So I had the pleasure of being asked to speak to some young adults in a GED class out in Astoria at the Catholic Charities Community Center yesterday and I decided to drop some science. Literally. I didn’t want to condescend. I didn’t want to speak abstractly about dreams and believing in themselves. I didn’t want to leave them feeling warm and fuzzy but bereft of actionable nuggets.
I wanted them to see the opportunities for big change that come from incremental steps. I wanted them to understand that the currency of success is curiosity, passion, compassion, dedication, and resilience. So I told ‘em about a nutty dude and a clock.
Sorry, not that nutty dude. The dude who sat on the back of a bus and wondered on the way to and from his crummy little back office job about the clock tower in the rearview. The fella who perseverated on one tiny question: What would happen if this bus I’m on was moving so quickly that the light bouncing off of that clock tower in the rearview of the bus couldn’t get to my eyes? The nutty guy who gave us a simple but worldview changing equation: e = Mc2
Yeah, THAT guy. (Told you I was dropping science) And the folks in the class were like:
From a clock?? I thought that was in a lab or something.
My point: Curiosity and creativity pay. Small questions sometimes lead to big answers.
Then I showed them an old school video of the smoothest, spriest big man to ever throw down lyrics and do the running man in the history of hip hop (hint: A diddley diddley diddley diddley diddley deee) and I told them to keep a CLOSE eye on the guy holding the sign in the video. So we watched it and I asked them if they’d consider being sign guys. Resoundingly, no.
And them I asked them what they thought that guy was doing now.
Some replies were:
Nothing much.
Probably a bum.
Maybe producing?
Trying to sell music?
Still trying to be a rapper?
Why so average and negative?
He’s holding a sign! I mean, he’s not even rapping. He’s a scrub.
Close. Or maybe just putting in work and humbly paying his dues?
Yeah, sign holding paid off like a mofo.
My point: Do what you love and put the work in now. There’s nothing wrong with holding a sign in someone else’s video if that means you’re pursuing your passion. The people who tell you life is short are full of shit. Life is long and depressing when you have to live with your decisions to wallow in mediocrity for fear of striking out and doing something.
So now I’ve got their assumptions about what they can and can’t do on the ropes. Einstein? Puffy? Why not me? And then I TKO their self doubt with a little statistic in case they get that creeping sensation that the truly successful come from an elite class beyond the walls of their block/hood/mindstate/imagination:
Almost two-thirds of the world’s 946 billionaires made their fortunes from scratch, relying on grit and determination, and not good genes. — Forbes Magazine
My point: You can do it to. Don’t sweat what you’ve done or where you’ve come from in the past. Focus on what you can do RIGHT now. Take that first step. Register that domain name. Submit that demo. Get this degree and them jump out of the window and fly. Or fail. But for the love of Yoda, nothing don’t do.
Oh and that Welfare Gal I mentioned in the title and brought up to the class did OK as well. I asked what they thought a chick living out of a station wagon with her kid could possibly accomplish. They were surprised to find out that she went on to publish a book with a tiny cult following that allows her to eke out a modest living:
Yeah. Modest. Like only author to ever track to become a billionaire in her own lifetime based solely on her work.
And here was the gift to me: these kids had been framed as being somewhat troubled but through our dialog ALL I could see was the potential. I saw the dancers, painters, newscasters, chefs, and doctors in them and even had a chance to battle the rapper (there’s always one) in the class at the end of our chat. I’d love to tell you the old man won…but then I’d be writing fiction. ;)
Tell me what you think I missed. Tell me what you would have shared with a class. Was I too foofy? Not foofy enough?
And most of all don’t forgot to hit up a friend tomorrow for help-a-friend-friday! #haff
