ad-free
Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2013-09-07
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH0AlC2TbR8
open so first of all like to think everybody does at this event up this is pretty cool when I was given the invitation to speak I kinda didn't know what I was going to talk about but I came to the realization that I really don't have to make anything up I can just give my story and hopefully that'll be aspirants a lot of people here so
much talk today is going to be on how to find your passion and inner awesomeness arm a lot of people in university especially if your students here you're in that transition point where you really don't know what you want to do and you kinda have to make changes and decisions are going to dictate your entire life so it's kind of daunting is kind of scary %HESITATION
but before going to anything I want to give you guys a chance to own gets know me a little bit and understand a little bit more about me Tom I was born and raised in Harlem now Harlem is in New York City and Harlem starts at a hundred and tenth street and goes all the way up to a hundred and fifty ninth street now when I
was growing up in Harlem there were a couple things that I had to learn quick right I had to learn how to be charismatic I had to learn how to speak fast I had one how to be real quick and witty but I also learned that it's good to have an imagination when I was young I had also imagination and I'm sure that many of you
think about it go back when you're around six seven even younger than that you have a great imagination so we just draw anybody show him who's drone who's younger right do the couple things I used to draw but do you know when you sit drawing a lot of things that you drew they sucked right but nobody told you they saw it like you would give your
your mother Doreen and she really didn't know what it was bush will put it on a shoe print on refrigerator fully right nobody yeah nobody ever told you that what you did wasn't good nobody never told you that you wore that you were not also so you stuck with it okay so mail you should draw a sketch Eisaku photo manipulation and rate on a bottom left
that's actual animation I did I used to spend hours creating these elaborate stories coming up with characters coming of plots and nobody never told me that these things were cool so like I said I continue to do to do them okay so I had fun and I took risks so if you look at this right here don't get scared but on the left this is a
this is a competition I mean my fraternity brothers did we see two performances every year for the university I'm a what the Florida State University and I'm a member of alpha Phi alpha fraternity incorporated so on the left we're doing resident evil we did our we're kinda reenactment of resident evil was zombies verses swat on the right we did Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and it has
some sick twisted fame although audible numbers were kidnapped by Willy Wonka and force work in a factory but nobody ever told us that this wasn't cool and it came to our we only did the performances people loved it we performed for thousands of people on this comp I want these competitions so I was always told to be a roadway question everything so if you guys look
at this picture this is actual very funny pictures of me because if you see me right there I'm the only one making a real silly face right and if you go to my parents house you actually see that this is the first picture you see what you come to my mother's house and what was cool about this picture was before we actually took the picture that
teacher told me he said everybody wanted photog versus smile smile so I said teacher what we have to smile is a reason that the smell were kids were young what we have to wear suits wire all the guys in suits all to women in dresses we don't wanna be adults she said don't worry about it just smile and I said okay well you don't wanna tell
me why I had I have to smell them wanna do something funny so wonderful talk for say cheese sets Morrow I did that face okay but something happened when I grew up and I start to get older and older I forgot that I was awesome I'll get to what this cold means in a second but I was in a fortune five hundred leadership development program when
I got out of college I was corporate quote unquote I had a title of the account manager also making good money does make a sixty thousand dollars out of college talk to brag to friends my mother was proud my father was Perot I could go on trips once a year but I realize that this isn't what I wanted now back to this cold each not service
six a this was the actual cold aisles identified by in my company so when he wanted to email me they didn't email me at Eugene honey they email me at each loss of a six eight when they wanted to look up my sales records they looked up each night seven six eight I start to think why don't you guys just calm each not some six a
because that's how you identify me anyway so I realize I was a I was a part of a system I was no longer a person I was no longer Eugene so this is what society want it they want the clean cut Eugene they want the Eugene that wore suits that wore glasses that were specs also proper but this is what I wanted I wanted to flip
someone to travel to hang out with I want to experience life headache skate life's cubicle I was working not a five I was shown and I hated it I was put on something that I didn't want to carry every day and I will come home emotionally drained spiritually drained because I was trying to please everybody else I said a please a muso but then I got
a email from an angel yeah she's going to be mad for me be mad at me for doing this but this is for my girlfriend jasmine she said right that you guys give jasmine around of applause and because of that you some email for the world's most awesome job so I was a chemist and work I was kinda pissed off but she sent me an email
sought open my open a message and I click on email it took me to a website and the website said do you want to work in the world's most awesome workplace do you want to be around the world's most awesome people do you want to travel do you wanna work on projects you love and I was like this is a scam that can't be true because
I make sixty thousand dollars out of college right so you tell me I can make money travel do cool things me cool people go to school places and still be happy that's not true so I deleted the middle what I what happened next was something pretty cool a buddy of mine's he worked for a a owned bank he sent me an email he said Hey gene
we wanna go to South America we were going to cool trip to South America and he said Hey do you wanna gossip him and Argo so I went home book the ticket fast forward a couple weeks I'm sitting on a plane and I am petrified because a plane is about to take off in this is the first time I've ever been up the country but also
every negative thought in a world so to go to my mind what if I go there I don't speak Spanish would like in Los but the kidnap me what the plane doesn't take off Ortiz just tossed started going through my mind so I sucked it up down the plane took off and the result was something amazing guys it was beautiful had the best how my life
so I saw beautiful cities I hung out with the locals we white water rafting ATV dope Akane knows zip line across jungles and we build school stuff I look at this picture like those are me and all my friends you see the lady right there she has a baby and she's a TV in with us like that was cool was very also so what I decided
to was I quit I quit my job this is me in a parking lot at the I quit yes me put up pictures of my actual travel ticket on Instagram I was so excited I said my life is about to change and all these cool things about to happen so needless to say that when I came to call one poor I was mind blowing because the
company that I was around was amazing over thirty different nationalities were were represented in a company that I work for I had people that loved art people that love music people I love design people to love business everybody was embracing their passion and I said this is cool this is also so something happen a side effect happen and I started to do also things again I
enjoyed AJ printers I enjoy talking Tasha printers the guy in this picture right here his name is Justin Harrell I had a chance to meet him he started a company with fifty dollars and eventually sold for eighty million dollars I saw now was able to see guys like this and be inspired by guys like this every month we organize these events the first time I actually
spoke since being in Kuala Lumpur was an assignment of it and my buddy secret he's going to be told what they lose a little later on they gave me an opportunity to speak and that was my first time speaking in about three years I'm I started a website anti which printer duck home and that was pretty cool because we created all my community what entrepreneurs can
calm and listen interviews with other large printers download high to gods and get all this awesome cool stuff even after that I started a pot cares and that was kind of ironic because I was this guy from New York is guy from Harlem that came to call one poor and now I'm doing a podcast I never thought that would do a progress okay a sata troubling
well then America the only time I built the country was when I was around twenty three but within six months of being here column poor I went to four five different countries so I had a toss of why we're not a took a chance and I died to step back and I decide to ask myself why why did all these cool things happen work what decisions
that I make what principles were cold what commandments where I was not following that made all these things happen so the first thing I would ask you guys tell you got to do is to know yourself who are you what are the things that you like one of the things that you dislike what pisses you off one makes you smile a lot of people don't know
this I'm sure if you were to action neighbor you know who are you what do you like a lot of people to have a hard time they don't know what it is that they like number two embrasure so and I love this picture because if your nerd embrace that you're a nerd if you're an athlete embrace it because want to embrace it everything in life becomes
easier it's easy for me to call appear speak to you guys without get all shaky because I've embraced Y. M. I'm a guy from New York to came to Malaysia to do great things and so me talking about it makes a little easier because I've embraced that surround yourself with the courage and people love this photo because this photo shows you that the company you keep
is gonna come to dictate what you going life this is Barack Obama with Steve Jobs with mark Zuckerberg to see old Netflix the CEO of Twitter of Yahoo oracle imagine what they're talking about they had to be told what cool stuff so there's a court decision to average of the five people that you keep around you so if you surround yourself with cool people successful people
inspiring people you're going to be inspired you're going to be cool you're going to be successful you're going to be more you supply yourself with people that sought that people always want to put their negative any joy you you're kind of wanted down spiral number four know which one now you have to know yourself but you have to know what you want right some people think
that they won a million dollars when all reality didn't want a million dollars they wanna be able to travel the one about the mother is a house they want it they want security they want some freedom so know what you want number five work yes off and this is cool because if you guys all know Gary Vaynerchuk he's kind of like the king of social media
and he started he was real young selling line his advice he calls it wholesome two point oh if you like something work hollered that's all you have to do little sleep I have a couple buddies there my age they have dared there but to be bestselling authors have bodies that have products online that make thousands of dollars because they work their asses off they put in
the time when everybody else and when everybody else is out partying in there in the house there in the lab working on things now make the impossible the new possible now what do I mean by this to me growing up in Harlem was a possible that I will go to college but it happened it was impossible to I'll get a job working for a fortune five
hundred company but it happened it was impossible that I would live in another country at work were cool people we started pockets and meet millionaires but it all happened it became possible so my standard what from here to hear the question he came it was it how could I do this it was how could I not so every time I look at a new test on
a new goal in a new obstacle lacks muso from gene you're capable you've made it this far how could you not number seven Phil Hart and Phil often people don't like to fill think about gosh how many times have you filled you had a lot of fails today but you don't remember your fills you remember all your successes right so you have to fill think about
colder's I love to use as examples analogy of coders because coders fellow day that the computers is cold in a way cool in a way and they have both to have brakes I'm cold but they just try to fix it fix it fix it at the end of ten hours how belonged to his quarters do things they have a perfect product ever perfect application because they
failed if you fail a lot the successes will be greater number eight beetle your craft will Smith said before he said that he doesn't feel he's particularly talented at anything he doesn't feel that he has like a natural talent but he does feel that he has an uncanny ability work hard to yes crazy work ethic so I like to use the analogy of I like a
lot of computer games a plea elder scrolls alive and an elder scrolls you have to build sorts but you start with Roman to you start with I am or you have to make I am sort so think of your talent of your dog or your god given ability as that raw material you have to take it and beat on it let the perfect that you have