this is the greatest student body I’ve
ever been around in my life and you guys
should be really proud of yourself okay
in the spirit of transparency I just
want to admit this is really not my
thumb so I’m going to put it away okay
so the listen it’s not my thumb so in
the spirit of this whole thing and
trying to figure out what it is we want
to talk about today I want you to forget
about me forget about everything that
I’m saying about what happened to me
because that doesn’t really matter what
matters is what happens to you guys and
if something I say today’s strikes a
chord in you whether it’s today or it’s
in the future great I hope you’ll
remember it is something crazy that
happened was we’re going to put pictures
up soon okay so you can forget my
headshot because I can see my head it’s
very large up there it’s giant my
goodness
so everything in my life has been you
know exactly what I expected it to be I
worked really hard at everything I ever
did in my life I was the worst wrestler
that ever came out of Pennsylvania but I
tried really hard and you know I
accomplished a few things and then I
moved out to California and I didn’t
know anybody at all and I was very
fortunate to meet some incredible people
they took me under their wing and gave
me a chance to pursue my dreams even
though I had no idea what they were and
so over the last you know number of
years this is me and Ariana my daughter
who some of you know riding a horse my
horse in this was somewhat suicidal or
angry at me
it kept walking towards the edge of a
cliff and I’m like dude you’ve got to
move over but I think they were just
hateful that they had to do that in the
first place
so anyway added a really great life I’ve
had an amazing opportunity to meet and
work with and be friends with the
greatest people all the same
opportunities most of you have here
being at oaks and being around this
community so after we sold our company
and I was on my way to Washington DC for
our television producers conference and
for some reason I wasn’t feeling that
great and I just did what I always do
you just power through it doesn’t really
matter you just power through it because
you have an obligation and work to do so
I went to Washington and I was pitching
I don’t know like Discovery Channel some
crazy show about a family in Iowa with
two heads or something and it wasn’t
great and wasn’t going great but I
started to lose my vision so I got up in
the middle of it and I wandered out into
the street and I found a cab and I asked
him to take me to the hospital so the
long and short of it is about two years
and six days ago I died for a little
while and that wasn’t as much fun as you
might think it is and I was in the ICU
for 71 days and at first this is a but
you can put this picture up so I thought
I look right there everybody else said I
didn’t so I was in a coma for a long
time and when you’re in a coma people
think that you’re very peaceful and you
look like you’re sleeping and that
certainly looks peaceful but I learned a
lot during the two-and-a-half to three
weeks that I was in a coma because it’s
the least peaceful place I’ve ever been
or that anybody could ever be inside of
my head at that time I was being held
captive at a farm in Maryland on a bench
behind a curtain where I had a small
piece of twine over my shoulder and I’m
not talking about like a dream that
comes and goes I’m talking about
constant and you can’t you can’t
separate this from anything there is no
other reality to you so it is reality so
I go I’m laying there on the bench in
this family with giant faces and
sharpened teeth are keeping me hostage
and every morning they would walk in
with a crate and they would open the
crate and there would be poisonous
snakes in it and they would bite me all
day and they were trying to figure out
which snakes would kill their livestock
and which ones were not they never
talked to me only about me and they gave
me the sense that I wasn’t the first one
there and I wouldn’t be the last one
there that at some point I would die
and that they would find somebody else
so at certain point I started to have
labour breathing I could feel myself
drifting away and as soon as I sort of
acknowledged that the end was near I was
transported into what I call a purgatory
room and it was a it was a room with no
no people no temperature nothing in it
except for everything was in it
everybody I’ve ever known everything
I’ve ever thought about everything in my
entire life even the most you know
ridiculous details were all encapsulated
in that room but there was nothing there
except for a small drain in the middle
like you find in a locker room shower or
like that and as I started to walk
across it I was confronted by a voice
there’s been a lot of debate between the
people that I love and care about that
I’ve actually talked to about this
whether that was the voice of God
whether it was a physician you know who
was standing in my room talking to me
whether it was my own conscience there
was a lot of debate about it but there
was no debate about one thing which is
they asked me one very specific question
do you want to keep doing what you’re
doing and I thought well I’m being
bitten by poisonous snakes
you know trapped in a farmhouse
somewhere I really don’t so I said no
and somehow this voice knows me and it
says if you do decide you want to live
it’s going to be the hardest most
difficult painful fight of your life and
so that I understand because I was the
worst wrestler ever so I understand like
the hardest fights in your life so I
said yes to that and immediately I was
transported through water food it got
very very dark water – lighter water and
when I came out at the surface I woke up
from my coma to find you can put the
next picture up to find that and I had
this on all four of my limbs and I only
show you these pictures briefly because
I just want you to know the extent of
what we’re talking about here because
it’s important
when we get to the idea of what do you
do when something happens to you what do
you do when you’re getting ready for an
opportunity or challenge and I just want
to set the standard for what we were
dealing with a little bit those were
both my hands and feet were like that I
didn’t get to keep any of those things
this is what’s left of of my right hand
and this hand is a hand transplant that
I got 90 days ago so you know when you
get a hand
I’m the 81st person in the world to get
a hand transplant and I’m also the first
person in the world who my doctor doctor
sorry who is the most amazing person
I’ve met he prepared it in a certain way
so that already I can move it and it
looks natural and I’m about a year and a
half ahead of schedule for the way most
people receive a hand transplant for
which I’m very grateful so so I before I
got sick I did everything that I thought
was right I exercise every day I ate
healthy I don’t drink I don’t smoke I
you know everything that I thought was a
good decision I did those things so you
wondered to yourself you know well how
did this happen I literally and just so
you know none of you are going to
experience this so please don’t worry
about it like in biology class when they
tell you what goes wrong you all start
getting a cough yeah none of this is
ever going to happen to you you’re never
going to face it it’s just that I caught
what was kind of like flu-like symptoms
and it’s fun my entire system out of
control for some reasons and my body
started to kill itself and when it did
that
that’s what left me with the residual
but the decision to live and being I
don’t know if there’s a picture of it
but I was like a hundred and eighty
pounds which I normally roll around it
to 25 and feel strong and healthy I lost
45 pounds in a very short period of time
I was gone from home at two different
major hospitals for five months and all
the day that I woke up from my coma even
though I couldn’t talk and I couldn’t
really do anything
I asked them to tie bands to the bottom
of my bed so I could take my black hands
and see if there’s some way I could
start lifting again I don’t know why but
I I find strength in that I find
strength in the accomplishment and so I
started training really hard and I at
the hospital I came home I was in a
wheelchair for ten months which is so
strange to be in a wheelchair when
you’re nothing but active and you know
it’s not it’s a really humbling
experience but then you really get to
the point where you understand how much
your brain and your soul your mind your
heart like how much those things are
more important than your body and for
somebody who paid attention to all of it
for a long time my body was a big part
of it it was the part that I could see
and understand but when I came to know
during this journey and what I’m hoping
to share with you guys the decision that
you make about your life really comes
down to a couple things which is are you
wanna do you want to survive your
challenges do you want to survive your
opportunities or do you want to attack
them do you want to be strong in the
face of them the reason I started by
telling you that I didn’t think that all
of you would use this today but maybe
some day you would is because if you
prepare yourselves and you decide that
you’re going to do more than what you
think that you should do if you do one
extra push-up if you it whatever it is
that you decide inside of yourself just
between you and you that you’re going to
push yourself a little bit harder to be
ready for whatever happens to you
whether it’s great whether it’s terrible
whatever happens to you life is very
long it has a lot of twisted twists and
turns to it and I find the whole
experience you know amazing so part of
what I think has helped me is I have I
was born with a great attitude so that’s
not something I take pride in it was
just part of being born that way but
what I found was that everybody around
me sparked to that everybody that I met
all the doctors every single person in
the hospital I’ve had 255 doctors so far
and spent millions of dollars they spent
millions of dollars saving my life and
doing extraordinary things for me which
again you guys are never going to face
that but the effort of it is still the
same if you can encourage the people
around you to be great with you if you
choose
is great people to be around you and not
the ones that bring you down whatever
challenges you’re going through right
now you have to be fierce in attacking
those challenges and you have to put
your mind to it one of the doctors was
explaining to me what’s the difference
between your mind and your conscious
your mind and your soul your mind and
your heart he said everybody’s brain
looks the same all of our brains look
exactly the same but our feelings about
things how we look at things how we view
ourselves those are all different that’s
your conscious in your mind and those
are the things that you can use to
attack your problems it’s not all about
how people see you in fact none of it
really is about how people see you and I
know it’s high schools so that’s a
bigger thing than it will be as you get
older but it’s only really the
opportunity that you take to be great in
your lives and maybe finances won’t be
your challenge maybe it will be I don’t
know but I do feel that whatever it is
you can put your mind to it if you train
it just like you train your body and
just like you care about the way that
you look you have to care about your
ability to know what’s true and deal
with it as it is because wishing and
wanting and all those things don’t
really come out I didn’t wish myself
back to health I work myself back to
health and I’m proud of it I’m still in
the middle of it and you know I’m two
years from now I probably will be out
doing amazing things again I already
feel like I’m doing them now but as I
said this isn’t anything to do with
what’s going to happen to you this is
not going to happen to you but things
are going to and good things and bad
things and I just would like you to be
ready and be fierce and someday when
you’re feeling challenged that you’ll
look back at this and you’ll say to
yourself you know what I can push
through this I can do more than I
thought I could and it’ll turn out great
for you either way so thanks for having me I appreciate it
ever been around in my life and you guys
should be really proud of yourself okay
in the spirit of transparency I just
want to admit this is really not my
thumb so I’m going to put it away okay
so the listen it’s not my thumb so in
the spirit of this whole thing and
trying to figure out what it is we want
to talk about today I want you to forget
about me forget about everything that
I’m saying about what happened to me
because that doesn’t really matter what
matters is what happens to you guys and
if something I say today’s strikes a
chord in you whether it’s today or it’s
in the future great I hope you’ll
remember it is something crazy that
happened was we’re going to put pictures
up soon okay so you can forget my
headshot because I can see my head it’s
very large up there it’s giant my
goodness
so everything in my life has been you
know exactly what I expected it to be I
worked really hard at everything I ever
did in my life I was the worst wrestler
that ever came out of Pennsylvania but I
tried really hard and you know I
accomplished a few things and then I
moved out to California and I didn’t
know anybody at all and I was very
fortunate to meet some incredible people
they took me under their wing and gave
me a chance to pursue my dreams even
though I had no idea what they were and
so over the last you know number of
years this is me and Ariana my daughter
who some of you know riding a horse my
horse in this was somewhat suicidal or
angry at me
it kept walking towards the edge of a
cliff and I’m like dude you’ve got to
move over but I think they were just
hateful that they had to do that in the
first place
so anyway added a really great life I’ve
had an amazing opportunity to meet and
work with and be friends with the
greatest people all the same
opportunities most of you have here
being at oaks and being around this
community so after we sold our company
and I was on my way to Washington DC for
our television producers conference and
for some reason I wasn’t feeling that
great and I just did what I always do
you just power through it doesn’t really
matter you just power through it because
you have an obligation and work to do so
I went to Washington and I was pitching
I don’t know like Discovery Channel some
crazy show about a family in Iowa with
two heads or something and it wasn’t
great and wasn’t going great but I
started to lose my vision so I got up in
the middle of it and I wandered out into
the street and I found a cab and I asked
him to take me to the hospital so the
long and short of it is about two years
and six days ago I died for a little
while and that wasn’t as much fun as you
might think it is and I was in the ICU
for 71 days and at first this is a but
you can put this picture up so I thought
I look right there everybody else said I
didn’t so I was in a coma for a long
time and when you’re in a coma people
think that you’re very peaceful and you
look like you’re sleeping and that
certainly looks peaceful but I learned a
lot during the two-and-a-half to three
weeks that I was in a coma because it’s
the least peaceful place I’ve ever been
or that anybody could ever be inside of
my head at that time I was being held
captive at a farm in Maryland on a bench
behind a curtain where I had a small
piece of twine over my shoulder and I’m
not talking about like a dream that
comes and goes I’m talking about
constant and you can’t you can’t
separate this from anything there is no
other reality to you so it is reality so
I go I’m laying there on the bench in
this family with giant faces and
sharpened teeth are keeping me hostage
and every morning they would walk in
with a crate and they would open the
crate and there would be poisonous
snakes in it and they would bite me all
day and they were trying to figure out
which snakes would kill their livestock
and which ones were not they never
talked to me only about me and they gave
me the sense that I wasn’t the first one
there and I wouldn’t be the last one
there that at some point I would die
and that they would find somebody else
so at certain point I started to have
labour breathing I could feel myself
drifting away and as soon as I sort of
acknowledged that the end was near I was
transported into what I call a purgatory
room and it was a it was a room with no
no people no temperature nothing in it
except for everything was in it
everybody I’ve ever known everything
I’ve ever thought about everything in my
entire life even the most you know
ridiculous details were all encapsulated
in that room but there was nothing there
except for a small drain in the middle
like you find in a locker room shower or
like that and as I started to walk
across it I was confronted by a voice
there’s been a lot of debate between the
people that I love and care about that
I’ve actually talked to about this
whether that was the voice of God
whether it was a physician you know who
was standing in my room talking to me
whether it was my own conscience there
was a lot of debate about it but there
was no debate about one thing which is
they asked me one very specific question
do you want to keep doing what you’re
doing and I thought well I’m being
bitten by poisonous snakes
you know trapped in a farmhouse
somewhere I really don’t so I said no
and somehow this voice knows me and it
says if you do decide you want to live
it’s going to be the hardest most
difficult painful fight of your life and
so that I understand because I was the
worst wrestler ever so I understand like
the hardest fights in your life so I
said yes to that and immediately I was
transported through water food it got
very very dark water – lighter water and
when I came out at the surface I woke up
from my coma to find you can put the
next picture up to find that and I had
this on all four of my limbs and I only
show you these pictures briefly because
I just want you to know the extent of
what we’re talking about here because
it’s important
when we get to the idea of what do you
do when something happens to you what do
you do when you’re getting ready for an
opportunity or challenge and I just want
to set the standard for what we were
dealing with a little bit those were
both my hands and feet were like that I
didn’t get to keep any of those things
this is what’s left of of my right hand
and this hand is a hand transplant that
I got 90 days ago so you know when you
get a hand
I’m the 81st person in the world to get
a hand transplant and I’m also the first
person in the world who my doctor doctor
sorry who is the most amazing person
I’ve met he prepared it in a certain way
so that already I can move it and it
looks natural and I’m about a year and a
half ahead of schedule for the way most
people receive a hand transplant for
which I’m very grateful so so I before I
got sick I did everything that I thought
was right I exercise every day I ate
healthy I don’t drink I don’t smoke I
you know everything that I thought was a
good decision I did those things so you
wondered to yourself you know well how
did this happen I literally and just so
you know none of you are going to
experience this so please don’t worry
about it like in biology class when they
tell you what goes wrong you all start
getting a cough yeah none of this is
ever going to happen to you you’re never
going to face it it’s just that I caught
what was kind of like flu-like symptoms
and it’s fun my entire system out of
control for some reasons and my body
started to kill itself and when it did
that
that’s what left me with the residual
but the decision to live and being I
don’t know if there’s a picture of it
but I was like a hundred and eighty
pounds which I normally roll around it
to 25 and feel strong and healthy I lost
45 pounds in a very short period of time
I was gone from home at two different
major hospitals for five months and all
the day that I woke up from my coma even
though I couldn’t talk and I couldn’t
really do anything
I asked them to tie bands to the bottom
of my bed so I could take my black hands
and see if there’s some way I could
start lifting again I don’t know why but
I I find strength in that I find
strength in the accomplishment and so I
started training really hard and I at
the hospital I came home I was in a
wheelchair for ten months which is so
strange to be in a wheelchair when
you’re nothing but active and you know
it’s not it’s a really humbling
experience but then you really get to
the point where you understand how much
your brain and your soul your mind your
heart like how much those things are
more important than your body and for
somebody who paid attention to all of it
for a long time my body was a big part
of it it was the part that I could see
and understand but when I came to know
during this journey and what I’m hoping
to share with you guys the decision that
you make about your life really comes
down to a couple things which is are you
wanna do you want to survive your
challenges do you want to survive your
opportunities or do you want to attack
them do you want to be strong in the
face of them the reason I started by
telling you that I didn’t think that all
of you would use this today but maybe
some day you would is because if you
prepare yourselves and you decide that
you’re going to do more than what you
think that you should do if you do one
extra push-up if you it whatever it is
that you decide inside of yourself just
between you and you that you’re going to
push yourself a little bit harder to be
ready for whatever happens to you
whether it’s great whether it’s terrible
whatever happens to you life is very
long it has a lot of twisted twists and
turns to it and I find the whole
experience you know amazing so part of
what I think has helped me is I have I
was born with a great attitude so that’s
not something I take pride in it was
just part of being born that way but
what I found was that everybody around
me sparked to that everybody that I met
all the doctors every single person in
the hospital I’ve had 255 doctors so far
and spent millions of dollars they spent
millions of dollars saving my life and
doing extraordinary things for me which
again you guys are never going to face
that but the effort of it is still the
same if you can encourage the people
around you to be great with you if you
choose
is great people to be around you and not
the ones that bring you down whatever
challenges you’re going through right
now you have to be fierce in attacking
those challenges and you have to put
your mind to it one of the doctors was
explaining to me what’s the difference
between your mind and your conscious
your mind and your soul your mind and
your heart he said everybody’s brain
looks the same all of our brains look
exactly the same but our feelings about
things how we look at things how we view
ourselves those are all different that’s
your conscious in your mind and those
are the things that you can use to
attack your problems it’s not all about
how people see you in fact none of it
really is about how people see you and I
know it’s high schools so that’s a
bigger thing than it will be as you get
older but it’s only really the
opportunity that you take to be great in
your lives and maybe finances won’t be
your challenge maybe it will be I don’t
know but I do feel that whatever it is
you can put your mind to it if you train
it just like you train your body and
just like you care about the way that
you look you have to care about your
ability to know what’s true and deal
with it as it is because wishing and
wanting and all those things don’t
really come out I didn’t wish myself
back to health I work myself back to
health and I’m proud of it I’m still in
the middle of it and you know I’m two
years from now I probably will be out
doing amazing things again I already
feel like I’m doing them now but as I
said this isn’t anything to do with
what’s going to happen to you this is
not going to happen to you but things
are going to and good things and bad
things and I just would like you to be
ready and be fierce and someday when
you’re feeling challenged that you’ll
look back at this and you’ll say to
yourself you know what I can push
through this I can do more than I
thought I could and it’ll turn out great
for you either way so thanks for having me I appreciate it
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