day you may or may not realize it but
every time that you say something like
yeah okay sure all right or any other
phrase like that you’re saying yes in a
good way now how often do you find
yourself saying no and when you’re
saying no are you turning out a favor or
an opportunity according to the United
States parachute Association around
500,000 people go skydiving for their
first time each year they took up an
opportunity to jump out of a plane
that’s almost one person per minute so
what would you say if your best friend
ever asks you you want to go skydiving
would you say yes or no a few years ago
my parents asked me if I wanted to do a
soccer camp over the summer at the time
I was not really into soccer but I said
yes anyways when I got to the camp I was
the worst there but I learned about the
sport and I agree to love it another
experience is when I began to take piano
lessons my family had gotten a free
piano and they want to know if my
brother and I wanted to take lessons we
both said yes so at first my brother
didn’t like it any quit so I thought now
I can’t quit because he just quit and
I’d be kind of awkward so I had to think
to myself should I keep playing the
piano and hopefully get better yes both
of these experiences have introduced two
new skills and hobbies that I still love
today if I not said yes to myself that
now not be the same person I am right
now today I’m not trying to convince you
to say yes more often I’m trying to
inspire you to be more open to new
opportunities to come your way if people
really try to notice how often they deny
things it can change their lives it can
change your lives although saying yes
can be so satisfying there are times
when we must say no of course when it
affects it personally negatively they’ll
say no and that’s okay it’s human
instinct
but what about what it doesn’t affect us
negatively why do we say no the most
common reason is probably just don’t
saying yes is a way not to be lazy and
get into new routines instead of just
sticking to our old ones studies show
that nearly six out of ten children
participate in after-school activities
that may sound like a lot but that means
that forty-three percent of children do
not participate in after-school
activities forty-three percent of
children turn down an opportunity to say
yes every single day of their lives a
poet named EE cummings once said I
believe that yes is the only living
thing I completely group this quote
without yes we wouldn’t be the same at
all without yes we’d be lazy although
yes it’s just one word it can change
someone’s life as you know in English we
say yes of course but in spanish and
italian they say see in french they say
we in german dutch swedish norwegian
they say yah in portuguese they say sing
and in hebrew they say ken but no matter
how you say it and if your teacher asks
you to do a TED talk in front of a bunch
of people just be more open and say yes
thank you [Applause]