let’s start by doing a little time
traveling let’s travel back to when we
were seven years old remember seven it
was that time your life when you were
absolutely positive that have just given
the chance that you could be anything or
do anything or even have any adventure
you could dream up and the ironic thing
is that that childlike wonder and that
faith that we have in ourselves and even
the world has all but faded away by the
time we can start putting action behind
our dreams and then for many of us well
our own children come along and suddenly
life becomes more about managing
expectations than making dreams come
true and that cycle continues what if I
told you that you could re-engage that
kid mind and break that cycle and prove
to your own children that life truly is
all about limitless possibilities and
that just about anything they can dream
up can come true if they just take
action and ask well but eight years ago
my daughter Noelle was seven years old
she came flying on the stairs one night
she was running over to me
it’s just daddy I know but I want to be
well let me set the scene here for a
second it was late and she should have
been asleep about an hour before and if
I’m totally honest I had had a pretty
long day so in that moment I could have
done what most of us would do when it’s
9 o’clock and your seven-year-old won’t
go to sleep I could have said that’s
awesome now go to bed
and I probably would have but she said
that with such passion and such
conviction that it unlocked a lesson to
me they’ve been dormant for decades see
when I was 12 years old my dad who was
also my little league coach did
something absolutely unheard of
now that year our league had upgraded
our uniforms to ones that were a
act replicas of the major league teams
we were named after now for some reason
the only thing they didn’t buy with a
matching hats now my dad was that guy
who always said if you gotta do
something do it right so this bothered
him a little bit and then he had a
thought well if the league couldn’t
provide the major-league cast for his
mess well then maybe the real major
league Mets could so instead of just
dismissing this thought is an
off-the-wall idea he put action behind
it and he wrote a letter to New York
Mets manager Joe Torre asking if there’s
anything he could do to help well
shortly before our season was about to
begin my sisters and I came home from
school one day to find these two big
boxes on her porch from some strange
address in Florida now keep in mind that
this was way pre Amazon when getting
when getting anything delivered to your
house but a standard sized envelope just
didn’t happen so sure you could
appreciate the the clock watching that’s
going on now as we’re waiting for my dad
to pull in the driveway we finally open
the boxes and inside and you guessed it
were thirty of these now in response to
my dad’s letter Joe Torre went through
his entire team spring training locker
room gathered up all the extra hats and
sent them was a letter wishing us good
luck well it turns out what was also in
those boxes was a lesson that I would
keep with me for the rest of my life and
that is if you want something regardless
of how impossible it might seem all you
have to do is take action and ask so now
there I am in my own living room with my
own daughter who has just told me in no
uncertain terms that she’s gonna be a
cartoonist when she grows up and there
that lesson was ready to be taught one
more time so we sat down on our couch
and we started talking about this
cartooning thing and she was so lit up
it was contagious I mean I think it
about three minutes I was ready to drop
everything and become a cartoonist to
and I realized that that during that
conversation that we had become so
like-minded that we were no longer
talking father to daughter
we were talking kid to kid and that
changed everything
so I finally sent her to bed and I knew
what I had to do I needed to find a
cartoonist for this girl to talk to so
later that night I discovered that that
year’s cartoonist of the year
Hilary price leave it just a couple of
hours away so now instead of waiting for
my dad to pull in the driveway to open
up some boxes I couldn’t wait for my
daughter to get up in the morning to
share the news so the next morning over
breakfast we we talked about it we
jotted down some ideas and she grabbed a
pencil and paper and off she went and
she turned those ideas into a letter
that started with dear Hillary price my
name is Noelle Goyette I am seven years
old and I want to be a cartoonist just
like you well a couple weeks later and
Hillary responded with an invitation to
her studio where she answered every
question Noel had and even provided a
drawing lesson now I’ll tell you we left
that studio walking on air because you
know I’ll never forget that car ride
home
we had just experienced something
together for the very first time and it
felt like we were connected much more
deeply than ever before and I asked her
I said you know wow how do you feel
about all this and she said daddy it
feels like magic well I’ll tell you
right at that moment the father-daughter
project that we now call yours for the
asking was born so here was ideal
whenever Noel found something that
interested her or ignited her passion I
just made that lightbulb go off
she tell me and then together we try to
find somebody who was doing something
spectacular in that area and she write
them a letter and asked to meet them if
they said yes I always did my best to
make it happen well around that time she
was just getting into music and we were
having a blast finding new things to
listen to an explorer from jazz to
classical to blues so she made music the
project and part of our daily life
became trying to find people in the
music industry to
right – and learn from so she wrote more
letters and she received more replies
and very quickly she found herself
behind the controls of WGBH radio in
Boston where she experienced
broadcasting firsthand with host Kathy
fuller from there she went backstage at
the Boston Symphony and learned about
classical music from none other than can
dr. Keith Lockhart and then into my
amazement we found ourselves in the
dressing room of jazz legend Dave
Brubeck and I watched her stand in awe
as he explained to her what it took to
be onstage and perform a lifetime of
jazz well at that age all kids passions
are fleeting and the well was certainly
no exception and she always been a very
talented artist but now her focus had
turned to fashion design and soon
everything in my house started turning
into a dress my my bedsheets became
dresses and my pillowcases became
dresses and yes my curtains came off the
wall and became dresses too so once
again she followed that passion and she
wrote another letter this time to
fashion designer Michelle Smith the
founder of milli of New York and that
letter ended with I have a lot of
questions about being a fashion designer
and I’d like to come to your studio I
want to ask you though may I please come
to your studio and ask you my questions
love Noel
well a short time later and Michelle too
responded with an imitation but not to
the Milly studios but to backstage at
New York Fashion Week the largest and
most prestigious fashion event in the
world I’ll tell you the most surreal
moment of my life was watching my
eight-year-old daughter interview a
world famous fashion designer backstage
at the most prestigious fashion event in
the world as an industry reporter and
their camera crew waited and I’m gonna
say somewhat impatiently for her to
finish so they could do her their job
and I did say eight years old everything
I just shared with you happened in less
than a year now these were certainly
wonderful adventures and definitely
life-changing for Noelle but they turned
out to mean so much more to me than that
they brought me back and showed me a
world of possibility that I had all but
forgotten through the simple process of
her writing these letters I learned how
to be more present and more engaged and
even more patient with Noelle than I had
ever been experiencing that that
incredible confidence that she was gonna
get a response each and every time she
popped a letter in the mail we engaged
my own kid bind to the point where now
I’m pretty sure it’s stuck in the on
position and finally watching her as she
interviewed these larger-than-life
figures in such an adult way and under
such adult circumstances forced me to
realize that she was growing up faster
than I care to admit and that I would
have to prioritize my time better to
make every moment count now if you have
children of your own you might be
thinking well it’s hard enough to keep
them fed and reasonably clean and on
some days even just alive right never
mind being on the constant lookout for
ways to help them put action behind
their dreams and you’re absolutely right
but the good news is is that there are
two things that all kids say that
hopefully after today will set off alarm
bells of opportunity in your head
I hope and I wish now listen very
carefully to what comes after those
words because most times you can take
those small things and turn them into
adventures and lessons that the two of
you will never forget well our kids are
growing up in a world much more complex
than we could have ever imagined and as
a result they need to connect with us
more deeply than ever before now I’m not
talking about the part of you left over
from a long day of adulting but the real
you the you that wants to dreamed
without boundaries so go make that
happen
help them put actually behind a small
dream or even find their own Joe Torre
or their own Hillary price or their own
Michelle Smith and while you’re at it
when you put some some action you had
some of your own dreams as well and then
together live in that world of limitless
possibility and soon you will find out
that it truly is all yours for the
asking
thank you
[Applause] you
traveling let’s travel back to when we
were seven years old remember seven it
was that time your life when you were
absolutely positive that have just given
the chance that you could be anything or
do anything or even have any adventure
you could dream up and the ironic thing
is that that childlike wonder and that
faith that we have in ourselves and even
the world has all but faded away by the
time we can start putting action behind
our dreams and then for many of us well
our own children come along and suddenly
life becomes more about managing
expectations than making dreams come
true and that cycle continues what if I
told you that you could re-engage that
kid mind and break that cycle and prove
to your own children that life truly is
all about limitless possibilities and
that just about anything they can dream
up can come true if they just take
action and ask well but eight years ago
my daughter Noelle was seven years old
she came flying on the stairs one night
she was running over to me
it’s just daddy I know but I want to be
well let me set the scene here for a
second it was late and she should have
been asleep about an hour before and if
I’m totally honest I had had a pretty
long day so in that moment I could have
done what most of us would do when it’s
9 o’clock and your seven-year-old won’t
go to sleep I could have said that’s
awesome now go to bed
and I probably would have but she said
that with such passion and such
conviction that it unlocked a lesson to
me they’ve been dormant for decades see
when I was 12 years old my dad who was
also my little league coach did
something absolutely unheard of
now that year our league had upgraded
our uniforms to ones that were a
act replicas of the major league teams
we were named after now for some reason
the only thing they didn’t buy with a
matching hats now my dad was that guy
who always said if you gotta do
something do it right so this bothered
him a little bit and then he had a
thought well if the league couldn’t
provide the major-league cast for his
mess well then maybe the real major
league Mets could so instead of just
dismissing this thought is an
off-the-wall idea he put action behind
it and he wrote a letter to New York
Mets manager Joe Torre asking if there’s
anything he could do to help well
shortly before our season was about to
begin my sisters and I came home from
school one day to find these two big
boxes on her porch from some strange
address in Florida now keep in mind that
this was way pre Amazon when getting
when getting anything delivered to your
house but a standard sized envelope just
didn’t happen so sure you could
appreciate the the clock watching that’s
going on now as we’re waiting for my dad
to pull in the driveway we finally open
the boxes and inside and you guessed it
were thirty of these now in response to
my dad’s letter Joe Torre went through
his entire team spring training locker
room gathered up all the extra hats and
sent them was a letter wishing us good
luck well it turns out what was also in
those boxes was a lesson that I would
keep with me for the rest of my life and
that is if you want something regardless
of how impossible it might seem all you
have to do is take action and ask so now
there I am in my own living room with my
own daughter who has just told me in no
uncertain terms that she’s gonna be a
cartoonist when she grows up and there
that lesson was ready to be taught one
more time so we sat down on our couch
and we started talking about this
cartooning thing and she was so lit up
it was contagious I mean I think it
about three minutes I was ready to drop
everything and become a cartoonist to
and I realized that that during that
conversation that we had become so
like-minded that we were no longer
talking father to daughter
we were talking kid to kid and that
changed everything
so I finally sent her to bed and I knew
what I had to do I needed to find a
cartoonist for this girl to talk to so
later that night I discovered that that
year’s cartoonist of the year
Hilary price leave it just a couple of
hours away so now instead of waiting for
my dad to pull in the driveway to open
up some boxes I couldn’t wait for my
daughter to get up in the morning to
share the news so the next morning over
breakfast we we talked about it we
jotted down some ideas and she grabbed a
pencil and paper and off she went and
she turned those ideas into a letter
that started with dear Hillary price my
name is Noelle Goyette I am seven years
old and I want to be a cartoonist just
like you well a couple weeks later and
Hillary responded with an invitation to
her studio where she answered every
question Noel had and even provided a
drawing lesson now I’ll tell you we left
that studio walking on air because you
know I’ll never forget that car ride
home
we had just experienced something
together for the very first time and it
felt like we were connected much more
deeply than ever before and I asked her
I said you know wow how do you feel
about all this and she said daddy it
feels like magic well I’ll tell you
right at that moment the father-daughter
project that we now call yours for the
asking was born so here was ideal
whenever Noel found something that
interested her or ignited her passion I
just made that lightbulb go off
she tell me and then together we try to
find somebody who was doing something
spectacular in that area and she write
them a letter and asked to meet them if
they said yes I always did my best to
make it happen well around that time she
was just getting into music and we were
having a blast finding new things to
listen to an explorer from jazz to
classical to blues so she made music the
project and part of our daily life
became trying to find people in the
music industry to
right – and learn from so she wrote more
letters and she received more replies
and very quickly she found herself
behind the controls of WGBH radio in
Boston where she experienced
broadcasting firsthand with host Kathy
fuller from there she went backstage at
the Boston Symphony and learned about
classical music from none other than can
dr. Keith Lockhart and then into my
amazement we found ourselves in the
dressing room of jazz legend Dave
Brubeck and I watched her stand in awe
as he explained to her what it took to
be onstage and perform a lifetime of
jazz well at that age all kids passions
are fleeting and the well was certainly
no exception and she always been a very
talented artist but now her focus had
turned to fashion design and soon
everything in my house started turning
into a dress my my bedsheets became
dresses and my pillowcases became
dresses and yes my curtains came off the
wall and became dresses too so once
again she followed that passion and she
wrote another letter this time to
fashion designer Michelle Smith the
founder of milli of New York and that
letter ended with I have a lot of
questions about being a fashion designer
and I’d like to come to your studio I
want to ask you though may I please come
to your studio and ask you my questions
love Noel
well a short time later and Michelle too
responded with an imitation but not to
the Milly studios but to backstage at
New York Fashion Week the largest and
most prestigious fashion event in the
world I’ll tell you the most surreal
moment of my life was watching my
eight-year-old daughter interview a
world famous fashion designer backstage
at the most prestigious fashion event in
the world as an industry reporter and
their camera crew waited and I’m gonna
say somewhat impatiently for her to
finish so they could do her their job
and I did say eight years old everything
I just shared with you happened in less
than a year now these were certainly
wonderful adventures and definitely
life-changing for Noelle but they turned
out to mean so much more to me than that
they brought me back and showed me a
world of possibility that I had all but
forgotten through the simple process of
her writing these letters I learned how
to be more present and more engaged and
even more patient with Noelle than I had
ever been experiencing that that
incredible confidence that she was gonna
get a response each and every time she
popped a letter in the mail we engaged
my own kid bind to the point where now
I’m pretty sure it’s stuck in the on
position and finally watching her as she
interviewed these larger-than-life
figures in such an adult way and under
such adult circumstances forced me to
realize that she was growing up faster
than I care to admit and that I would
have to prioritize my time better to
make every moment count now if you have
children of your own you might be
thinking well it’s hard enough to keep
them fed and reasonably clean and on
some days even just alive right never
mind being on the constant lookout for
ways to help them put action behind
their dreams and you’re absolutely right
but the good news is is that there are
two things that all kids say that
hopefully after today will set off alarm
bells of opportunity in your head
I hope and I wish now listen very
carefully to what comes after those
words because most times you can take
those small things and turn them into
adventures and lessons that the two of
you will never forget well our kids are
growing up in a world much more complex
than we could have ever imagined and as
a result they need to connect with us
more deeply than ever before now I’m not
talking about the part of you left over
from a long day of adulting but the real
you the you that wants to dreamed
without boundaries so go make that
happen
help them put actually behind a small
dream or even find their own Joe Torre
or their own Hillary price or their own
Michelle Smith and while you’re at it
when you put some some action you had
some of your own dreams as well and then
together live in that world of limitless
possibility and soon you will find out
that it truly is all yours for the
asking
thank you
[Applause] you
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