This small moment made it all worth it
Reflecting on my TEDx talk...
Hi friends,
I’m close to finishing the +500 page book, King: A Life, by Jonathan Eig. It’s been something I have picked up on and off over the last few years, but I haven’t made a serious effort to spend time with it until recently. If you’re looking for a book on Dr. King, it’s thorough and thoughtful and moves at a pretty good pace.
I’ve read many books on King and the civil rights movement and was even able to interview Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Parting the Waters, on my podcast back in 2020. One thing that continues to strike me when reading about Dr. King is how much he struggled with personal doubt, insecurity, uncertainty about where and how to spend his time, and the weight of his responsibility, often stressing his spirit and body to the point of needing several days in the hospital to recuperate.
As he goes through these struggles, his personal Purpose continues to strengthen. By the mid-1960s, he was fully committed to being the leader that all of America needed in order to become the country it aspired to be. Seemingly, every time he was at a crossroads, he was able to go back to that Purpose and find his way forward.
I hope that you have found your personal Purpose. My Purpose, to have an outsized, positive impact on the world, drives me forward and influences everything I spend time on. If you haven’t found your Purpose yet, you can start by checking out Dream Small, my latest book. Or hit me up, and I’ll be happy to see if I can help.
Speaking of my book…
Did you pick up your copy of Dream Small yet?
I still say this book is the best deal going — $8 on Kindle and $12 in paperback — and more than any book I’ve written, Dream Small seems to be making an immediate impact on people struggling to find meaning in their work. Here’s a passage to give you an idea of what the book is about:
“We can use our gifts, or as I call them, our superpowers, to do good . . . and we can change our lives and, in some cases, the world. Only we have to have manageable dreams and goals. We must stop believing that our contribution is too small to be meaningful and instead think even smaller.”
Still CompostNow’ing…
I’ve shared before how much I enjoy being a part of the CompostNow community. If you aren’t aware of the service, you get a bucket in which you put your compostable food, and once a week, they come and take your bucket and replace it with another one. It’s easy, feels good, and the only problem is when your dog gets into it. (I know, disgusting, but dogs are dogs and 🤷♂️.)
Below is my impact report, which always makes me want to get more people on the composting train. You’ll get ten dollars off if you use this link, so why not give it a try?
So I gave a TEDx talk on Feb 28…
I’ve always wanted a chance to get on that TED stage, and thankfully, this year’s theme, The Future We Create, made sense for what I wanted to talk about. I’ve been told it takes a few months for the video to be produced, and I’ll be sure to share that once it’s available.
My talk was called Dream Small. The central idea is that when someone finds a way to use their skills to do good, they gain pride in their work and more Purpose in their lives. In my experience, most people underestimate the impact they can make and often fail to get started due to that sense of inadequacy.
As I said in the talk, “That’s a load of crap.”
I don’t want to spoil too much of the speech itself, and if you’re really curious, you can, of course, check out Dream Small (the book), which shares the same theme. Instead, I want to share a moment that happened immediately after the talk.
A woman approached me in the lobby after the event was over and told me her story. She had been in a long-term job in finance and had a nice career, but decided she wanted to make more of an impact and completely changed the course of her work. She began sheltering dogs and cats in her local community. It was a cause that called to her, and she felt compelled to jump in with both feet.
Only, everyone told her what a mistake it was. That she wasn’t making a big enough or significant enough impact, that she threw away a great career, and that she should give it up and go back to her old job.
Thankfully, she had yet to give up by the time we met late in the afternoon of February 28th. She said that my talk was the first time she felt like her work was important and meaningful and that she should feel pride instead of embarrassment.
She was crying, and of course, by the end of her story, so was I. And we hugged.
The point
Preparing for and delivering a TED talk is a lot of work. Like, months and months of writing, practicing, critiquing, second-guessing, stressing, anxiety-inducing work.
And who knows how much traction an individual talk will get when it’s all said and done.
But that moment with the woman at the end of the event made it all worth it. If I helped her in some small way chase her dreams and feel like she’s making a significant impact on the world, then I will have done my job.
As always, I hope you're happy.
Man, I'm really looking forward to hearing this talk!