[Applause]
[Music]
now it was easy because on being the
best we forget things and we miss out on
what could be just beyond her
while the truth about this story was
that that boy was me
and these are my negatives and I
certainly did not get the pizza but I
learned an invaluable lesson sometimes
we can be blinded by excitement and
leave a lens cap over the things that
truly matter most if you want to start
looking at life through your own lens
there’s three things that you’re going
to want to do number one is you want to
focus on what’s important number two you
want to capture the good times and three
develop from the negatives as a young
boy I was always looking toward the
future and doing these three things are
a way to gain a snapshot of your future
at just 14 years of age there was one
thing I wanted more than anything in the
world
pizza because I didn’t get it so I
started a business you’re probably
thinking I made a really cool lemonade
stand and I did but I didn’t realize
that the stand partment stand around
desperately waiting for a car to come by
and ultimately chasing them down the
street and with that my dreams of
throwing a pizza party my first business
ever were flushed down the drain with
five gallons of warm lemonade but I
refused to give up I was focused on
success so I tried again this time a
computer repair business I convinced my
dad to put an ad in the local newspaper
and see I wanted people to call me to
make an appointment there was no more
chasing cars down the street it was a
very busy man
then I got my first call call came in I
ran it through the room I said dad dad I
need a ride in an hour I’ve got a client
shots he kind of sat there probably
questioning whether or not putting an ad
in the local newspaper for a 14 year old
boy was the right thing to do and then
he said that one famous line that all
dads are very good at saying go ask your
mother just like that I hired my first
intern my mom became the official driver
of blacksburg computer repair but as
fast as you can say super driver and
after just two house visits I’d let my
intern go she told me she couldn’t work
between the hours of 9:00 to 5:00 Monday
through Friday all summer long and just
like that the blink of an eye
second business failed you know
Bloomberg says that eight out of ten
entrepreneurs will fail in their first
18 months I was quickly becoming another
number so I decided it was probably a
good idea to stay in school and
fortunately went on to graduate and get
my degree I was just following the same
scripts that everyone else was following
you know the one go to school get a
degree find a job find a wife buy a
house start a family but this was a
script that other people had set out for
me not a script that I wanted for myself
it was time to change the game
see it was like Groundhog Day I’d get up
go to work come home go to sleep
wash rinse and repeat and if you took a
photo of my life at that point in time
it might as well have been left white
because I wasn’t living my story now I
went on to have quite a few different
jobs from working at the Apple Store to
being a photographer on a construction
site and I even went out to get my
motorcycle license because that just 24
years old I thought I was having a
midlife crisis till one day I met an
entrepreneur he came up to me and he
said why aren’t you working for yourself
just yet and I said well I don’t know
how to make this $30,000 a year salary
on my own and he said you’re making a
mistake you’re putting your focus in the
wrong place see you’re focusing on
making $30,000 in the year when you
really need to focus on just making $120
a day five days a week for 12 months it
took 10 years to go from being the
lemonade stand entrepreneur chasing cars
down the road to the videographer
extraordinaire that I am now it took 10
seconds to shift my focus from the holy
grail to just taking the first step see
I was afraid to take risks because it
hadn’t gone so well in the past and fear
was a huge issue of my life it was a big
reason why I wasn’t doing it but fear
can mean many things to many different
people see on one hand here can me
forget everything and run it can stop
you in your tracks it can rob you from
providing an amazing service to the
world but what if you shifted your focus
what if you just change that definition
an endowment face everything and rise I
can’t tell you that learning to balance
that motorcycle allowed me to balance
the clients in my business but just like
this roll film you get to take another
shot here’s an important question and
please pay very close attention you’re
in an audience right now how many of you
have been in an audience before and you
look around and everyone has their phone
out taking pictures everyone’s got their
phone I’ll take your picture so pics or
it didn’t happen right it’s like it
doesn’t matter unless 100 of your
friends know that you were there it’s
like you don’t matter unless someone
else out there in the world it’s jealous
of the life that you live we paint this
picture that we want people to see about
our lives because the struggle isn’t
sexy if I asked you to recall a point in
time in your life would you instantly go
to a Facebook photo could you even tell
me what it smelled like what it sounded
like how you felt so how do we capture
life how do we go about changing this
into this
one of the amazing things that my
entrepreneur friend taught me was not
only how important it is to shift your
focus from time to time but also to step
out from behind the lens from time to
time you know that quote from Ferris
Bueller he says life moves pretty fast
and if you don’t stop to look around
every once in a while you could miss it
so I went on a journey to discover one
thing a formula for happiness success
and purpose and along the way I learned
about a man named Napoleon Hill now
Napoleon Hill was tasked by Andrew
Carnegie to interview millionaires and
find out one simple thing a formula for
success and he detailed about it in his
book Think and Grow Rich and I really
liked what he did so I thought well how
go do the same thing so I found 200
entrepreneurs that had created life on
their own terms
and I interviewed all of them on my
podcast and I found that every single
one of them had three things in common
one they learned from the best they
hired mentors they studied the experts
they had coaches 2 they shared the
information with others they didn’t just
keep it to themselves they had
masterminds and meetings and events just
like this one and 3 they leave behind a
legacy you know there’s this amazing
quote and one of my favorite childhood
movies the Sandlot
they say heroes get remembered the
legends never die in a Grant’s Heinlein
of things our life on this earth is the
blink of an eye or the click of a camera
shutter so why wouldn’t you go out there
and capture everything that life has to
offer
you know sometimes negative things
happen in our lives and we have to be
able to develop from those negatives my
mantra is ABM always be moving I believe
that movement is the Fountain of Youth
you should aspire to move your story
forward your life can be like one of
those choose your own adventure stories
without all the flipping back and forth
between the pages but just remember at
the end of the day when your movie fades
and the credits start to roll the music
starts to play there’s only one question
to ask yourself did you write the story
did you direct it or was it someone
else’s script I want to leave you with
one last story before I go on my
adventure of interviewing 200
entrepreneurs all over the globe I met a
woman who was the first woman ever to
stand up paddle board the Bering Strait
and in my research on the Bering Strait
I found out that there’s two islands in
the middle of the Bering Strait one is
called little diamond and one is how big
diamond they’re only two miles apart
big Diomede is owned by Russia and
little diamond is actually part of the
US it’s part of Alaska now why would I
tell you about two islands that you’ve
never heard of because the International
Dateline separates the two meaning on
one Island it’s today but on the other
Island it’s tomorrow if you find
yourself on little Diomede and you walk
over to the shore on a clear day you’re
not only looking over into another
country you’re looking over into another
time life is like a camera you focus on
what’s important
you capture the good times and you
develop from the negatives so here’s to
the frames of your life that you might
not understand right now but in the
future they’ll make a lot more sense
here’s to the mistakes that you’ll make
and the people that come in and out of
your life as you make those mistakes
here’s to the bad times and the good
every one of these photos a painted
picture of a point in time in your life
but just know that if things don’t go
your way you can always pull out another
bulb and take another shot you know
being able to take that extra shot is so
fantastic but remember that the longer
you stare at something the more
out-of-focus it becomes when you look at
life through your own lens you don’t
have to worry about having the whole
picture you just have to make sure that
you took the lens cap off in the first
place thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
now it was easy because on being the
best we forget things and we miss out on
what could be just beyond her
while the truth about this story was
that that boy was me
and these are my negatives and I
certainly did not get the pizza but I
learned an invaluable lesson sometimes
we can be blinded by excitement and
leave a lens cap over the things that
truly matter most if you want to start
looking at life through your own lens
there’s three things that you’re going
to want to do number one is you want to
focus on what’s important number two you
want to capture the good times and three
develop from the negatives as a young
boy I was always looking toward the
future and doing these three things are
a way to gain a snapshot of your future
at just 14 years of age there was one
thing I wanted more than anything in the
world
pizza because I didn’t get it so I
started a business you’re probably
thinking I made a really cool lemonade
stand and I did but I didn’t realize
that the stand partment stand around
desperately waiting for a car to come by
and ultimately chasing them down the
street and with that my dreams of
throwing a pizza party my first business
ever were flushed down the drain with
five gallons of warm lemonade but I
refused to give up I was focused on
success so I tried again this time a
computer repair business I convinced my
dad to put an ad in the local newspaper
and see I wanted people to call me to
make an appointment there was no more
chasing cars down the street it was a
very busy man
then I got my first call call came in I
ran it through the room I said dad dad I
need a ride in an hour I’ve got a client
shots he kind of sat there probably
questioning whether or not putting an ad
in the local newspaper for a 14 year old
boy was the right thing to do and then
he said that one famous line that all
dads are very good at saying go ask your
mother just like that I hired my first
intern my mom became the official driver
of blacksburg computer repair but as
fast as you can say super driver and
after just two house visits I’d let my
intern go she told me she couldn’t work
between the hours of 9:00 to 5:00 Monday
through Friday all summer long and just
like that the blink of an eye
second business failed you know
Bloomberg says that eight out of ten
entrepreneurs will fail in their first
18 months I was quickly becoming another
number so I decided it was probably a
good idea to stay in school and
fortunately went on to graduate and get
my degree I was just following the same
scripts that everyone else was following
you know the one go to school get a
degree find a job find a wife buy a
house start a family but this was a
script that other people had set out for
me not a script that I wanted for myself
it was time to change the game
see it was like Groundhog Day I’d get up
go to work come home go to sleep
wash rinse and repeat and if you took a
photo of my life at that point in time
it might as well have been left white
because I wasn’t living my story now I
went on to have quite a few different
jobs from working at the Apple Store to
being a photographer on a construction
site and I even went out to get my
motorcycle license because that just 24
years old I thought I was having a
midlife crisis till one day I met an
entrepreneur he came up to me and he
said why aren’t you working for yourself
just yet and I said well I don’t know
how to make this $30,000 a year salary
on my own and he said you’re making a
mistake you’re putting your focus in the
wrong place see you’re focusing on
making $30,000 in the year when you
really need to focus on just making $120
a day five days a week for 12 months it
took 10 years to go from being the
lemonade stand entrepreneur chasing cars
down the road to the videographer
extraordinaire that I am now it took 10
seconds to shift my focus from the holy
grail to just taking the first step see
I was afraid to take risks because it
hadn’t gone so well in the past and fear
was a huge issue of my life it was a big
reason why I wasn’t doing it but fear
can mean many things to many different
people see on one hand here can me
forget everything and run it can stop
you in your tracks it can rob you from
providing an amazing service to the
world but what if you shifted your focus
what if you just change that definition
an endowment face everything and rise I
can’t tell you that learning to balance
that motorcycle allowed me to balance
the clients in my business but just like
this roll film you get to take another
shot here’s an important question and
please pay very close attention you’re
in an audience right now how many of you
have been in an audience before and you
look around and everyone has their phone
out taking pictures everyone’s got their
phone I’ll take your picture so pics or
it didn’t happen right it’s like it
doesn’t matter unless 100 of your
friends know that you were there it’s
like you don’t matter unless someone
else out there in the world it’s jealous
of the life that you live we paint this
picture that we want people to see about
our lives because the struggle isn’t
sexy if I asked you to recall a point in
time in your life would you instantly go
to a Facebook photo could you even tell
me what it smelled like what it sounded
like how you felt so how do we capture
life how do we go about changing this
into this
one of the amazing things that my
entrepreneur friend taught me was not
only how important it is to shift your
focus from time to time but also to step
out from behind the lens from time to
time you know that quote from Ferris
Bueller he says life moves pretty fast
and if you don’t stop to look around
every once in a while you could miss it
so I went on a journey to discover one
thing a formula for happiness success
and purpose and along the way I learned
about a man named Napoleon Hill now
Napoleon Hill was tasked by Andrew
Carnegie to interview millionaires and
find out one simple thing a formula for
success and he detailed about it in his
book Think and Grow Rich and I really
liked what he did so I thought well how
go do the same thing so I found 200
entrepreneurs that had created life on
their own terms
and I interviewed all of them on my
podcast and I found that every single
one of them had three things in common
one they learned from the best they
hired mentors they studied the experts
they had coaches 2 they shared the
information with others they didn’t just
keep it to themselves they had
masterminds and meetings and events just
like this one and 3 they leave behind a
legacy you know there’s this amazing
quote and one of my favorite childhood
movies the Sandlot
they say heroes get remembered the
legends never die in a Grant’s Heinlein
of things our life on this earth is the
blink of an eye or the click of a camera
shutter so why wouldn’t you go out there
and capture everything that life has to
offer
you know sometimes negative things
happen in our lives and we have to be
able to develop from those negatives my
mantra is ABM always be moving I believe
that movement is the Fountain of Youth
you should aspire to move your story
forward your life can be like one of
those choose your own adventure stories
without all the flipping back and forth
between the pages but just remember at
the end of the day when your movie fades
and the credits start to roll the music
starts to play there’s only one question
to ask yourself did you write the story
did you direct it or was it someone
else’s script I want to leave you with
one last story before I go on my
adventure of interviewing 200
entrepreneurs all over the globe I met a
woman who was the first woman ever to
stand up paddle board the Bering Strait
and in my research on the Bering Strait
I found out that there’s two islands in
the middle of the Bering Strait one is
called little diamond and one is how big
diamond they’re only two miles apart
big Diomede is owned by Russia and
little diamond is actually part of the
US it’s part of Alaska now why would I
tell you about two islands that you’ve
never heard of because the International
Dateline separates the two meaning on
one Island it’s today but on the other
Island it’s tomorrow if you find
yourself on little Diomede and you walk
over to the shore on a clear day you’re
not only looking over into another
country you’re looking over into another
time life is like a camera you focus on
what’s important
you capture the good times and you
develop from the negatives so here’s to
the frames of your life that you might
not understand right now but in the
future they’ll make a lot more sense
here’s to the mistakes that you’ll make
and the people that come in and out of
your life as you make those mistakes
here’s to the bad times and the good
every one of these photos a painted
picture of a point in time in your life
but just know that if things don’t go
your way you can always pull out another
bulb and take another shot you know
being able to take that extra shot is so
fantastic but remember that the longer
you stare at something the more
out-of-focus it becomes when you look at
life through your own lens you don’t
have to worry about having the whole
picture you just have to make sure that
you took the lens cap off in the first
place thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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