confession to make I actually really
didn’t want to tell you about this but
it’s crucial for the story I am going to
tell you today so here’s the thing I
said yes to giving this TED talk because
I knew it would gain me a higher social
status it’s true
in my defense everyone knows what a TED
talk is that’s this belief that once
you’ve done a TED talk then you’ve made
it as a public speaker it’s something to
be proud of and it gives the impression
that you have something interesting to
share with the world and in fact I had
it all figured out I would be here
tonight with one purpose and one purpose
only to impress the shit out of my
audience my performance of course would
be flawless and you would laugh at all
my jokes at the end of the night you
would all agree that I was the best
speaker of the evening in fact this is
the best tattoo you’ve ever seen since
this is recorded my TED talk would go
viral and I would get millions of views
I will be listed as one of the most
inspirational speakers of all time I
will be rich admired famous and somehow
very beautiful it didn’t take long
of course before reality caught up with
me and this moment especially happened
when I told a friend of mine I was going
to do this tonight and his response was
whoa it’s a talk I’m like oh my god I
know and then he said but wait aren’t
those supposed to be like really
inspiring okay ouch so I’m not inspiring
is what you’re saying and he didn’t even
deny that so that was kind of awkward
also I realized I had not seen a single
TED talk in my life and it seemed like a
wise decision to you know start watching
a few to see what it was all about and
to watch speakers with similar subjects
it’s mine and to give myself some more
motivation and some self-confidence
which I was clearly lacking at this
point so I started googling things like
how to be the most inspirational speaker
how
give a TED talk in ten easy steps and
you know that didn’t really work you
have speakers like will Stephen who
literally has a ten minute presentation
about nothing and he still makes
interesting then you have David Blaine
who talks about how he held his breath
for seventy minutes which is interesting
as fuck then you have Sheryl Sandberg on
why we have too few women leaders I mean
I’m a feminist sort of why didn’t I come
up with that and then there’s me and
this is like a slap in the face right
not just for you because you got to do
with me tonight but also for me to
realize that I am not nearly anywhere as
near as exceptional as I thought I was I
mean I have enough self-knowledge to
admit that I’m not anywhere near the
level of the people I’ve just mentioned
I’m just average I’m an average public
speaker an average that is just not
something you want to be it’s basically
the worst place you can find yourself in
you’re not good enough to be praised and
you’re not bad enough to be able to have
a sense of humor about it let’s get this
away now
so at today’s standards average is equal
to failure we are constantly encouraged
to strive for nothing less than
perfection we’re always asked what is
your talent what are you good at what
are your goals and dreams and how are
you going to reach them how are you
so every day our lives are flooded with
extraordinary things we only see the
prettiest of pictures we tell the
funniest stories and we share only our
successes I don’t think I’m exciting
exactly shaking up everything we know
about psychology when I say that
striving for perfection usually leads to
less self-esteem and horrible mental
health so today I want to motivate you
all and myself to say fuck it to this
expectation that you have to achieve
great things in life
I want to show you why we should all
accept and embrace the fact that we will
never own a million dollar company we
will never invent anything life-changing
and we will never have a million
followers on Instagram it’s just not
going to happen so the first step to
embracing your averageness I think is to
understand what being average actually
means because unlike what most people
think being average is not equal to
failure at all let’s take a look at some
graphics for a moment by the way this is
not scientific at all
I made this in paint just to get the
picture so this is Hannah she’s pretty
good at public speaking right this is
Dylan he’s pretty alright as well this
is Sam pretty decent
this is Thomas he’s not that great at
public speaking and these are some other
people so what we see here are the
people who are extremely talented and
we’re probably all jealous of them
these are the people you see in funniest
home videos but what we see here is that
the vast majority of us is in fact
Everett not good not bad you know just
somewhere in the middle and the truth is
that most people will never be truly
exceptional at well anything problems
arise when we pretend that this isn’t
true it’s an accepted part in our
society to believe that every single one
of us is destined to become a great
person or worse that we feel entitled to
success and will eventually get it
anyway if we just work hard enough and
you know accepting that your average
that’s just not an easy thing to do you
start asking questions like but if I’m
not trying to be the best I can then
what is the point of living and alright
fair enough I’m not saying that you
should just give up on your dreams nor
am i saying that we should all just say
fuck it and Netflix 24/7 what I am
saying is that it’s a good thing to try
and be the best possible version of
yourself that you can
rather to accept the reality of what we
end up with despite trying our best and
let’s be honest most of us here in this
room will live an average life and will
not make a huge change to to the world
and you know what that’s completely fine
you can be really happy being effort in
fact I’d argue that average people are
often happier than very successful ones
whom are constantly working and often
like other things like a healthy social
life or you know sleep at the beginning
of my talk I told you that I was
confronted by the simple fact that I am
an average public speaker I’m not awful
at it right
I love how no one responds to that I get
it but you know I’ll certainly never be
on top of the game I accept that I will
never be one of the most inspirational
speakers of all time
I mean some people will like the way I
speak and some people will think the way
I’m building my story is poorly done or
that my English pronunciation is
annoying and let’s go I’m dying on the
inside but it’s cool don’t be scared of
being average embrace it it’s something
you can do right now right here this is
the first TED talk you’ll be able to
master instantly you should also realize
that the only person who cares is you
that’s the world care about you becoming
a CEO no they don’t the only person who
cares is you you should be happy with
what you do and you should do it the way
you want it being average is completely
fine thank you
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]