00:00:00
[Applause]
00:00:04
one day sir one day a man's that before
00:00:10
to train just after it had begun to blow
00:00:13
away from the station at this time in
00:00:16
this place this was a fairly common
00:00:18
occurrence to board a moving train this
00:00:22
man as he stepped aboard accidentally
00:00:25
lost his sandal it slipped off fell to
00:00:28
the ground along the tracks in the wake
00:00:30
of the moving train the man immediately
00:00:32
realized that he would likely never be
00:00:34
wearing that sandal again and so in
00:00:37
response he simply took off his other
00:00:40
sample and threw it back along the
00:00:42
tracks to land close to the other an
00:00:45
interested passenger who was nearby ask
00:00:47
the man why you've done this and the man
00:00:49
replied the poor man who comes across
00:00:52
that sandal near the tracks will not
00:00:55
have a pair he can use perhaps he won't
00:00:58
be surprised to learn that the man in
00:01:00
the story was Mohandas Gandhi I chose to
00:01:03
share this story with you today because
00:01:04
it's such a simple representation of
00:01:06
Gandhi's everyday creativity and by the
00:01:09
way a pair of Gandhi sandals recently
00:01:11
sold at auction for $26,000 so who is
00:01:16
this Gandhi and why are people paying
00:01:18
twenty six thousand dollars for sandals
00:01:21
well be the change you wish to see in
00:01:24
the world this ubiquitous quote that has
00:01:27
influenced the title of our Ted event
00:01:28
today that's him although it turns out
00:01:32
Gandhi never actually said this he said
00:01:35
this but see the change is really just a
00:01:38
more simplified version of the message
00:01:40
that Gandhi embodies if you want to see
00:01:43
a change in the world begin by making
00:01:45
that change within yourself first this
00:01:53
message from Gandhi continues to live on
00:01:55
in our world today and it's not that
00:01:57
surprising because Gandhi was profoundly
00:02:00
amazing Gandhi led India's overthrow of
00:02:03
the British Empire you know that empire
00:02:06
on which the Sun never set because it
00:02:08
was so vast one of the wealth is the
00:02:10
most powerful empires of
00:02:11
ever existed on this planet in this way
00:02:17
God is a little bit like George
00:02:19
Washington everyone knows George
00:02:20
Washington that war hero who helped the
00:02:23
Americans win their independence in
00:02:24
Britain that cunning general who is so
00:02:27
popular that he was unanimously elected
00:02:29
president because that's how you lead
00:02:33
people to overthrow an empire right
00:02:35
through war I mean just watch Star Wars
00:02:38
or even Lion King but god there was no
00:02:41
more hero Gandhi didn't fight in fact
00:02:45
Gandhi wouldn't even allow others in
00:02:48
India to fight if Indians used violence
00:02:51
in their quest to achieve independence
00:02:53
in the British god I stopped eating and
00:02:56
it worked
00:02:57
people stopped fighting so under
00:03:01
Gandhi's leadership India won its
00:03:04
independence from Britain without war
00:03:06
and without violence how many have done
00:03:09
this creativity Gandhi's nonviolent
00:03:14
non-cooperation independence movement
00:03:16
required some pretty insane creative
00:03:19
problem-solving because no matter what
00:03:21
policy no matter what violence the
00:03:24
British brought to India Indians would
00:03:28
not respond with violence they had to
00:03:31
find another way led by Gandhi they
00:03:34
would use nonviolent non-cooperation to
00:03:37
protest British policy and time after
00:03:39
time the British brought
00:03:42
bloodshed to India and what's so
00:03:46
impressive about Gandhi story is that
00:03:49
time after time after time he found
00:03:53
another way Gandhi simply would not
00:03:56
accept British policy and he simply
00:03:58
would not respond in anger
00:04:01
Gandhi found another way to solve the
00:04:04
problems he encountered and that's such
00:04:07
an important lesson we can take away
00:04:09
from time like forget fighter play solve
00:04:13
the problem I like to imagine Gandhi
00:04:16
having said this but I mean I made it up
00:04:19
it's another one of those books we can
00:04:21
attribute to God because I think it's so
00:04:23
perfectly captures his message
00:04:26
fight-or-flight are responses that we in
00:04:29
human we as humans make so quickly and
00:04:32
so easily there are such simple
00:04:33
decisions to make and I think that's
00:04:37
part of why we in our society today have
00:04:40
such rigid political and social
00:04:42
divisions because we are so quick to
00:04:44
latch out in anger or turn away out of
00:04:48
apathy in America today we could learn
00:04:52
from Gandhi's commitment to finding
00:04:55
another way we can learn from Gandhi's
00:05:07
commitment to finding another way and we
00:05:11
can learn from creativity because
00:05:12
creativity really is a process by which
00:05:16
we find another way creativity is a
00:05:21
natural human process we all have it so
00:05:26
do me a favor and forget what you think
00:05:28
you know about creativity because really
00:05:31
creativity is about solving problems in
00:05:33
original and useful ways now some of us
00:05:37
are more able or better at solving
00:05:39
problems in original and useful ways but
00:05:42
what's so cool about creativity is it
00:05:45
takes those creative habits tools and
00:05:47
strategies that work well and it allows
00:05:50
us to study adopt and perfect them and
00:05:55
what that means is we can get better at
00:05:58
creativity we can get better at problem
00:06:01
solving now I think no one in this room
00:06:06
expects that anyone else in this room is
00:06:08
going to lead a nonviolent
00:06:09
non-cooperation independence move
00:06:11
anytime soon except for maybe Linda
00:06:14
right but what can you do to be the
00:06:19
change how might you take action what
00:06:28
can you do to be the change the thing is
00:06:31
there is no right or wrong way what
00:06:35
there is is an amazing and infinite
00:06:38
amount of possibility
00:06:41
we all have an untapped resource of
00:06:44
creative potential
00:06:46
we all have amazing creative ability but
00:06:50
how can we begin to use and explore our
00:06:53
creative power here's a simple step you
00:06:58
can take right now to begin to explore
00:07:02
your creativity to be the change you
00:07:05
wish to see in the world even if you
00:07:06
start just in your world for now start
00:07:09
framing your problems as questions and
00:07:11
use the word month when you account
00:07:15
encounter a problem don't ask how you
00:07:17
can or should or will solve that problem
00:07:20
ask how you might solve it how can you
00:07:25
fix this how will you solve that those
00:07:28
questions imply correct answers and so
00:07:31
the possibilities are inherently limited
00:07:34
by asking how might there are no wrong
00:07:39
answers the possibilities are endless in
00:07:45
this world today in America today we can
00:07:50
take inspiration from Gandhi's life and
00:07:52
we can use creativity to find new
00:07:56
solutions to those problems that divide
00:07:58
us but if you leave here thinking how
00:08:03
will I be the change you're going about
00:08:05
it all wrong because you're limiting
00:08:07
your options and so you're limiting your
00:08:09
potential leave here today thinking how
00:08:13
might I be the change
00:08:15
it's an incredibly small step but it
00:08:18
opens a world of creative possibilities
00:08:20
thank you
00:08:23
you
00:08:24
[Applause]
