(slow music)
- Greetings, Will Mobley,
for the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion,
and I'm here today with my cohost Naila Chowdhury,
who's the Director of Social Impact and Innovation
in UC extension, with a very special guest.
"Compassion Beyond Borders" the name of the show,
is meant to highlight the work of
a number of really outstanding people,
people who are doing great things in their daily lives,
but are now even doing more impressive things
in the context of this pandemic,
we're dealing with right now.
These are people who serve other people,
they face challenges,
they innovate solutions to those challenges,
and the solutions they create
are really making it possible to engender hope,
even in this very difficult time.
So with that, I'd like to turn it over to my cohost,
Naila if you'll go ahead and introduce our guest.
- Thank you, Dr Mobley, today's guest is Brandon Farbstein.
He's a renowned empowerment speaker,
Gen Z activist, and an author.
At just 20 years, he inspires millions of people
across the globe, with his universal message,
of living life on your own terms.
Brandon was diagnosed with a rare form of dwarfism
at the age of two.
He turned his life's experiences of sufferings,
isolation and victimhood into empowerment,
impact, compassion and influence.
After severe battle with cyber bullying in high school,
Brandon decided to share his story,
to both offer hope and to enact change.
Brandon was named in TigerBeat and Instagram,
as one of the 19 most influential teenagers in the world
with his mission to elevate empathy.
In one word, Brandon is unstoppable.
Hi Brandon, it's a pleasure to welcome you,
thank you for being with us.
- Thank you so much for having me, I'm honored.
- We are so eager to hear from you,
your life's journey, your purpose and works,
your social impact on millions of people who you inspire
and especially during the pandemic,
has it shifted your perspective?
- Absolutely, so I'll start with a little bit of context
to piggyback off what you said in the introduction,
so you can't really tell this on camera,
but I am three foot nine,
so I'm obviously not your average 20 year old,
and I don't have a normal perspective,
as a lot of people would say.
And I truly believe it has led me to where I am
both mentally and career-wise.
So growing up in school, it always was a challenge for me
accepting the fact that not only was I different,
but I also had to deal with, like you mentioned,
quite a lot of bullying and cyber bullying,
especially on social media.
And that really took heat in high school
when I became essentially target number one,
and I was so relentlessly harassed and degraded
for being different for being who I am.
And it turned into such a toxic environment
that it was affecting really every aspect of my life,
not just my schoolwork, not just my mental health,
but it really was dragging me down as a whole.
And I realized that I really had to make a change,
I had to get myself out of that environment.
And that's exactly what I did,
I began online school and through that journey
I realized how much extra time and energy that I had.
So I decided to use that to start testifying
at the Virginia General Assembly where I lived
and I decided to share my story.
I didn't know what would come out of it,
but I knew that there were so many thousands
of other students, other families
that were going through similar things,
and I wanted to at least offer
a little bit of hope with mine.
And it turned out I was able to get
two pieces of legislation passed,
one anti-bullying law and another one
that actually requires empathy to be taught
in the Virginia public school curriculum,
starting in kindergarten and building on
every single year from that.
Something that I truly believe,
makes the world of a difference to everybody.
Empathy is the key to human connection,
and human connection is what truly we all crave.
And I really discovered that through not only my advocacy,
but simultaneously,
I began a career in motivational speaking.
Starting at the age of 15 I was asked to give a TEDx talk,
and that was the very first time
that I decided to share my story,
to be vulnerable and authentic.
And it was in that moment that I discovered my purpose,
I discovered my passion, and five years later,
I've been following it ever since.
So really what I'm focused on every single day
is elevating empathy, is making people realize
how much potential is inside of them
and truly the power that all of us possess every single day,
no matter what challenges, what adversity we may face.
And so whether it be speaking to youth
or Fortune 500 companies,
I really like to help people unlock their inner greatness
and their inner gifts to make them feel
like they are unstoppable, like you mentioned Naila.
And I've also been able to share my message of empowerment
through my book "10 Feet Tall".
Where not only do I share a little bit of my life story
and a lot of the tools that I've learned
to get to where I am,
especially a resilient mindset and focusing on gratitude,
making sure that your perspective is in check,
but also just making sure people understand that,
we are not defined by anything else,
other than what we set for ourselves.
No medical condition, no political party,
no sexual orientation can define who we are,
at our core as human beings.
And it's a vitally important message,
I think now more than ever.
- Brandon, it's a very inspiring story,
so your wisdom really exceeds your chronological age,
you must understand that,
what you're saying just makes so much sense.
I think the advice you're giving to others is ageless.
But when you think back on your experience,
how did it work?
How did it happen that you were able to say,
"Look, I am who I am, I'm just who I am,
"and that's just fine.
"I'm gonna help other people discover
"that who they are is also just fine."
How did you do that?
- It really took me hitting rock bottom multiple times,
one of those was when I was 11 years old,
I was very, very close to ending my life.
I really had no motivation to keep going,
all I saw for me was pain and more suffering.
And so it really, I think,
takes us hitting moments like that,
to give us the perspective of how lucky we are
to live in this life, to have the gifts that we have,
no matter how difficult things might be on a daily basis.
For me, it's innovating my own solution,
because there are always gonna be challenges,
there are always gonna be things that pop up
on a daily basis, whether it's stress or negativity,
whatever the negative emotions are,
we have to be able to do something with that
and not let it drag us down and halt our momentum in life.
- You know, there's a lot we have to learn about the brain,
and how the brain responds to challenges like this,
but in essence, by accepting you for just who you are,
you were able to break through the suffering and the sadness
and to now be able to share with others,
and in fact to care for others,
that's a great story and it's a real story of success so,
it's great to hear that you have this experience.
Maybe give us a look at your future,
what's gonna happen next for Brandon?
- That's a great question, I think now,
during these crazy times that we're in with the pandemic,
it's really making me reconsider who I am
and what I want to do in this world.
Obviously my motivational speaking is really no longer,
I'm not traveling, I'm not speaking to universities
and companies anymore with everything on pause.
So really what I'm focused on is figuring out
where I can best serve.
And I've had a lot of success
with reaching many people on social media,
so I know I'll continue doing that.
Hopefully it will turn into either a show or a podcast,
a way for me not only to contribute my perspective,
but also bring others on who are world changers as well.
But also collaborating with organizations and companies
that are focused on bettering the world as well,
and adding my perspective, adding my solutions,
because I really believe if we could all adapt it,
just like you said, it's ageless and it's universal.
- It's very inspiring,
Naila did you have another question for Brandon?
- I really had a question,
because I've been following Brandon,
and I see in Instagram, Twitter everywhere Brandon,
you've got hundreds of followers
and with so many inspirational ways when they follow,
with that comes a lot of responsibilities
and in the coming days people are more online.
Would you advise young people and us,
on how to use social media for positive impact?
- Absolutely, so I think something that we're not
realizing so much is how much of the energy we absorb
through the content that we're seeing,
especially on social media.
Because just like you said Naila,
we're spending so much time on it,
whether we're aware and we're conscious of it or we're not,
especially for the young people and the parents,
here's the challenge that I wanna offer you.
There should only be people on your social media feed
and on your friends list that uplift you,
that somehow empower you or inspire you,
to be a better person in some way.
I'm not saying you have to exclusively follow
motivational speakers and inspirational accounts,
but I am saying you should not be following toxic people
or individuals that do nothing but complain
about how horrible the world is and offering no solutions,
no answers to making it better.
We are responsible for what we consume.
And we need to do a better job of making sure
that we are smart and we're strategic,
with who's taking up our time,
both in person and on social media too.
- It's terrific advice, Brandon.
And as I mentioned before, this show started,
to me, you're 10 feet tall, and I thank you
for the wonderful contributions you're making.
And I hope that we'll stay in contact as we go forward,
if there's something that we can do to share with you,
or you with us please let us know,
because you're our hero.
- I'm honored, I really appreciate that.
(slow music)