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TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-08
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn5aI9DahHk
good group AFP hope pardon plan plan plan plan one point one point point one poem claim Peyton place and and panicked content Canada how if it's that twenty belt burn to keep and Jordan Belfort pom pom P. don't pump pump beat up pom pom Pete up on on said said my name is Nick Friedman I'm a twenty year old college drop out and I decided to
be now I started beat boxing when I was fifteen I wasn't supposed to beat box but then again who really supposed to make weird sounds with their mouths ranging from drums to chickens while dancing around obnoxiously in shoes I was supposed to be practicing piano for four years so that I got really really good at it so I can get into Yale be part of the
orchestra for year and then finally quit doing something I hated so much we met that I hate piano it was my ticket to college I mean I was good at it I've been doing it since I was eight everyone for my mom to to to my teachers told me that I couldn't be well rounded if I want to get to you they wanted someone who was
really good at one thing besides academics so I had a decision to make do I I know I know what did the test scores and I knew I could get the grades but do I push through and make my life revolve around piano for the next four years or do I recently getting into Yale and actually enjoy after about a month of practicing piano and playing
the same song over and over and over again because I kept getting in ninety nine point five instead of a hundred I realized it was going to be a really long for years to say the least so I said to myself lucky it's only freshman year you have plenty of time you can do this later turns out I never came back to piano and it turned
out that that was the best decision that I ever made after my departure from piano I decided to switch the instrument that I always want to play since I was a kid drums our number one Saturday morning at breakfast I went downstairs and and that's my mom mom can I have a drum set seriously son I gave her the mom don't do it look are you
serious on the drums of all the instruments you pick you pick the drums the drums is basically the too but it's basically like taking it too but I'm playing it in my ear I can hear the rest like any fifteen year old boy going through puberty I ran to my room and slammed my door so loud that it caused a scene by reverberating across the entire
house and in a moment marked by extreme the logical thought I realize that I could get the individual pieces of the drum set through my second story window hide them in my closet and then assemble the drum set and play when my mom wasn't home for proof right however it was in my rage that I found beatboxing I was looking for a snare drum on the
internet and I found this link that's a human drums I was interested so I clicked it and sure enough there was a guy there beatboxing and I was in awe I mean how was he making those sounds I wanted to make those sounds so it began for the next eight hours I kept doing instructional videos and trying to figure out how to do it and I
went for peace peace I mean I didn't pretty good at it I I was so excited it was so funny it was so satisfying it was like when you when you beat candy crush after three weeks of being stuck on the same level and trying not to do an in app purchases it was amazing and I ran downstairs and I told my mom mom I want
to learn how to beat box how are you to learn how to beat box on stop her jaw dropped as a nine because it was in that moment that I realized two very important things the first was that that was the best and only come back I will ever have against my mom and my tireless but the second and perhaps more important maybe not more important
I realize that I could do anything I didn't have to play the piano anymore I I could do anything if I just on beatboxing randomly on on on the internet so when I was fifteen not only did I beat box but I I I continue to act dancing and swim just like I did in middle school I was in the chess club the mac team I
helped start a club called the Guinness world records club where we meet every week and break world records I didn't care what it wants it was fun I was taking classes on subjects that I never I I did my schooling offer just because I was interested in them I mean I was playing the marimba on the harmonica for fun and I met a professional mini golfer
and started to go to official mini golf tournaments every week because why not well I guess I found out why not because come senior year when I open my my computer and saw my rejection letter from Yale I was crushed I mean I thought that you would take me not because I was valedictorian or how good SAT scores but because I was doing well and I
was having so much fun but I guess I was wrong I'm not sure if the reason why I can get into Yeller any IV the schools is directly related to the fact that I did so much in high school but that's besides the point I did it using Williams College which is a small liberal arts school in the northwest corner Massachusetts turned out to be number
one on Forbes the year I went above Yale but I didn't care wasn't excited it wasn't Yale I mean being from the south no one even knew what Williams once I tell people I'm going to Williams and they said you know me Williams you mean Williams and marry but like I didn't know where I was going to school like I was wrong some people thought I
was going to Williams in cinema which is the cook ware company but the summer before I went to college it all changed I got a call from a number I never seen before hello do ya do summer been %HESITATION good and how's your summer been it's been great you just getting ready for this semester just I realize in that moment that the guy and the other
line was not some super chill eighteen year old surfer dude he was my adviser that I'd been assigned two weeks earlier professor David us Mister Abbas told me something in that conversation that stuck with me to this day and really resonated with me he said you could be the best sociologist in the world but you never know if you don't take a sociology class you told
me to take classes that I've never been exposed to to start college I realize that that philosophy was my life I mean turns out I'm a terrible sociologist but what sociology is to some beatboxing mini golf and acting are to me I think professor David us is advice it's hard and it's sort of changed my perspective I realize that Williams was the right fit for me
it was where I belonged I mean I don't get inside and getting together in the Ivy League schools that I applied to because I wasn't right for that wasn't my fault it wasn't their fault and going into college worrying about spearing it's not about the name made it so much more rewarding I really really really took professor David us is advice to heart especially my freshman
year it's taken up taking an Asian art history class why not having my own beatboxing show why not being a nude model for an art class why not going to Montreal and winning thousands of dollars by exporting a peice roulette wheel with my best friends why not superior time that Williams called winner study the time in January were everyone takes one class in one day after
my class which was naturally on street performing I decided to plan a trip to Montreal with my friends we knew there was a casino there and we had this grand idea this grand vision that we were gonna beat Cena famous last words but we were determined I mean we'd stay up until three am with belt craps tables and decks of cards and roulette wheels on our
phones trying to figure out a way to come on come out on top and we came up with this strategy wit with designated betters and trackers and even a designated drinker who would distract everyone from what we're doing we felt like we were in a movie it was incredible we ended up winning thousand dollars and the next night we spent on the most amazing dinner of
our young lives after lead if you my friends and I realize that if we could apply our team dynamic to doing something like that why don't we when we shoot bigger who he wanted to change and industry that's how we found real estate my friends and I realized that we could work together and we we started that summer and we pushed forward and try to create
a successful business we had so many iterations iterations of our business plan and by the end of our sophomore year I mean we were ready we were ready to get funded we had a team we had we had tax we had everything that we needed to do it but there was one question do I stay in school continue to something that I'm so comfortable doing like
I was suppose to do I do I drop out and leave all that behind now you can see from my life that I am what people define as a creative person I've done creative things I I've taking creative risks but really what is this creative person I mean by show of hands actually that's boring stand up and dad if you define yourself as a creative person
thank you now I'm here to tell you that every single one of you even if you don't know what dabbing is and even if you do it didn't do as intensely as this guy right here should have stood up because being a creative person is not about making cool hipster artwork or finding a more efficient way it to to to solve a roulette system where you
can beat boxing being creative is about doing one thing differently then you would otherwise normally do challenge the way that you go about every day I mean creativity shouldn't be some lofty unattainable goal that can only be reached by the Kendrick Lamar's and Steve Jobs of the world start by being creative uniquely within your own sphere before trying to be creative compared to others let me
give you an example I mean it could be as simple as bringing a ham sandwich to lunch instead of peanut butter and jelly or maybe do something insane maybe you did something crazy and you bring jumble lie at a lunch because you've never had jambalaya in your entire life and I know this sounds ridiculous but that's jumble idea change your life is it because you can
go to the microwave now since you have to heat up your food you meet someone there who introduces you to your best friend your significant other your business partner you do the same thing every day if you follow routine close yourself off to the millions of things up out there and the so many relationships that are just waiting to be formed now once you choose to
go on this creative path you can't stop there right if if I started beat boxing sure it's creative but if I don't make any new sounds if I don't change up my style my personal creativity level is zero being creative is growing is changing and you shouldn't be afraid because because creative people are not afraid it'll make excuses I mean this guy wasn't afraid to stand
up and dabbed fourteen times you shouldn't be afraid people tell me all the time %HESITATION you know I I I I don't have time to be creative I'm not a creative person but what does that mean I mean if you've been doing the same thing for fifteen years of your life and they're a billion other things out there why not try something different why not try
and avoid that that mid life crisis that so many people go through because they do one thing because you're scared because it's easier doing the things that the way they are I mean even if you're happy doing one thing now why not try and do something else maybe there's more to life than your current job hobbies or or even lunches don't be afraid to take that
sociology class because there was you never know every day should be a new experience in everyday should be unexpected and that's how you be creative my like a crazy turn I went I went to college and I work so hard to get into this amazing school and then I threw it all away to drop out of college and pursue another dream of mine but the best
part is that I have no regrets taking a life choice that society may not approve I'm here to tell you that education can be found anywhere not just in the classroom I'm not telling you guys to drop out of college but I'm telling you that there's no right way do life I mean don't do what your friends doing if it's not you don't listen to the
article that says these are the ten steps you need to take in order to be successful because everyone's version of success different yours might be to go to college and get a job what will someone else's might be to be a bartender on the beach it's up to you someone else ever since I was fifteen I decided to push against whether people in my high school
were doing become an individual creativity surrounds all aspects of my life from the way I'd be talks the way I approach problems with my team I encourage you to take risks like the ones that I've taken his life is short I love life but man I'm twenty years old a fifth of my life is over so why not try and live the life that that you
want to live not the life that someone else is telling you to live it's not too late and there's always a way so when faced with my biggest decision yet do I stay in school and continue to get my degree and get a job or do I dropped out of pursue a dream of mine to starting my own company rather than do what I'm supposed to
