-
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While, what and honor. I always wondered
what this would feel like.
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So eight years ago I got
the worst career advice of my life.
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I had a friend tell me,
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"Scott, don't worry about how much
you like the work you're doing right now.
-
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It's all about just building your resume."
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And I'd just got back
from living in Spain for a while,
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and I'd joined this Fortune 500 company.
I thought, "This is fantastic.
-
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I'm going to have this big impact
on the world. I had all these ideas.
-
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And within about two months,
-
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I noticed at about 10 a.m. every morning
I had this strange urge
-
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to want to slam my head through
the monitor of my computer.
-
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I don't know if anyone's ever felt that.
-
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And I noticed pretty soon after it
that all the competitors in our space
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had already automated my job role.
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And this is right about when I got
this sage advice to build up my resume.
-
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Well, as I'm trying to figure out
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what two-story window I'm going
to jump out of and change things up,
-
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I read some altogether different advice
from Warren Buffett, and he said,
-
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"Taking jobs to build up your resume
is the same as saving up sex for old age."
-
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(Laughter)
-
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And I heard that,
and that was all I needed.
-
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Within two weeks, I was out of there,
and I left with one intention:
-
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to find something that I could screw up.
-
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That's how tough it was.
-
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I just wanted to have some type
of an impact. It didn't matter what it was.
-
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And I found pretty quickly
after that that I wasn't alone:
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it turns out that over 80 percent
of the people around
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don't enjoy their work.
-
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I'm guessing this room is different,
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but that's the average
that Deloitte has done with their studies.
-
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And I so I wanted to find out,
-
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what is it that sets these people apart,
-
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the people who do the passionate,
world-changing work,
-
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that wake up inspired every day,
-
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and then these people,
the other 80 percent
-
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who lead these lives of quiet desperation.
-
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So I started to interview all these people
doing this inspiring work,
-
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and I read books and did case studies,
-
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300 books altogether
on purpose and career and all this,
-
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totally just self-immersion
really for the selfish reason of,
-
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I wanted to find the work
that I couldn't not do,
-
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what that was for me.
-
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But as I was doing this,
more and more people started to ask me,
-
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"Scott, you're into this career thing.
I don't really like my job.
-
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Can we sit down for lunch?"
-
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I'd say, "Sure," but I
would have to warn them,
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because at this point, my quit rate
was also 80 percent.
-
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Of the people I'd sit down with for lunch,
80 percent would quit their job
-
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within two months.
-
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I was proud of this, and it wasn't
that I had any special magic.
-
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It was that I would ask
one simple question.
-
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It was, "Why are you doing
the work that you're doing?"
-
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And so often their answer would be, "Well,
because somebody told me I'm supposed to."
-
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And I realized that so many
people around us
-
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are climbing their way up this ladder
that someone tells them to climb,
-
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and it ends up being leaned up
against the wrong wall,
-
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or no wall at all.
-
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So the more time I spent around
these people and saw this problem,
-
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I thought, what if could
create a community,
-
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a place where people could feel
like they belonged
-
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and it was okay to do things differently,
to take the road less traveled,
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where that was encouraged,
-
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and inspire people to change?
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And that later became what I now
call "Live Your Legend,"
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which I'll explain in a little bit.
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But as I've made these discoveries,
I noticed a framework
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of really three simple things that all
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these different passionate
world-changers have in common,
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whether you're a Steve Jobs
or if you're just, you know,
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the person that has
the bakery down the street,
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but you're doing work
that embodies who you are.
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I want to share those three with you,
so we can use them as a lens
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for the rest of today and hopefully
the rest of our life.
-
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The first part of this three-step
passionate work framework
-
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is becoming a self-expert
and understanding yourself,
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because if you don't know
what you're looking for,
-
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you're never going to find it.
-
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And the thing is that no one's
going to do this for us.
-
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There's no major in university
on passion and purpose and career.
-
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I don't know how that's not
a required double major,
-
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but don't even get me started on that.
-
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I mean, you spend more time
picking out a dorm room TV set
-
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than you do you picking your major
and your area of study.
-
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But the point is, it's on us
to figure that out,
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and we need a framework,
we need a way to navigate through this.
-
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And so the first step of our compass is
finding out what our unique strengths are.
-
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What are the things that we wake up
loving to do no matter what,
-
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whether we're paid or we're not paid,
-
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the things that people thank us for?
-
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And the Strengths Finder 2.0 is a book
and also an online tool.
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I highly recommend it for sorting out
what it is that you're naturally good at.
-
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And next, what's our framework
or our hierarchy for making decisions?
-
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Do we care about the people,
our family, health,
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or is it achievement, success,
all this different stuff?
-
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We have to figure out what it is
to make these decisions
-
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so we know that our soul is made of
-
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so that we don't go selling it
to some cause we don't give a shit about.
-
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And then the next step is our experiences.
-
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All of us have these experiences.
We learn things every day, every minute
-
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about what we love, what we hate,
-
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what we're good at,
what we're terrible at,
-
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and if we don't spend time
paying attention to that
-
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and assimilating that learning
-
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and applying it to the rest of our lives,
it's all for nothing.
-
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Every day, every week, every month
of every year I spend some time
-
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just reflecting on what went right,
what went wrong,
-
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and what do I want to repeat,
what can I apply more to my life?
-
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And even more so than that,
as you see people, especially today,
-
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who inspire you, who are doing things
where you say "Oh God, what Jeff is doing,
-
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I want to be like him."
-
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Why are you saying that?
Open up a journal.
-
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Write down what it is about them
that inspires you.
-
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It's not going to be
everything about their life,
-
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but whatever it is, take note on that,
-
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so over time we'll have
this repository of things
-
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that we can use to apply to our life
and have a more passionate existence
-
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and make a better impact.
-
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Because when we start
to put these things together,
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we can then define what success
actually means to us,
-
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and without these different parts
of the compass, it's impossible.
-
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We end up in the situation,
we had that scripted life
-
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that everybody seems to be living
going up this ladder to nowhere.
-
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It's kind of like in Wall Street 2,
if anybody saw that,
-
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the peon employee asks
the big Wall Street Banker CEO,
-
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"What's your number?
Everyone's got a number,
-
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where if they make this money,
they'll leave it all."
-
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He says, "Oh, it's simple. More."
-
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And he just smiles.
-
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And it's the sad state
of most of the people
-
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that haven't spent time understanding
what actually matters for them,
-
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who just keep reaching for something
that doesn't mean anything to us,
-
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but we're doing it because everyone
said we're supposed to.
-
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But once we have this framework together,
we can start to identify the things
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that make us come alive.
-
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You know, before this, a passion
could come and hit you in the face,
-
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or maybe in your possible line of work,
you might throw it away
-
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because you don't have a way
of identifying it,
-
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but once you do, you can see something
that's congruent with my strengths,
-
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my values, who I am as a person,
-
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so I'm going to grab ahold of this,
I'm going to do something with it,
-
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and I'm going to pursue it
and try to make an impact with it.
-
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And Live Your Legend
and the movement we've built
-
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wouldn't exist if I didn't have
this compass to identify,
-
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wow, this is something I want to pursue
and make a difference with.
-
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So if we don't what we're looking for,
we're never going to find it,
-
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but once we have
this framework, this compass,
-
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then we can move on to what's next,
and that's not me up there,
-
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but doing the impossible
and pushing our limits.
-
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Because there's two reasons
why people don't do things.
-
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One is because they tell themselves
they can't do them,
-
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or the other is people around them
tell them they can't do them.
-
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Either way, we start to believe it.
-
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Either we give up,
or we never start in the first place.
-
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The things is, everyone was impossible
until somebody did it.
-
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Every invention,
every new thing in the world,
-
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people thought were crazy at first.
-
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Roger Bannister and the four -minute mile,
it was a physical impossibility
-
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to break the four-minute mile
in a foot race
-
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until Roger Bannister stood up and did it.
-
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And then what happened?
-
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Two months later, like, 16 people
broke the four-minute mile.
-
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The things that we have in our head
that we think are impossible
-
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are often just milestones
waiting to be accomplished
-
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if we can push those limits a bit,
-
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and I think this starts with probably
your physical body and physical fitness
-
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more than anything,
because we can control that.
-
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You know, if you don't believe you can
run a mile, you show yourself
-
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you can run a mile or two,
or a marathon, or lose five pounds,
-
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or whatever it is, you realize
-
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that confidence compounds and can be
transferred into the rest of your world.
-
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And I've actually gotten into the habit
of this a little bit with my friends.
-
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We had this little group.
We go on physical adventures,
-
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and recently, I found myself
in a kind of precarious spot.
-
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I'm terrified of deep, dark, blue water.
-
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I don't know if anyone's ever had
that same fear ever since
-
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they watched Jaws 1, 2, 3, and 4
like six times when I was a kid.
-
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But anything above here, if it's murky,
I can already feel it right now.
-
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I swear there's something in there.
-
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Even if it's Lake Tahoe, it's fresh water,
totally unfounded fear,
-
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ridiculous, but it's there.
-
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Anyway, three years ago
I find myself on this tugboat
-
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right down here in the San Francisco Bay.
-
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It's a rainy, stormy, windy day,
and people are getting sick on the boat,
-
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and I'm sitting there wearing a wetsuit,
and I'm looking out the window
-
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in pure terror thinking I'm about
to swim to my death.
-
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I'm going to try to swim
across the Golden Gate,
-
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and my guess is some people in this room
might have done that before.
-
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And I'm sitting there, and my buddy
Jonathan, who had talked me into it,
-
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he comes up to me and he could see
the state I was in,
-
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and he comes up and says, "Scott, hey man,
what's the worst that could happen?
-
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You're wearing a wetsuit.
You're not going to sink.
-
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And If you can't make it,
just hop on one of the 20 kayaks.
-
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Plus, if there's a shark attack,
why are they going to pick you
-
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over the 80 people that are in the water?"
So thanks, that helps.
-
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He's like, "No, but really,
just have fun with this. Good luck."
-
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And he dives in, swims off. Okay.
-
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Turns out, the pep talk totally worked,
and I felt this total feeling of calm,
-
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and I think it was because
Jonathan was 13 years old.
-
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(Laughter)
-
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And of the 80 people swimming that day,
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65 of them were between
the ages of nine and 13.
-
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Think for a second how you would
have approached your world differently
-
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if at nine years old you found out
you could swim a mile and a half
-
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in 56-degree water
from Alcatraz to San Francisco.
-
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What would you have said yes to?
What would you have not given up on?
-
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What would you have tried?
-
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As I'm finishing this swim,
I get to Aquatic Park,
-
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and I'm getting out of the water and of
course half the kids are already finished,
-
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so they're cheering me on
and they're all excited,
-
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and I got total popsicle head,
if anyone's ever swam in the Bay,
-
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and I'm trying to just thaw my face out,
and I'm watching people finish,
-
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and I see this one kid,
something didn't look right,
-
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and he's just flailing like this,
and he's barely able to sip some air
-
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before he slams his head back down,
-
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and I notice other parents
were watching too,
-
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and I swear they were thinking
the same thing I was:
-
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this is why you don't let nine-year olds
swim from Alcatraz.
-
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This was not fatigue.
-
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All of a sudden, two parents,
they run up and grab him,
-
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and they put him on their shoulders,
and they're dragging him like this,
-
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totally limp,
-
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and then all of a sudden
they walk a few more feet
-
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and they plop him down in his wheelchair.
-
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And he puts his fists up in the most
insane show of victory I've ever seen.
-
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I can still feel the warmth
and the energy on this guy
-
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when he made this accomplishment.
-
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I had seen him earlier that day
in his wheelchair.
-
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I just had no idea he was going to swim.
-
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I mean, where is he going
to be in 20 years?
-
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How many people told him he couldn't
do that, that he would die if tried that?
-
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You prove people wrong,
you prove yourself wrong,
-
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that you can make these little
incremental pushes
-
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of what you believe
is possible, for yourself.
-
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You don't have to be the fastest
marathoner in the world,
-
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just your own impossibilities,
to accomplish those,
-
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and it starts with little bitty steps,
-
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and the best way to do this
-
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is to surround yourself
with passionate people.
-
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The fastest things to do things
you don't think can be done
-
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is to surround yourself
with people already doing them.
-
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There's this quote by Jim Rohn and it says
-
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“You are the average of the five people
you spend the most time with."
-
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And there is no bigger life hack
in the history of the world
-
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from getting where you are today
to where you want to be
-
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than the people you choose
to put in your corner.
-
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They change everything,
and it's a proven fact.
-
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In 1898, Norman Triplett did this study
with a bunch of cyclists,
-
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and he would measure their times
around the track in a group,
-
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and also individually,
-
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and he found that every time the cyclists
in the group would cycle faster.
-
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And it's been repeated in all kinds
of walks of life since then,
-
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and it proves the same thing
over and over again,
-
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that the people around you matter,
-
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and environment is everything,
-
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but it's on you to control it,
because it can go both ways.
-
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With these 80 percent of people
who don't like the work they do,
-
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that means most people around us,
not in this room, but everywhere else,
-
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are encouraging complacency and keeping us
from pursuing the things that matter to us
-
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so we have to manage those surroundings.
-
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You know, I found myself in this situation
-
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maybe a couple years ago.
-
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Has anybody ever had a hobby or a passion
they poured their heart and soul into,
-
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unbelievable amount of time, and they
so badly want to call it a business,
-
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but no one's paying attention
and it doesn't make a dime?
-
Not Synced
Okay, I was there for four years trying
to build this Live Your Legend movement
-
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to help people do work that they genuinely
cared about and that inspired them,
-
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and I was doing all I could,
and there were only
-
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really three people paying attention,
and they're all right there:
-
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my mother, father, and my wife, Chelsea.
Thank you guys for the support.
-
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But I -- (Applause) --
-
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and this is how badly I wanted it,
it grew at zero percent for four years,
-
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and I was about to shut it down,
-
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and right about then,
-
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I moved to San Francisco and started
to meet some pretty interesting people
-
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who had these crazy
lifestyles of adventure,
-
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of business and websites and blogs
that surrounded their passions
-
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and helped people in a meaningful way.
-
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And one of my friends, now,
he has a family of eight,
-
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and he supports his whole family
-
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with a blog that he writes for
twice a week.
-
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They just came back from a month
in Europe all of them together.
-
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This blew my mind.
How does this even exist?
-
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And I got unbelievably inspired
by seeing this,
-
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and instead of shutting it down,
I decided, let's take it seriously.
-
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And I did everything I could
to spend my time,
-
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every waking hour possible
trying to hound these guys,
-
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hanging out and having beers
and workouts, whatever it was,
-
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and after four years of zero growth,
within six months
-
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of hanging around these people,
-
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the community at Live Your Legend
grew by 10 times.
-
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In another 12 months,
it grew by 160 times,
-
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and today over 30,000 people
from 158 countries
-
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use our career and connection tools
on a monthly basis.
-
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And those people have made up
that community of passionate folks
-
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who inspired that possibility
that I dreamed of
-
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for Live Your Legend so many years back.
-
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The people change everything,
and this is why --
-
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You know, you ask what was going on.
-
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Well, for four years,
I knew nobody in this space,
-
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and I didn't even know it existed,
that people could do this stuff,
-
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that you could have movements like this,
-
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and then all of a sudden,
I'm over here in San Francisco,
-
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and everyone around me was doing it.
-
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It became normal, so my thinking went
from how could I possibly do this
-
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to how could I possibly not,
-
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and right then, when that happens,
that switch goes on in your head,
-
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it ripples across your whole world.
-
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And without even trying, your standards
go from here to here.
-
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You don't need to change
your goals or anything.
-
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You just need to change your surroundings.
-
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That's it, and that's why I love
being around this whole group of people,
-
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why I go to every TED event I can, and
watch them on my iPad on the way to work,
-
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whatever it is, because this is the group
of people that inspires possibility.
-
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We have a whole day to spend together
and plenty more.
-
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To sum things up,
in terms of these three pillars,
-
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they all have one thing in common
more than anything else.
-
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They are 100 percent in our control.
-
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No one can tell you
you can't learn about yourself.
-
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No one can tell you
you can push your limits
-
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and learn your own impossible
and push that.
-
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No one can tell you you can't
surround yourself with inspiring people
-
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or get away from the people
who bring you down.
-
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You can't control a recession.
You can't control getting fired
-
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or getting in a car accident.
Most things are totally out of our hands.
-
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These three things are totally on us,
-
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and they can change our whole world
if we decide to do something about it.
-
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And the thing is, it's starting to happen
on a widespread level.
-
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I just read in Forbes, the U.S. Government
reported for the first time
-
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in a month where more people had
quit their jobs than had been laid off.
-
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They thought this was an anomaly,
but it's happened three months straight.
-
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In a time where people claim
it's kind of a tough environment,
-
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people are pretty much giving
a middle finger to this scripted life,
-
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the things that people
say you're supposed to do,
-
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in exchange for people that matter to them
and do the things that inspire them.
-
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And the thing is, people
are waking up to this possibility,
-
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that really the only thing that limits
possibility now is imagination.
-
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That's not a cliche anymore.
-
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I don't care what it is that you're into,
what passion, what hobby.
-
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If you're into knitting, you can find
someone who is killing it knitting,
-
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and you can learn from them. It's wild.
-
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And that's what this whole day is about,
to learn from the folks speaking,
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and we profile these people
on Live Your Legend every day,
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because it shows people, when ordinary
people are doing the extraordinary,
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and we can be around that,
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it becomes normal.
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And it isn't about being Gandhi
or Steve Jobs, doing something crazy.
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It's just about doing something
that matters to you,
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and makes an impact
that only you can make.
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Speaking of Gandhi, he was a
recovering lawyer, as I've heard the term,
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and he was called to a greater cause,
something that mattered to him,
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he couldn't not do,
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and he has this quote
that I absolutely live by.
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"First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
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then they fight you, then you win."
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Everything was impossible
until somebody did it.
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You can either hang around the people
who tell you it can't be done
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and tell you you're stupid for trying,
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or surround yourself with the people
who inspire possibility,
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the people who are in this room.
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Because I see it as our responsibility
to show the world
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that what's seen as impossible
can become the new normal.
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And that's already starting to happen.
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First, do the things that inspire us
so we can inspire other people
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to do the things that inspire them.
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But we can't find that
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unless we know what we're looking for.
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We have to do our work on our self,
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be intentional about that,
and make those discoveries.
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Because I imagine a world where 80 percent
of people love the work they do.
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I mean, what would that look like?
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What would the innovation be like?
How would you treat the people around you?
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Things would start to change.
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And as we finish up, I have
just one question to ask you guys,
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and I think it's the only question
that matters,
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and it's, what is the work
you can't not do?
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Discover that, live it,
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not just for you,
but for everybody around you,
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because that is what starts
to change the world.
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What is the work you can't not do?
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Thank you guys.
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(Applause)