| 00:00 | (music playing)
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| 00:03 | Hello, I am Bruce Heavin, and today we are going
to talk about the thinkable, as in the doable,
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| 00:10 | and thinking all is about boxes, wonderful,
glorious boxes, but we'll get back to that part later.
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| 00:19 | So in summary, curiosity leads to why, why
leads to learning, learning leads to experiences
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| 00:25 | and experiences compose who we are.
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| 00:29 | Wisdom is your collection
of failures and successes.
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| 00:32 | Barriers focus us and through
this wisdom you grow and think.
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| 00:37 | Learning is lifelong, so let's begin.
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| 00:40 | Now as people, one thing we could do humans is we
can bridge this gap between Fantasy and Reality.
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| 00:47 | We could take your dreams and make them real.
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| 00:51 | I saw my first evidence of this in a
report card from my third grade teacher saying
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| 00:56 | I can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality,
and I often daydream during class, and this is Miss Spit,
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| 01:04 | and I learned of this.
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| 01:06 | But I think we see the connection with
children between reality and fantasy at a young age,
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| 01:14 | and it begins when a lucid thought or an
idea or a dream is actually put to paper.
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| 01:20 | It physically attaches that aspect to paper, and they
can communicate in a way they've never done before.
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| 01:28 | This is a great way that we start, and this
is a great thing that defines us as humans
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| 01:32 | is the ability to go from something
that was in our heads to a physical form.
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| 01:39 | We strive to be like our grand exemplars.
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| 01:42 | We try and desire to be like them, like a Thomas Edison,
a Bill Gates, a Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, or Steve Jobs.
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| 01:53 | Well, that isn't going to happen here today, nor will
it ever because Steve Jobs isn't mint-able commodity.
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| 02:02 | These people were here, and then they're gone.
And you need to better know your heart.
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| 02:06 | You just need to be the best you that you
can be to know where your heart wants to go.
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| 02:13 | You may not know where
your true direction is today.
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| 02:16 | It may take you years to find within yourself,
but that pursuit is the one you must not give up on.
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| 02:24 | So, curiosity. Curiosity is
the gateway drug to learning.
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| 02:29 | How does this tie into the presentation?
Curiosity is all about learning.
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| 02:40 | So learning quenches the thirst of curiosity.
Curiosity is infectious.
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| 02:47 | It tickles the brain.
It ignites the imagination.
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| 02:51 | It begs the question, why?
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| 02:54 | As kids we are all born curious.
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| 02:57 | It all starts from one question...
And with kids, we hear this a lot.
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| 03:07 | It's a good and healthy thing.
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| 03:09 | It's the day they stop that you
should really fear. Why ask why?
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| 03:13 | The curious quest to
learn is born within us all.
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| 03:16 | Why puts learning in the context.
We need to put context into why.
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| 03:21 | Why fuels the desire to learn.
Why comes straight out of one's curiosity.
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| 03:27 | But when it comes to learning,
failure is the best option.
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| 03:32 | So go, go, go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
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| 03:40 | Just go already and fail, fail, fail, fail.
Crash and fail, fail.
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| 03:48 | Just to keep going at it, fail.
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| 03:50 | Don't give up. Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail,
fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, and fail.
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| 03:59 | Fail fast, fail often, and
learn from your failures.
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| 04:02 | Avoid failing the same way twice, because
if you don't learn from this, you are going
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| 04:07 | to be doomed to repeat
your failure again and again.
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| 04:11 | But don't stop trying, because fear of failure leads
to the biggest failure of all, failure to even try.
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| 04:19 | Our successes are built
upon mountains of failures.
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| 04:23 | It's through the learning of everything we do
that we come around and we actually succeed,
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| 04:29 | and the stairs of success
have a grand mound of failure.
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| 04:35 | It is really the base that it is all built upon.
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| 04:38 | So occasionally celebrate your successes and
always learn from your failures. Don't forget them.
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| 04:44 | They are what going to bring
you your successes in the future.
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| 04:47 | And as much as it pains you, you need to
allow the ones that you love to fail and not take
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| 04:53 | the lessons of failure away.
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| 04:56 | Much like thinking it might be a noble cause
to help a bird out of its shell, it actually
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| 05:01 | does it more harm than good and has
potentially grave consequences as the struggle to get
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| 05:06 | out of the shell actually strengthens
the wings and the muscles of the baby bird.
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| 05:11 | If we help it out, it could actually cause
something more damaging than we have ever intended.
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| 05:19 | So let's look at learning through the
eyes of how we learn to ride a bike.
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| 05:24 | So of course, we start with a bicycle,
and we have training wheels.
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| 05:29 | This is good but the other kids
don't, so we don't the training wheels.
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| 05:32 | So we take them off and we fall and we fail
and we crash and we crash and we fall
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| 05:40 | and we fall and we fall and we crash.
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| 05:43 | We fall over, but eventually we make our first
successful straight-line, and this is remarkable,
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| 05:49 | we get a little wee bit of confidence here.
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| 05:52 | Eventually we get our first non-wobbly ride. We are
getting our sense of balance down, and this is great.
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| 05:57 | And eventually we are going to have our first
successful turn, and it might only be left-hand
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| 06:02 | turns at first, but this is remarkable,
we'll get the right-hand turns later.
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| 06:07 | But then you are doing crazy turns, and after
much practice we can be doing curb jumps and
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| 06:14 | wheelies and our confidence is going to
really start going up and our crashes go down and
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| 06:20 | perhaps we get a little bit too much
overconfidence and do stupid things and crash again,
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| 06:26 | but eventually something miraculous happens,
we have our first ride off of our own block.
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| 06:32 | Why is this amazing?
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| 06:34 | Because we're no longer thinking about how
not to be wobbly, we are not thinking about
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| 06:38 | making a left or right-hand turn, we are not thinking
about braking, we are not thinking about falling over.
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| 06:43 | We are thinking about navigation.
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| 06:45 | We learned this through much practice, and
now we can move forward and look to where
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| 06:50 | we want to go and think of
a higher level objective.
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| 06:53 | Then we are going to have our first ride
across town. As kids it's probably secretly to the
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| 06:58 | candy shop where our parents don't know
we're going and our newfound freedom, we are
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| 07:03 | now navigating, we are dealing with stoplights,
we are dealing with crosswalks, but we are
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| 07:07 | going across town, and we
are going to get that candy.
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| 07:10 | This is how we learn.
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| 07:11 | By doing things again and again and again and
failing our way through it, but eventually succeeding.
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| 07:16 | And upon all those failures and successes
we now have the ability to just pick up a
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| 07:20 | bike and go, we've learned how to run a bike,
we don't really have to learn it or think
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| 07:25 | about all those things the next time we hop on.
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| 07:30 | So my learning story or how I learned to
draw, tricked into drawing and liking it.
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| 07:38 | So when I was young I would go visit my doctor,
my pediatrician, and we'd have the all so dreaded
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| 07:45 | blood test, we'd have the urine test, and of
course the all so important drawing test, which
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| 07:51 | I believe now was to keep me occupied,
but it'd result in this lollypop.
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| 07:56 | The lollypop in my flavor of any color
I wanted, and it was a glorious thing.
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| 08:01 | It drove me to, "I want to do this."
So every year I would submit a drawing sample.
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| 08:07 | It got to the point where I knew I was going
to the doctor's office so I started practicing
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| 08:13 | before I came in, so I could
do a better drawing sample.
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| 08:17 | And as the years went by I'd actually find
myself drawing throughout the year, thinking
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| 08:22 | I could really get this better and better,
and this is great and the years rolled on.
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| 08:27 | Eventually, at a certain age my doctor
turned around and stapled together a book of all
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| 08:32 | the drawings I've made and he showed
me how I've improved over the years.
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| 08:37 | He showed me direct evidence that my drawings
got better, that I was able to actually improve,
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| 08:43 | I was actually being observant.
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| 08:46 | This little bit of encouragement
that he gave me was monumental.
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| 08:50 | It made me feel strong and confident.
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| 08:53 | It sparked my imagination, and it
encouraged me to further my drawing skills.
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| 09:13 | So devices, computers, humans, are
we born with an operating system?
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| 09:20 | A horse can stand moments after birth, let alone run,
same with a calf or a baby deer. A fish can swim.
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| 09:30 | Insects or ant they could be ants on day one,
but as humans we are totally helpless.
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| 09:36 | We don't have control over legs or our arms,
we could feed, and we are pretty much little
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| 09:41 | warm little pooping machines, but we are not
really capable of functioning, and if we were
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| 09:46 | able to get up and run on day one, we'd
probably give our parent a heart attack.
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| 09:51 | They wouldn't know what to do with us.
But we don't have that in us.
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| 09:54 | We don't really have that
part of the operating system.
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| 09:57 | I believe we are more like sponges, and when
I say that what I mean is we absorb, we absorb
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| 10:03 | everything, we absorb the experiences, we absorb
our parents, the love they provide us or reject us.
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| 10:10 | We absorb everything, our surroundings,
our environments, the people.
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| 10:13 | We absorb language, and we are much like computers in
the fact that it's more like garbage in garbage out.
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| 10:19 | So if we have great parenting, we learn
those things, and if we have bad parents,
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| 10:25 | well, we learn those things too.
So let's go look at barriers.
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| 10:31 | So some barriers are easy, we could just, well, go around
them or take a more difficult task and climb over them.
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| 10:39 | Sometimes we could be discouraged by them.
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| 10:41 | Some barriers are different than others, and
we find new and interesting ways around them,
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| 10:49 | but no barrier is more powerful than the barrier of no,
and as kids it's usually around peas, the rejection of peas.
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| 10:58 | But kids have no problem
saying no, very black and white.
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| 11:02 | No, no, no, no, no!
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| 11:06 | But no is a powerful word used out of love,
used out of fear, used to keep kids in line
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| 11:12 | and used by kids to break down parents.
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| 11:15 | No is often seen as a negative; however, as
disappointing as it may be to hear the word,
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| 11:19 | it is one of the biggest blessings
we can give and/or receive.
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| 11:23 | No is used to deny.
No is dodging a bullet.
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| 11:26 | No is passing an opportunity
for the right one to show up.
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| 11:30 | No is best reversed to on as in the opportunity
is on and stubbornness that flies in the face of no
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| 11:37 | defines either brilliant stupidity or outright luck.
No changes outcomes.
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| 11:43 | No can test you to see if you have it
in you to continue on or change course.
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| 11:49 | No is a barrier that can either defeat you
or engage you to find a way around it.
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| 11:53 | By saying no you define and learn new things
about yourself, because saying no defines you.
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| 11:58 | No is never the dead end it appears to be.
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| 12:02 | So through barriers, through the constraints,
through limits, these all create hardness.
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| 12:08 | It's a crucible, it could make a diamond out of your
idea or it could blow it all to dust, it can all fall apart.
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| 12:17 | But limits are a good thing and creativity
flourishes under constraints and businesses
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| 12:22 | can flourish under constraints, and that is
because they create focus, and focus is what's
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| 12:28 | needed sometimes to get things done, to know
what you need to do, and focus provides power.
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| 12:35 | So, thinking outside the box.
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| 12:38 | Now we've all been there in a meeting, and
we are dead plum out of ideas, no one knows
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| 12:44 | what to do and then someone does brilliantly
exclaims, "I know what we need to do.
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| 12:50 | We need to think outside the box."
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| 12:52 | And they say yes, yes, yes,
outside of the box, that's a great idea.
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| 12:57 | So, we get this box, and we
all look outside of this box.
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| 13:02 | What are we going to find outside of here?
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| 13:04 | There has got to be something, some low
hanging fruit, something just waiting for us.
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| 13:08 | We look everywhere, it's got to be
there but we find nothing, nothing at all.
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| 13:14 | But has anyone ever looked inside the box?
What's in the box?
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| 13:18 | Are you curious as the bear?
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| 13:20 | Wait, doesn't curiosity kill cats?
Are you curious?
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| 13:24 | Why yes.
Okay, so what is in the box?
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| 13:34 | The box is loaded with experiences.
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| 13:36 | So for this cat it's going to be of a spider,
of a bicycle, of a mouse, of love, of death,
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| 13:43 | of yarn, of a fish it got the other day,
of sleeping, of the monkey, of ideas,
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| 13:51 | or just a really good book.
So it's a cat box.
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| 14:06 | It's thinking in the cat box.
But the idea here is you are the box.
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| 14:11 | The box is you, and the box is what composes
you, and it's everything that comes together.
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| 14:18 | It's how your parents raised you, it's your
environment, it's your friends, it's the shows
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| 14:24 | you watch, the things you do, the activities
you do, the movies you see, everything that
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| 14:29 | comes together are these experiences and
these experiences in this box compose who you are.
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| 14:36 | And this is the well that you would have
to draw from, this is your school,
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| 14:41 | your high school, your college,
and this is what makes you.
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| 14:46 | Luck, we all think of it as a symbol, pot of gold
or a rainbow, horse shoe, shooting star,
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| 14:53 | a good deck of cards, a roll of the dice,
a lucky cat, a unicorn, crossed fingers,
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| 15:00 | a lucky penny, a magic eight ball,
or just a lucky rabbit's foot.
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| 15:06 | But luck is really where
preparation meets opportunity.
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| 15:09 | So you need to better learn how to stack
the deck, load the dice and practice, because
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| 15:16 | luck always favors the prepared.
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| 15:17 | So when we go back to experiences, it's really
about loading up those experiences to prepare
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| 15:23 | you for things so you can be lucky.
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| 15:26 | So great minds think.
Great minds think despite.
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| 15:30 | Average minds think alike.
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| 15:33 | The opposite of work is boredom, because
work is best when it's mixed with play.
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| 15:40 | If you enjoy what you do, and you're in it,
and you are passionate about it, you're going
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| 15:45 | to know it better, and you are going to better
know your subject, and you are actually going
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| 15:48 | to enjoy what you do.
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| 15:50 | Every journey starts with an
initial direction, then a first step.
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| 15:56 | So you need to understand how to orient your
compass and orient your compass to your heart.
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| 16:01 | So in conclusion, you need to find your spark,
you need to ignite your flame, you need to
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| 16:07 | do what you love, and if you don't love
Mondays, you are doing it wrong, because you're not
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| 16:13 | passionate about what you do, and you are not
going to do well at it, and you are going to regret it.
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| 16:19 | So if this happens too long, look
for a new course and find your passion.
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| 16:24 | Orient your compass to your
heart and follow your heart.
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| 16:28 | If I did not say that enough, follow your
heart, because it's going to lead to something
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| 16:33 | that you are going to be passionate about.
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| 16:35 | And eat, drink, play, read, and study and breathe
that thing you love, because you need to put
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| 16:40 | that thing first and foremost in the center
of your life and surrender to that love,
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| 16:46 | and find your tribe within your passion, the people
that are around it, that are supportive of it,
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| 16:50 | that want to be there and
people that you're going to grow from.
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| 16:55 | And be prepared and be prepared to make your
own luck, so you can be lucky, because making
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| 17:01 | luck is about having those experiences and knowing
what you're dealing with before you get involved.
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| 17:07 | So stay curious and become an agent of
curiosity, so you could spark this in others.
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| 17:14 | Question everything, keep
growing, learning is lifelong.
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| 17:24 | And load your box with the right experiences,
and be the best box that you can be, and you
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| 17:33 | will better be able to do The Thinkable.
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