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The perks of being a pirate

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    Often when I'm out in public,
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    a child will stare at me,
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    and if the child is particularly brave,
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    they'll approach me and ask,
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    "Are you a pirate?"
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    (Laughter)
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    To which I then need to respond,
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    once again,
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    "Yes." (Laughter)
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    I mean, let's be honest:
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    I've got two hooks, prosthetic legs,
    and a penchant for hard liquor.
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    (Laughter)
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    All I need is an eye-patch and a parrot,
    and I'm basically there.
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    (Laughter)
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    But I like being a pirate.
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    I find many advantages
    to having a disability,
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    and I'm not just talking about
    the money I save on gloves
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    (Laughter)
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    or the fantastically legitimate excuse
    for never having to master chopsticks.
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    (Laughter)
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    I'm talking about real advantages
    I feel I've gained
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    having gone through physical adversity.
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    When I was 19, I contracted a disease
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    that resulted in the loss
    of both my arms at the elbows,
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    both my legs below the knee,
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    and left enough scars on my face
    to elicit jealousy in Freddy Krueger.
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    Now, I made never be able
    to communicate in sign language,
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    but my increased resilience
    and general ability to problem-solve
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    has been heightened
    by being forced to think laterally
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    to overcome problems
    that most people aren't faced with.
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    One of the first lessons that I learned
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    immediately followed
    the painful and arduous task
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    of learning how to walk again,
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    but it went on to pay dividends
    for the rest of my life.
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    It happened when I attempted
    to step up a curb.
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    Now, as rudimentary as this action
    sounds to most of you,
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    stepping up a curb
    is somewhat of a challenge
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    for those of us without ankle movement.
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    So I tried stepping up the curb
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    the way I'd always known how, front on
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    for days on end
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    with no success
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    until it became obvious
    that the time and effort
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    I was investing into this endeavor
    was clearly disproportionate
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    to the benefit of its outcome.
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    (Laughter)
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    So, I decided to inspect the problem
    from a different angle.
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    If I couldn't use an ankle joint
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    to achieve the range of motion
    that I required to mount the curb,
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    I would have to use a different joint,
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    like my hip.
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    So I turned my body
    perpendicular to the curb
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    and placed my foot up sideways,
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    and I was able to step up immediately.
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    Within five minutes,
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    no staircase was safe from my advances.
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    (Laughter)
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    That very day, I climbed
    a staircase of three flights,
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    which I was quite impressed with as well,
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    except I realized that I didn't know
    how to get back down again.
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    (Laughter)
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    That was a long weekend.
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    (Laughter)
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    Now, in my past life
    as an able-bodied person,
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    I'd been a guitarist.
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    I was alright as a player,
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    but I'd never really taken it further.
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    I'd never really sat with a band
    or played live all that much.
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    Nonetheless, music was
    a great passion of mine,
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    and when I lost my arms, the idea that
    it may no longer be a part of my life
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    critically challenged
    my will to keep living.
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    However, the thought that emerged
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    immediately after being
    discharged from hospital
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    was if Ray Charles can play the piano
    while blind as a bat,
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    let's get to work on a solution
    for this guitar problem.
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    So, consulting with an engineer,
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    I designed a slide system
    that would hook into my left hook
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    and I devised another pick-holder system
    that would clip into my right hook.
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    Now, if this worked,
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    I would be able to play the guitar
    open tune on my lap, like a slide.
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    So after weeks of testing and alterations,
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    I finally had the accessories back
    to play the guitar again,
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    and I was right back where I was
    before losing my hands,
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    being issued with noise complaints
    from my neighbors, obviously.
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    (Laughter)
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    But this time, I took it further.
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    I started a band with my friends.
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    We wrote songs and recorded them.
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    We even played gigs to real people.
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    Not as many as this.
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    (Laughter)
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    But even though it was a just a tiny step,
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    it was a giant leap from what I'd achieved
    when I was all in one piece.
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    Now, while relearning every action
    that one has ever cultivated
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    might seem like
    a significant undertaking --
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    and believe me, it very much was
    in the short term --
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    it was nonetheless
    having a positive effect
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    on the way that I approached
    everything else in my life.
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    Not only dit it transform
    my ability to problem-solve,
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    but I also felt I became more pragmatic,
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    less sensitive to hindrances,
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    in some cases more patient,
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    and magically transformed
    people's abilities to offer me
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    their seats on public transport.
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    (Laughter)
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    Trivial setbacks began
    to pale in comparison
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    to challenges I'd previously overcome,
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    and this allowed me to take a calm
    and measured approach to these challenges,
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    keeping them in perspective
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    and often even finding new
    and improved ways to overcome them.
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    The benefit of not
    dwelling on the negative
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    and just getting on with the task at hand
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    became self-evident.
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    It even encouraged me to pursue
    some more fulfilling career paths
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    that may otherwise have been inadvisable.
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    And who would have thought
    that an appropriate job for me
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    might involve the meticulous operation
    of electronic equipment
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    to curate dance music to people
    in inaccessible places
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    under the influence of alcohol.
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    (Laughter)
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    Not I.
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    So in a competitive industry where DJs
    have been relentlessly honing their craft,
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    desperate to attain gigs,
    sending demos to clubs,
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    my best friend and I
    took a different approach,
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    and we started our own club night
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    and we employed ourselves as the DJs.
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    (Laughter)
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    Suddenly we had a headline slot.
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    (Laughter)
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    Now, when we started
    that club night, I could not DJ.
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    The first time I ever got behind the decks
    was on our opening night
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    in front of hundreds of people.
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    I'd only just learned
    where the play button was.
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    But, being previously faced
    with so many ultimatums,
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    one's forced to be astute
    in adapting to new situations.
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    That club night went on to become
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    the longest-running
    weekly club night in Sydney,
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    and we as DJs went on to play
    Australia's biggest music festivals.
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    So eventually I either learned quickly,
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    or the standards of clubs
    have gone really downhill.
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    (Laughter)
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    Coming close to death can be
    an educational experience.
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    It's certainly true that one's priorities
    receive somewhat of a realignment
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    immediately afterwards,
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    and it's also true that
    some of those priorities
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    are met with an increased
    sense of urgency.
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    But another, more salient, realization
    that comes to light
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    is the triviality of our own
    self-importance and self-consciousness.
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    To truly understand the extent
    to which your self-consciousness
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    prohibits you from engaging
    in opportunities
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    should lead everyone to take risks
    they otherwise wouldn't.
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    We're merely a blip on the timeline
    of the universe, right?
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    Act accordingly.
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    Now, the ideas that I'm presenting today
    were imbued upon me
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    through some otherwise
    unfortunate circumstances, granted,
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    but they're lying dormant in the lives
    of anyone who's willing to exploit them.
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    If we all understand that
    we all have unique weaknesses,
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    and if we're honest about what they are,
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    we can learn how to best
    take advantage of them,
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    whether they be mounting a curb
    or fear of presenting sales reports
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    or the inability to sufficiently
    manage one's finances --
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    looking at that guy (Laughter) --
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    there lies the ability to learn to adapt
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    and even the ability to rewire
    one's instinctual response to challenges.
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    Adversity is good,
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    and it has the potential
    to make you stronger,
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    and, at the very least,
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    you can scare the hell out of kids
    if you look like a pirate.
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    (Laughter)
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    Thanks.
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    (Applause)
Title:
The perks of being a pirate
Speaker:
Tom Nash
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
08:55
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for The perks of being a pirate
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The perks of being a pirate
Erin Gregory approved English subtitles for The perks of being a pirate
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for The perks of being a pirate
Krystian Aparta accepted English subtitles for The perks of being a pirate
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The perks of being a pirate
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The perks of being a pirate
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for The perks of being a pirate

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