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00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:03,256
Wow, what an honor. I always wondered
what this would feel like.

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So eight years ago,
I got the worst career advice of my life.

3
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I had a friend tell me,

4
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"Don't worry about how much
you like the work you're doing now.

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It's all about just building your resume."

6
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And I'd just come back
from living in Spain for a while,

7
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and I'd joined this Fortune 500 company.
I thought, "This is fantastic.

8
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I'm going to have
big impact on the world".

9
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I had all these ideas.
And within about two months,

10
00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:28,360
I noticed at about 10 a.m. every morning
I had this strange urge

11
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to want to slam my head
through the monitor of my computer.

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I don't know if anyone's ever felt that.

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And I noticed pretty soon after that
that all the competitors in our space

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had already automated my job role.

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And this is right about when I got
this sage advice to build up my resume.

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Well, as I'm trying to figure out

17
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what two-story window I'm going
to jump out of and change things up,

18
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I read some altogether different advice
from Warren Buffett, and he said,

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"Taking jobs to build up your resume
is the same as saving up sex for old age."

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(Laughter)

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And I heard that,
and that was all I needed.

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Within two weeks, I was out of there,
and I left with one intention:

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to find something that I could screw up.
That's how tough it was.

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I wanted to have some type of an impact.
It didn't matter what it was.

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And I found pretty quickly
that I wasn't alone:

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it turns out that over 80 percent
of the people around

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don't enjoy their work.

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I'm guessing this room is different,

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but that's the average
that Deloitte has done with their studies.

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So I wanted to find out,
what is it that sets these people apart,

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the people who do the passionate,
world-changing work,

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that wake up inspired every day,

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and then these people,
the other 80 percent

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who lead these lives of quiet desperation.

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So I started to interview all these people
doing this inspiring work,

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and I read books and did case studies,

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300 books altogether
on purpose and career and all this,

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totally just self-immersion,
really for the selfish reason of --

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I wanted to find the work
that I couldn't not do,

40
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what that was for me.

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But as I was doing this,
more and more people started to ask me,

42
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"You're into this career thing.

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I don't like my job.
Can we sit down for lunch?"

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I'd say, "Sure,"
but I would have to warn them,

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because at this point,
my quit rate was also 80 percent.

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Of the people I'd sit down with for lunch,
80 percent would quit their job

47
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within two months.

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I was proud of this, and it wasn't
that I had any special magic.

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It was that I would ask
one simple question.

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It was, "Why are you doing
the work that you're doing?"

51
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And so often their answer would be,

52
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"Well, because somebody
told me I'm supposed to."

53
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And I realized that so many
people around us

54
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are climbing their way up this ladder
that someone tells them to climb,

55
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and it ends up being leaned up
against the wrong wall,

56
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or no wall at all.

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The more time I spent around
these people and saw this problem,

58
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I thought, what if we could
create a community,

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a place where people
could feel like they belonged

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and that it was OK
to do things differently,

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to take the road less traveled,
where that was encouraged,

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and inspire people to change?

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And that later became
what I now call Live Your Legend,

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which I'll explain in a little bit.

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But as I've made these discoveries,
I noticed a framework

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of really three simple things

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that all these different passionate
world-changers have in common,

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whether you're a Steve Jobs
or if you're just, you know,

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the person that has
the bakery down the street,

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but you're doing work
that embodies who you are.

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I want to share those three with you,
so we can use them as a lens

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for the rest of today
and hopefully the rest of our life.

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The first part of this three-step
passionate work framework

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is becoming a self-expert
and understanding yourself,

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because if you don't know
what you're looking for,

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you're never going to find it.

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And the thing is that no one
is going to do this for us.

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There's no major in university
on passion and purpose and career.

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I don't know how that's not
a required double major,

80
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but don't even get me started on that.

81
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I mean, you spend more time
picking out a dorm room TV set

82
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than you do you picking your major
and your area of study.

83
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But the point is,
it's on us to figure that out,

84
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and we need a framework,
we need a way to navigate through this.

85
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And so the first step of our compass is
finding out what our unique strengths are.

86
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What are the things that we wake up
loving to do no matter what,

87
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whether we're paid or we're not paid,
the things that people thank us for?

88
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And the Strengths Finder 2.0
is a book and also an online tool.

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I highly recommend it for sorting out
what it is that you're naturally good at.

90
00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:09,056
And next, what's our framework
or our hierarchy for making decisions?

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Do we care about the people,
our family, health,

92
00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:15,456
or is it achievement, success,
all this stuff?

93
00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:18,147
We have to figure out what it is
to make these decisions,

94
00:04:18,171 --> 00:04:19,896
so we know what our soul is made of,

95
00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:24,616
so that we don't go selling it
to some cause we don't give a shit about.

96
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And then the next step is our experiences.

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All of us have these experiences.
We learn things every day, every minute

98
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about what we love, what we hate,

99
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what we're good at,
what we're terrible at,

100
00:04:35,584 --> 00:04:37,976
and if we don't spend time
paying attention to that

101
00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:39,536
and assimilating that learning

102
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and applying it to the rest of our lives,
it's all for nothing.

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Every day, every week,
every month of every year

104
00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:47,696
I spend some time
just reflecting on what went right,

105
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what went wrong,
and what do I want to repeat,

106
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what can I apply more to my life?

107
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And even more so than that,
as you see people, especially today,

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who inspire you, who are doing
things where you say

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"Oh God, what Jeff is doing,
I want to be like him."

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Why are you saying that?
Open up a journal.

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00:05:01,706 --> 00:05:03,776
Write down what it is about them
that inspires you.

112
00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:05,856
It's not going to be
everything about their life,

113
00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:07,696
but whatever it is, take note on that,

114
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so over time we'll have
this repository of things

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that we can use to apply to our life
and have a more passionate existence

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and make a better impact.

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Because when we start
to put these things together,

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we can then define
what success actually means to us,

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and without these different parts
of the compass, it's impossible.

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We end up in the situation --
we have that scripted life

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that everybody seems to be living
going up this ladder to nowhere.

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00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:33,136
It's kind of like in Wall Street 2,
if anybody saw that,

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the peon employee asks
the big Wall Street banker CEO,

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"What's your number?
Everyone's got a number,

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where if they make this money,
they'll leave it all."

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00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:44,240
He says, "Oh, it's simple. More."

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And he just smiles.

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And it's the sad state
of most of the people

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that haven't spent time
understanding what matters for them,

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who keep reaching for something
that doesn't mean anything to us,

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but we're doing it because everyone
said we're supposed to.

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But once we have this framework together,

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we can start to identify
the things that make us come alive.

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You know, before this, a passion
could come and hit you in the face,

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or maybe in your possible line of work,
you might throw it away

136
00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:08,631
because you don't have
a way of identifying it.

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00:06:08,655 --> 00:06:12,191
But once you do, you can see something
that's congruent with my strengths,

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my values, who I am as a person,

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so I'm going to grab ahold of this,
I'm going to do something with it,

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and I'm going to pursue it
and try to make an impact with it.

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And Live Your Legend
and the movement we've built

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wouldn't exist if I didn't have
this compass to identify,

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"Wow, this is something I want to pursue
and make a difference with."

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If we don't know what we're looking for,
we're never going to find it,

145
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but once we have
this framework, this compass,

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then we can move on to what's next --
and that's not me up there --

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doing the impossible
and pushing our limits.

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00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:43,136
There's two reasons
why people don't do things.

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One is they tell themselves
they can't do them,

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00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:47,296
or people around them
tell them they can't do them.

151
00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:48,856
Either way, we start to believe it.

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Either we give up,
or we never start in the first place.

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The things is, everyone was impossible
until somebody did it.

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Every invention,
every new thing in the world,

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people thought were crazy at first.

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00:06:58,451 --> 00:07:01,880
Roger Bannister and the four-minute mile,
it was a physical impossibility

157
00:07:01,904 --> 00:07:04,296
to break the four-minute mile
in a foot race

158
00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:06,336
until Roger Bannister stood up and did it.

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And then what happened?

160
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Two months later,
16 people broke the four-minute mile.

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The things that we have in our head
that we think are impossible

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are often just milestones
waiting to be accomplished

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00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:16,780
if we can push those limits a bit,

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and I think this starts with probably
your physical body and fitness

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more than anything,
because we can control that.

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If you don't think you can run a mile,

167
00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:26,456
you show yourself
you can run a mile or two,

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00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:29,016
or a marathon, or lose five pounds,
or whatever it is,

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you realize that confidence compounds

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00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:34,056
and can be transferred
into the rest of your world.

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And I've actually gotten into the habit
of this a little bit with my friends.

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We have this little group.
We go on physical adventures,

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and recently, I found myself
in a kind of precarious spot.

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I'm terrified of deep, dark, blue water.

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I don't know if anyone's ever had
that same fear

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ever since they watched
Jaws 1, 2, 3 and 4 like six times

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when I was a kid.

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But anything above here, if it's murky,
I can already feel it right now.

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I swear there's something in there.

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Even if it's Lake Tahoe,
it's fresh water, totally unfounded fear,

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ridiculous, but it's there.

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00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:06,216
Anyway, three years ago
I find myself on this tugboat

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00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:08,216
right down here in the San Francisco Bay.

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It's a rainy, stormy, windy day,
and people are getting sick on the boat,

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and I'm sitting there wearing a wetsuit,
and I'm looking out the window

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00:08:15,078 --> 00:08:18,056
in pure terror thinking
I'm about to swim to my death.

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I'm going to try to swim
across the Golden Gate,

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and my guess is some people in this room
might have done that before.

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I'm sitting there, and my buddy Jonathan,
who had talked me into it,

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he comes up to me
and he could see the state I was in,

191
00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:32,456
and he says, "Scott, hey man,
what's the worst that could happen?

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00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:34,616
You're wearing a wetsuit.
You're not going to sink.

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00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:37,456
And If you can't make it,
just hop on one of the 20 kayaks.

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00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:40,296
Plus, if there's a shark attack,
why are they going to pick you

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00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:42,940
over the 80 people in the water?"
So thanks, that helps.

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00:08:42,964 --> 00:08:45,820
He's like, "But really,
just have fun with this. Good luck."

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00:08:45,844 --> 00:08:48,336
And he dives in, swims off. OK.

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00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:52,736
Turns out, the pep talk totally worked,
and I felt this total feeling of calm,

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00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:55,696
and I think it was because
Jonathan was 13 years old.

200
00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:57,656
(Laughter)

201
00:08:57,680 --> 00:09:00,376
And of the 80 people swimming that day,

202
00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:03,216
65 of them were between
the ages of nine and 13.

203
00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:05,976
Think how you would have approached
your world differently

204
00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:09,176
if at nine years old you found out
you could swim a mile and a half

205
00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:11,896
in 56-degree water
from Alcatraz to San Francisco.

206
00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:13,336
What would you have said yes to?

207
00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:16,216
What would you have not given up on?
What would you have tried?

208
00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:18,336
As I'm finishing this swim,
I get to Aquatic Park,

209
00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:19,736
and I'm getting out of the water

210
00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:21,856
and of course half the kids
are already finished,

211
00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:24,214
so they're cheering me on
and they're all excited,

212
00:09:24,238 --> 00:09:27,254
and I got total popsicle head,
if anyone's ever swam in the Bay,

213
00:09:27,278 --> 00:09:30,776
and I'm trying to just thaw my face out,
and I'm watching people finish,

214
00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:33,816
and I see this one kid,
something didn't look right,

215
00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:35,856
and he's just flailing like this,

216
00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:39,296
and he's barely able to sip some air
before he slams his head back down,

217
00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:41,536
and I notice other parents
were watching too,

218
00:09:41,560 --> 00:09:44,016
and I swear they were thinking
the same thing I was:

219
00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:47,976
this is why you don't let nine-year-olds
swim from Alcatraz.

220
00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:49,216
This was not fatigue.

221
00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:51,536
All of a sudden, two parents
run up and grab him,

222
00:09:51,560 --> 00:09:55,336
and they put him on their shoulders,
and they're dragging him like this,

223
00:09:55,360 --> 00:09:57,216
totally limp,

224
00:09:57,240 --> 00:09:59,576
and then all of a sudden
they walk a few more feet

225
00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:01,576
and they plop him down in his wheelchair.

226
00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:05,136
And he puts his fists up in the most
insane show of victory I've ever seen.

227
00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:07,816
I can still feel the warmth
and the energy on this guy

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when he made this accomplishment.

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I had seen him earlier that day
in his wheelchair.

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I just had no idea he was going to swim.

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I mean, where is he
going to be in 20 years?

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How many people told him he couldn't
do that, that he would die if tried that?

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You prove people wrong,
you prove yourself wrong,

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that you can make
little incremental pushes

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of what you believe is possible.

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You don't have to be
the fastest marathoner in the world,

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just your own impossibilities,
to accomplish those,

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and it starts with little bitty steps,

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and the best way to do this

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is to surround yourself
with passionate people.

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The fastest things to do things
you don't think can be done

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is to surround yourself
with people already doing them.

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There's this quote by Jim Rohn and it says

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"You are the average of the five people
you spend the most time with."

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00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:52,536
And there is no bigger lifehack
in the history of the world

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00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:55,616
from getting where you are today
to where you want to be

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than the people you choose
to put in your corner.

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They change everything,
and it's a proven fact.

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In 1898, Norman Triplett did this study
with a bunch of cyclists,

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and he would measure their times
around the track in a group,

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and also individually,

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and he found that every time the cyclists
in the group would cycle faster.

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And it's been repeated
in all kinds of walks of life since then,

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and it proves the same thing over again,

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that the people around you matter,
and environment is everything,

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but it's on you to control it,
because it can go both ways.

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With 80 percent of people
who don't like the work they do,

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that means most people around us,
not in this room, but everywhere else,

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are encouraging complacency and keeping us
from pursuing the things that matter to us

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so we have to manage those surroundings.

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I found myself in this situation --

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personal example, a couple years ago.

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Has anyone ever had a hobby or a passion
they poured their heart and soul into,

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unbelievable amount of time, and they
so badly want to call it a business,

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but no one's paying attention
and it doesn't make a dime?

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00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:57,576
OK, I was there for four years trying
to build this Live Your Legend movement

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to help people do work that they genuinely
cared about and that inspired them,

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and I was doing all I could,

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and there were only
three people paying attention,

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and they're all right there:
my mother, father, and my wife, Chelsea.

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Thank you guys for the support.

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(Applause)

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And this is how badly I wanted it,
it grew at zero percent for four years,

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and I was about to shut it down,

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and right about then,

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I moved to San Francisco and started
to meet some pretty interesting people

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who had these crazy
lifestyles of adventure,

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00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:27,056
of businesses and websites and blogs

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that surrounded their passions
and helped people in a meaningful way.

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And one of my friends,
now, he has a family of eight,

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and he supports his whole family

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with a blog that he
writes for twice a week.

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They just came back from a month
in Europe, all of them together.

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This blew my mind.
How does this even exist?

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And I got unbelievably inspired
by seeing this,

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and instead of shutting it down,
I decided, let's take it seriously.

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00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:51,936
And I did everything I could
to spend my time,

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00:12:51,960 --> 00:12:54,456
every waking hour possible
trying to hound these guys,

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00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:57,256
hanging out and having beers
and workouts, whatever it was,

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00:12:57,280 --> 00:12:59,016
and after four years of zero growth,

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00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:01,376
within six months
of hanging around these people,

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00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:04,096
the community at Live Your Legend
grew by 10 times.

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00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:07,976
In another 12 months,
it grew by 160 times,

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and today over 30,000 people
from 158 countries

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00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:14,176
use our career and connection tools
on a monthly basis.

296
00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:18,576
And those people have made up
that community of passionate folks

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00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:20,816
who inspired that possibility
that I dreamed of

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00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:24,016
for Live Your Legend so many years back.

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00:13:24,040 --> 00:13:26,296
The people change everything,
and this is why --

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00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:28,536
You know, you ask what was going on.

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00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:31,016
Well, for four years,
I knew nobody in this space,

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00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:34,536
and I didn't even know it existed,
that people could do this stuff,

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that you could have movements like this,

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00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:40,216
and then I'm over here in San Francisco,
and everyone around me was doing it.

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00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:44,336
It became normal, so my thinking went
from how could I possibly do this

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to how could I possibly not,

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00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:49,416
and right then, when that happens,
that switch goes on in your head,

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it ripples across your whole world.

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00:13:51,131 --> 00:13:54,056
And without even trying,
your standards go from here to here.

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00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:57,795
You don't need to change your goals.
You just need to change your surroundings.

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00:13:57,819 --> 00:14:02,176
That's it, and that's why I love
being around this whole group of people,

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00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:03,820
why I go to every TED event I can,

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00:14:03,844 --> 00:14:06,776
and watch them on my iPad
on the way to work, whatever it is,

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00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:10,216
because this is the group of people
that inspires possibility.

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00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:13,256
We have a whole day
to spend together and plenty more.

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To sum things up,
in terms of these three pillars,

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00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:20,696
they all have one thing in common
more than anything else.

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00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:23,176
They are 100 percent in our control.

319
00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:26,256
No one can tell you
you can't learn about yourself.

320
00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:28,423
No one can tell you
you can't push your limits

321
00:14:28,447 --> 00:14:30,736
and learn your own impossible
and push that.

322
00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:33,696
No one can tell you you can't
surround yourself with inspiring people

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00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:35,911
or get away from the people
who bring you down.

324
00:14:35,935 --> 00:14:37,364
You can't control a recession.

325
00:14:37,388 --> 00:14:40,576
You can't control getting fired
or getting in a car accident.

326
00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:42,696
Most things are totally out of our hands.

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00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:45,080
These three things are totally on us,

328
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,920
and they can change our whole world
if we decide to do something about it.

329
00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:55,080
And the thing is, it's starting to happen
on a widespread level.

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00:14:55,104 --> 00:14:58,295
I just read in Forbes, the US Government
reported for the first time

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00:14:58,319 --> 00:15:01,016
in a month where more people
had quit their jobs

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00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:02,376
than had been laid off.

333
00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:05,616
They thought this was an anomaly,
but it's happened three months straight.

334
00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:08,336
In a time where people claim
it's kind of a tough environment,

335
00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:10,696
people are giving a middle finger
to this scripted life,

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00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:12,776
the things that people
say you're supposed to do,

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00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:16,536
in exchange for things that matter to them
and do the things that inspire them.

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00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:19,336
And the thing is, people
are waking up to this possibility,

339
00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:25,336
that really the only thing that limits
possibility now is imagination.

340
00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:27,336
That's not a cliche anymore.

341
00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:30,536
I don't care what it is that you're into,
what passion, what hobby.

342
00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:34,016
If you're into knitting, you can find
someone who is killing it knitting,

343
00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:36,376
and you can learn from them. It's wild.

344
00:15:36,400 --> 00:15:39,896
And that's what this whole day is about,
to learn from the folks speaking,

345
00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:43,336
and we profile these people
on Live Your Legend every day,

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00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:46,056
because when ordinary people
are doing the extraordinary,

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00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:47,856
and we can be around that,

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00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:49,616
it becomes normal.

349
00:15:49,640 --> 00:15:53,736
And this isn't about being Gandhi
or Steve Jobs, doing something crazy.

350
00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:56,189
It's just about doing something
that matters to you,

351
00:15:56,213 --> 00:15:58,253
and makes an impact
that only you can make.

352
00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:03,256
Speaking of Gandhi,
he was a recovering lawyer,

353
00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:04,616
as I've heard the term,

354
00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:07,896
and he was called to a greater cause,
something that mattered to him,

355
00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:09,136
he couldn't not do,

356
00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:11,399
and he has this quote
that I absolutely live by.

357
00:16:11,423 --> 00:16:13,736
"First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,

358
00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:15,880
then they fight you, then you win."

359
00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:20,616
Everything was impossible
until somebody did it.

360
00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:23,816
You can either hang around the people
who tell you it can't be done

361
00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:25,656
and tell you you're stupid for trying,

362
00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:28,976
or surround yourself with the people
who inspire possibility,

363
00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:30,600
the people who are in this room.

364
00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:35,496
Because I see it as our responsibility
to show the world

365
00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:38,936
that what's seen as impossible
can become the new normal.

366
00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:41,136
And that's already starting to happen.

367
00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:43,856
First, do the things that inspire us,

368
00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:47,576
so we can inspire other people
to do the things that inspire them.

369
00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:49,240
But we can't find that

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00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:52,256
unless we know what we're looking for.

371
00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:54,376
We have to do our work on ourself,

372
00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:56,976
be intentional about that,
and make those discoveries.

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00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:00,524
Because I imagine a world where 80 percent
of people love the work they do.

374
00:17:00,548 --> 00:17:01,856
What would that look like?

375
00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:05,896
What would the innovation be like?
How would you treat the people around you?

376
00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:07,300
Things would start to change.

377
00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:12,016
And as we finish up,
I have just one question to ask you guys,

378
00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:14,776
and I think it's the only
question that matters,

379
00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:17,400
and it's, what is the work
you can't not do?

380
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,736
Discover that, live it,

381
00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:23,440
not just for you,
but for everybody around you,

382
00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:27,256
because that is what starts
to change the world.

383
00:17:27,280 --> 00:17:29,600
What is the work you can't not do?

384
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:31,616
Thank you guys.

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00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,160
(Applause)