.236 "Oh God, what Jeff is doing, I want to be like him." 00:05:11.260 --> 00:05:13.267 Why are you saying that? Open up a journal. 00:05:13.291 --> 00:05:15.712 Write down what it is about them that inspires you. 00:05:15.736 --> 00:05:18.122 It's not going to be everything about their life, 00:05:18.146 --> 00:05:19.956 but whatever it is, take note on that, 00:05:19.980 --> 00:05:22.313 so over time we'll have this repository of things 00:05:22.337 --> 00:05:25.866 that we can use to apply to our life and have a more passionate existence 00:05:25.890 --> 00:05:27.115 and make a better impact. 00:05:27.139 --> 00:05:29.715 Because when we start to put these things together, 00:05:29.739 --> 00:05:32.672 we can then define what success actually means to us, 00:05:32.696 --> 00:05:35.876 and without these different parts of the compass, it's impossible. 00:05:35.900 --> 00:05:38.830 We end up in the situation ... We have that scripted life 00:05:38.854 --> 00:05:41.956 that everybody seems to be living going up this ladder to nowhere. 00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:44.636 It's kind of like in Wall Street 2, if anybody saw that, 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:48.197 the peon employee asks the big Wall Street banker CEO, 00:05:48.221 --> 00:05:50.358 "What's your number? Everyone's got a number, 00:05:50.382 --> 00:05:52.987 where if they make this money, they'll leave it all." 00:05:53.011 --> 00:05:55.531 He says, "Oh, it's simple. More." 00:05:56.319 --> 00:05:57.616 And he just smiles. 00:05:57.640 --> 00:05:59.722 And it's the sad state of most of the people 00:05:59.746 --> 00:06:02.612 that haven't spent time understanding what matters for them, 00:06:02.636 --> 00:06:05.702 who keep reaching for something that doesn't mean anything to us, 00:06:05.726 --> 00:06:08.582 but we're doing it because everyone said we're supposed to. 00:06:08.606 --> 00:06:10.622 But once we have this framework together, 00:06:10.646 --> 00:06:13.482 we can start to identify the things that make us come alive. 00:06:13.506 --> 00:06:16.741 You know, before this, a passion could come and hit you in the face, 00:06:16.765 --> 00:06:19.792 or maybe in your possible line of work, you might throw it away 00:06:19.816 --> 00:06:22.038 because you don't have a way of identifying it. 00:06:22.062 --> 00:06:25.546 But once you do, you can see something that's congruent with my strengths, 00:06:25.570 --> 00:06:27.120 my values, who I am as a person, 00:06:27.144 --> 00:06:30.509 so I'm going to grab ahold of this, I'm going to do something with it, 00:06:30.533 --> 00:06:33.457 and I'm going to pursue it and try to make an impact with it. 00:06:33.481 --> 00:06:35.875 And Live Your Legend and the movement we've built 00:06:35.899 --> 00:06:38.693 wouldn't exist if I didn't have this compass to identify, 00:06:38.717 --> 00:06:41.957 "Wow, this is something I want to pursue and make a difference with." 00:06:41.981 --> 00:06:45.313 If we don't know what we're looking for, we're never going to find it, 00:06:45.337 --> 00:06:47.549 but once we have this framework, this compass, 00:06:47.573 --> 00:06:49.426 then we can move on to what's next... 00:06:49.450 --> 00:06:50.839 And that's not me up there... 00:06:50.863 --> 00:06:52.932 Doing the impossible and pushing our limits. 00:06:52.956 --> 00:06:55.162 There's two reasons why people don't do things. 00:06:55.186 --> 00:06:57.396 One is they tell themselves they can't do them, 00:06:57.420 --> 00:06:59.821 or people around them tell them they can't do them. 00:06:59.845 --> 00:07:01.666 Either way, we start to believe it. 00:07:01.690 --> 00:07:04.351 Either we give up, or we never start in the first place. 00:07:04.375 --> 00:07:07.356 The things is, everything was impossible until somebody did it. 00:07:07.380 --> 00:07:09.551 Every invention, every new thing in the world, 00:07:09.575 --> 00:07:11.281 people thought were crazy at first. 00:07:11.305 --> 00:07:14.773 Roger Bannister and the four-minute mile, it was a physical impossibility 00:07:14.797 --> 00:07:16.990 to break the four-minute mile in a foot race 00:07:17.014 --> 00:07:19.036 until Roger Bannister stood up and did it. 00:07:19.060 --> 00:07:20.227 And then what happened? 00:07:20.251 --> 00:07:22.863 Two months later, 16 people broke the four-minute mile. 00:07:22.887 --> 00:07:25.974 The things that we have in our head that we think are impossible 00:07:25.998 --> 00:07:28.631 are often just milestones waiting to be accomplished 00:07:28.655 --> 00:07:30.276 if we can push those limits a bit. 00:07:30.300 --> 00:07:33.526 And I think this starts with probably your physical body and fitness 00:07:33.550 --> 00:07:35.792 more than anything, because we can control that. 00:07:35.816 --> 00:07:37.637 If you don't think you can run a mile, 00:07:37.661 --> 00:07:39.792 you show yourself you can run a mile or two, 00:07:39.816 --> 00:07:42.447 or a marathon, or lose five pounds, or whatever it is, 00:07:42.471 --> 00:07:44.292 you realize that confidence compounds 00:07:44.316 --> 00:07:46.772 and can be transferred into the rest of your world. 00:07:46.796 --> 00:07:50.416 And I've actually gotten into the habit of this a little bit with my friends. 00:07:50.440 --> 00:07:53.112 We have this little group. We go on physical adventures, 00:07:53.136 --> 00:07:55.936 and recently, I found myself in a kind of precarious spot. 00:07:55.960 --> 00:07:57.870 I'm terrified of deep, dark, blue water. 00:07:57.894 --> 00:08:00.195 I don't know if anyone's ever had that same fear 00:08:00.219 --> 00:08:02.961 ever since they watched Jaws 1, 2, 3 and 4 like six times 00:08:02.985 --> 00:08:04.143 when I was a kid. 00:08:04.167 --> 00:08:08.024 But anything above here, if it's murky, I can already feel it right now. 00:08:09.080 --> 00:08:10.856 I swear there's something in there. 00:08:10.880 --> 00:08:14.056 Even if it's Lake Tahoe, it's fresh water, totally unfounded fear, 00:08:14.080 --> 00:08:15.450 ridiculous, but it's there. 00:08:15.474 --> 00:08:17.960 Anyway, three years ago I find myself on this tugboat 00:08:17.984 --> 00:08:19.961 right down here in the San Francisco Bay. 00:08:19.985 --> 00:08:23.441 It's a rainy, stormy, windy day, and people are getting sick on the boat, 00:08:23.465 --> 00:08:26.803 and I'm sitting there wearing a wetsuit, and I'm looking out the window 00:08:26.827 --> 00:08:29.461 in pure terror thinking I'm about to swim to my death. 00:08:29.485 --> 00:08:31.742 I'm going to try to swim across the Golden Gate. 00:08:31.766 --> 00:08:35.357 And my guess is some people in this room might have done that before. 00:08:35.381 --> 00:08:38.597 I'm sitting there, and my buddy Jonathan, who had talked me into it, 00:08:38.621 --> 00:08:41.203 he comes up to me and he could see the state I was in. 00:08:41.227 --> 00:08:44.405 And he says, "Scott, hey man, what's the worst that could happen? 00:08:44.429 --> 00:08:46.920 You're wearing a wetsuit. You're not going to sink. 00:08:46.944 --> 00:08:49.732 And If you can't make it, just hop on one of the 20 kayaks. 00:08:49.756 --> 00:08:52.717 Plus, if there's a shark attack, why are they going to pick you 00:08:52.741 --> 00:08:55.446 over the 80 people in the water?" So thanks, that helps. 00:08:55.470 --> 00:08:58.381 He's like, "But really, just have fun with this. Good luck." 00:08:58.405 --> 00:08:59.900 And he dives in, swims off. OK. 00:08:59.924 --> 00:09:03.899 Turns out, the pep talk totally worked, and I felt this total feeling of calm, 00:09:03.923 --> 00:09:06.896 and I think it was because Jonathan was 13 years old. 00:09:07.420 --> 00:09:08.813 (Laughter) 00:09:08.837 --> 00:09:11.576 And of the 80 people swimming that day, 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:14.416 65 of them were between the ages of nine and 13. 00:09:14.440 --> 00:09:17.176 Think how you would have approached your world differently 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:20.376 if at nine years old you found out you could swim a mile and a half 00:09:20.400 --> 00:09:23.096 in 56-degree water from Alcatraz to San Francisco. 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:24.812 What would you have said yes to? 00:09:24.836 --> 00:09:27.822 What would you have not given up on? What would you have tried? 00:09:27.846 --> 00:09:30.221 As I'm finishing this swim, I get to Aquatic Park, 00:09:30.245 --> 00:09:31.822 and I'm getting out of the water 00:09:31.846 --> 00:09:34.262 and of course half the kids are already finished, 00:09:34.286 --> 00:09:36.639 so they're cheering me on and they're all excited. 00:09:36.663 --> 00:09:39.808 And I got total Popsicle head, if anyone's ever swam in the Bay, 00:09:39.832 --> 00:09:43.243 and I'm trying to just thaw my face out, and I'm watching people finish. 00:09:43.267 --> 00:09:45.710 And I see this one kid, something didn't look right. 00:09:45.734 --> 00:09:47.482 And he's just flailing like this. 00:09:47.506 --> 00:09:50.956 And he's barely able to sip some air before he slams his head back down. 00:09:50.980 --> 00:09:53.142 And I notice other parents were watching too, 00:09:53.166 --> 00:09:55.612 and I swear they were thinking the same thing I was: 00:09:55.636 --> 00:09:58.464 this is why you don't let nine-year-olds swim from Alcatraz. 00:09:58.488 --> 00:10:00.178 This was not fatigue. 00:10:00.202 --> 00:10:02.656 All of a sudden, two parents run up and grab him, 00:10:02.680 --> 00:10:06.542 and they put him on their shoulders, and they're dragging him like this, 00:10:06.566 --> 00:10:08.343 totally limp. 00:10:08.367 --> 00:10:10.704 And then all of a sudden they walk a few more feet 00:10:10.728 --> 00:10:12.705 and they plop him down in his wheelchair. 00:10:12.729 --> 00:10:16.279 And he puts his fists up in the most insane show of victory I've ever seen. 00:10:16.303 --> 00:10:19.149 I can still feel the warmth and the energy on this guy 00:10:19.173 --> 00:10:20.750 when he made this accomplishment. 00:10:20.774 --> 00:10:23.751 I had seen him earlier that day in his wheelchair. 00:10:23.775 --> 00:10:25.737 I just had no idea he was going to swim. 00:10:25.761 --> 00:10:28.697 I mean, where is he going to be in 20 years? 00:10:28.721 --> 00:10:30.839 How many people told him he couldn't do that, 00:10:30.863 --> 00:10:32.594 that he would die if he tried that? 00:10:32.618 --> 00:10:34.911 You prove people wrong, you prove yourself wrong, 00:10:34.935 --> 00:10:36.986 that you can make little incremental pushes 00:10:37.010 --> 00:10:38.641 of what you believe is possible. 00:10:38.665 --> 00:10:41.376 You don't have to be the fastest marathoner in the world, 00:10:41.400 --> 00:10:43.936 just your own impossibilities, to accomplish those, 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:45.821 and it starts with little bitty steps. 00:10:45.845 --> 00:10:47.683 And the best way to do this 00:10:47.707 --> 00:10:50.055 is to surround yourself with passionate people. 00:10:50.079 --> 00:10:52.872 The fastest things to do things you don't think can be done 00:10:52.896 --> 00:10:55.549 is to surround yourself with people already doing them. 00:10:55.573 --> 00:10:57.599 There's this quote by Jim Rohn and it says, 00:10:57.623 --> 00:11:00.973 "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." 00:11:00.997 --> 00:11:04.063 And there is no bigger lifehack in the history of the world 00:11:04.087 --> 00:11:06.820 from getting where you are today to where you want to be 00:11:06.844 --> 00:11:09.430 than the people you choose to put in your corner. 00:11:09.751 --> 00:11:12.054 They change everything, and it's a proven fact. 00:11:12.078 --> 00:11:16.418 In 1898, Norman Triplett did this study with a bunch of cyclists, 00:11:16.442 --> 00:11:19.301 and he would measure their times around the track in a group, 00:11:19.325 --> 00:11:20.520 and also individually. 00:11:20.544 --> 00:11:24.110 And he found that every time the cyclists in the group would cycle faster. 00:11:24.134 --> 00:11:27.136 And it's been repeated in all kinds of walks of life since then, 00:11:27.160 --> 00:11:29.182 and it proves the same thing over again, 00:11:29.206 --> 00:11:32.342 that the people around you matter, and environment is everything. 00:11:32.366 --> 00:11:35.212 But it's on you to control it, because it can go both ways. 00:11:35.236 --> 00:11:37.962 With 80 percent of people who don't like the work they do, 00:11:37.986 --> 00:11:41.436 that means most people around us, not in this room, but everywhere else, 00:11:41.460 --> 00:11:45.536 are encouraging complacency and keeping us from pursuing the things that matter to us 00:11:45.560 --> 00:11:47.507 so we have to manage those surroundings. 00:11:47.531 --> 00:11:49.856 I found myself in this situation... 00:11:49.880 --> 00:11:52.766 Personal example, a couple years ago. 00:11:52.790 --> 00:11:56.947 Has anyone ever had a hobby or a passion they poured their heart and soul into, 00:11:56.971 --> 00:12:00.764 unbelievable amount of time, and they so badly want to call it a business, 00:12:00.788 --> 00:12:03.824 but no one's paying attention and it doesn't make a dime? 00:12:04.642 --> 00:12:08.976 OK, I was there for four years trying to build this Live Your Legend movement 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:12.736 to help people do work that they genuinely cared about and that inspired them, 00:12:12.760 --> 00:12:14.187 and I was doing all I could, 00:12:14.211 --> 00:12:16.606 and there were only three people paying attention, 00:12:16.630 --> 00:12:19.883 and they're all right there: my mother, father and my wife, Chelsea. 00:12:19.907 --> 00:12:21.389 Thank you guys for the support. 00:12:22.245 --> 00:12:26.708 And this is how badly I wanted it, it grew at zero percent for four years, 00:12:26.732 --> 00:12:28.676 and I was about to shut it down, 00:12:28.700 --> 00:12:30.397 and right about then, 00:12:30.421 --> 00:12:33.976 I moved to San Francisco and started to meet some pretty interesting people 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.216 who had these crazy lifestyles of adventure, 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:38.256 of businesses and websites and blogs 00:12:38.280 --> 00:12:41.576 that surrounded their passions and helped people in a meaningful way. 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:44.216 And one of my friends, now, he has a family of eight, 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:46.576 and he supports his whole family 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:49.456 with a blog that he writes for twice a week. 00:12:49.480 --> 00:12:52.616 They just came back from a month in Europe, all of them together. 00:12:52.640 --> 00:12:54.693 This blew my mind. How does this even exist? 00:12:54.717 --> 00:12:58.105 And I got unbelievably inspired by seeing this, 00:12:58.129 --> 00:13:01.391 and instead of shutting it down, I decided, let's take it seriously. 00:13:01.415 --> 00:13:03.702 And I did everything I could to spend my time, 00:13:03.726 --> 00:13:06.332 every waking hour possible trying to hound these guys, 00:13:06.356 --> 00:13:09.232 hanging out and having beers and workouts, whatever it was. 00:13:09.256 --> 00:13:11.002 And after four years of zero growth, 00:13:11.026 --> 00:13:13.402 within six months of hanging around these people, 00:13:13.426 --> 00:13:16.012 the community at Live Your Legend grew by 10 times. 00:13:16.036 --> 00:13:18.420 In another 12 months, it grew by 160 times. 00:13:19.137 --> 00:13:22.138 And today over 30,000 people from 158 countries 00:13:22.162 --> 00:13:25.276 use our career and connection tools on a monthly basis. 00:13:25.300 --> 00:13:29.876 And those people have made up that community of passionate folks 00:13:29.900 --> 00:13:32.116 who inspired that possibility that I dreamed of 00:13:32.140 --> 00:13:34.371 for Live Your Legend so many years back. 00:13:35.201 --> 00:13:37.496 The people change everything, and this is why... 00:13:37.520 --> 00:13:39.736 You know, you ask what was going on. 00:13:39.760 --> 00:13:42.216 Well, for four years, I knew nobody in this space, 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:45.736 and I didn't even know it existed, that people could do this stuff, 00:13:45.760 --> 00:13:47.736 that you could have movements like this. 00:13:47.760 --> 00:13:51.416 And then I'm over here in San Francisco, and everyone around me was doing it. 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:55.534 It became normal, so my thinking went from how could I possibly do this 00:13:55.558 --> 00:13:57.382 to how could I possibly not. 00:13:57.406 --> 00:14:00.656 And right then, when that happens, that switch goes on in your head, 00:14:00.680 --> 00:14:02.352 it ripples across your whole world. 00:14:02.376 --> 00:14:05.302 And without even trying, your standards go from here to here. 00:14:05.326 --> 00:14:09.097 You don't need to change your goals. You just need to change your surroundings. 00:14:09.121 --> 00:14:13.442 That's it, and that's why I love being around this whole group of people, 00:14:13.466 --> 00:14:15.087 why I go to every TED event I can, 00:14:15.111 --> 00:14:18.044 and watch them on my iPad on the way to work, whatever it is. 00:14:18.068 --> 00:14:21.102 Because this is the group of people that inspires possibility. 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:24.456 We have a whole day to spend together and plenty more. 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:27.926 To sum things up, in terms of these three pillars, 00:14:27.950 --> 00:14:31.564 they all have one thing in common more than anything else. 00:14:31.879 --> 00:14:34.303 They are 100 percent in our control. 00:14:34.327 --> 00:14:37.455 No one can tell you you can't learn about yourself. 00:14:37.479 --> 00:14:39.623 No one can tell you you can't push your limits 00:14:39.647 --> 00:14:41.936 and learn your own impossible and push that. 00:14:41.960 --> 00:14:45.304 No one can tell you you can't surround yourself with inspiring people 00:14:45.328 --> 00:14:47.570 or get away from the people who bring you down. 00:14:47.594 --> 00:14:49.270 You can't control a recession. 00:14:49.294 --> 00:14:52.166 You can't control getting fired or getting in a car accident. 00:14:52.190 --> 00:14:54.262 Most things are totally out of our hands. 00:14:54.286 --> 00:14:56.380 These three things are totally on us. 00:14:58.138 --> 00:15:02.087 And they can change our whole world if we decide to do something about it. 00:15:03.241 --> 00:15:06.242 And the thing is, it's starting to happen on a widespread level. 00:15:06.266 --> 00:15:09.512 I just read in Forbes, the US Government reported for the first time 00:15:09.536 --> 00:15:12.246 in a month where more people had quit their jobs 00:15:12.270 --> 00:15:13.572 than had been laid off. 00:15:13.596 --> 00:15:17.131 They thought this was an anomaly, but it's happened three months straight. 00:15:17.155 --> 00:15:20.182 In a time where people claim it's kind of a tough environment, 00:15:20.206 --> 00:15:22.852 people are giving a middle finger to this scripted life, 00:15:22.876 --> 00:15:25.302 the things that people say you're supposed to do, 00:15:25.326 --> 00:15:29.051 in exchange for things that matter to them and do the things that inspire them. 00:15:29.075 --> 00:15:31.885 And the thing is, people are waking up to this possibility, 00:15:31.909 --> 00:15:36.469 that really the only thing that limits possibility now is imagination. 00:15:36.493 --> 00:15:38.470 That's not a cliché anymore. 00:15:38.494 --> 00:15:41.836 I don't care what it is that you're into, what passion, what hobby. 00:15:41.860 --> 00:15:45.316 If you're into knitting, you can find someone who is killing at knitting, 00:15:45.340 --> 00:15:47.576 and you can learn from them. It's wild. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:51.096 And that's what this whole day is about, to learn from the folks speaking, 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:54.521 and we profile these people on Live Your Legend every day, 00:15:54.545 --> 00:15:57.242 because when ordinary people are doing the extraordinary, 00:15:57.266 --> 00:15:59.043 and we can be around that, 00:15:59.067 --> 00:16:00.737 it becomes normal. 00:16:00.761 --> 00:16:04.569 And this isn't about being Gandhi or Steve Jobs, doing something crazy. 00:16:04.947 --> 00:16:07.377 It's just about doing something that matters to you, 00:16:07.401 --> 00:16:09.441 and makes an impact that only you can make. 00:16:11.400 --> 00:16:14.478 Speaking of Gandhi, he was a recovering lawyer, 00:16:14.502 --> 00:16:15.770 as I've heard the term, 00:16:15.794 --> 00:16:19.135 and he was called to a greater cause, something that mattered to him, 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:20.310 he couldn't not do. 00:16:20.334 --> 00:16:22.574 And he has this quote that I absolutely live by. 00:16:22.598 --> 00:16:24.912 "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, 00:16:24.936 --> 00:16:27.056 then they fight you, then you win." 00:16:29.165 --> 00:16:31.822 Everything was impossible until somebody did it. 00:16:31.846 --> 00:16:35.042 You can either hang around the people who tell you it can't be done 00:16:35.066 --> 00:16:36.983 and tell you you're stupid for trying, 00:16:37.007 --> 00:16:40.174 or surround yourself with the people who inspire possibility, 00:16:40.198 --> 00:16:41.798 the people who are in this room. 00:16:42.758 --> 00:16:46.696 Because I see it as our responsibility to show the world 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:50.110 that what's seen as impossible can become that new normal. 00:16:50.134 --> 00:16:52.189 And that's already starting to happen. 00:16:52.213 --> 00:16:55.032 First, do the things that inspire us, 00:16:55.056 --> 00:16:58.767 so we can inspire other people to do the things that inspire them. 00:16:58.791 --> 00:17:01.342 But we can't find that 00:17:01.366 --> 00:17:03.423 unless we know what we're looking for. 00:17:03.447 --> 00:17:05.544 We have to do our work on ourselves, 00:17:05.568 --> 00:17:08.145 be intentional about that, and make those discoveries. 00:17:08.169 --> 00:17:11.720 Because I imagine a world where 80 percent of people love the work they do. 00:17:11.743 --> 00:17:13.148 What would that look like? 00:17:13.173 --> 00:17:17.054 What would the innovation be like? How would you treat the people around you? 00:17:17.078 --> 00:17:18.459 Things would start to change. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:23.194 And as we finish up, I have just one question to ask you guys, 00:17:23.219 --> 00:17:25.955 and I think it's the only question that matters. 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:28.580 And it's what is the work you can't not do? 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:31.936 Discover that, live it, 00:17:31.960 --> 00:17:35.535 not just for you, but for everybody around you, 00:17:35.559 --> 00:17:38.424 because that is what starts to change the world. 00:17:38.448 --> 00:17:40.768 What is the work you can't not do? 00:17:41.558 --> 00:17:42.775 Thank you guys. 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:45.319 (Applause)