what I want to talk to you guys about is
I’m not gonna give you my life story
right we can go to the bar and we could
talk about that later all right but what
I want to share with you guys is what it
took for me to get to where I am because
I can look at each and every one of you
and tell you that I am the happiest that
I have ever been at 38 years old now at
19 I was really happy then too right
I was invincible alright I was
invincible nothing bothered me the
concept of change was I didn’t worry
about it at all but the older I get the
more it’s like change okay I’m fairly
comfortable where I am now why would I
want things to change
right and this and it’s that that quote
that you always come back to the only
thing that’s constant in life is change
you know and you’re like god that’s so
cliche but it’s so true so what I’m
gonna do is I’m gonna give you guys the
the quick cliff notes of how I got to be
talking to you and then when you guys
are getting ready to leave out of here
hopefully you will have learned
something from me and gotten some stuff
for me that will help you in your
futures because before I say anything
else the most important thing for me is
that you guys are the future I have a
four year old son you guys are the ones
who are gonna be in charge when my kid
is growing up and I want people in a
position to be good to be knowledgeable
to not fear things so when they asked me
to talk to you I came up with this idea
I’m gonna talk about change but you
cannot talk about change unless you talk
about two other things and one of them
is overcoming adversity and the other
one is fear so let’s roll back summer
2006 hippie Jeff long hair beard right I
took showers kind of right I was a rock
climber right I was doing all kinds of
stuff but I was also in arguably the
worst point in my life I woke up one
morning after a night of extensive
partying
and I looked at myself in the mirror and
I stopped and I looked at myself and I
said if you don’t change something in
your life you are either going to be
dead or you are gonna end up in jail and
I am NOT a religious person right but
later on in that day something happened
to me which was I would I just want to
call it spiritual I got a phone call
from Poland okay I’m sitting at a bar
again right big big life-changing
experience looking in the mirror 45
minutes later my ass was back at the bar
sitting in the same seat drinking the
same drinks right I was watching the
World Cup actually right Americans at a
bar watching soccer right I was and then
I got a phone call and it was my buddy
Brian now I am best friends with Brian’s
brother Chris we’ve been friends since
we were in in junior high school and he
called me up and said what are you doing
so well drinking at a bar my life is
going nowhere and I guess I’m pretty
happy with this and he said no you’re
not he said no you’re not
he’s like I know you Jeff I’ve known you
all your life he’s like here how about
this I got a free place for you to stay
why don’t you come here and see what
happens
now remember in the morning I looked at
myself said dude if you don’t change
something something’s Bad’s gonna happen
and then this phone call comes is like
all right now what did I know about
Poland I grew up in New York so my town
is half Italians right and then a nice
easy mix of poles czechs russians and a
little mix of everything else all right
so what did I know about Poland I knew
that Guam key was incredible right I
knew that pierogies were good and they
were cheap because I lived on them in
college right and I knew how to say cube
ASSA other than that I didn’t know that
much now geographically I am not one of
the Americans that didn’t know where
Poland was like I knew where it was on
the map I knew what Warsaw was and I
understood the history of things and I
figured you know what the hell now as
luck would
of it my girlfriend had dumped me a
couple months before and I was living
with a guy who worked for Delta Airlines
so he hooked me up with a buddy pass so
I show up and I get my buddy pass and I
get on the airplane and they’re like oh
you have a buddy pass I guess I do
they’re like well you don’t sit there
you come sit in first class right I have
never done anything first class in my
life okay but here they’re like you come
up and you sit first class like all
right this is it this is it this is a
good start right this is a good start
now he called me and it was ten days ten
days in between the time I’m I made a
decision that I was gonna go and the
time that I left I left everything
everything I still don’t even know where
all of my stuff is right I I know I left
it at my friend Steve’s house but I
found out a couple years ago that his
wife had passed away so I don’t even
know if the house is there I don’t know
where any of my stuff is I just left
everything right I’d sold my brother’s
truck right for about two thousand
dollars and that’s what I came to Europe
with two thousand dollars and two
backpacks that was it but I did get to
fly first class that was pretty nice so
I landed you know landed in Germany cuz
that’s as close as I could get right
they didn’t fly any closer so I landed
in Germany was like all right American
in Europe here we go new life new start
how do yer apenas travel alright let’s
take a train right Europeans love trains
let’s take trains so I go and I get to
the lady and I’m like hello ma’am I’m
like I need to go to blue ice Poland
what like blue ice GLI WIC igloo ice
she’s like she’s like no it’sit’s glue
visa it’s like oh here we go you
know here we go I had literally been in
Europe for less than five minutes and I
was already making mistakes
okay so sure enough you know she figures
it out I I get on this train right and I
sit down it’s one of those nice German
trains right the ones that go from zero
to Mach 7 in like eight second
you know yeah and we’re gone okay so I’m
sitting down and I’m watching this
little ticker 234 kilometres an hour
trying to do the math in my head going
oh my god I can’t even know how fast
we’re going right because we don’t have
km/h to Isles per hour you know it’s
like oh geez all right where do we go so
we get to the Polish border I get off
the superfast German train I walk
underneath this tunnel that is just it’s
scary it is like every communist movie
you’ve ever seen like there’s spray
paint on the walls right and there’s
people just like standing in the corner
because this is back when you could
smoke anywhere right that was Europe
right so I go and I get under this
polish train right I am looking around
at my okay they I don’t know where I’m
going and I sit down and all of a sudden
the train starts going and we start
moving and I’m like is it broken cuz it
was not really I’m like I could do it
there were literally like little kids
going hey you know like running faster
than we were and so it’s like okay and I
also had I was also in one of those
trains were like you know it was it was
it was the end of August so it was
really hot and if any of you know like
the old polish trains I went to pull
down the window and the window went down
and then as the train was going was
going right and slowly bouncing back up
so in first class in Delta they gave me
this little bag and in this little bag
was a pair of like disposable socks all
right I don’t know who loses their socks
in first class but hey right so I tied
it down and I tied it down in the
windows open and I’m going through and
like alright I’m gonna be okay I’m gonna
be alright alright now I had read on the
internet never fall asleep in a Polish
train you fall asleep you’re gonna lose
your bags and a kidney all right here we
go so I’m trying my best not to fall
asleep now I had partied the night
before I got on the airplane
I didn’t sleep so I by that point I was
pretty tired so I’m sitting there and
yeah and all of a sudden the door slams
open this woman’s like be let brochure
right now bila I don’t know what be let
well I thought she was saying like
bullet you know so I kind of like duck
down like what what what’s going on you
know like I just scared the living
out of me right I was sleeping right
okay umm she’s like American yeah ticket
okay you was supposed to be in second
class this is first class like hey come
on
they they they upgraded me on the
airplane like what can’t just upgrade me
here right and I was in first class and
I’m thinking this is first class all
right you know so anyway I finally
eventually the woman was cool and she
got me through and then something very
strange happened automatically I had to
rely on the help of strangers I had to
there was his dude I don’t know who he
was III don’t remember he had dreadlocks
right I had a carton of American
cigarettes and this guy I’m like dude I
don’t know where I’m going all right I
don’t know where I’m going I started off
in like I was in like girl eats and I
had to go to broad swabbin I had to
change trains and then I had to go down
and this guy’s like man don’t worry
don’t worry I’ll help you right I gave
him a pack of smokes and he’s like don’t
worry I’ll make sure you get off where
you’re supposed to to get off and sure
enough this guy had to help me I’ll and
in glue beats uh it’s one o’clock in the
morning at the train station exactly the
place I wanted to be all right
I speak zero polish but before they left
all my friends at the bar got me a
dictionary so I was like okay hotel and
I’m flipping through thinking’s gonna be
something really complicated Oh hotel
great so I end up going and getting a
hotel and my friends meet me the next
day and and then things started to go
and immediately I started to meet people
I saw I have a friend Agathe who’s in
here I got to and her her boyfriend
Marcin were two of the first people to
be very very good to me while I was here
I second night I was here I got to play
a concert using Martin’s guitar we’re
still friends since March and write
songs for my band now and they’re very
very good people to me and one of the
things that
that immediately jumped out to me was
the fact that back home I was very
comfortable with what I had I was very
comfortable with meeting people because
we were all speaking the same language
and usually you’re around people who
you’re you know you have common
interests with and things like that but
I was 6,000 miles away from anything
that looked familiar
everything looked strange to me
everything was different right after the
first night of partying in Poland I woke
up with a massive hangover I was so
thirsty I went downstairs I went to
pluse right but back when it was like
pluse and be a drunk and all this stuff
and III had very little money and I was
like I need water and I went and just
the first ball of water I saw I bought
went outside went to drink it spit it
all out it was gospel vana right I’m
like you have got to be kidding me I am
a grown-ass man and I can’t buy water
right I was so frustrated with the
entire situation right there were
moments when I went back into Brian’s
room right next to the train station no
mind you sure my friend gave me
directions to go to some weird place he
lived right across the street from the
train station but didn’t tell me right
so you know he’s like you got to go down
for Chancellor you got to turn left you
got to go to this bar we’re gonna meet
here okay but we live right across the
street from the train station one window
not facing any wind direction was hot as
hell it was hungover and I started to
cry all right I did it was like what are
you doing here Schiffman what are you
doing and then it came one of those
moments where I had to face the fact
that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore
right that this was a decision that I
made nobody forced me to be there right
I did this I did this to myself and one
of the things that changed was back in
the states I found a lot of reasons to
not take responsibility for my actions
right I didn’t do it somebody else did
right oh that wasn’t me that was those
Jager bombs we drank right but here I
was like no dude you can’t run away from
this stuff you made the decision to come
here you’re here
every decision that you make is
important so kind of pick myself up and
you know and met some good people who
hooked me up and I ended up getting a
job I ended up getting to teach English
now I had taught theater and things like
that when I was in the United States but
I never actually really taught English
before you know and it turned out to be
a great decision I used to ask all my
students after the weekend so what’d you
do this weekend all right
oh well you know nothing nothing normal
and with my bob shoes right
but then one day I was in class and I
was like dude would you do for over the
weekend it’s like oh it’s like I I had
football practice ma check come on man
this is English class you don’t say
football practice you say soccer
practice no no no really
American football practice what you got
you got American football here oh yeah
really yeah there’s like a league in
everything like no way right because I’m
one of those people where I need to be
involved in something if left to my own
devices bad things happen right so I I
went and I I went to a practice and I
saw these guys play all right now I was
27 years old at the time I played
football from the time I was in junior
high in school into high school and then
one and a half years in college but I
hadn’t played ball in like eight years
okay you kind of you know get a little
rusty so I still I threw the ball the
first time it went through this kids
hands and hit him right in the nose he
started to bleed these kids are like wow
you want to play for us like all right
wait a minute 27 years old I haven’t
done anything in a long time sure what
the hell right so we ended up playing
and then unbeknownst to me one of my one
of my truly my best friends are right
there right the big guy right we ended
up we ended up getting to play together
we ended up actually playing football
together dude’s a monster okay yeah big
a little tiny quarterback behind the big
guy right but we ended up playing and
then that first year first game right
yeah I’m ready to play blew out my knee
right right in the fourth quarter run
and run and run in down done right so I
couldn’t play anymore what do I do
right what do I do these guys were very
important to me very very special right
so you got a fast forward real quick two
years because I’m running out of time
right you fast forward two years 2009
these guys come up to me and say Jeff we
need a coach we know you can’t play
anymore but we need a coach and I told
him I said if I coach you you are not
gonna like me you are not gonna like
what’s going to happen but you will like
the outcome do you agree
yeah yeah yeah sure you really sure yeah
we’re really sure okay first practice
squad of 50 people right half of the
team puking on the sidelines because we
ran so hard I worked these kids worked
we pushed and pushed and pushed in 2009
I believe there were seven teams in the
very top league right we were the only
team in the country made up of only
polish players you could have foreigners
come from America and teams like in
varrock suave which are the dominant
club right now one of the best American
football teams in all of Europe right is
from Poland but these guys would bring
in American players right guys like Aki
Jones who passed away a while ago but
played ball for the Washington Redskins
mark Filmore played for Northwestern
right and I got guys who have started
playing football two years ago right
playing against guys this big who had
NFL experience why is this important
this is all about adversity these guys
pushed and pushed and pushed and we
fought and we fought and during that
season the hardest time of my life
happened I was the closest to my
grandparents and my grandmother had
passed away before and my grandpa had
been really sick in 2009 and eventually
I got the phone call that my grandfather
had passed on a Monday and we had a game
in Warsaw on Saturday didn’t tell my
guys only told the assistant coach and
we went to Warsaw and we got our asses
kicked
quite quite hand
Lee actually I told the guys on the bus
afterwards that I had to go home because
I had to bury my grandfather but I’ve
told them that you can feel for me but
what I want for you guys is I want you
to stay focused I want you to fight I
want you to work harder than you’ve
worked before when I’m not here because
we just lost this game but we weren’t
out of the playoffs so I end up coming
back and make a long story short a team
of only polish players who had at most
at most five years of playing experience
we were the national champions in this
country we overcame every obstacle we
overcame everybody saying that we
couldn’t do it that it was impossible
for us to do it it’s a very popular word
in Polish sometimes these Nimmo’s Liva
leave it right absolutely not
that is a word which I wish they would
absolutely erase from the dictionary
because all it does is it limits your
possibilities and it limits your
possibilities to do things great every
single one of us and it doesn’t matter
if you are the most successful person or
somebody who struggles in everything
every single one of us has infinite
potential to be great not just good but
to be great now when I was a kid I
thought I was gonna be the starting
centerfielder for the New York Yankees
okay obviously that’s not going to
happen I was a good baseball player but
apparently I wasn’t great
we all strive for greatness we all
strive for perfection but a lot of times
the thing that stands in our way is
ourselves the greatest part about this
change of coming here was that for the
first time in my life I had to really
look at myself and really look I had a
chance to reinvent who I was remembering
the positive things about me but never
ever forgetting the negative things the
things that I did not want to do when I
came here this was my
I was scared to death to come here but
like they always say every great journey
begins with a single step right and it’s
very very true it’s very very true where
I’m at right now because of that
decision to go because of that decision
to come here right III have an
absolutely beautiful wife I have a child
which is absolutely the joy of my life
and none of this would I could have
another wife and I could have had
another baby somewhere else but it would
not be Henry and it wouldn’t be Sylvia I
wouldn’t be here talking to you right I
wouldn’t be a part of the band that I
play in right now right mixed of people
from England and into Silesian guys
right getting to play music festivals
not only just in Poland but in in
checking and in other places as well
right the overcoming of my fear the fear
of change right was was infinitely
important and my grandfather used to say
this to me and I don’t know where he got
it from so I’m sure I don’t know if I’m
stealing it from somebody or if I’m just
passing it on but one of the greatest
things that my grandfather told me was
that courage is not the absence of fear
it’s knowing that you are afraid but you
go anyway and the older I get the more
that I realized that that statement in
itself is what keeps me going and if you
guys take anything from that speech it
said I want you to remember that the
courage is not the absence of fear it’s
knowing that you are afraid but you go
anyway because every single one of you
is gonna face that fear at some point
either in your academic career your
personal life your professional life
every one of you is gonna go I don’t
want to get up and do this speech right
or I’m afraid to go here or I’m afraid
to go and do this but all of you are
courageous you don’t have to be
a war hero or or a fireman or anything
like this to be to be courageous what to
be courageous is when you know you’re
afraid of something when you know that
there is a chance that it might not go
the way you thought it was gonna go but
you go anyway and when you take that
first step and when you realize that you
every one of you has infinite potential
to influence positive change on the
world because the world is a scary dark
mean place right now full of hatred full
of distrust and I’m quite frankly I’m
tired of it I refuse to live that way I
refuse to let my child grow up in a
world like that and what I’m gonna do is
by hopefully influencing the people that
are close to me by going out and being
brave being honorable by doing the right
thing when nobody is looking at you
having the courage to take that first
step alright I promise you I promise you
that you will go through hell in your
life you will have moments of extreme
sadness you will go through change that
is unnecessary its unwanted I don’t want
this but every change that you will go
through has infinite possibilities if
you keep your head about you alright
keep your head on a swivel right you see
what’s coming from the left from the
right if you do that and you try and you
overcome the odds when people tell you
that you can’t prove them wrong when
people tell you that it’s impossible say
that word does not exist in my
vocabulary right whenever you are afraid
remember that true courage is in you the
ability to accept the fact that you
don’t know what’s going to happen but
you go anyway you are the future you are
the future and we can make this world a
much better place if we are not
afraid to take that first step trust in
our fellow man help with your parents
your friends the kindness of strangers
if you do all of these things you change
your mentality right I promise you I
promise you the world will be a better
place tomorrow than it is today thank
you guys very very much for your time
have a fantastic weekend
all right and thanks for coming thank
you
I’m not gonna give you my life story
right we can go to the bar and we could
talk about that later all right but what
I want to share with you guys is what it
took for me to get to where I am because
I can look at each and every one of you
and tell you that I am the happiest that
I have ever been at 38 years old now at
19 I was really happy then too right
I was invincible alright I was
invincible nothing bothered me the
concept of change was I didn’t worry
about it at all but the older I get the
more it’s like change okay I’m fairly
comfortable where I am now why would I
want things to change
right and this and it’s that that quote
that you always come back to the only
thing that’s constant in life is change
you know and you’re like god that’s so
cliche but it’s so true so what I’m
gonna do is I’m gonna give you guys the
the quick cliff notes of how I got to be
talking to you and then when you guys
are getting ready to leave out of here
hopefully you will have learned
something from me and gotten some stuff
for me that will help you in your
futures because before I say anything
else the most important thing for me is
that you guys are the future I have a
four year old son you guys are the ones
who are gonna be in charge when my kid
is growing up and I want people in a
position to be good to be knowledgeable
to not fear things so when they asked me
to talk to you I came up with this idea
I’m gonna talk about change but you
cannot talk about change unless you talk
about two other things and one of them
is overcoming adversity and the other
one is fear so let’s roll back summer
2006 hippie Jeff long hair beard right I
took showers kind of right I was a rock
climber right I was doing all kinds of
stuff but I was also in arguably the
worst point in my life I woke up one
morning after a night of extensive
partying
and I looked at myself in the mirror and
I stopped and I looked at myself and I
said if you don’t change something in
your life you are either going to be
dead or you are gonna end up in jail and
I am NOT a religious person right but
later on in that day something happened
to me which was I would I just want to
call it spiritual I got a phone call
from Poland okay I’m sitting at a bar
again right big big life-changing
experience looking in the mirror 45
minutes later my ass was back at the bar
sitting in the same seat drinking the
same drinks right I was watching the
World Cup actually right Americans at a
bar watching soccer right I was and then
I got a phone call and it was my buddy
Brian now I am best friends with Brian’s
brother Chris we’ve been friends since
we were in in junior high school and he
called me up and said what are you doing
so well drinking at a bar my life is
going nowhere and I guess I’m pretty
happy with this and he said no you’re
not he said no you’re not
he’s like I know you Jeff I’ve known you
all your life he’s like here how about
this I got a free place for you to stay
why don’t you come here and see what
happens
now remember in the morning I looked at
myself said dude if you don’t change
something something’s Bad’s gonna happen
and then this phone call comes is like
all right now what did I know about
Poland I grew up in New York so my town
is half Italians right and then a nice
easy mix of poles czechs russians and a
little mix of everything else all right
so what did I know about Poland I knew
that Guam key was incredible right I
knew that pierogies were good and they
were cheap because I lived on them in
college right and I knew how to say cube
ASSA other than that I didn’t know that
much now geographically I am not one of
the Americans that didn’t know where
Poland was like I knew where it was on
the map I knew what Warsaw was and I
understood the history of things and I
figured you know what the hell now as
luck would
of it my girlfriend had dumped me a
couple months before and I was living
with a guy who worked for Delta Airlines
so he hooked me up with a buddy pass so
I show up and I get my buddy pass and I
get on the airplane and they’re like oh
you have a buddy pass I guess I do
they’re like well you don’t sit there
you come sit in first class right I have
never done anything first class in my
life okay but here they’re like you come
up and you sit first class like all
right this is it this is it this is a
good start right this is a good start
now he called me and it was ten days ten
days in between the time I’m I made a
decision that I was gonna go and the
time that I left I left everything
everything I still don’t even know where
all of my stuff is right I I know I left
it at my friend Steve’s house but I
found out a couple years ago that his
wife had passed away so I don’t even
know if the house is there I don’t know
where any of my stuff is I just left
everything right I’d sold my brother’s
truck right for about two thousand
dollars and that’s what I came to Europe
with two thousand dollars and two
backpacks that was it but I did get to
fly first class that was pretty nice so
I landed you know landed in Germany cuz
that’s as close as I could get right
they didn’t fly any closer so I landed
in Germany was like all right American
in Europe here we go new life new start
how do yer apenas travel alright let’s
take a train right Europeans love trains
let’s take trains so I go and I get to
the lady and I’m like hello ma’am I’m
like I need to go to blue ice Poland
what like blue ice GLI WIC igloo ice
she’s like she’s like no it’sit’s glue
visa it’s like oh here we go you
know here we go I had literally been in
Europe for less than five minutes and I
was already making mistakes
okay so sure enough you know she figures
it out I I get on this train right and I
sit down it’s one of those nice German
trains right the ones that go from zero
to Mach 7 in like eight second
you know yeah and we’re gone okay so I’m
sitting down and I’m watching this
little ticker 234 kilometres an hour
trying to do the math in my head going
oh my god I can’t even know how fast
we’re going right because we don’t have
km/h to Isles per hour you know it’s
like oh geez all right where do we go so
we get to the Polish border I get off
the superfast German train I walk
underneath this tunnel that is just it’s
scary it is like every communist movie
you’ve ever seen like there’s spray
paint on the walls right and there’s
people just like standing in the corner
because this is back when you could
smoke anywhere right that was Europe
right so I go and I get under this
polish train right I am looking around
at my okay they I don’t know where I’m
going and I sit down and all of a sudden
the train starts going and we start
moving and I’m like is it broken cuz it
was not really I’m like I could do it
there were literally like little kids
going hey you know like running faster
than we were and so it’s like okay and I
also had I was also in one of those
trains were like you know it was it was
it was the end of August so it was
really hot and if any of you know like
the old polish trains I went to pull
down the window and the window went down
and then as the train was going was
going right and slowly bouncing back up
so in first class in Delta they gave me
this little bag and in this little bag
was a pair of like disposable socks all
right I don’t know who loses their socks
in first class but hey right so I tied
it down and I tied it down in the
windows open and I’m going through and
like alright I’m gonna be okay I’m gonna
be alright alright now I had read on the
internet never fall asleep in a Polish
train you fall asleep you’re gonna lose
your bags and a kidney all right here we
go so I’m trying my best not to fall
asleep now I had partied the night
before I got on the airplane
I didn’t sleep so I by that point I was
pretty tired so I’m sitting there and
yeah and all of a sudden the door slams
open this woman’s like be let brochure
right now bila I don’t know what be let
well I thought she was saying like
bullet you know so I kind of like duck
down like what what what’s going on you
know like I just scared the living
out of me right I was sleeping right
okay umm she’s like American yeah ticket
okay you was supposed to be in second
class this is first class like hey come
on
they they they upgraded me on the
airplane like what can’t just upgrade me
here right and I was in first class and
I’m thinking this is first class all
right you know so anyway I finally
eventually the woman was cool and she
got me through and then something very
strange happened automatically I had to
rely on the help of strangers I had to
there was his dude I don’t know who he
was III don’t remember he had dreadlocks
right I had a carton of American
cigarettes and this guy I’m like dude I
don’t know where I’m going all right I
don’t know where I’m going I started off
in like I was in like girl eats and I
had to go to broad swabbin I had to
change trains and then I had to go down
and this guy’s like man don’t worry
don’t worry I’ll help you right I gave
him a pack of smokes and he’s like don’t
worry I’ll make sure you get off where
you’re supposed to to get off and sure
enough this guy had to help me I’ll and
in glue beats uh it’s one o’clock in the
morning at the train station exactly the
place I wanted to be all right
I speak zero polish but before they left
all my friends at the bar got me a
dictionary so I was like okay hotel and
I’m flipping through thinking’s gonna be
something really complicated Oh hotel
great so I end up going and getting a
hotel and my friends meet me the next
day and and then things started to go
and immediately I started to meet people
I saw I have a friend Agathe who’s in
here I got to and her her boyfriend
Marcin were two of the first people to
be very very good to me while I was here
I second night I was here I got to play
a concert using Martin’s guitar we’re
still friends since March and write
songs for my band now and they’re very
very good people to me and one of the
things that
that immediately jumped out to me was
the fact that back home I was very
comfortable with what I had I was very
comfortable with meeting people because
we were all speaking the same language
and usually you’re around people who
you’re you know you have common
interests with and things like that but
I was 6,000 miles away from anything
that looked familiar
everything looked strange to me
everything was different right after the
first night of partying in Poland I woke
up with a massive hangover I was so
thirsty I went downstairs I went to
pluse right but back when it was like
pluse and be a drunk and all this stuff
and III had very little money and I was
like I need water and I went and just
the first ball of water I saw I bought
went outside went to drink it spit it
all out it was gospel vana right I’m
like you have got to be kidding me I am
a grown-ass man and I can’t buy water
right I was so frustrated with the
entire situation right there were
moments when I went back into Brian’s
room right next to the train station no
mind you sure my friend gave me
directions to go to some weird place he
lived right across the street from the
train station but didn’t tell me right
so you know he’s like you got to go down
for Chancellor you got to turn left you
got to go to this bar we’re gonna meet
here okay but we live right across the
street from the train station one window
not facing any wind direction was hot as
hell it was hungover and I started to
cry all right I did it was like what are
you doing here Schiffman what are you
doing and then it came one of those
moments where I had to face the fact
that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore
right that this was a decision that I
made nobody forced me to be there right
I did this I did this to myself and one
of the things that changed was back in
the states I found a lot of reasons to
not take responsibility for my actions
right I didn’t do it somebody else did
right oh that wasn’t me that was those
Jager bombs we drank right but here I
was like no dude you can’t run away from
this stuff you made the decision to come
here you’re here
every decision that you make is
important so kind of pick myself up and
you know and met some good people who
hooked me up and I ended up getting a
job I ended up getting to teach English
now I had taught theater and things like
that when I was in the United States but
I never actually really taught English
before you know and it turned out to be
a great decision I used to ask all my
students after the weekend so what’d you
do this weekend all right
oh well you know nothing nothing normal
and with my bob shoes right
but then one day I was in class and I
was like dude would you do for over the
weekend it’s like oh it’s like I I had
football practice ma check come on man
this is English class you don’t say
football practice you say soccer
practice no no no really
American football practice what you got
you got American football here oh yeah
really yeah there’s like a league in
everything like no way right because I’m
one of those people where I need to be
involved in something if left to my own
devices bad things happen right so I I
went and I I went to a practice and I
saw these guys play all right now I was
27 years old at the time I played
football from the time I was in junior
high in school into high school and then
one and a half years in college but I
hadn’t played ball in like eight years
okay you kind of you know get a little
rusty so I still I threw the ball the
first time it went through this kids
hands and hit him right in the nose he
started to bleed these kids are like wow
you want to play for us like all right
wait a minute 27 years old I haven’t
done anything in a long time sure what
the hell right so we ended up playing
and then unbeknownst to me one of my one
of my truly my best friends are right
there right the big guy right we ended
up we ended up getting to play together
we ended up actually playing football
together dude’s a monster okay yeah big
a little tiny quarterback behind the big
guy right but we ended up playing and
then that first year first game right
yeah I’m ready to play blew out my knee
right right in the fourth quarter run
and run and run in down done right so I
couldn’t play anymore what do I do
right what do I do these guys were very
important to me very very special right
so you got a fast forward real quick two
years because I’m running out of time
right you fast forward two years 2009
these guys come up to me and say Jeff we
need a coach we know you can’t play
anymore but we need a coach and I told
him I said if I coach you you are not
gonna like me you are not gonna like
what’s going to happen but you will like
the outcome do you agree
yeah yeah yeah sure you really sure yeah
we’re really sure okay first practice
squad of 50 people right half of the
team puking on the sidelines because we
ran so hard I worked these kids worked
we pushed and pushed and pushed in 2009
I believe there were seven teams in the
very top league right we were the only
team in the country made up of only
polish players you could have foreigners
come from America and teams like in
varrock suave which are the dominant
club right now one of the best American
football teams in all of Europe right is
from Poland but these guys would bring
in American players right guys like Aki
Jones who passed away a while ago but
played ball for the Washington Redskins
mark Filmore played for Northwestern
right and I got guys who have started
playing football two years ago right
playing against guys this big who had
NFL experience why is this important
this is all about adversity these guys
pushed and pushed and pushed and we
fought and we fought and during that
season the hardest time of my life
happened I was the closest to my
grandparents and my grandmother had
passed away before and my grandpa had
been really sick in 2009 and eventually
I got the phone call that my grandfather
had passed on a Monday and we had a game
in Warsaw on Saturday didn’t tell my
guys only told the assistant coach and
we went to Warsaw and we got our asses
kicked
quite quite hand
Lee actually I told the guys on the bus
afterwards that I had to go home because
I had to bury my grandfather but I’ve
told them that you can feel for me but
what I want for you guys is I want you
to stay focused I want you to fight I
want you to work harder than you’ve
worked before when I’m not here because
we just lost this game but we weren’t
out of the playoffs so I end up coming
back and make a long story short a team
of only polish players who had at most
at most five years of playing experience
we were the national champions in this
country we overcame every obstacle we
overcame everybody saying that we
couldn’t do it that it was impossible
for us to do it it’s a very popular word
in Polish sometimes these Nimmo’s Liva
leave it right absolutely not
that is a word which I wish they would
absolutely erase from the dictionary
because all it does is it limits your
possibilities and it limits your
possibilities to do things great every
single one of us and it doesn’t matter
if you are the most successful person or
somebody who struggles in everything
every single one of us has infinite
potential to be great not just good but
to be great now when I was a kid I
thought I was gonna be the starting
centerfielder for the New York Yankees
okay obviously that’s not going to
happen I was a good baseball player but
apparently I wasn’t great
we all strive for greatness we all
strive for perfection but a lot of times
the thing that stands in our way is
ourselves the greatest part about this
change of coming here was that for the
first time in my life I had to really
look at myself and really look I had a
chance to reinvent who I was remembering
the positive things about me but never
ever forgetting the negative things the
things that I did not want to do when I
came here this was my
I was scared to death to come here but
like they always say every great journey
begins with a single step right and it’s
very very true it’s very very true where
I’m at right now because of that
decision to go because of that decision
to come here right III have an
absolutely beautiful wife I have a child
which is absolutely the joy of my life
and none of this would I could have
another wife and I could have had
another baby somewhere else but it would
not be Henry and it wouldn’t be Sylvia I
wouldn’t be here talking to you right I
wouldn’t be a part of the band that I
play in right now right mixed of people
from England and into Silesian guys
right getting to play music festivals
not only just in Poland but in in
checking and in other places as well
right the overcoming of my fear the fear
of change right was was infinitely
important and my grandfather used to say
this to me and I don’t know where he got
it from so I’m sure I don’t know if I’m
stealing it from somebody or if I’m just
passing it on but one of the greatest
things that my grandfather told me was
that courage is not the absence of fear
it’s knowing that you are afraid but you
go anyway and the older I get the more
that I realized that that statement in
itself is what keeps me going and if you
guys take anything from that speech it
said I want you to remember that the
courage is not the absence of fear it’s
knowing that you are afraid but you go
anyway because every single one of you
is gonna face that fear at some point
either in your academic career your
personal life your professional life
every one of you is gonna go I don’t
want to get up and do this speech right
or I’m afraid to go here or I’m afraid
to go and do this but all of you are
courageous you don’t have to be
a war hero or or a fireman or anything
like this to be to be courageous what to
be courageous is when you know you’re
afraid of something when you know that
there is a chance that it might not go
the way you thought it was gonna go but
you go anyway and when you take that
first step and when you realize that you
every one of you has infinite potential
to influence positive change on the
world because the world is a scary dark
mean place right now full of hatred full
of distrust and I’m quite frankly I’m
tired of it I refuse to live that way I
refuse to let my child grow up in a
world like that and what I’m gonna do is
by hopefully influencing the people that
are close to me by going out and being
brave being honorable by doing the right
thing when nobody is looking at you
having the courage to take that first
step alright I promise you I promise you
that you will go through hell in your
life you will have moments of extreme
sadness you will go through change that
is unnecessary its unwanted I don’t want
this but every change that you will go
through has infinite possibilities if
you keep your head about you alright
keep your head on a swivel right you see
what’s coming from the left from the
right if you do that and you try and you
overcome the odds when people tell you
that you can’t prove them wrong when
people tell you that it’s impossible say
that word does not exist in my
vocabulary right whenever you are afraid
remember that true courage is in you the
ability to accept the fact that you
don’t know what’s going to happen but
you go anyway you are the future you are
the future and we can make this world a
much better place if we are not
afraid to take that first step trust in
our fellow man help with your parents
your friends the kindness of strangers
if you do all of these things you change
your mentality right I promise you I
promise you the world will be a better
place tomorrow than it is today thank
you guys very very much for your time
have a fantastic weekend
all right and thanks for coming thank
you
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