WEBVTT 00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:02.536 When Dorothy was a little girl, 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:04.360 she was fascinated by her goldfish. 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:08.536 Her father explained to her that fish swim by quickly wagging their tails 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:10.440 to propel themselves through the water. 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:13.176 Without hesitation, little Dorothy responded, 00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:16.456 "Yes, Daddy, and fish swim backwards by wagging their heads." NOTE Paragraph 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:18.096 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:20.936 In her mind, it was a fact as true as any other. 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:23.296 Fish swim backwards by wagging their heads. 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:24.520 She believed it. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:28.296 Our lives are full of fish swimming backwards. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:30.816 We make assumptions and faulty leaps of logic. 00:00:30.840 --> 00:00:32.095 We harbor bias. 00:00:32.119 --> 00:00:34.376 We know that we are right, and they are wrong. 00:00:34.400 --> 00:00:36.016 We fear the worst. 00:00:36.040 --> 00:00:38.200 We strive for unattainable perfection. 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:41.000 We tell ourselves what we can and cannot do. 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:45.976 In our minds, fish swim by in reverse frantically wagging their heads 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:47.429 and we don't even notice them. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:49.160 --> 00:00:51.336 I'm going to tell you five facts about myself. 00:00:51.360 --> 00:00:52.680 One fact is not true. 00:00:53.760 --> 00:00:58.560 One: I graduated from Harvard at 19 with an honors degree in mathematics. 00:00:59.680 --> 00:01:03.640 Two: I currently run a construction company in Orlando. 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:08.040 Three: I starred on a television sitcom. 00:01:09.440 --> 00:01:13.880 Four: I lost my sight to a rare genetic eye disease. 00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:19.400 Five: I served as a law clerk to two US Supreme Court justices. 00:01:20.360 --> 00:01:21.560 Which fact is not true? 00:01:23.880 --> 00:01:25.240 Actually, they're all true. 00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:27.520 Yeah. They're all true. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:28.800 --> 00:01:30.960 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:36.336 At this point, most people really only care about the television show. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:36.360 --> 00:01:38.040 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:41.240 I know this from experience. 00:01:42.320 --> 00:01:45.656 OK, so the show was NBC's "Saved by the Bell: The New Class." 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:49.280 And I played Weasel Wyzell, 00:01:50.240 --> 00:01:54.296 who was the sort of dorky, nerdy character on the show, 00:01:54.320 --> 00:01:59.096 which made it a very major acting challenge 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:00.616 for me as a 13-year-old boy. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:02.160 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:03.320 --> 00:02:06.240 Now, did you struggle with number four, my blindness? 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:08.320 Why is that? 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:12.256 We make assumptions about so-called disabilities. 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:15.456 As a blind man, I confront others' incorrect assumptions 00:02:15.480 --> 00:02:17.240 about my abilities every day. 00:02:18.640 --> 00:02:21.176 My point today is not about my blindness, however. 00:02:21.200 --> 00:02:22.400 It's about my vision. 00:02:23.480 --> 00:02:27.280 Going blind taught me to live my life eyes wide open. 00:02:28.200 --> 00:02:30.576 It taught me to spot those backwards-swimming fish 00:02:30.600 --> 00:02:32.096 that our minds create. 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:34.280 Going blind cast them into focus. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:37.840 What does it feel like to see? 00:02:38.720 --> 00:02:40.360 It's immediate and passive. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:42.936 You open your eyes and there's the world. 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:45.056 Seeing is believing. Sight is truth. 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:46.280 Right? 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:48.800 Well, that's what I thought. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:54.440 Then, from age 12 to 25, my retinas progressively deteriorated. 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:58.296 My sight became an increasingly bizarre 00:02:58.320 --> 00:03:00.600 carnival funhouse hall of mirrors and illusions. 00:03:01.640 --> 00:03:03.976 The salesperson I was relieved to spot in a store 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:05.200 was really a mannequin. 00:03:05.880 --> 00:03:07.376 Reaching down to wash my hands, 00:03:07.400 --> 00:03:10.616 I suddenly saw it was a urinal I was touching, not a sink, 00:03:10.640 --> 00:03:12.355 when my fingers felt its true shape. 00:03:13.160 --> 00:03:15.296 A friend described the photograph in my hand, 00:03:15.320 --> 00:03:17.440 and only then I could see the image depicted. 00:03:18.720 --> 00:03:23.040 Objects appeared, morphed and disappeared in my reality. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:26.520 It was difficult and exhausting to see. 00:03:27.600 --> 00:03:30.856 I pieced together fragmented, transitory images, 00:03:30.880 --> 00:03:32.856 consciously analyzed the clues, 00:03:32.880 --> 00:03:35.960 searched for some logic in my crumbling kaleidoscope, 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:38.126 until I saw nothing at all. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:39.600 --> 00:03:41.256 I learned that what we see 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:43.640 is not universal truth. 00:03:44.200 --> 00:03:46.400 It is not objective reality. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:52.696 What we see is a unique, personal, virtual reality 00:03:52.720 --> 00:03:54.840 that is masterfully constructed by our brain. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:57.894 Let me explain with a bit of amateur neuroscience. 00:03:57.918 --> 00:04:01.158 Your visual cortex takes up about 30 percent of your brain. 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:05.016 That's compared to approximately eight percent for touch 00:04:05.040 --> 00:04:06.840 and two to three percent for hearing. 00:04:07.600 --> 00:04:11.336 Every second, your eyes can send your visual cortex 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:13.520 as many as two billion pieces of information. 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:17.800 The rest of your body can send your brain only an additional billion. 00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:22.896 So sight is one third of your brain by volume 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:26.240 and can claim about two thirds of your brain's processing resources. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:28.256 It's no surprise then 00:04:28.280 --> 00:04:30.376 that the illusion of sight is so compelling. 00:04:30.400 --> 00:04:32.800 But make no mistake about it: sight is an illusion. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:35.736 Here's where it gets interesting. 00:04:35.760 --> 00:04:37.856 To create the experience of sight, 00:04:37.880 --> 00:04:41.416 your brain references your conceptual understanding of the world, 00:04:41.440 --> 00:04:45.496 other knowledge, your memories, opinions, emotions, mental attention. 00:04:45.520 --> 00:04:50.080 All of these things and far more are linked in your brain to your sight. 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:54.456 These linkages work both ways, and usually occur subconsciously. 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:56.336 So for example, 00:04:56.360 --> 00:04:58.496 what you see impacts how you feel, 00:04:58.520 --> 00:05:01.120 and the way you feel can literally change what you see. 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:03.760 Numerous studies demonstrate this. 00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:06.456 If you are asked to estimate 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:09.656 the walking speed of a man in a video, for example, 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:13.800 your answer will be different if you're told to think about cheetahs or turtles. 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:18.416 A hill appears steeper if you've just exercised, 00:05:18.440 --> 00:05:20.656 and a landmark appears farther away 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:22.360 if you're wearing a heavy backpack. 00:05:23.960 --> 00:05:26.840 We have arrived at a fundamental contradiction. 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:32.576 What you see is a complex mental construction of your own making, 00:05:32.600 --> 00:05:34.376 but you experience it passively 00:05:34.400 --> 00:05:36.800 as a direct representation of the world around you. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:40.280 You create your own reality, and you believe it. 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:43.800 I believed mine until it broke apart. 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:47.360 The deterioration of my eyes shattered the illusion. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:51.016 You see, sight is just one way 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:52.720 we shape our reality. 00:05:53.280 --> 00:05:55.880 We create our own realities in many other ways. 00:05:57.160 --> 00:06:00.120 Let's take fear as just one example. 00:06:01.440 --> 00:06:04.280 Your fears distort your reality. 00:06:05.880 --> 00:06:10.056 Under the warped logic of fear, anything is better than the uncertain. 00:06:10.080 --> 00:06:12.536 Fear fills the void at all costs, 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:14.696 passing off what you dread for what you know, 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:17.496 offering up the worst in place of the ambiguous, 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:19.280 substituting assumption for reason. 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:22.856 Psychologists have a great term for it: awfulizing. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:22.880 --> 00:06:23.976 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:25.536 Right? 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:28.840 Fear replaces the unknown with the awful. 00:06:30.080 --> 00:06:31.976 Now, fear is self-realizing. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:33.736 When you face the greatest need 00:06:33.760 --> 00:06:36.416 to look outside yourself and think critically, 00:06:36.440 --> 00:06:39.256 fear beats a retreat deep inside your mind, 00:06:39.280 --> 00:06:41.056 shrinking and distorting your view, 00:06:41.080 --> 00:06:43.136 drowning your capacity for critical thought 00:06:43.160 --> 00:06:44.880 with a flood of disruptive emotions. 00:06:45.880 --> 00:06:48.736 When you face a compelling opportunity to take action, 00:06:48.760 --> 00:06:51.256 fear lulls you into inaction, 00:06:51.280 --> 00:06:54.800 enticing you to passively watch its prophecies fulfill themselves. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:57.880 --> 00:07:00.096 When I was diagnosed with my blinding disease, 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:03.160 I knew blindness would ruin my life. 00:07:04.400 --> 00:07:07.336 Blindness was a death sentence for my independence. 00:07:07.360 --> 00:07:09.240 It was the end of achievement for me. 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:14.576 Blindness meant I would live an unremarkable life, 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:16.296 small and sad, 00:07:16.320 --> 00:07:17.520 and likely alone. 00:07:18.280 --> 00:07:19.480 I knew it. 00:07:21.440 --> 00:07:24.240 This was a fiction born of my fears, but I believed it. 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:27.416 It was a lie, but it was my reality, 00:07:27.440 --> 00:07:30.600 just like those backwards-swimming fish in little Dorothy's mind. 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:34.416 If I had not confronted the reality of my fear, 00:07:34.440 --> 00:07:35.640 I would have lived it. 00:07:36.200 --> 00:07:37.480 I am certain of that. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:42.440 So how do you live your life eyes wide open? 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:44.960 It is a learned discipline. 00:07:45.520 --> 00:07:47.960 It can be taught. It can be practiced. 00:07:48.680 --> 00:07:50.109 I will summarize very briefly. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:51.640 --> 00:07:53.536 Hold yourself accountable 00:07:53.560 --> 00:07:56.056 for every moment, every thought, 00:07:56.080 --> 00:07:57.280 every detail. 00:07:58.120 --> 00:07:59.776 See beyond your fears. 00:07:59.800 --> 00:08:01.536 Recognize your assumptions. 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:03.336 Harness your internal strength. 00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:05.536 Silence your internal critic. 00:08:05.560 --> 00:08:08.360 Correct your misconceptions about luck and about success. 00:08:09.480 --> 00:08:12.920 Accept your strengths and your weaknesses, and understand the difference. 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:14.896 Open your hearts 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:16.320 to your bountiful blessings. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:17.480 --> 00:08:19.696 Your fears, your critics, 00:08:19.720 --> 00:08:21.576 your heroes, your villains -- 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:24.616 they are your excuses, 00:08:24.640 --> 00:08:26.976 rationalizations, shortcuts, 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:29.320 justifications, your surrender. 00:08:30.360 --> 00:08:32.679 They are fictions you perceive as reality. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:35.655 Choose to see through them. 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:36.919 Choose to let them go. 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:41.039 You are the creator of your reality. 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:45.280 With that empowerment comes complete responsibility. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:51.560 I chose to step out of fear's tunnel into terrain uncharted and undefined. 00:08:52.440 --> 00:08:54.840 I chose to build there a blessed life. 00:08:56.120 --> 00:08:57.896 Far from alone, 00:08:57.920 --> 00:09:00.896 I share my beautiful life with Dorothy, 00:09:00.920 --> 00:09:02.576 my beautiful wife, 00:09:02.600 --> 00:09:04.760 with our triplets, whom we call the Tripskys, 00:09:06.400 --> 00:09:08.416 and with the latest addition to the family, 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:09.800 sweet baby Clementine. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:12.040 What do you fear? 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:15.360 What lies do you tell yourself? 00:09:16.520 --> 00:09:19.440 How do you embellish your truth and write your own fictions? 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:22.840 What reality are you creating for yourself? NOTE Paragraph 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:27.376 In your career and personal life, in your relationships, 00:09:27.400 --> 00:09:29.016 and in your heart and soul, 00:09:29.040 --> 00:09:31.440 your backwards-swimming fish do you great harm. 00:09:32.560 --> 00:09:36.480 They exact a toll in missed opportunities and unrealized potential, 00:09:37.400 --> 00:09:39.776 and they engender insecurity and distrust 00:09:39.800 --> 00:09:42.240 where you seek fulfillment and connection. 00:09:43.560 --> 00:09:45.760 I urge you to search them out. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:51.536 Helen Keller said that the only thing worse than being blind 00:09:51.560 --> 00:09:53.560 is having sight but no vision. 00:09:54.920 --> 00:09:58.696 For me, going blind was a profound blessing, 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:00.760 because blindness gave me vision. 00:10:01.720 --> 00:10:03.720 I hope you can see what I see. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:04.280 --> 00:10:05.496 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:05.520 --> 00:10:07.680 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:23.896 Bruno Giussani: Isaac, before you leave the stage, just a question. 00:10:23.920 --> 00:10:27.696 This is an audience of entrepreneurs, of doers, of innovators. 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:31.376 You are a CEO of a company down in Florida, 00:10:31.400 --> 00:10:33.536 and many are probably wondering, 00:10:33.560 --> 00:10:35.776 how is it to be a blind CEO? 00:10:35.800 --> 00:10:39.576 What kind of specific challenges do you have, and how do you overcome them? NOTE Paragraph 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:42.736 Isaac Lidsky: Well, the biggest challenge became a blessing. 00:10:42.760 --> 00:10:45.320 I don't get visual feedback from people. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:45.880 --> 00:10:47.976 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.176 BG: What's that noise there? IL: Yeah. 00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:53.696 So, for example, in my leadership team meetings, 00:10:53.720 --> 00:10:56.080 I don't see facial expressions or gestures. 00:10:57.640 --> 00:11:01.376 I've learned to solicit a lot more verbal feedback. 00:11:01.400 --> 00:11:05.400 I basically force people to tell me what they think. 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:07.936 And in this respect, 00:11:07.960 --> 00:11:12.056 it's become, like I said, a real blessing for me personally and for my company, 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:14.680 because we communicate at a far deeper level, 00:11:15.400 --> 00:11:17.320 we avoid ambiguities, 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:24.010 and most important, my team knows that what they think truly matters. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:26.560 --> 00:11:29.456 BG: Isaac, thank you for coming to TED. IL: Thank you, Bruno. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:29.480 --> 00:11:33.185 (Applause)