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Hello. Hi.

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Today I want to challenge you.

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I want to challenge you
to answer a question.

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The good news for you
is that this question is actually simple.

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The words in the question
are actually simple.

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The bad news is for thousands of years,

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people have been trying to answer
this very same question for themselves.

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People have dedicated
their lives to this question,

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they fought for this question,

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and sometimes, they had given their lives
in defense of this question.

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And the question is this:
what does freedom mean to you?

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I'm not talking about like
a dictionary definition of freedom.

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I'm not talking about an academic
or even an intellectual discussion

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about what freedom is.

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I'm talking about
what does it mean to you?

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What does it mean in your own life?

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I know first hand

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that this very question
has the potential to change your life

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because it's the exact question
that my wife Courtney and I

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asked ourselves three years ago.

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It was a little of an awkward timing
for us to be talking about freedom.

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It was the night we brought my daughter
Milligan home from the hospital.

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As new parents, we struggled for
30,40 minutes, whatever it was,

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to try to get her to go to sleep
in her new crib.

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After that, we wandered like zombies
out to the kitchen table.

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As we sat down, I turned to her and said,

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"You know, honey, I need
to talk to you about something."

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(Laughter)

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Which I've learned,
after five years of marriage,

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is that's the most terrible way
you can possibly start a conversation.

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(Laughter)

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And I said, "I want to talk
to you about freedom."

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You can imagine what her expression was,
and what her response was.

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I can't repeat some of it here today.

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But after we started
talking more about it,

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we realized that the timing
of the situation

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was actually in our favor.

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Because if there was one thing
we were lacking at that point in our life,

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it was clarity.

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It was the ability
to step back and analyze

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how we were living our life

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and whether that was congruent
with what we really wanted.

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It started for us in our financial life.

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Our financial life had degraded,
I guess you could say,

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into a simple question.

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And that's, "What item in our apartment
do we want to upgrade next?"

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Have you ever had this discussion?

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"Do we need to upgrade the couch,

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or maybe we should save up
and get a new kitchen table?"

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"Should we switch location
and just get a better apartment,

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or maybe let's just get
a flatter TV and call it a day?"

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This was our financial life at that time.

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And then, it should be no surprise
on what our debt looked like.

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We were in our young 20s

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and not even counting the tremendous
amount of student loans we carried;

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we're 18,000 dollars in consumer debt

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to start off our new marriage
and as new parents.

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We had four credit cards,
we had store cards,

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we had two automobile loans.

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We had a loan for the jewelry
I bought to get married.

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We had a loan from family.

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I used to joke we were collecting loans,

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and that we had one for everything
except for our mortgage.

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And guess what? We were house-shopping.

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It was the most hectic time of our lives.

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I'd just started in a new business,
I was working 80 hours a week.

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Courtney had just graduated from college,

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she was starting a classroom
as a new teacher;

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there couldn't have been
a more hectic time in our life.

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And we were shopping for a mortgage?

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This didn't make sense.

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As I stepped back, and I was given
that clarity that night

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from bringing Milligan home -

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I saw it was because that was
the next item on the script

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that we were living our life by.

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It wasn't a script that we chose.
It was a script that chose us.

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It chose us

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because we were unwilling
to answer this question for ourselves.

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If you're not willing to answer
this question in your life,

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there's somebody, a company,
a person, a government, an entity

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that will be more than happy
to answer this question for you.

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You'll wake up one day and realize

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that you're living life
just based on a script.

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It goes a little something like this,
and see if you guys can relate.

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In elementary and middle school,
we are taught how to be taught.

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We learn how to learn better.

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But we go on, we go to high-school,
where grades start to matter,

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and if you get good grades
through high-school,

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you get to have the privilege

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of getting tens of thousands
of dollars in debt to go to college.

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In college, you do a lot of stuff,
and at the end of college,

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hopefully, you get this degree,
this piece of paper,

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and with that comes
the promise of job security

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of a steady, decent-paying job.

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After that, with that job,

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you can get an apartment
and fill it with stuff.

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If you weren't able
to attract a mate in college,

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you surely can now,
with your apartment full of stuff.

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Two to three years later,
you may have some kids,

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you may get a promotion,
upgrade to a house.

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You continue this cycle
for the next 30 or 40 years of your life,

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until you reach
the promised land, retirement,

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when all your hard work pays off.

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There's nothing
inherently wrong with this script

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unless you don't want it.

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We recognized at that kitchen table

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that we were living life
based on this default script,

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and we did not want it.

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So we said, "What do we want?"

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That took some time to explore,

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but we figured out
that we wanted a clean slate.

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We wanted to wipe away
all the crap that was in our life,

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that was in our apartment.

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All of this acquisition of the next thing,
the next new version.

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We wanted to just wipe it all away,

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so we were going to sell
all our stuff down to two backpacks,

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what we could carry with us.

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We were going to pay off
the 18,000 dollars in consumer debt

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that represented our most
irresponsible spending,

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and we were going to spend the year
backpacking Australia as a young family.

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That was our passionate goal that we set.

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One year later, my wife Courtney
took this picture.

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This is me and my daughter Milligan.

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She's three and a half now,
she's one in this picture.

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We're sitting on a plane, in the runway
in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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The year between the kitchen table
and this picture was a tough one.

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We had to analyze a lot of things
and look inside at a picture of ourselves

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that wasn't the one
we wanted people to see,

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it wasn't the one that we projected.

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We had to change a lot of habits,
a lot of beliefs in order to get there,

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but we were able to do it.

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When we boarded this plane,

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we had two backpacks
and full of possessions to our name,

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and none of the 18,000 dollars
that we started with.

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And we were on our way to Australia.

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From Indianapolis, we head to Chicago,
from Chicago to L.A.;

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lay over in LA, we head to Sydney.

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From Sydney, we went up
to Cairns, Australia,

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which is a city that is just off
the coast of the Great Barrier Reef -

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Twenty-eight consecutive hours
of flying with a one-year-old.

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(Laughter)

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I'd show you some pictures
of what we looked like when we landed,

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but we made a marital pact

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that no living human
would ever see those pictures.

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(Laughter)

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But I will show you
one more picture from our travels.

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I'd like to just sit up here
and show you a slide-show,

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but I'm just going to show you
one more, and it's this one.

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Again, taken by my wife

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who, you can see, is a great photographer.

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This was off the coast of Townsville,
three to four weeks into our trip.

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It's a little island
called Magnetic Island.

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On Magnetic Island,
we were staying at a little B&B

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after taking a ferry to get out there.

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We went on an about 30-minute hike,

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and through the hike, we saw
wallabies running across the path,

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a koala, a mum and a baby koala in a tree.

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It was like we were in a movie almost.

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When we got to the top of the hike,

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we looked out over
this isolated beach that was private,

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and it just really hit me.

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It's a feeling I hadn't felt before,
but it hit me like a ton of bricks.

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I realized that we were living our dream.

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Don't get me wrong,

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there was a long list of things
where we had no idea what we were doing,

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even at this point,
while traveling, especially with a kid.

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We were still learning and exploring.

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But for better or worse,
for the ups and downs,

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we were the ones writing the script;

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we were the ones
who were finally in control of our life.

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I realize not everyone in this crowd wants

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to sell their stuff
and backpack in Australia.

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That was our definition of freedom
three years ago.

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It's even changed now.

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But what I do know is

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that you need to define
what freedom looks like in your life,

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and you need to take steps
starting today to realize that.

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Where does it start for most people?

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It starts right here, with your crap.

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Look at the crap, it's almost overflowing!

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It's almost overflowing into the cars
that are in the driveway.

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Right now, it maybe seems
like an extreme example,

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but the more I think about it...

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How many of you have friends

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that have garages, or spare bedrooms,
or junk drawers, or closets

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that look not too far away from this?

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It's really not even that extreme.

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It's almost more of the norm.

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But I have a question for you:

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what happens when this person
loses their job?

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What happens when they're offered
a better job in a different city?

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What happens when they need to adapt

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either physically,
emotionally, financially,

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to any situation that comes up in life?

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The answer is at best they're restricted.

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They're held back, they're clogged,
they're congested

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from adapting to any sort of change

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because of the amount of crap
they've brought into their life.

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But we do have an out;
we have a little, neat trick

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that we do if we have to make
a transition with all this crap:

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we put it here.

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(Laughter)

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Do you realize we've been creating

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an entire multi billion dollar industry
around storing our old crap

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so we can make a transition
and buy new crap?

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(Laughter)

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Think about it.

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Right now, there's 2.2 billion
square feet of storage space

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in the United States alone.

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This is mind-blowing.

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Every man, woman, and child
could stand shoulder-to-shoulder

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just like this,

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under covered storage space
if we had to, in the United States.

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So, what's the deal?

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Why are we so obsessed
with buying new stuff

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yet so reluctant to hold on
to our old stuff?

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How have we bought in to this addiction?

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I think it's because
we've been sold a myth.

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The myth is
that acquiring things in our life,

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in the pursuit of a living environment
filled with things

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is going to grant us security.

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Most of us take it so far even to say
it's going to grant us happiness.

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And in the pursuit of these things,
we start to identify with our things.

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You can tell who's successful,
and who's not.

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You can tell who's hip and who's not.

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You can tell whose garages look like
the picture we had before,

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and whose don't.

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So we start to really identify ourselves
with our physical things.

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But the truth that we realized,

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and that most people end up waking up
and realize at one point in their life

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is that more stuff, and certainly,
more crap in your life,

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isn't going to grant you security,

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and it's certainly
not going to grant you happiness.

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In fact, we found
the exact opposite to be true.

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As Courtney and I went to sell
layers and layers of our stuff,

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as we were planning to go on this trip,

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I'm often asked a common question,
and that question is,

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"Did you guys sell anything
that you regret?",

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"Did you ever sell anything
that you had to buy back?",

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00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:47,839
or, "Did you ever sell anything
you were just disappointed,

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and you had to get back?"

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And every time I'm asked this question
when I get to share my story,

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I try to genuinely think about it.

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I'm even thinking about it right now.

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And the answer is always the same, "No."

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Not a single item.

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Not a single time that I sold something,

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and I'd be like, "Man,
I regret that decision."

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Not a single time that I sold an item,
I'd go, "I feel so insecure right now."

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(Laughter)

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It was the opposite.

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As we sold layers
of our crap, we realized,

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and we felt the weight
being lifted off of us.

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We felt more flexible, more agile,

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easier to bounce back
from anything negative

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that was going to come into our life.

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We were more free
to capitalize on opportunity.

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We weren't held back
by our physical possessions any longer.

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Not only that but we started
to look at other people

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and realized that these people's identity
is not based on their stuff.

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Their identity should be based
on their experiences.

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It's not about collecting
expensive stuff or nice stuff,

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it should be about
collecting rich experiences.

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We should identify with people
and identify with ourselves

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based on a series of experiences
in our life, not what we own.

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But I want to talk to you a little more
about the American dream as well.

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We're all familiar
with the American dream,

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and it's not even that American anymore,
it's all over the world.

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There's this idea
that if you work really hard,

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you're able to buy
into this fantastic lifestyle.

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That much is still true.

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As much as I've outlined and suggested

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that consumerism is a problem
for most of us, and it is,

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if the equation stayed this linear,
stayed this simple,

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it would be easy to deal with.

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You want more money, what do you do?

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You buy less.

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00:13:38,530 --> 00:13:40,579
You want to switch jobs or work less?

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00:13:40,580 --> 00:13:42,099
You buy less.

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Sounds simple, almost too simple.

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And it really is.

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But over the last 20 or 30 years,
we've played a little trick on ourselves.

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We've added in a piece to this puzzle
that makes it much more vicious.

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We've found a way, that we no longer
have to work hard before we buy,

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00:14:03,281 --> 00:14:05,520
we no longer have to work
for that lifestyle;

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00:14:05,521 --> 00:14:07,281
we can just tap right into it.

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00:14:08,415 --> 00:14:12,414
And of course, you know
what I'm talking about - it's debt.

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00:14:12,415 --> 00:14:15,434
So we buy; in order to buy
that fabulous lifestyle

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00:14:15,435 --> 00:14:17,744
without working for it,
we all go into debt.

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00:14:17,745 --> 00:14:21,045
We do this at a young age,
we do this at an old age - it's the norm.

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Debt has been around
for thousands of years

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in some form or another.

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00:14:25,318 --> 00:14:28,597
But we've perfected it
in the last 20 or 30 years.

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We've perfected the daily use of it.

295
00:14:31,683 --> 00:14:35,683
We've perfected it
for everyday activities.

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00:14:38,112 --> 00:14:41,201
What that does is
we're out to buying that lifestyle

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00:14:41,202 --> 00:14:44,361
and our justification for this
- and we're good at justifying it -

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00:14:44,362 --> 00:14:48,041
is we're going to be going to work
so we'll just buy into this lifestyle now,

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00:14:48,042 --> 00:14:50,171
and then we'll pay off
our debt, as we work.

300
00:14:50,172 --> 00:14:52,432
So it keeps us going back to work.

301
00:14:53,715 --> 00:14:57,434
That would be great if we liked our jobs.

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00:14:57,435 --> 00:14:59,764
Most of us don't like our jobs.

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00:14:59,765 --> 00:15:02,705
In fact, most of us
strongly dislike our jobs.

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00:15:03,897 --> 00:15:07,897
We don't have the flexibility to switch
because we got into debt.

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00:15:08,410 --> 00:15:11,409
Not only we have to pay the bills now,
we have to pay our debt.

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00:15:11,410 --> 00:15:15,410
So we go back working longer
and harder hours at jobs we already hate.

307
00:15:16,099 --> 00:15:19,598
Is there a better equation
for stress on the planet

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00:15:19,599 --> 00:15:21,868
than spending the majority
of your waking hours

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00:15:21,869 --> 00:15:26,148
working a job you hate to pay debt
from a buying decision you made years ago?

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00:15:26,149 --> 00:15:28,532
It's no wonder we're stressed out.

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00:15:28,533 --> 00:15:30,572
It's no wonder we're overworked.

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00:15:30,573 --> 00:15:32,583
How do we deal with that stress?

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00:15:32,985 --> 00:15:36,984
There's two ways
most of us deal with that stress:

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00:15:36,985 --> 00:15:41,025
we eat, and we buy.

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00:15:41,955 --> 00:15:44,455
We escape the daily grind by buying.

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00:15:45,412 --> 00:15:48,951
We deserve it, we work hard.
That's how we justify it.

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00:15:48,952 --> 00:15:52,571
Some of us buy clothes,
some of us buy gadgets,

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00:15:52,572 --> 00:15:56,462
most of us buy vacations to warm places
just to escape our jobs.

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00:15:57,007 --> 00:15:59,406
But we didn't have money
in the first place.

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00:15:59,407 --> 00:16:00,896
That's why we're in debt.

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00:16:00,897 --> 00:16:05,606
So how do we pay for this escape?
With more debt.

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00:16:05,607 --> 00:16:08,856
And you can see that this is
a snowball, it's a cycle

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00:16:08,857 --> 00:16:13,627
that has millions of you trapped,
millions of us trapped all over the world.

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00:16:15,125 --> 00:16:16,424
My message for you today

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00:16:16,425 --> 00:16:19,965
is that your life is too important
to stay trapped in this cycle.

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00:16:20,778 --> 00:16:24,297
Nigel Marsh had a TED talk in Sydney,

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00:16:24,298 --> 00:16:27,177
and he summed this up
much better than I can.

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00:16:27,178 --> 00:16:30,767
He said, "There are thousands
and thousands of people out there

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00:16:30,768 --> 00:16:33,517
living lives of quiet,
screaming desperation

330
00:16:33,518 --> 00:16:37,417
working long, hard hours,
at jobs they hate,

331
00:16:37,418 --> 00:16:41,247
to buy stuff they don't need
to impress people they don't like."

332
00:16:41,248 --> 00:16:43,157
(Laughter)

333
00:16:43,158 --> 00:16:45,947
When I first heard him say this
in his own TED talk,

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00:16:45,948 --> 00:16:47,967
it almost knocked the wind out of me.

335
00:16:47,968 --> 00:16:51,968
It actually almost hurts to repeat this
because it's so true.

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00:16:56,035 --> 00:16:57,975
But I want you to imagine.

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00:16:58,410 --> 00:17:00,479
Imagine what your life would be like,

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00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:02,549
how much more fulfilling
your life would be

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00:17:02,550 --> 00:17:04,887
if starting today, you made a commitment

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00:17:04,890 --> 00:17:08,040
to start collecting experiences
and not things.

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00:17:11,124 --> 00:17:12,453
I want you to imagine

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00:17:12,454 --> 00:17:16,454
how much more opportunity
and flexibility would be in your life

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00:17:17,971 --> 00:17:21,829
if you removed the stress
and the weight of your debt.

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00:17:23,406 --> 00:17:25,305
I want us all to sit here and imagine

345
00:17:25,306 --> 00:17:28,422
how much more
an impactful world we would live in

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00:17:28,423 --> 00:17:31,842
if each and every one of us
got to wake up in the morning

347
00:17:31,843 --> 00:17:34,552
not because our alarm clock went off

348
00:17:34,553 --> 00:17:38,382
but because we were excited
about dedicating ourselves

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00:17:38,383 --> 00:17:41,152
to work we loved,
to a job we actually enjoyed,

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00:17:41,153 --> 00:17:43,953
to a business that was based
on our passions.

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00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:49,179
The problem is complex,
but the solution is very simple.

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00:17:49,180 --> 00:17:53,029
Remove the excess
that is holding you back.

353
00:17:53,030 --> 00:17:54,639
Remove the crap from you life.

354
00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:57,019
Remove the daily reliance
on debt from your life,

355
00:17:57,020 --> 00:18:01,250
and you'll be more free to start doing
work that you actually care about.

356
00:18:02,483 --> 00:18:05,383
That's the path to security.

357
00:18:06,144 --> 00:18:10,274
That's the path to happiness.

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00:18:11,900 --> 00:18:13,862
One more observation that I have for you:

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00:18:13,863 --> 00:18:15,532
do you realize

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00:18:15,533 --> 00:18:19,953
that we're the freest people
in the history of mankind?

361
00:18:22,056 --> 00:18:23,915
Do you realize that you walk

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00:18:23,916 --> 00:18:27,666
amongst the freest human beings
to ever walk the Earth?

363
00:18:29,214 --> 00:18:31,594
What are you doing with that freedom?

364
00:18:34,881 --> 00:18:38,761
How are you utilizing this amazing gift
that you've been given?

365
00:18:39,961 --> 00:18:42,201
It starts by answering one question:

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00:18:45,024 --> 00:18:47,694
what does freedom look like to you?

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00:18:48,110 --> 00:18:49,889
It's the answer to this question,

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00:18:49,890 --> 00:18:53,890
your own unique answer to this question
that has the power to change your life.

369
00:18:55,186 --> 00:18:58,235
It's your own unique answer
to this very question

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00:18:58,236 --> 00:19:02,236
that has the potential to change the world
if you'll step up and let it.

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00:19:03,830 --> 00:19:08,399
So my challenge for you today is to go out
and find your answer to this question

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00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:12,400
and when you do,
that will be an idea worth sharing.

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00:19:13,055 --> 00:19:14,214
Thank you.

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00:19:14,215 --> 00:19:15,435
(Applause)