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I think everyone has these three zones
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Their comfort zone, their learning zone,
and their panic zone.
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And I think our most defining moments,
and our greatest lessons
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come when we take risks to move
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from comfort into learning
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and maybe, to the edge of panic.
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Now, I'm on this stage,
because I did not go to grad school.
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Instead, about five years ago,
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after working with middle school,
and high school students,
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when I was curious about the intersection
of for profit, and for purpose businesses.
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I was almost going to go to a traditional
grad school to get a master's in business.
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But the costs were too high,
and the style didn't fit me.
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So I decided I would try to design
my own education.
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By doing twelve projects in twelve months
around the world.
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I would source these projects
by talking to companies in design,
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and business and social change.
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And I would try to find one project I could
complete over the course of the month.
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I would fund my year by creating a newsletter
that my friends and family could subscribe to
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at ten dollars a month.
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And I would share my learnings
with them each month.
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Now as I was travelling to
fulfill this idea,
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I had met all kinds of amazing people.
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Who started talking to me
about the ideas they had,
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to learn in a different kind of way,
or to create change to take leaps of their own.
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So, I created an invitation
for those people, to send stories
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about the leaps they were taking,
the risks they were taking,
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to learn, grow, and create change
in their communities.
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And I promised that if
at the end of the year,
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I had enough stories, we would take
those stories and make a book.
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And at the end of the year,
sure enough, we created a book
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called "THE LEAPYEAR PROJECT",
of those stories.
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And this kind of became my dissertation.
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I also needed my place to graduate.
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Some way to end my year.
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And there was a TED conference
happening in Chicago.
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So I put a cap and gown on,
and that was my graduation.
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And in 2013, after this was all over,
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We launched a school, where
people could come and design
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their education through experiences,
in their field of study.
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We called it the "EXPERIENCE INSTITUTE"
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I even got to meet Oprah.
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Now this is pretty traditional.
Me trying to explain
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some sort of audacious idea
to someone who is
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much more successful and powerful.
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And really probably doesn't
actually care about what I'm saying.
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This is a good picture of that year.
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Now that was one of the most
transformative years of my life.