so what is a doer
the simple answer to that is a doer is
someone who does someone who takes
action who makes life happen in today’s
day and age it’s easier than ever to
live our lives from the sidelines we can
live vicariously through the photos of
others with the rise of social media
like Facebook and snapchat and Instagram
we can take a ride on a gondola through
the Venice canals or we can walk the
Great Wall of China all within the same
day we can go to a concert or we can
watch the engagement of a loved one
without even leaving our bed now as
great as this technology is and maybe it
fosters a cultural people culture of
people that are content with
experiencing the world without ever
taking action there they’re content with
living through the lens of others I
believe that there are two types of
people in this world there are dreamers
and then there are doers the people that
are willing to take action and make the
world happen so what does a dreamer or a
doer look like I really don’t have an
answer to that question but I am gonna
start by sharing a couple stories of
doers and dreamers in my life to just
show you that that’s not always what you
may think my friend that I went to
college with her name was Jessie I’ve
known her for about five years now she
graduated at the top of our class in the
Michigan State Business School and after
college she took a job out on the left
coast in Silicon Valley
she’s the audit accountant ought audit
accounting person and she works with
companies like Google Facebook and Apple
on a daily basis
she’s done some of the most incredible
things and met some of the most amazing
people out there and outside of her
corporate life she’s extremely
passionate about human rights issues she
cares a lot about human trafficking or
the gender wage gap or just many
different things that are very relevant
in today’s day and age and she often has
ideas that she can take her passions and
make a difference and she can raise
money or raise awareness for these
causes and Jessi calls me a lot she uses
me as a sounding board for these ideas
and time and time again I’m blown away
by the complexity and how great these
things could be if she just took action
but Jessi is a dreamer
despite her incredible background she
doesn’t take action and she doesn’t put
any of these things give them to the
world
another friend of mine Brian who have
known since high school is on paper the
polar opposite of Jesse he’s entering
his sixth year of college still pursuing
an undergrad degree he lives at home
with his parents and he’s been fired
from seven jobs in the past five years
but despite his tumultuous professional
career one might say Ryan has something
going for him that most people I know
don’t Ryan is the epitome of a doer he
takes action about the things that are
important to him and he makes things
happen since I’ve known him he’s raised
thousands of dollars for charity in
other causes that are close to his heart
he puts his he puts his passions into
action and he fires up other people and
motivates them to join him in his causes
in high school Ryan started his own
media agency where he used to interview
some of his favorite bands and he would
post music news he was making hundreds
of dollars a month while at 17-year old
because his site was getting so much
traffic and advertisers were paying him
to to advertise there he also could most
likely go on his phone right now and
call up any one of his favorite bands
and have a good conversation with them
he’s just that kind of person that’s not
afraid to take action he believes in
himself and what he stands for and he
had no problem putting himself out there
and potentially failing but he did it
anyway so now I’m listening to these
stories I hope you’ll agree with me that
sometimes someone’s professional
credentials or you know people might not
be what they seem how many of you out
there fancy yourself is a doer good I
like to see that now the rest of you
either aren’t paying attention or are
tired or whatever it is or or maybe you
find yourself a little bit more like
Jesse where you’re extremely passionate
and you believe in something but you
might not know how to take that first
step or maybe you’re just afraid to put
yourself out there I truly believe that
all of us inside all of us we all have
what it takes to do and to take action
and to create change in this world
but the doers the true doers may just
have a little bit more practice at it
and might just have a little more
experience and doing those kind of
things so I’m going to share a couple
key traits that I think all doers
possess and a couple exercises that you
can
in your daily life to practice them and
maybe start doing on your own the first
trait that I think all doers possess is
that they’re confident they’re confident
in themselves and they’re confident in
the decisions that they make so then
when it comes time to take action and
actually go do they don’t second-guess
themselves they believe in what they
stand for and what they’re doing now
it’s estimated that the average adult
American makes about thirty five
thousand decisions each and every day
that’s three five zero zero zero
now those range from hitting snooze on
your alarm clock in the morning to how
you’re gonna style your hair for your
TED talk and to bigger things I cut my
own hair by the way I know my mom
doesn’t like it but I styled it you know
to bigger things like where to place the
care the health care of a loved one or
our how to invest your money or your
time and a doer embraces these different
decisions because there’s no way that
you can be correct on all thirty five
thousand each and every day but a doer
recognizes that and they’re not afraid
to take a little bit of a risk and make
those big decisions in fact it excites
them now simple exercise that you can
try to be more comfortable with decision
making and more confident in your
decisions next time you’re at a
restaurant and the waiter hands you a
big old menu with fifty different dishes
on there instead of reading through all
50 of them and potentially getting
stressed out what am I going to choose
what am I going to do I want you to look
at a maximum of three different options
and select one as quick as you can close
your menu and that’s it some people are
looking at me like I’m crazy I’ve done
this a couple times and it’s a really
great activity because it forces you to
to stick with the decision that you made
and be confident in it and the good
thing is that it’s a very low risk the
worst that happens is that you don’t
love your dish or if even worse you
might have to eat again when you get
home later but it’s a very low risk
thing and it can really train yourself
to be confident in your decisions and so
when it comes time to make those big
decisions like where to invest your
money or or what to do with with
something important in your life you’re
that much more confident in yourself
because those kind of things build on
each other you’re more confident and you
easily take that risk make that decision
and not look back a second trait that I
believe all doers possess is that doers
are not afraid to ask the fastest way to
get to the result that you’re hoping to
is to make it known be upfront with
someone and just ask them but so many
people are afraid to do that whether
it’s the risk of failure or or maybe
they’re afraid to talk to strangers so
if our lovely MC Sam over there if I had
a pack of gum and he wanted a piece of
gum I wouldn’t just happen to know that
he was in the mood to get a minty fresh
gum unless he asked me for it now that’s
kind of a silly example but it can
really it can really transpire in all
different walks of life another
important thing about asking is that the
world can really open up for you
my sister is dating a guy from Canada
he’s from a small mountain town in
British Columbia and he’s one of the
most soft-spoken gentle personalities
and he’s such a great guy he’s really
awesome I’m really happy for them but
out of college he found a job working at
Quicken Loans in Detroit he was selling
mortgages to people over the phone now
anybody that knows anything about a
Quicken Loans job a lot of a lot of the
entry-level jobs are calling hundreds of
hundreds of people a day and think about
when you get a phone call from someone
trying to sell you mortgage it’s either
hang up or yell at them take me off your
Call list whatever it may be the person
on the other end of that line is getting
rejected hundreds of times a day and he
would come home after 13 14 hour shifts
and say yeah I got 15 people to say yes
to me today so that’s one more than
yesterday but still 200 rejections
now I would hate that he didn’t really
like it either but what he did I really
really admire outside of his job he
challenged himself to be rejected one
time each day in face to face and he his
thought was that if he got rejected in
person it would be a whole lot easier to
then get rejected the next day over the
phone a bunch of times so he would do
things like when we would be at Kroger
we’d be going to checkout and he would
come up to the cashier with his bag of
avocados and he’d set him down and he
would say these costs of dollar fifty
but how about you give him to me for 50
cents and the Kroger cashier would be
all confused and say
can’t do that sorry and as simple as
that maybe those type of things over and
over they make you more comfortable with
getting told no because it’s really not
the end of the world it might sting for
a second but you’ll get over it but the
even cooler thing about this exercise
that he did was the amount of times that
he actually got told yes
he’s gotten to do some incredible things
that most people would never even even
think about just by asking you got to
ride around in a limo he got to serve up
a cocktail at a bar and take it to the
person and deliver it like he was the
waiter he got to tour the meat smoker in
the backroom of a an esteemed Detroit
restaurant I just I really like this
exercise for two reasons first as
mentioned it builds up your your your
immunity to being told no in to failing
there’s nothing wrong with that and
second is it’s a win-win because either
you get rejected which is what your goal
is hypothetically or you get to do
something really cool the last thing
about not being afraid to ask is that
when we want to start a business or an
organization whatever it may be we’re
never going to have all the resources
that we need so the only way to get from
A to B is to ask others for help or
support whatever that may be and a lot
of people don’t use their ask but you
really have to in order to take action
and make your dreams come true
the last trait that I think all doers
possess is that doers not only are
confident in themselves and what they
stand for in their decisions but they
actually go and do how many of you have
had a great idea and thought about it
and you know feeling really great about
it but then when it comes time you were
able to talk yourself out of it kind of
like Jesse I know I’ve been there before
and I push myself every day to not do
that to take action this past weekend I
had a really great experience that I
think really fits well with this
conference we’re all familiar with the
tragedies that are going on in in
Florida and Texas right now my business
had a booth at Daley in the alley in
Detroit which if you’re not familiar
it’s a large block party with a ton of
stages and music there are about 15,000
people that attended it this year and
just outside of the gates we were right
at the end just
out of the gates there was three ten to
twelve year olds that had set up a
lemonade stand and I got all excited
thinking oh look at these guys they’re
they’re young entrepreneurs I love you
the ambition and it turns out they were
actually selling lemonade to benefit the
survivors of Hurricane Harvey I was
greatly deeply inspired by that not only
were they doing they were taking action
and making things happen to make a
better world but they they really
embodied what this whole TED event today
is all about and that’s thinking
globally and acting locally they took a
macro problem that most people wouldn’t
know where to begin and they broke it
down into a small actionable chunk of of
things that they could do and act on to
make a difference in the world
these kids were confident in themself in
their decision they weren’t afraid to
take that risk of setting up a lemonade
stand all day and getting told no they
weren’t afraid to ask people passing by
if they would support their cause and
buy their lemonade and lastly they
didn’t hesitate or wait too long but the
time was right and they went and they
did it if they were to wait another two
weeks
the hurricane would be old news and
there wouldn’t be a music festival going
on and they might have still sold
lemonade but I guarantee that the impact
they had by taking action right then and
there was was greater than it would have
been two weeks from now so I believe
that everyone in here is passionate
about something there’s something that
fires you up that keeps you up at night
and I also think that everyone in here
is here for a reason because people
don’t come to TED Talks because they’re
bored and they’re looking for something
to do on a Tuesday night people go to
the movies for that or whatever else
everyone in here is here because you
either are a change maker or you’re on
the brink of becoming one so I implore
you all to think about what you’re
passionate about be confident in what
you believe in don’t be afraid to take a
risk you’re never going to have all the
resources in front of you so don’t be
afraid to just ask and when the time is
right and you believe it in your heart
go take action because the world looks a
whole lot brighter and a whole lot more
clear when you’re looking at it through
your own lens thank you
you
the simple answer to that is a doer is
someone who does someone who takes
action who makes life happen in today’s
day and age it’s easier than ever to
live our lives from the sidelines we can
live vicariously through the photos of
others with the rise of social media
like Facebook and snapchat and Instagram
we can take a ride on a gondola through
the Venice canals or we can walk the
Great Wall of China all within the same
day we can go to a concert or we can
watch the engagement of a loved one
without even leaving our bed now as
great as this technology is and maybe it
fosters a cultural people culture of
people that are content with
experiencing the world without ever
taking action there they’re content with
living through the lens of others I
believe that there are two types of
people in this world there are dreamers
and then there are doers the people that
are willing to take action and make the
world happen so what does a dreamer or a
doer look like I really don’t have an
answer to that question but I am gonna
start by sharing a couple stories of
doers and dreamers in my life to just
show you that that’s not always what you
may think my friend that I went to
college with her name was Jessie I’ve
known her for about five years now she
graduated at the top of our class in the
Michigan State Business School and after
college she took a job out on the left
coast in Silicon Valley
she’s the audit accountant ought audit
accounting person and she works with
companies like Google Facebook and Apple
on a daily basis
she’s done some of the most incredible
things and met some of the most amazing
people out there and outside of her
corporate life she’s extremely
passionate about human rights issues she
cares a lot about human trafficking or
the gender wage gap or just many
different things that are very relevant
in today’s day and age and she often has
ideas that she can take her passions and
make a difference and she can raise
money or raise awareness for these
causes and Jessi calls me a lot she uses
me as a sounding board for these ideas
and time and time again I’m blown away
by the complexity and how great these
things could be if she just took action
but Jessi is a dreamer
despite her incredible background she
doesn’t take action and she doesn’t put
any of these things give them to the
world
another friend of mine Brian who have
known since high school is on paper the
polar opposite of Jesse he’s entering
his sixth year of college still pursuing
an undergrad degree he lives at home
with his parents and he’s been fired
from seven jobs in the past five years
but despite his tumultuous professional
career one might say Ryan has something
going for him that most people I know
don’t Ryan is the epitome of a doer he
takes action about the things that are
important to him and he makes things
happen since I’ve known him he’s raised
thousands of dollars for charity in
other causes that are close to his heart
he puts his he puts his passions into
action and he fires up other people and
motivates them to join him in his causes
in high school Ryan started his own
media agency where he used to interview
some of his favorite bands and he would
post music news he was making hundreds
of dollars a month while at 17-year old
because his site was getting so much
traffic and advertisers were paying him
to to advertise there he also could most
likely go on his phone right now and
call up any one of his favorite bands
and have a good conversation with them
he’s just that kind of person that’s not
afraid to take action he believes in
himself and what he stands for and he
had no problem putting himself out there
and potentially failing but he did it
anyway so now I’m listening to these
stories I hope you’ll agree with me that
sometimes someone’s professional
credentials or you know people might not
be what they seem how many of you out
there fancy yourself is a doer good I
like to see that now the rest of you
either aren’t paying attention or are
tired or whatever it is or or maybe you
find yourself a little bit more like
Jesse where you’re extremely passionate
and you believe in something but you
might not know how to take that first
step or maybe you’re just afraid to put
yourself out there I truly believe that
all of us inside all of us we all have
what it takes to do and to take action
and to create change in this world
but the doers the true doers may just
have a little bit more practice at it
and might just have a little more
experience and doing those kind of
things so I’m going to share a couple
key traits that I think all doers
possess and a couple exercises that you
can
in your daily life to practice them and
maybe start doing on your own the first
trait that I think all doers possess is
that they’re confident they’re confident
in themselves and they’re confident in
the decisions that they make so then
when it comes time to take action and
actually go do they don’t second-guess
themselves they believe in what they
stand for and what they’re doing now
it’s estimated that the average adult
American makes about thirty five
thousand decisions each and every day
that’s three five zero zero zero
now those range from hitting snooze on
your alarm clock in the morning to how
you’re gonna style your hair for your
TED talk and to bigger things I cut my
own hair by the way I know my mom
doesn’t like it but I styled it you know
to bigger things like where to place the
care the health care of a loved one or
our how to invest your money or your
time and a doer embraces these different
decisions because there’s no way that
you can be correct on all thirty five
thousand each and every day but a doer
recognizes that and they’re not afraid
to take a little bit of a risk and make
those big decisions in fact it excites
them now simple exercise that you can
try to be more comfortable with decision
making and more confident in your
decisions next time you’re at a
restaurant and the waiter hands you a
big old menu with fifty different dishes
on there instead of reading through all
50 of them and potentially getting
stressed out what am I going to choose
what am I going to do I want you to look
at a maximum of three different options
and select one as quick as you can close
your menu and that’s it some people are
looking at me like I’m crazy I’ve done
this a couple times and it’s a really
great activity because it forces you to
to stick with the decision that you made
and be confident in it and the good
thing is that it’s a very low risk the
worst that happens is that you don’t
love your dish or if even worse you
might have to eat again when you get
home later but it’s a very low risk
thing and it can really train yourself
to be confident in your decisions and so
when it comes time to make those big
decisions like where to invest your
money or or what to do with with
something important in your life you’re
that much more confident in yourself
because those kind of things build on
each other you’re more confident and you
easily take that risk make that decision
and not look back a second trait that I
believe all doers possess is that doers
are not afraid to ask the fastest way to
get to the result that you’re hoping to
is to make it known be upfront with
someone and just ask them but so many
people are afraid to do that whether
it’s the risk of failure or or maybe
they’re afraid to talk to strangers so
if our lovely MC Sam over there if I had
a pack of gum and he wanted a piece of
gum I wouldn’t just happen to know that
he was in the mood to get a minty fresh
gum unless he asked me for it now that’s
kind of a silly example but it can
really it can really transpire in all
different walks of life another
important thing about asking is that the
world can really open up for you
my sister is dating a guy from Canada
he’s from a small mountain town in
British Columbia and he’s one of the
most soft-spoken gentle personalities
and he’s such a great guy he’s really
awesome I’m really happy for them but
out of college he found a job working at
Quicken Loans in Detroit he was selling
mortgages to people over the phone now
anybody that knows anything about a
Quicken Loans job a lot of a lot of the
entry-level jobs are calling hundreds of
hundreds of people a day and think about
when you get a phone call from someone
trying to sell you mortgage it’s either
hang up or yell at them take me off your
Call list whatever it may be the person
on the other end of that line is getting
rejected hundreds of times a day and he
would come home after 13 14 hour shifts
and say yeah I got 15 people to say yes
to me today so that’s one more than
yesterday but still 200 rejections
now I would hate that he didn’t really
like it either but what he did I really
really admire outside of his job he
challenged himself to be rejected one
time each day in face to face and he his
thought was that if he got rejected in
person it would be a whole lot easier to
then get rejected the next day over the
phone a bunch of times so he would do
things like when we would be at Kroger
we’d be going to checkout and he would
come up to the cashier with his bag of
avocados and he’d set him down and he
would say these costs of dollar fifty
but how about you give him to me for 50
cents and the Kroger cashier would be
all confused and say
can’t do that sorry and as simple as
that maybe those type of things over and
over they make you more comfortable with
getting told no because it’s really not
the end of the world it might sting for
a second but you’ll get over it but the
even cooler thing about this exercise
that he did was the amount of times that
he actually got told yes
he’s gotten to do some incredible things
that most people would never even even
think about just by asking you got to
ride around in a limo he got to serve up
a cocktail at a bar and take it to the
person and deliver it like he was the
waiter he got to tour the meat smoker in
the backroom of a an esteemed Detroit
restaurant I just I really like this
exercise for two reasons first as
mentioned it builds up your your your
immunity to being told no in to failing
there’s nothing wrong with that and
second is it’s a win-win because either
you get rejected which is what your goal
is hypothetically or you get to do
something really cool the last thing
about not being afraid to ask is that
when we want to start a business or an
organization whatever it may be we’re
never going to have all the resources
that we need so the only way to get from
A to B is to ask others for help or
support whatever that may be and a lot
of people don’t use their ask but you
really have to in order to take action
and make your dreams come true
the last trait that I think all doers
possess is that doers not only are
confident in themselves and what they
stand for in their decisions but they
actually go and do how many of you have
had a great idea and thought about it
and you know feeling really great about
it but then when it comes time you were
able to talk yourself out of it kind of
like Jesse I know I’ve been there before
and I push myself every day to not do
that to take action this past weekend I
had a really great experience that I
think really fits well with this
conference we’re all familiar with the
tragedies that are going on in in
Florida and Texas right now my business
had a booth at Daley in the alley in
Detroit which if you’re not familiar
it’s a large block party with a ton of
stages and music there are about 15,000
people that attended it this year and
just outside of the gates we were right
at the end just
out of the gates there was three ten to
twelve year olds that had set up a
lemonade stand and I got all excited
thinking oh look at these guys they’re
they’re young entrepreneurs I love you
the ambition and it turns out they were
actually selling lemonade to benefit the
survivors of Hurricane Harvey I was
greatly deeply inspired by that not only
were they doing they were taking action
and making things happen to make a
better world but they they really
embodied what this whole TED event today
is all about and that’s thinking
globally and acting locally they took a
macro problem that most people wouldn’t
know where to begin and they broke it
down into a small actionable chunk of of
things that they could do and act on to
make a difference in the world
these kids were confident in themself in
their decision they weren’t afraid to
take that risk of setting up a lemonade
stand all day and getting told no they
weren’t afraid to ask people passing by
if they would support their cause and
buy their lemonade and lastly they
didn’t hesitate or wait too long but the
time was right and they went and they
did it if they were to wait another two
weeks
the hurricane would be old news and
there wouldn’t be a music festival going
on and they might have still sold
lemonade but I guarantee that the impact
they had by taking action right then and
there was was greater than it would have
been two weeks from now so I believe
that everyone in here is passionate
about something there’s something that
fires you up that keeps you up at night
and I also think that everyone in here
is here for a reason because people
don’t come to TED Talks because they’re
bored and they’re looking for something
to do on a Tuesday night people go to
the movies for that or whatever else
everyone in here is here because you
either are a change maker or you’re on
the brink of becoming one so I implore
you all to think about what you’re
passionate about be confident in what
you believe in don’t be afraid to take a
risk you’re never going to have all the
resources in front of you so don’t be
afraid to just ask and when the time is
right and you believe it in your heart
go take action because the world looks a
whole lot brighter and a whole lot more
clear when you’re looking at it through
your own lens thank you
you
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