[Music]
in a 1992 essay for Harvard Business
Review
Peter Drucker stated in a matter of
decades society altogether rearranges
itself its worldviews its basic values
its social and political structures its
arts its key institutions and 50 years
later a new world exists and the people
born into that world cannot imagine the
world in which their grandparents were
born into and the world in which their
parents were born our age is such a
period of transformation so a couple
years ago shortly after moving to one of
those ten states New York I was walking
through Washington Square Park and I
stumbled upon a tattered piece of paper
and I didn't know it at the time but
this small token of advice would change
the narrative in my life it would shift
all my thoughts intentions and actions
all knowledge is valuable currency
depending on the market in other words
your knowledge is equal to money but to
be of value you must spend it I'd like
everybody in the audience just for a
moment to close your eyes take yourself
back to your childhood youth recall the
society that you lived in maybe think
about your hobbies the way you bought
books the way you listen to music
maybe the way you communicated with your
friends the car your family drove
possibly even the way you searched for a
job now open your eyes each of us in
this room individually harness powerful
knowledge knowledge that is can
transcend even our own wildest
expectations the impact it can have
knowledge is so powerful and it is the
most critical currency all of us can
leverage however most of us won't
subscribe to its clout most of us
are saturated with information but we're
definite most of us truly fear our
abilities most of us are blocked and
clouded by the judgement of others
operating in the dependency of others
capabilities
see we as a society have the opportunity
to change the world that we live in our
knowledge is so powerful about 50 years
I want everybody in the audience to
think about the last 50 years to say
it's been groundbreaking is pretty wild
some of the things that we have seen
technology being at the core of the
change technology is a game changer it's
leveled the playing fields it's allowed
us to freely find knowledge and have it
distributed it's now available to anyone
anytime anywhere
we as the society have seen
unprecedented changes throughout our
lifetime digital transformations
advances in medicine and platform
technologies blow up proving that if you
apply knowledge if you apply it today
you can actually change the society that
we live in so what I'd like to do is
just take a peek at some of these
modern-day pioneers that have changed
our society over the last 50 years Jeff
Bezos
not a stranger to anybody ecommerce
pioneer give me a little woot woot if
you've ever purchased off Amazon not so
long ago was Amazon a place that all of
us purchased things from Reed Hastings
and Mark Randolph digital pioneers of
Netflix anybody remember a small company
called Blockbuster yeah those guys are
around about 15 years ago a small
door-to-door DVD rental company has now
turned into the largest streaming
content on a global scale Sara Blakely
so Sarah decided hey my clothes don't
fit so I'm gonna cut the feet off these
tights and I am gonna change women
shapewear for everybody so perhaps some
of us are supporting that industry
tonight Steve Jobs Steve Wozniak
consumer geniuses if you will they have
been pioneers across hardware and
software I think their names speak for
themselves
Facebook uber and airbnb so a few
minutes ago I asked you guys to think
about the society you lived in when you
were younger now I know there's some
college folks in here and there's some
folks that might be at the tail end of
their career think about these platforms
for pioneers that own no content and no
assets but they optimized because they
figured out platform strategies so I
want to be really realistic in saying
this Peter Drucker said our age is such
a period of transformation and the
reality is it is but to remain
representative of the masses it's really
notable to say listen whether the
knowledge that you harness today
whatever you're passionate about is
powerful for you whether it yields big
or small you have to have the appetite
to serve that up you have to have the
appetite to take that knowledge and do
something with it because we are our
future
we need to do that I'd also like to take
a look and say whether that knowledge
you want to apply is small there's some
brilliant pioneers out there that have
also been in the last 50 years let's
take a look at how their impacts have
affected our society Hans Han comer so
he invented the brita how many people
again a little woot-woot have ever used
the berta all right so he originally
wanted to optimize tap water but what he
actually was able to do and the pioneers
after him was to reduce single-use
plastic for our oceans
Frederick Sanger probably one of my
favorites famous for really pioneering
genetic sequencing so finding the
ability to really understand the makeup
of our DNA has solved for and continues
to identify the
for ALS for cancer for possibly things
like Alzheimer's and something near and
dear to my family is diabetes if you can
identify something before somebody is
born imagine the lives you can save
Theodor Seuss Geisel again who by allude
has a hat a Cat in the Hat book on their
shelves so this guy believe it or not
was challenged with creating poetry
within 225 word constraints what he
actually did was he changed children's
American literature forever
Daniel ACK and Martin Lawrence enough
Spotify again I asked you all to think
about the way you listen to music 10-15
years ago I'm sure there's people in
this audience that don't even know what
a Walkman is these guys clearly didn't
like them them and a lot of others that
have really created Digital streaming
changing the way we only listen to music
do we actually have music stored in our
phones Spotify big one Ron Klein so this
guy created the magnetic strip on the
back of a credit card who wishes that
they thought of that ten years ago and
other Royals is so not too long ago cash
was king Ron Klein was able to change
electronic lending and spending just by
creating a magnetic strip on the back
for credit card and last but certainly
not least because this list is extensive
if you think of all the things over your
lifetime that have changed because of
individuals or small groups of
individuals
Ricky Worman ideas worth spreading he's
the one that created this this TED talk
he's the one that got us all here today
to share that with you so what does this
mean why did we just take a mini history
lesson and plow through this the answer
is very simple all of you me and us we
are the future together we contribute
ideas we contribute knowledge and we
develop things however we need to link
we need to Leonardo disruptive strengths
and our in quench evil passions to serve
this up to everybody else I'm gonna ask
everybody to quickly close your eyes one
more time
fast forward from childhood to today
take into consideration some of the
modern conveniences that I mentioned and
I'm gonna ask you guys a few questions
from a modern marketing guru Seth Godin
what if we saw precisely the change we
sought to make and sacrifice that change
what if we did the work and share the
knowledge that matters and lastly what
if today just for today we didn't settle
you guys can open your eyes here's the
thing every day we have the opportunity
to wake up we have the opportunity to do
things that can change this world you
are not a product of your circumstance
you're a product of your decisions so I
want to charge everybody in this
audience today with going home finding
out what it is that sets your soul on
fire
remember that passion might be wildly
different than the person next to you
but that's okay it's not wrong it just
means you might be early in your journey
I want to challenge all of you to be the
catalyst again whether small or big you
can be the change for our future and if
you still think your ideas foolish
remember everybody thought Noah was
irrational until it started to rain so
I'd like to thank my fellow presenters
and everybody here tonight and leave you
with this all knowledge is spendable
currency depending on the market but to
be a value you must curate it evaluate
it and spend it thank you