[Music]
[Applause]
hey guys
I’m so excited to be here thank you
thank you so much um you know it’s never
been easy for me to figure out exactly
where I fit in the scheme of things I
feel like I’ve always been so jealous of
those people who seem to know from a
young age exactly what they wanted to do
in life Elizabeth Gilbert who is the
author of Eat Pray Love said she always
knew that she wanted to be a writer
Jennifer Lawrence said that she always
knew that she was going to be famous so
many successful people said they knew
what they wanted and they went for it
they went through all the obstacles
overcame everything and with years of
work they came out victorious and when I
heard that I want that I wanted that
drive and to find something that I could
do really well to find what my purpose
was so that I could really focus on that
and do great things with it so I knew
that I needed to find my purpose and
when I started doing that I worried
about it a lot
I worried mostly about wasting my time
because I wanted to get started and I
ended up stressing about wasting my time
a little too much because I ended up
equating every moment that I didn’t use
to fulfill my purpose as a moment that I
was going to be unhappy and not helpful
to people
every minute I wasted was some puppy
somewhere dying of whatever was I was
supposed to help him with you can’t
enjoy binging Netflix with that thought
in the back of your mind you know some
people get inspired by these quotes
about get up off the couch stop being
lazy you have as many hours in a day as
Beyonce
but not me those kind of quotes just add
to my stress because I already pressure
myself and punish myself for killing
puppies by not helping them
so the quotes that I need are the ones
that say whoever you are you’re good
enough or if you swing and Miss God
always pitches again or simply whatever
you’re doing right now you’re not
murdering puppies which happens to be my
favorite proverb so I figured if other
people knew exactly what they wanted to
do as children basically then I could
analyze my childhood and figure out what
my purpose in life was so I called it my
parents and I said hey what did you
notice about me when I was a young child
well you know you did read at a very
young age okay purposeful what else when
you were so cuddly you just wanted to
cuddle all the time and you’re always
outside getting dirty you’re just our
dirtiest boy thanks mom so basically
other kids were at school writing down I
want to be an astronaut when I grow up
and I was at home cuddling and eating
dirt
now to be fair that is you know still
what I do with about fifty percent of my
time but it didn’t help me to figure out
my purpose after a while I thought man
maybe there is no special thing maybe
it’s just you pick some random thing and
you do it work really hard and you’ll be
great at it it doesn’t matter what you
choose but watch me play sports and you
will know that that is wrong the only
thing that I’m good at in sports is
getting hit in the head it’s true my
friends know this it’s uncanny like it’s
almost a magical thing that makes me
feel like yes I am me still I tried
basketball volleyball soccer I didn’t
try baseball because of the magnet head
thing that would have been really bad
but Here I am multiple concussions later
I don’t worse at sports than I ever was
before so if you’re a pair of scissors
trying to cut grass you’re never going
to be as efficient as a lawnmower but if
you’re a lawnmower don’t get a big head
because no one’s ever going to trust you
to cut hair it’s a weird example but I
do believe everyone has strengths and
weaknesses and we should be aware of
those so what happened with me is I got
to college and that’s where I started
obsessing with my purpose trying to
figure out exactly what was the best
thing to do I changed my major from
landscape management to philosophy to
mathematics to journalism and finally to
mechanical engineering which fit because
I was good at math and I loved science
and I was a good mix of the two and more
importantly it was very important to
other people it was important to the
world it was a practical thing I could
do to help the world and do things that
I thought would make me feel like I was
living with purpose so I was slowly
finding my purpose but it was a lot of
work a lot of math a lot of science and
I needed some relief from that and so I
decided to have a creative outlet and I
joined a comedy club on campus called
Divine Comedy and
this was a welcome break from the math
and the science so Divine Comedy turned
into eventually Studio C which is the TV
show I work for today and it started out
as just a part-time thing I graduated
with an engineering degree I got a job
as an engineer and Studio C was
something I did on the side but then the
craziest thing happened the show grew to
a point where they offered us full-time
positions to work on the show now this
was crazy to me because I never thought
I would ever get paid to be an actor let
alone a comedian and I had this
opportunity but now I was in a dilemma
do I stop pursuing my purpose this
important thing that was going to help
the world to go goof off for a while but
it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
and I decided you know what I’ll just go
do this for a little bit and I’ll come
back and I’ll be useful again so I
joined Studio C as a full-time employee
and that’s when my life changed we
started getting letters from fans some
of them saying in my darkest days the
only thing that brightens my day is
Studio C or we’re so glad that we found
high-quality entertainment we can watch
together as a family it brings us
together and makes us feel like a unit
it almost started to seem like my
goofing off was the thing that had
purpose and that’s where my whole
perspective changed I realized that I
had more purpose and was actually more
useful by doing something that was
important to me instead of doing
something that I assumed was important
to the people that I wanted to help I
learned a few things on this path and
just a few tips that I wish I had known
earlier and that would have relieved a
lot of stress for me so I want to share
those real quick and hopefully if you’ve
ever struggled with it it’ll help you
too so three tips for finding your
purpose don’t assume there’s only one
answer to this question find your style
and collaborate with others and your
so don’t assume there’s only one answer
there actually isn’t someone magical
thing that you have to do in order to be
useful and happy
in fact in life there are a lot of
purposes that you’ll have some will be
lifelong purposes some will be minute
long purposes and it all depends on the
opportunities that are given to you when
I was in college and I was studying
engineering that was the best
opportunity for me and I worked hard at
it and I was proud of what I
accomplished there but then when a
better opportunity came I took advantage
of that and it would have been silly for
me to say no I already decided I’m an
engineer and there’s no going back even
though that’s a better opportunity for
me
and so if you’re aware of the
opportunities that you have and you’re
true to yourself it turns out you’re not
wasting time and you’re not killing
puppies by doing what you love go out
make mistakes and waste some time but
you have to know what is it that you
love and who are you and that’s bringing
me to find your style which is a little
bit different from finding your
strengths and let me explain Austin
Kleon wrote a book called steal like an
artist so I’m going to steal one of his
ideas he said one of the ways that he is
creative is that you can take little
things that inspire you and you take
pieces of all those things that you love
that you want to emulate and when you
combine them together you get something
that’s uniquely you because no one else
would have chosen those exact
inspirations and no one else would have
put them together the way you did and I
think that expands into our whole lives
that you take all of the things that you
love and think about why those things
why those things draw you to them it’s
because all those pieces of the things
that you love and then inspire you are
reflections of pieces of you I don’t
think you find yourself by sitting in a
room by yourself staring at a mirror you
do it by going out into the world
expanding beyond your little bubble and
understanding what about the world
resonates with you so what does this
tell us about finding our purpose
well it means that you don’t just say
what are my strengths but instead what
do I want my strengths to be based on
the things that you love in fact if we
all only did things that we were already
good at the human race would end because
think about it who would ever become a
parent nobody’s good at that until they
become one right which brings me to my
next point
fake it till you make it find your style
by faking it because there is no
perfection in any effort it takes a lot
of failure even just to learn something
my favorite quote from Elisabeth
Gilbert’s book big magic is done is
better than good but once you find your
style what’s next how do you know
exactly how to what how do you know
exactly what to do today to use your
style to help people and that brings me
to my next point collaborate with others
and with your environment you can’t help
people if you don’t first listen to them
you won’t know exactly what their
problems are how to help them unless you
understand them MIT did a study about
different groups and their productivity
and three groups came out of this study
the first group was a group with one
high IQ member a superstar of solving
problems those groups didn’t do that
great the second type of group was where
all of them had a relatively high IQ a
lot of good problem solvers those didn’t
do that great the third group was always
very successful because they had high
social sensitivity so they had empathy
and they listened to each other
Margaret Heffernan who was a business
expert and many time TED speaker said
that she talked to producers of hit
albums and they talked about their
Superstars and they said oh we have
superstars they come and they go
they don’t have long careers the people
with long careers are the collaborators
who bring out the best in others and
therefore the best in themselves and we
found this back in Divine Comedy
when we would audition people we would
take all the people that audition and
narrow it down to the 15 ish most funny
people we’d say okay from here forward
we don’t care who’s the funniest of
these 15 people the only thing we cared
about was who worked well with people
who could collaborate because that
produced a group of people that was
cohesive and brought the best in each
other and was always better than any
single single talent I can’t tell you
how many times this has happened in my
marriage
I go in it with I you know this is the
way we should do things it’s going to be
great and we’re but only to find that
there’s actually a better solution that
I never would have come up with on my
own my wife is very wise very kind and
she fills a lot of the holes that I have
in my weaknesses and I’m always happier
and better off when I work with her on
things including this talk I’m always
more excited for my future when we act
as partners to create a future that is
beautiful and completely unique to us
so in conclusion listen listen to the
things that inspire you be aware of what
inspires you and go outside of your
bubble in fact waste time waste time
doing things you love and then listen to
the people that you want to help because
it’s not you who changes the world
it’s collaboration that changes the
world thank you
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
[Applause]
hey guys
I’m so excited to be here thank you
thank you so much um you know it’s never
been easy for me to figure out exactly
where I fit in the scheme of things I
feel like I’ve always been so jealous of
those people who seem to know from a
young age exactly what they wanted to do
in life Elizabeth Gilbert who is the
author of Eat Pray Love said she always
knew that she wanted to be a writer
Jennifer Lawrence said that she always
knew that she was going to be famous so
many successful people said they knew
what they wanted and they went for it
they went through all the obstacles
overcame everything and with years of
work they came out victorious and when I
heard that I want that I wanted that
drive and to find something that I could
do really well to find what my purpose
was so that I could really focus on that
and do great things with it so I knew
that I needed to find my purpose and
when I started doing that I worried
about it a lot
I worried mostly about wasting my time
because I wanted to get started and I
ended up stressing about wasting my time
a little too much because I ended up
equating every moment that I didn’t use
to fulfill my purpose as a moment that I
was going to be unhappy and not helpful
to people
every minute I wasted was some puppy
somewhere dying of whatever was I was
supposed to help him with you can’t
enjoy binging Netflix with that thought
in the back of your mind you know some
people get inspired by these quotes
about get up off the couch stop being
lazy you have as many hours in a day as
Beyonce
but not me those kind of quotes just add
to my stress because I already pressure
myself and punish myself for killing
puppies by not helping them
so the quotes that I need are the ones
that say whoever you are you’re good
enough or if you swing and Miss God
always pitches again or simply whatever
you’re doing right now you’re not
murdering puppies which happens to be my
favorite proverb so I figured if other
people knew exactly what they wanted to
do as children basically then I could
analyze my childhood and figure out what
my purpose in life was so I called it my
parents and I said hey what did you
notice about me when I was a young child
well you know you did read at a very
young age okay purposeful what else when
you were so cuddly you just wanted to
cuddle all the time and you’re always
outside getting dirty you’re just our
dirtiest boy thanks mom so basically
other kids were at school writing down I
want to be an astronaut when I grow up
and I was at home cuddling and eating
dirt
now to be fair that is you know still
what I do with about fifty percent of my
time but it didn’t help me to figure out
my purpose after a while I thought man
maybe there is no special thing maybe
it’s just you pick some random thing and
you do it work really hard and you’ll be
great at it it doesn’t matter what you
choose but watch me play sports and you
will know that that is wrong the only
thing that I’m good at in sports is
getting hit in the head it’s true my
friends know this it’s uncanny like it’s
almost a magical thing that makes me
feel like yes I am me still I tried
basketball volleyball soccer I didn’t
try baseball because of the magnet head
thing that would have been really bad
but Here I am multiple concussions later
I don’t worse at sports than I ever was
before so if you’re a pair of scissors
trying to cut grass you’re never going
to be as efficient as a lawnmower but if
you’re a lawnmower don’t get a big head
because no one’s ever going to trust you
to cut hair it’s a weird example but I
do believe everyone has strengths and
weaknesses and we should be aware of
those so what happened with me is I got
to college and that’s where I started
obsessing with my purpose trying to
figure out exactly what was the best
thing to do I changed my major from
landscape management to philosophy to
mathematics to journalism and finally to
mechanical engineering which fit because
I was good at math and I loved science
and I was a good mix of the two and more
importantly it was very important to
other people it was important to the
world it was a practical thing I could
do to help the world and do things that
I thought would make me feel like I was
living with purpose so I was slowly
finding my purpose but it was a lot of
work a lot of math a lot of science and
I needed some relief from that and so I
decided to have a creative outlet and I
joined a comedy club on campus called
Divine Comedy and
this was a welcome break from the math
and the science so Divine Comedy turned
into eventually Studio C which is the TV
show I work for today and it started out
as just a part-time thing I graduated
with an engineering degree I got a job
as an engineer and Studio C was
something I did on the side but then the
craziest thing happened the show grew to
a point where they offered us full-time
positions to work on the show now this
was crazy to me because I never thought
I would ever get paid to be an actor let
alone a comedian and I had this
opportunity but now I was in a dilemma
do I stop pursuing my purpose this
important thing that was going to help
the world to go goof off for a while but
it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
and I decided you know what I’ll just go
do this for a little bit and I’ll come
back and I’ll be useful again so I
joined Studio C as a full-time employee
and that’s when my life changed we
started getting letters from fans some
of them saying in my darkest days the
only thing that brightens my day is
Studio C or we’re so glad that we found
high-quality entertainment we can watch
together as a family it brings us
together and makes us feel like a unit
it almost started to seem like my
goofing off was the thing that had
purpose and that’s where my whole
perspective changed I realized that I
had more purpose and was actually more
useful by doing something that was
important to me instead of doing
something that I assumed was important
to the people that I wanted to help I
learned a few things on this path and
just a few tips that I wish I had known
earlier and that would have relieved a
lot of stress for me so I want to share
those real quick and hopefully if you’ve
ever struggled with it it’ll help you
too so three tips for finding your
purpose don’t assume there’s only one
answer to this question find your style
and collaborate with others and your
so don’t assume there’s only one answer
there actually isn’t someone magical
thing that you have to do in order to be
useful and happy
in fact in life there are a lot of
purposes that you’ll have some will be
lifelong purposes some will be minute
long purposes and it all depends on the
opportunities that are given to you when
I was in college and I was studying
engineering that was the best
opportunity for me and I worked hard at
it and I was proud of what I
accomplished there but then when a
better opportunity came I took advantage
of that and it would have been silly for
me to say no I already decided I’m an
engineer and there’s no going back even
though that’s a better opportunity for
me
and so if you’re aware of the
opportunities that you have and you’re
true to yourself it turns out you’re not
wasting time and you’re not killing
puppies by doing what you love go out
make mistakes and waste some time but
you have to know what is it that you
love and who are you and that’s bringing
me to find your style which is a little
bit different from finding your
strengths and let me explain Austin
Kleon wrote a book called steal like an
artist so I’m going to steal one of his
ideas he said one of the ways that he is
creative is that you can take little
things that inspire you and you take
pieces of all those things that you love
that you want to emulate and when you
combine them together you get something
that’s uniquely you because no one else
would have chosen those exact
inspirations and no one else would have
put them together the way you did and I
think that expands into our whole lives
that you take all of the things that you
love and think about why those things
why those things draw you to them it’s
because all those pieces of the things
that you love and then inspire you are
reflections of pieces of you I don’t
think you find yourself by sitting in a
room by yourself staring at a mirror you
do it by going out into the world
expanding beyond your little bubble and
understanding what about the world
resonates with you so what does this
tell us about finding our purpose
well it means that you don’t just say
what are my strengths but instead what
do I want my strengths to be based on
the things that you love in fact if we
all only did things that we were already
good at the human race would end because
think about it who would ever become a
parent nobody’s good at that until they
become one right which brings me to my
next point
fake it till you make it find your style
by faking it because there is no
perfection in any effort it takes a lot
of failure even just to learn something
my favorite quote from Elisabeth
Gilbert’s book big magic is done is
better than good but once you find your
style what’s next how do you know
exactly how to what how do you know
exactly what to do today to use your
style to help people and that brings me
to my next point collaborate with others
and with your environment you can’t help
people if you don’t first listen to them
you won’t know exactly what their
problems are how to help them unless you
understand them MIT did a study about
different groups and their productivity
and three groups came out of this study
the first group was a group with one
high IQ member a superstar of solving
problems those groups didn’t do that
great the second type of group was where
all of them had a relatively high IQ a
lot of good problem solvers those didn’t
do that great the third group was always
very successful because they had high
social sensitivity so they had empathy
and they listened to each other
Margaret Heffernan who was a business
expert and many time TED speaker said
that she talked to producers of hit
albums and they talked about their
Superstars and they said oh we have
superstars they come and they go
they don’t have long careers the people
with long careers are the collaborators
who bring out the best in others and
therefore the best in themselves and we
found this back in Divine Comedy
when we would audition people we would
take all the people that audition and
narrow it down to the 15 ish most funny
people we’d say okay from here forward
we don’t care who’s the funniest of
these 15 people the only thing we cared
about was who worked well with people
who could collaborate because that
produced a group of people that was
cohesive and brought the best in each
other and was always better than any
single single talent I can’t tell you
how many times this has happened in my
marriage
I go in it with I you know this is the
way we should do things it’s going to be
great and we’re but only to find that
there’s actually a better solution that
I never would have come up with on my
own my wife is very wise very kind and
she fills a lot of the holes that I have
in my weaknesses and I’m always happier
and better off when I work with her on
things including this talk I’m always
more excited for my future when we act
as partners to create a future that is
beautiful and completely unique to us
so in conclusion listen listen to the
things that inspire you be aware of what
inspires you and go outside of your
bubble in fact waste time waste time
doing things you love and then listen to
the people that you want to help because
it’s not you who changes the world
it’s collaboration that changes the
world thank you
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
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