[Applause]
this is my friend Tyrus when we first
met him he had been homeless for over 15
years and had no communication with his
family in the last four and this is
Tyrus six hours later we were able to
provide him with a clean wardrobe we
reunited him with his mother and after
working on his resume he found a job
that same day this comes from a program
my friends and I started we call
ourselves 24 20 because the initial plan
was for each of us to pitch in 20
dollars to help one person once a month
until we had helped 20 people but in
less than a year we’ve been able to
triple that number the reason I’m
sharing this with you is because for the
majority of us stories like that of
Tyrus make us really happy and I believe
it’s because we all have an innate
desire to be patrons for those in need
and to better the world around us
basically we all want to change the
world but the problem is the very few of
us actually act on this need why well we
get so caught up in our everyday lives
are so tunnel visioned in our career
paths that we think we don’t have the
time or we see ourselves as too small
and the problem too big so we don’t act
well my goal today is to rekindle that
intrinsic need to change the world by
showing you that it’s actually very easy
to do and the beauty of it is that you
don’t have to quit your job move across
the world you don’t even have to switch
your major the only thing you have to do
to change the world is to make it a
lifestyle now what do I mean by that the
best way to explain it is by comparing
it to those men and women that believe
Fitness is a lifestyle no matter how
much they have on their plate no matter
how much work they have to do they
always manage to go work out they still
have careers and they’re still chasing
other dreams but fitness means so much
to them that they always find a way to
fit it in without any F
they’re constantly thinking about the
next gym session or on how to improve on
the last and what happens to these
people well after some time they get
really fit right now imagine what
society would look like if we could
apply that same mentality to changing
the world so let’s dive right into it I
have found that there are four key
ingredients to make changing the world a
lifestyle and the reason I say
ingredients is because you don’t
necessarily need to go from Part A to
Part A or to Part B as long as the end
goal is the same it’s up to you where
you start the first ingredient is to
find your inspiration the thing that
makes your heart break
or your heart melt and this is actually
very easy to do so I want you all to
take a moment and ask yourselves this
question if you could change one thing
in the world with guaranteed success
what would that change be would it be
with the 1.5 million homeless in America
would it be for social reform or what
about restoring the environment whatever
it is that moves you hone in on it the
second ingredient is to create a heroes
mindset this was explained to me by an
Atlanta police officer and he put it as
a hero is someone that makes the
conscious decision before anything has
happened to be the person to stand up
when others stand back to speak out
inside of injustice when nobody else
will and to be unafraid to go against
the grain if it means helping others now
this task may seem daunting a lot of us
are shy or feel like we can’t be the
ones to make the first move I know I was
but the best way to build that
confidence is through education learn
about possible solutions learn about
what is happening around you and learn
how you can best help takes a little bit
of effort but if you dedicate yourself
to being a person of action and when
your time comes you’ll be ready
and if you ever start to doubt just
remember every hero’s motto if not me
then who if not now then when the third
ingredient is to make it social and this
is essential to making it a lifestyle
because like the Fitness example
whenever you see that person at the gym
you always see them with a workout buddy
that’s because that person is there to
push them on their last rep to remind
them why they’re doing what they’re
doing
when they don’t quite see the results
and to keep them accountable when they
start to lose motivation this kind of
support directly relates to the topic at
hand because you will have doubts and
things won’t always go your way but
they’re your backbone and they keep you
moving also it’s a lot of fun to be
making a difference but it’s a lot more
fun to be doing it with others to be
sharing those memories and experiences
that will follow you for the rest of
your life now I don’t want to sugarcoat
anything a lot of people don’t like
change they’d much rather live
comfortably in a bad situation than to
be the person to change it that being
said some people won’t see it some
people won’t support you and that’s fine
when I first had the idea of going out
and helping others I asked all my
friends and a lot of my closest ones
told me no that it was dumb or that they
must rather do something else with their
weekend so the first time we went out it
was only three of us my girlfriend
Lauren my friend Marco and me we still
went ahead with it because we knew it
was something much bigger than us and
even if others didn’t see it
we saw it so on your way to changing the
world don’t be discouraged if someone
tells you no just find a group that says
yes and take the hill with them
the last ingredient and if there’s
anything you take from this talk is to
act now act small and act with love
don’t let your ideas marinate because
more likely than
the longer you wait to act the more
excuses will pile up you’ll start to
lose motivation and eventually it won’t
happen instead take action within the
first two weeks of your idea and don’t
worry about starting small you can’t
expect to change the world in one day
but what you can do is change the world
of one person or a family or do
something locally if you’ve ever seen
the movie pay forward we’re basically
just copying their plot the idea is that
if you help one person you’re also
helping their family and anyone that’s
ever cared about them then eventually
hopefully that person will help another
person and the cycle will continue and
act with love I know it sounds corny but
it’s really all it boils down to just
giving a damn and giving your all
without expecting anything in return
once you act it’s done you become hooked
it becomes engraved into your everyday
life you start to see money is how much
you can donate rather how much you can
spend your time is how much you can
volunteer rather than how much Netflix
you can binge the first time we went out
I was extremely nervous we had no idea
what we were doing we just knew we had
to do it we met a man named Kwame who
was really hungry so we took him to get
a bite to eat and there we explained
that we wanted to help him with whatever
he needed so we went to Walmart and he
grabbed one of those carts and he took
off just started piling everything
inside it was amazing it was truly truly
amazing
he hadn’t experienced someone genuinely
caring for him in a very long time and
the expression of gratitude was written
all over her smile when we were done and
we were taking him back to a shelter he
stopped and he said that he didn’t
understand why him why a bunch of
strangers would go out of their way for
him but that that’s exactly what he
needed in that time of his life what we
didn’t know was that that same week he
was headed to see his son that he hadn’t
seen in a very long time
and he was just grateful to have
something to wear that wasn’t ripped or
smelled bad and that’s all it took to
keep us going back what I really want to
emphasize is our just college students
we’re still overwhelmed by school we
still hang out on the weekends and we’re
still chasing our dreams we want to
become doctors engineers some of us want
to go into the military I want to be a
naval aviator goals very different from
what we’re doing with 2420 but it’s
become a part of us taking a day away
from studying hanging out or partying
doesn’t have a drastic impact on our
college experience investing some money
that we would have otherwise used to go
bowling or out to eat doesn’t break the
bank but it has the vast potential of
having life-altering effects on someone
else and compared to the homework I have
to turn in every week it’s honestly the
easiest thing I do all month it’s not
hard if we can do it as a bunch of
average college students and I have no
doubt all of you can as well so I leave
you with this in a recent interview Tim
Tebow was asked how he manages his
sports with his charity work and he said
that at the end of the day he doesn’t
want to be known as a football player or
a baseball player but rather someone
that was known for lending a helping
hand to those in need
Winston Churchill once said we make a
living by what we get but we make a life
by what we give what will your legacy be
and more importantly how will you change
the world
in the next two weeks thank
you
this is my friend Tyrus when we first
met him he had been homeless for over 15
years and had no communication with his
family in the last four and this is
Tyrus six hours later we were able to
provide him with a clean wardrobe we
reunited him with his mother and after
working on his resume he found a job
that same day this comes from a program
my friends and I started we call
ourselves 24 20 because the initial plan
was for each of us to pitch in 20
dollars to help one person once a month
until we had helped 20 people but in
less than a year we’ve been able to
triple that number the reason I’m
sharing this with you is because for the
majority of us stories like that of
Tyrus make us really happy and I believe
it’s because we all have an innate
desire to be patrons for those in need
and to better the world around us
basically we all want to change the
world but the problem is the very few of
us actually act on this need why well we
get so caught up in our everyday lives
are so tunnel visioned in our career
paths that we think we don’t have the
time or we see ourselves as too small
and the problem too big so we don’t act
well my goal today is to rekindle that
intrinsic need to change the world by
showing you that it’s actually very easy
to do and the beauty of it is that you
don’t have to quit your job move across
the world you don’t even have to switch
your major the only thing you have to do
to change the world is to make it a
lifestyle now what do I mean by that the
best way to explain it is by comparing
it to those men and women that believe
Fitness is a lifestyle no matter how
much they have on their plate no matter
how much work they have to do they
always manage to go work out they still
have careers and they’re still chasing
other dreams but fitness means so much
to them that they always find a way to
fit it in without any F
they’re constantly thinking about the
next gym session or on how to improve on
the last and what happens to these
people well after some time they get
really fit right now imagine what
society would look like if we could
apply that same mentality to changing
the world so let’s dive right into it I
have found that there are four key
ingredients to make changing the world a
lifestyle and the reason I say
ingredients is because you don’t
necessarily need to go from Part A to
Part A or to Part B as long as the end
goal is the same it’s up to you where
you start the first ingredient is to
find your inspiration the thing that
makes your heart break
or your heart melt and this is actually
very easy to do so I want you all to
take a moment and ask yourselves this
question if you could change one thing
in the world with guaranteed success
what would that change be would it be
with the 1.5 million homeless in America
would it be for social reform or what
about restoring the environment whatever
it is that moves you hone in on it the
second ingredient is to create a heroes
mindset this was explained to me by an
Atlanta police officer and he put it as
a hero is someone that makes the
conscious decision before anything has
happened to be the person to stand up
when others stand back to speak out
inside of injustice when nobody else
will and to be unafraid to go against
the grain if it means helping others now
this task may seem daunting a lot of us
are shy or feel like we can’t be the
ones to make the first move I know I was
but the best way to build that
confidence is through education learn
about possible solutions learn about
what is happening around you and learn
how you can best help takes a little bit
of effort but if you dedicate yourself
to being a person of action and when
your time comes you’ll be ready
and if you ever start to doubt just
remember every hero’s motto if not me
then who if not now then when the third
ingredient is to make it social and this
is essential to making it a lifestyle
because like the Fitness example
whenever you see that person at the gym
you always see them with a workout buddy
that’s because that person is there to
push them on their last rep to remind
them why they’re doing what they’re
doing
when they don’t quite see the results
and to keep them accountable when they
start to lose motivation this kind of
support directly relates to the topic at
hand because you will have doubts and
things won’t always go your way but
they’re your backbone and they keep you
moving also it’s a lot of fun to be
making a difference but it’s a lot more
fun to be doing it with others to be
sharing those memories and experiences
that will follow you for the rest of
your life now I don’t want to sugarcoat
anything a lot of people don’t like
change they’d much rather live
comfortably in a bad situation than to
be the person to change it that being
said some people won’t see it some
people won’t support you and that’s fine
when I first had the idea of going out
and helping others I asked all my
friends and a lot of my closest ones
told me no that it was dumb or that they
must rather do something else with their
weekend so the first time we went out it
was only three of us my girlfriend
Lauren my friend Marco and me we still
went ahead with it because we knew it
was something much bigger than us and
even if others didn’t see it
we saw it so on your way to changing the
world don’t be discouraged if someone
tells you no just find a group that says
yes and take the hill with them
the last ingredient and if there’s
anything you take from this talk is to
act now act small and act with love
don’t let your ideas marinate because
more likely than
the longer you wait to act the more
excuses will pile up you’ll start to
lose motivation and eventually it won’t
happen instead take action within the
first two weeks of your idea and don’t
worry about starting small you can’t
expect to change the world in one day
but what you can do is change the world
of one person or a family or do
something locally if you’ve ever seen
the movie pay forward we’re basically
just copying their plot the idea is that
if you help one person you’re also
helping their family and anyone that’s
ever cared about them then eventually
hopefully that person will help another
person and the cycle will continue and
act with love I know it sounds corny but
it’s really all it boils down to just
giving a damn and giving your all
without expecting anything in return
once you act it’s done you become hooked
it becomes engraved into your everyday
life you start to see money is how much
you can donate rather how much you can
spend your time is how much you can
volunteer rather than how much Netflix
you can binge the first time we went out
I was extremely nervous we had no idea
what we were doing we just knew we had
to do it we met a man named Kwame who
was really hungry so we took him to get
a bite to eat and there we explained
that we wanted to help him with whatever
he needed so we went to Walmart and he
grabbed one of those carts and he took
off just started piling everything
inside it was amazing it was truly truly
amazing
he hadn’t experienced someone genuinely
caring for him in a very long time and
the expression of gratitude was written
all over her smile when we were done and
we were taking him back to a shelter he
stopped and he said that he didn’t
understand why him why a bunch of
strangers would go out of their way for
him but that that’s exactly what he
needed in that time of his life what we
didn’t know was that that same week he
was headed to see his son that he hadn’t
seen in a very long time
and he was just grateful to have
something to wear that wasn’t ripped or
smelled bad and that’s all it took to
keep us going back what I really want to
emphasize is our just college students
we’re still overwhelmed by school we
still hang out on the weekends and we’re
still chasing our dreams we want to
become doctors engineers some of us want
to go into the military I want to be a
naval aviator goals very different from
what we’re doing with 2420 but it’s
become a part of us taking a day away
from studying hanging out or partying
doesn’t have a drastic impact on our
college experience investing some money
that we would have otherwise used to go
bowling or out to eat doesn’t break the
bank but it has the vast potential of
having life-altering effects on someone
else and compared to the homework I have
to turn in every week it’s honestly the
easiest thing I do all month it’s not
hard if we can do it as a bunch of
average college students and I have no
doubt all of you can as well so I leave
you with this in a recent interview Tim
Tebow was asked how he manages his
sports with his charity work and he said
that at the end of the day he doesn’t
want to be known as a football player or
a baseball player but rather someone
that was known for lending a helping
hand to those in need
Winston Churchill once said we make a
living by what we get but we make a life
by what we give what will your legacy be
and more importantly how will you change
the world
in the next two weeks thank
you
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