[Music]
the challenge of this speech is a
perception of Ted that I’ve had that
tenants for people who have a message
that needs to be heard and I so admired
that confidence because despite a career
standing in front of people I’ve never
really thought about myself or a message
that had to be heard but I do want to
thank the students Dina and Dennis and
Lane Graziano for having the confidence
that you do have something to say the
idea I kept coming back to is one about
the personal encounters that build the
stories of our lives one can have some
can have significant impact some can be
signpost that we don’t even recognize I
will first share a story that set me on
this line of thinking it is part of the
autobiographical account of the founder
of the human fund Jacqueline Jacqueline
Novogratz
she relays what would seem like a
fabricated incident as the young girl
she was given a blue sweater it had the
design with zebras on the front and
Mount Kilimanjaro in the background
appropriate perhaps for a mirror as she
grew in the shape of her body changed
she continued to wear that sweater until
one day in grade 9 her nemesis shouted
across the hallway then Jackie
boys don’t need to go to the mountains
to ski they can ski on the contours of
your sweater humiliated devastated she
went home and she and her mother
ceremoniously dumped the sweater into
the goodwill box fast forward 10 years a
career change from Wall Street where she
found no meaning to a new world bank job
to helping others in Africa she goes out
running in Kigali Rwanda in front of
hers a small boy from the blue sweater
she runs up looks the tag and yes it is
her
that would be fairly remarkable moment
it for any of us
it would certainly speak to me if I just
decided to make a life change and move
that significant move I’m not sure all
our ways of becoming are as well
signposted but the men are also works as
one that shows us how certain moments
can define us but also highlight the
process by which we come to recognize
and act and make ourselves open to
change for all of us this is an endless
process of experiencing recognizing
acting as we gain insights into
ourselves in my own life I’m often
reminded of an evening when at 12 or 13
I’ve finished watching the TV show the
Patty Duke show I suspect not many in
this room know it it’s about two cousins
who are identical but very different
there’s Kathy who’s lived most anywhere
from Zanzibar to Berkeley Square but
Patty’s only see the sights a girl can
take the group one nights
whoa I’m crazy there you get the idea
in this episode patty from Brooklyn
Heights and her cousin Kathy constant
rivals are showing their elements as
patty is consumed by friends social
options spending time with her boyfriend
and is just bothered by the expectations
of life Kathy is always off doing good
she tells the neighbor helps the kitchen
help someone at school and volunteers
the food bank with all the indignation
that a 12 year old you muster I joined
my family in the living room and
announced that I had just seen the most
terrible TV show I proceeded to explain
why Kathy was the most ridiculous
character no one could be that way
and she
we missed out on having fun in life not
sure the exact extent of my reasoning
but I do remember my father with a kind
of patience nonchalance pondered my
remarks and then he said that would seem
to me that you could use a little more
caffeine in your own approach I’m sure
he meant nothing more than when
presented with an image of two TV
characters he fundamentally thought the
whole shows and I did not leave the
conversation with any deep injury to my
sense of being a person of importance
but the moment stayed with me long
enough to now until and even now to know
that it was a defining remark I’m sure
has not change overnight but that
comment gave me permission to be someone
different and when listening to the
stories of others people I’m always
interested in the encounters that give
us insight into our lives that push us
beyond present parameters often these
moments can make us feel more vulnerable
or connect to something larger to that
ourselves or in the words of Star Trek
to boldly go where no man has gone but I
really don’t see them as epiphanies but
the stuff of everyday life more recently
my perspective and service-learning
shifted and when I was at the gin
conference in Doha this was seven years
ago and I was there with about 10 or 12
students we had traveled to this
conference not knowing much about it and
we heard two speakers Brian hare Locke
and Austin Goodwin
they were in their teens already they
were well established in the end
Brian’s both about water austin talked
about aids these were serious global
issues that had ignited them to action
when they were very young both of them
spoke at that moment when they learned
something is wrong and something needs
to be done about I know I was still
holding on to some notion that real
effective action only happen after
you’ve finished your formal education I
realized how wrong I was and I’m
grateful for the team of students who
helped me trust my instincts if you
remember the Velveteen Rabbit by
Marjorie Williams there’s that wonderful
moment when the skid horse replies it
doesn’t happen all at once you become
that’s why it doesn’t happen often do
people who break easily have sharp edges
or not to be carefully kept in 1979 my
cousin died in a car crash they have a
plane crash we had been together ski
bums in Colorado we were both in our
early 20s full of fat inquisitive
restlessness that there’s so much part
of growing up on his desk a letter was
found he started to write to me and he
had written that quotation from The
Velveteen Rabbit at the time I actually
had to go out and buy a copy of The
Velveteen Rabbit
it wasn’t familiar to me the letter is
somewhere but the message not from the
book but from him remains defining
moments I knew he never wanted me to
break easily our life will be framed by
many coincidences people of importance
people of influence and choices some of
these encounters encounters will have
the amazement of the blue sweater moment
others are much less dramatic what I’d
like the audience to do give me a
partner for this this is interactive is
like likely to share with a neighbor
something that helps define you maybe
it’s that kid in town
you haven’t yet uncovered maybe it’s the
classic you’ve read maybe the stories
that maybe it’s a story where the
details have shifted or maybe it’s a
mountain ascent but take a minute right
now we have the time built in to just
share that with the with your with the
neighbor because I think it’s part of
what defines you and it’s part of what
10 is about is taking the ideas inside
you thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
the challenge of this speech is a
perception of Ted that I’ve had that
tenants for people who have a message
that needs to be heard and I so admired
that confidence because despite a career
standing in front of people I’ve never
really thought about myself or a message
that had to be heard but I do want to
thank the students Dina and Dennis and
Lane Graziano for having the confidence
that you do have something to say the
idea I kept coming back to is one about
the personal encounters that build the
stories of our lives one can have some
can have significant impact some can be
signpost that we don’t even recognize I
will first share a story that set me on
this line of thinking it is part of the
autobiographical account of the founder
of the human fund Jacqueline Jacqueline
Novogratz
she relays what would seem like a
fabricated incident as the young girl
she was given a blue sweater it had the
design with zebras on the front and
Mount Kilimanjaro in the background
appropriate perhaps for a mirror as she
grew in the shape of her body changed
she continued to wear that sweater until
one day in grade 9 her nemesis shouted
across the hallway then Jackie
boys don’t need to go to the mountains
to ski they can ski on the contours of
your sweater humiliated devastated she
went home and she and her mother
ceremoniously dumped the sweater into
the goodwill box fast forward 10 years a
career change from Wall Street where she
found no meaning to a new world bank job
to helping others in Africa she goes out
running in Kigali Rwanda in front of
hers a small boy from the blue sweater
she runs up looks the tag and yes it is
her
that would be fairly remarkable moment
it for any of us
it would certainly speak to me if I just
decided to make a life change and move
that significant move I’m not sure all
our ways of becoming are as well
signposted but the men are also works as
one that shows us how certain moments
can define us but also highlight the
process by which we come to recognize
and act and make ourselves open to
change for all of us this is an endless
process of experiencing recognizing
acting as we gain insights into
ourselves in my own life I’m often
reminded of an evening when at 12 or 13
I’ve finished watching the TV show the
Patty Duke show I suspect not many in
this room know it it’s about two cousins
who are identical but very different
there’s Kathy who’s lived most anywhere
from Zanzibar to Berkeley Square but
Patty’s only see the sights a girl can
take the group one nights
whoa I’m crazy there you get the idea
in this episode patty from Brooklyn
Heights and her cousin Kathy constant
rivals are showing their elements as
patty is consumed by friends social
options spending time with her boyfriend
and is just bothered by the expectations
of life Kathy is always off doing good
she tells the neighbor helps the kitchen
help someone at school and volunteers
the food bank with all the indignation
that a 12 year old you muster I joined
my family in the living room and
announced that I had just seen the most
terrible TV show I proceeded to explain
why Kathy was the most ridiculous
character no one could be that way
and she
we missed out on having fun in life not
sure the exact extent of my reasoning
but I do remember my father with a kind
of patience nonchalance pondered my
remarks and then he said that would seem
to me that you could use a little more
caffeine in your own approach I’m sure
he meant nothing more than when
presented with an image of two TV
characters he fundamentally thought the
whole shows and I did not leave the
conversation with any deep injury to my
sense of being a person of importance
but the moment stayed with me long
enough to now until and even now to know
that it was a defining remark I’m sure
has not change overnight but that
comment gave me permission to be someone
different and when listening to the
stories of others people I’m always
interested in the encounters that give
us insight into our lives that push us
beyond present parameters often these
moments can make us feel more vulnerable
or connect to something larger to that
ourselves or in the words of Star Trek
to boldly go where no man has gone but I
really don’t see them as epiphanies but
the stuff of everyday life more recently
my perspective and service-learning
shifted and when I was at the gin
conference in Doha this was seven years
ago and I was there with about 10 or 12
students we had traveled to this
conference not knowing much about it and
we heard two speakers Brian hare Locke
and Austin Goodwin
they were in their teens already they
were well established in the end
Brian’s both about water austin talked
about aids these were serious global
issues that had ignited them to action
when they were very young both of them
spoke at that moment when they learned
something is wrong and something needs
to be done about I know I was still
holding on to some notion that real
effective action only happen after
you’ve finished your formal education I
realized how wrong I was and I’m
grateful for the team of students who
helped me trust my instincts if you
remember the Velveteen Rabbit by
Marjorie Williams there’s that wonderful
moment when the skid horse replies it
doesn’t happen all at once you become
that’s why it doesn’t happen often do
people who break easily have sharp edges
or not to be carefully kept in 1979 my
cousin died in a car crash they have a
plane crash we had been together ski
bums in Colorado we were both in our
early 20s full of fat inquisitive
restlessness that there’s so much part
of growing up on his desk a letter was
found he started to write to me and he
had written that quotation from The
Velveteen Rabbit at the time I actually
had to go out and buy a copy of The
Velveteen Rabbit
it wasn’t familiar to me the letter is
somewhere but the message not from the
book but from him remains defining
moments I knew he never wanted me to
break easily our life will be framed by
many coincidences people of importance
people of influence and choices some of
these encounters encounters will have
the amazement of the blue sweater moment
others are much less dramatic what I’d
like the audience to do give me a
partner for this this is interactive is
like likely to share with a neighbor
something that helps define you maybe
it’s that kid in town
you haven’t yet uncovered maybe it’s the
classic you’ve read maybe the stories
that maybe it’s a story where the
details have shifted or maybe it’s a
mountain ascent but take a minute right
now we have the time built in to just
share that with the with your with the
neighbor because I think it’s part of
what defines you and it’s part of what
10 is about is taking the ideas inside
you thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
Please follow and like us: