up he’s one of those kids that was
always following the straight normal
never stepping out of line never trying
to draw attention to himself he saw
early on that you try hard in school you
go to college find the major you like
find a job you did it and you do that
for 30-some odd years and that’s what he
set out to do so he goes to college and
liking math and science he decides to
major in mechanical engineering and he
likes it it’s interesting it’s engaging
for a few years he’s about to graduate
and he starts questioning himself he
starts wondering if he went to that just
because he was good in math and science
he was wondering if maybe changing
fields might help and so he went to
research start working a lab doing
computational biomechanics it was
interesting it was new it was a new way
of working and thinking he was engaged
he was really productive if you worked
on a whole bunch of projects he
published a lot sometimes I’d ask him
how’s the research going his response
the past is the time and so I think to
myself like is that really what you want
him doing but he’s stuck with it and so
he was wondering if changing feels again
would help sort of Jewry spark his
interest
this time he goes for a PhD and machine
learning artificial intelligence and
data analysis and again it’s interesting
it’s new and he’s engaged again he’s
super productive working on a whole
bunch of projects in addition to his
dissertation work he’s about to graduate
and again his interest starts afaid
doing that for so long that it’s sort of
the norm it’s sort of the easy route
he’s still wondering if he’s going down
that route just because he likes math
and science though this other kid I knew
he was athletic and energetic and his
parents put him into gymnastics around
the age of four just like any other kid
at that age he wanted to go to the
Olympics he loved the gym but he loved
the gym for a reason that was very
different than many other kids see he
had a stutter and the stutter was pretty
bad he would get caught up on words and
sounds he’d end up holding his breath
exhaust himself and then have to start
all over again he was embarrassed to
speak in who’s embarrassed for anyone to
listen to him speak and so the gym it
was his place where he didn’t have to
worry and he could be a kid in high
school in college he was on his way to
doing really good things in gymnastics
in high school he was a national
champion on rings in college he was well
ranked in the country and his team like
that him captain three years in a row he
started to struggle though when he was
competing
he was inconsistent injuries he had
about seven surgeries his love
gymnastics started to fade a little bit
except as long as you could get in the
gym and just train he was happy
now most cute most guys finish college
and they’re happy to hang up their grips
this guy he was happy to be done
competing but he just stayed in the gym
and trained that was still the place
where he felt most comfortable and free
and he could relax even after all those
years those two stories are stories of
two very different people one person he
went down this path just because he was
good at something not necessarily
because he loved it
felt like he didn’t have freedom when in
fact he did and the other he did
something that he didn’t care what
anyone else thought and he was handed
something that made him feel trapped and
yet he found that freedom and something
else and before I go on I should clarify
some things those two stories I just
told you are actually stories from my
life where I was the person that felt
pushed down the engineering track and I
was also the kid who’s hiding from the
world in the gym second thing is that I
haven’t finished the stories see some
kids don’t like school because it’s hard
it’s not engaging me I didn’t like
school because I had to speak and what
does that do it made me love the gym I
was at one place where I could feel like
a kid I could relax and I didn’t feel
limited those used after I graduated
with my bachelor’s in mechanical
engineering might’ve seemed like I
wasn’t doing a whole lot maybe I was
just going through the grind of research
and work maybe I was just wasting my
time in the gym after competing those
years were actually really important
though in that time I found a really
important mentor and I wanted to love
research I presented a whole lot and I
interacted with a whole bunch of people
and I got to the point where my speech
was no longer limiting what I decided to
do in life and in the gym and for
after I finished competing I just
trained on my own and I learned how to
play and break free from the mould of
gymnastics when I was about to finish my
PhD I was still pulled in two directions
one going down that path for something I
was good at
except I didn’t really love and then
something that I actually did love and
then at the age of 32 I started
listening to myself I made a demo tape
and then on a Monday afternoon I got a
call from Cirque du Soleil offering me a
contract for an artist on a Tony show in
South America that Tuesday I defended my
thesis that Friday is on the contract
about two weeks later
[Music]
[Applause]
about two weeks later I was up in
Montreal training and then seven weeks
later I flew to Santiago Chile to start
performing so I got to the circus after
about 10 years in academia and I know
first is it no one cares about your
credentials no one cares
where you went to school what degrees
you have or how many papers you
published what matters is if you work
hard if you’re good on stage and you’re
a good person second thing is that for a
little bit odd and not normal it’s a
good thing third thing is that my mind
still thought analytically and I started
seeing all these problems where my
background in biomechanics machine
learning and data analysis that could be
applied to contribute Iran was one of
those problems where I was still
performing had to developed an algorithm
for automatically scheduling circus
circ has taught me something about the
click is not working all right
that’s right circus taught me about also
being an athlete something that I didn’t
expect when I was competing I could
never get in the right headspace now I
always psych myself out instead I
psyched myself up a circus after I got
over the initial jitters of being on
stage my head was always in our minds of
play and fun and not perfection and that
whatever I did on stage it would be just
fine and so what I could never figure
out in 20 years of gymnastics in the
circus I’ve figured out in just over one
year this one time when we were
performing we’re down in Mexico we had a
break of about 10 days in between cities
and a few of us went over to these
coasts of the Yucatan and so a few of us
are sitting on a beach and we started
talking about what we would do later
that year after the show closed and it
wasn’t something I had really been
thinking about at that time but at that
moment sitting on the beach it was
handstands why handstands make people
happy see it doesn’t matter if they’re
doing handstands or they’re just
watching me training apart it makes
people happy and for me it’s much more
than just helping people get upside down
it’s about helping them achieve
something that they didn’t think they
can do or they don’t even know how to
approach it’s about helping them achieve
something that can be meditative for the
mind and strengthening for the body it’s
about passing on my knowledge and
experience and most of all it’s about
connecting with people which is
basically what I tried to avoid for my
entire life a lot of people ask me if
I’m if I’m still using my background and
research and I am just not in a
traditional way
now unfocused on handstands and circus
problems and right now it’s totally out
of my interests and unfunded but I’m
certain it’s gonna lead to impactful
work my freshman year in college I was I
was asked what I wanted to be doing in
10 years and my answer was actually
supposed to be a bit more comical than
serious it was engineered by a circus
performer by night and so it actually
took me about 14 years but that’s
basically where I ended up for a lot of
my life I didn’t know exactly what I
wanted to do I felt pulled down this
path where maybe I should be doing
something that I was good at instead of
something that I totally loved along the
way I had a lot of good experiences and
a lot of bad experiences and each one of
those taught me something has gotten you
where I am today if you’re wondering
so that I don’t have an answer what I
will say is that I think you should be
questioning what you are doing and why
and then you should be listening
yourself and in the meantime if you
don’t have answers to those things still
stay productive and everything that you
are doing is gonna be helping you
handstands makes me happy maybe it’s
just a matter of time until you find your hansteen thank you