MALE SPEAKER 1: Welcome to all you Googlers out there.
And a very warm welcome to Lenny Ravich, who came all the
way from Israel and is the author of a great book,
actually, which I read a few years ago, which is called "A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Enlightenment."
Obviously, he is, in addition to being a psychologist and a
very impactful speaker, he's also a humorist.
And we were guaranteed by Avi that we're going to laugh, and
that we're going to enjoy ourself, and that we are all
going to leave smiling.
And hopefully, by leaving this room smiling, we will then
have a positive influence on everyone else in the office.
And we will all go home and smile.
And then, we will have a positive
impact on our families.
LEONARD RAVICH: Play it forward.
MALE SPEAKER: And, yeah, we will pay it forward.
So I look forward to laughing and smiling and feeling a
little bit better.
So Lenny, over to you.
And thank you very much for coming to Google.
We're very happy to have you.
LEONARD RAVICH: My pleasure.
My pleasure.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
LEONARD RAVICH: Yes, thank you very much for coming.
Before I begin, I would like to ask a question.
How many of you would like to have a more flourishing life,
a more joyful life, open mind, feeling good, looking good,
live longer, live stronger?
If there's anybody here like that, would
you raise your hand?
OK, you almost forgot.
How many people would not like to have a more flourishing
life, live longer, live stronger,
look good, feel good?
How many people would not?
OK, I just want to check if I was in the right place.
Because I'm going to talk to you about all of those things
and how to achieve them.
I will be giving you some things, which we call
attitudes, that I've discovered along my journey.
But first, I'd like to tell you a little story about how
this all began.
I was working in Tel Aviv, in Israel, at
the Ministry of Education.
I was an inspector, a supervisor of teachers.
If anybody doesn't know what an inspector is, it's a person
that used to be a teacher and then
decided not to work anymore.
In 1996, I went out on pension.
And since I've been out on pension, I've been having
nightmares.
I keep dreaming I go back to the Ministry of Education.
And I start out on a journey of my own to find out what is
the one thing that all people in the world want.
What is the most valuable thing in our lives, which we
probably don't think about too much.
So I started sending out mails, Facebook, I met
strangers on planes and asked this question.
What's most important thing for you in your life?
What is the most valuable thing to you?
And what do you think the most common answers were?
Let me hear what you think.
What were the most common answers?
AUDIENCE: Being happy.
LEONARD RAVICH: I'm sorry?
AUDIENCE: Being happy.
LEONARD RAVICH: Being happy.
What is your name?
AUDIENCE: Tulsi.
LEONARD RAVICH: Susie?
AUDIENCE: Tulsi.
LEONARD RAVICH: Sucie.
AUDIENCE: Tulsi.
Tulsi.
LEONARD RAVICH: Tulsi.
Tulsi.
Thank you, Tulsi.
OK, anybody else?
AUDIENCE: Health.
LEONARD RAVICH: Again?
AUDIENCE: Health.
LEONARD RAVICH: Health.
Who said that?
What is your name?
AUDIENCE: [? Clea. ?]
LEONARD RAVICH: [? Pia? ?]
AUDIENCE: [? Clea. ?]
LEONARD RAVICH: [? Clea. ?]
AUDIENCE: [? Clea. ?]
LEONARD RAVICH: It's very clear, [? Clea. ?]
Being healthy.
OK.
Anybody else?
AUDIENCE: My family.
LEONARD RAVICH: Again?
AUDIENCE: My family.
LEONARD RAVICH: Family.
Family.
Your name?
AUDIENCE: No.
LEONARD RAVICH: OK.
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: I was going to get you a family.
OK, so we have happy.
We have healthy.
We have family.
Anybody else?
AUDIENCE: Meaningful relationships.
LEONARD RAVICH: Meaningful relationship.
And you are?
AUDIENCE: Loren.
LEONARD RAVICH: Loren.
And that's Alex.
OK, I almost got you confused.
OK.
AUDIENCE: That's all right.
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, may I ask you a question?
Let's say the most important thing in life to me is family,
and I get to have a wonderful, strong,
functional, healthy family.
I'd like you to fill in this one word in a sentence.
If I have all of that, I will be a [MM]
person?
Happy.
Somebody said health, yes?
If I have health, perfect health, wake up in the morning
perfect health every day of my life, I will be a [MM] person.
AUDIENCE: Happy.
LEONARD RAVICH: Happy.
OK, who said happy?
Happy, OK.
What else did we have?
We had meaningful relationship.
If I have a real meaningful relationship, a long lasting,
meaningful relationship, I will be a--
AUDIENCE: It's a trick question.
LEONARD RAVICH: Trick question, isn't it?
AUDIENCE: Fulfilled.
LEONARD RAVICH: Fulfilled.
And if I am fulfilled, I will be--
AUDIENCE: --happy.
LEONARD RAVICH: Happy.
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, so the one thing we all want is this
thing called happiness, or joy, or positive feelings.
Now, of course we want it.
How many people here are parents?
OK.
How many people here are children of parents?
If I asked you as a parent, or any parent in the world, what
do you want most for your children?
I want them to be--
AUDIENCE: --happy.
LEONARD RAVICH: Happy.
OK, we keep going back to the same subject.
We all want that.
And I'll tell you why and how to achieve it in some ways,
the awareness at least.
They asked John Lennon--
anybody remember John Lennon--
AUDIENCE: Yep.
LEONARD RAVICH: When he was in grammar school, John what do
you want to be when you grow up?
And his answer was, I want to be happy.
So the school officials decided that John Lennon
didn't understand the question.
Later on, John Lennon said that the school officials
didn't understand life.
So we all want this thing called happiness.
And what is it?
It's something we don't talk about much.
They don't teach you much in school or at home about what
the word feeling is.
It's a feeling.
It's a positive feeling.
And what does this positive feeling do for us?
Why do we want it so badly?
Number one, it not only feels good, but
according to research--
Dr. Bernie Siegel's book "Love, Medicine and Miracles,"
anybody read it--
OK, he says that, as a general rule, happy
people don't get sick.
You with me on this?
OK, it protects your health.
Being happy, being in a positive state of mind, happy
people don't get sick.
That's what he says.
According to Barbara Fredrickson--
and I recommend that you read her book, called
"Positivity"--
says people who have this positive feeling, people who
are feeling this happiness or this optimism of this hope,
live longer, live stronger.
Remember in the beginning I asked you, who wants to live
longer and live stronger, look good.
This is all researched stuff.
This has been done by her and her researcher in her book.
So we all want this positive feeling,
because it gives us health.
It gives us long life.
It makes us look good.
It makes us feel good.
It helps us in relationships.
It helps us in our family and all kinds of relationships.
I would like to give you five attitudes, because thinking
positively is not going to do it.
I once saw a movie called "American Dream" or something
where this woman is in a car and she's putting on her tape,
these empowering tapes, I'm a strong woman type thing.
And she's over and over going, I'm a strong woman.
I'm a strong woman.
So all these positive thinkings doesn't really help.
What really helps is attitude.
And what is an attitude?
It's a way of looking at life.
Because everything you think and everything you feel has an
effect on the chemistry in your body, OK?
If you're feeling stressed out, if you're feeling fear,
if you're feeling anxiety or anger, your body is producing
a chemical called cortisol.
And cortisol is a poison.
Enough days of cortisol, and you could end up with a thing
called stress-related illnesses.
And I don't care what your diet is and how much you jog.
This will get you.
If you're feeling good, if you're feeling positive, if
your feeling's this happy feeling, what happens is your
body produces endorphins.
May I have a drink?
Is it OK?
Thank you.
Endorphins lower stress, protect your immune system,
and even strengthen your immune system, making you
strong against colds, against sicknesses or diseases.
You look much better.
You feel much better.
So here are the five attitudes.
I'd like to know if you are willing to take at
least one or two.
Who is willing to commit to taking one or two of these
attitudes back with you, out of this room and into your
life, and maybe playing forward?
Raise your hand.
OK, the rest of you can get out.
OK, the first attitude is, let's talk about the worst
thing you can do.
The worst thing you can do is take yourself seriously, OK?
Seriousness is a disease, dis ease.
It's not funny.
My father told me when I was a kid, he said to me, Lenny--
he used to call me Lenny, because that's my name--
this side is a lot more intelligent than this side,
I'll tell you that.
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: He said, Lenny, don't
take yourself seriously.
Nobody else does.
I said, thanks, Dad.
Anyway, one of the things that you can do--
and keep this in mind.
This is an awareness session.
Because only in one hour, I can't go, boom, you're
changed, but you can get an awareness--
and that is, at every opportunity, laugh at yourself
and breathe.
By laughing at yourself, you're
not belittling yourself.
You're not lowering your self-esteem.
You're doing the opposite.
You're saying to the world, I'm not perfect.
I made bloopers, mistakes, defects.
And I have addictions.
I laugh at them.
And I accept myself.
And that's the way it is.
It Is the highest form of humor that you
can possibly do.
And try to think about this every single day of your life.
Any time you make a mistake or you did something wrong,
instead of saying, oh, stupid, say, hey, this is fun.
Let me give you an example.
When I was a young man growing up--
I grew up in the United States--
and I had a dream.
And that dream was I wanted to be a radio and television
announcer, you know, the guy that sits in front of the
camera and delivers the news, like a news [INAUDIBLE],
whatever it is.
And so I went to school in Boston, to a school called
Emerson College, where they taught theater.
And one of the subjects I learned was broadcasting,
where they taught you how to speak like a radio announcer,
an American radio announcer.
And you had to speak something like this.
And now, back to our show, "The Flying Chicken." I
practiced this so much, and I got into this voice so much, I
couldn't get out.
It was embarrassing.
I would go to a party.
Hello, John, how are you, go home, hello, darling, how
about a hug?
I finally got a job at WAPI TV and Radio
in Birmingham, Alabama.
Anybody know where Birmingham, Alabama is?
It's down south, next to Georgia, Louisiana, Texas.
And I was very excited.
My first day at work, I sat in front of the camera.
I had to go on the air at 8 o'clock.
It is now one minute to 8:00.
The lights come down in the studio.
And a light goes up on the door.
It says, on the air.
And then, there's a red light on the camera.
And the camera comes in slowly.
And there's this woman who has earphones, and she goes like
this to me, [POINTING].
And she points to me.
And then the music starts, you know the music, the
broadcasting music, da, da da, da, da, da, da, da.
And I looked at the camera.
And I said this.
I said, good evening--
you know, that voice--
and here is the news, read to you by Leonard Ravich.
Oh, I was delighted.
I had achieved my dream.
I had a dream job, you know.
The next day I came to the studio.
And I noticed that people's reactions to me were a little
different, that people were going like this,
[SNICKERING], like that.
I go, what happened?
I was receiving mail and telephone calls.
People wanted to speak to Leonard Garbage.
I said Ravich, they heard garbage.
I was getting telephone calls.
And people wanted to speak to Leonard Rubbish, Rabbit.
Is Mr. Rabbit there, you know?
One person even sent mail to Leonard Ravage, R-A-V-A-G-E,
which means to--
I looked it up-- it means to rape and pillage.
And I am completely innocent of all wrongdoing.
So I got an hour before I go on.
And I'm nervous.
And the cortisol, you know, and the stress, what do I do?
So I thought, I'll change my name.
Leonard part, I'll keep the Leonard part.
That's OK.
But I got to change the garbage.
OK, so Leonard Ra-- you know, something with a R-A--
Reynolds, no.
Leonard Roberts, no.
Leonard--
I got it--
Raymond.
OK, that's cool, huh?
Leonard Raymond.
OK, so I went to everybody's office.
I'm no longer Leonard Ravich.
I'm Leonard Raymond.
Everybody looked up and said, thank God.
Got in front of the camera, one minute to 8:00.
Lights come down.
Light goes up on the door, says on the air.
The television camera comes in, red light.
And there's this producer who goes like this to me,
[COUNTING DOWN WITH FINGERS].
And I hear the music, da,da,da,da,da,da,da,da.
And it happened just like this.
I looked at the camera and I said, in that broadcasting
voice, good evening, and here is the news, read to you by
Leonard [MUMBLING].
I became the first radio and television announcer in the
history of the United States who forgot his name during a
live broadcast.
But you had to be spontaneous, because it's air time.
And it costs a lot of money, so you have to say something
right away.
So I said, I forgot my name, but here is the news.
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: Washington.
If I'm not mistaken, I can see you laughing and hear you.
The thing is, are you laughing at me or are you laughing--
AUDIENCE: With.
LEONARD RAVICH: --with me?
Because when you laugh at yourself, when you make fun of
yourself, you bring people closer to you.
It's called intimacy.
My interpretation of intimacy is in-to-me-see.
And the more of you I show of me, and I show you my
mistakes, I bring you closer to me.
And this makes for meaningful relationships.
So the first tool is laugh at yourself and breathe.
Now, I want you to take something back.
I don't want you just to experience this in your mind.
I want you to experience it in your body.
So we're going to do something right now, an experiment.
Now, experiments are scary.
And why are they scary?
Because you leave your comfort zone.
Because you're going to do something that you don't know.
So you have two choices.
One is not to take part in this experiment.
The other is to walk into the fear.
Because when you are afraid and do it anyway, you learn
something new about yourself.
So you have a choice.
If you're uncomfortable and you don't want to do
it, don't do it.
If you're uncomfortable and you still want to do it,
remember that you're going to learn something.
Those people who are going to participate with me, do this.
Raise your finger in the air.
And then you bring it down over here in front of you.
And you do this, [POINTING AT SELF].
Now, in about 30 seconds, you're going to
be laughing at yourself.
You see, you're already doing it.
OK, so smile.
And when I count to three--
I'm going to say 1, 2, 3-- you go, ha, ha ha, ha, ha, ha.
OK, 1, 2, 3, and, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
1, 2, 3, and ha,ha, ha,ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
1, 2, 3, and ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
OK, make believe you've got a flower in your fingers.
Take the flower, put it under your nose.
Breathe in a very deeply, and say, aah.
AUDIENCE: [IN UNISON]
Aah.
LEONARD RAVICH: Breathe in deeply and say, aah.
LEONARD RAVICH WITH AUDIENCE: Aah.
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, so we're going to have something now, a
tool, to use when you're in a stressful situation.
Or if you see somebody in the office taking themselves too
seriously, you go like this, [POINTING AT HIMSELF], he, he,
he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he.
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, how many of you have driver's license?
OK, how many of you have been in a traffic jam?
How many people don't particularly
like the traffic jams?
They can be stressful.
OK, this is what you do in a traffic jam.
OK, everybody together, even if you have a car or not.
Put your hand on the wheel, the steering wheel, that is.
Not that wheel.
This wheel.
And not the other hand, just one hand.
And you're in a traffic jam right now.
OK.
And you take your finger and put it here.
And you say, after me, I'm in a traffic jam,
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
1, 2, 3, and--
LEONARD RAVICH WITH AUDIENCE: --I am in a traffic jam, ha,
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
LEONARD RAVICH: 1, 2, 3, and--
LEONARD RAVICH WITH AUDIENCE: --I am in a traffic jam, ha,
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
LEONARD RAVICH: 1, 2, 3--
LEONARD RAVICH WITH AUDIENCE: --I am in a traffic jam, ha,
ha, ha, ha, ha.
LEONARD RAVICH: Take your flower.
Don't take your hand off the wheel.
Don't look around.
People will be looking at you.
And breathe in very deeply.
Say, aah.
LEONARD RAVICH WITH AUDIENCE: Aah.
LEONARD RAVICH: One more time.
Take a deep breath.
LEONARD RAVICH WITH AUDIENCE: Aah.
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, you can take your hand
off the wheel now.
We're back in the room.
And you have a tool.
Whenever you get stressed-- or anybody in your house, your
child, your wife, your husband, your friend--
you can always take out the flower.
You could always point your finger,
laugh, and breathe deeply.
Breathing deeply is just as important as laughing.
Before we go on, I want to ask you if there's anybody here
who feels any differently than you did when you first came
in, if there's any difference in your feeling.
Just check your feelings.
I'm going to explain to men what feelings are.
Men don't know what feelings are.
This is the truth.
Men, feelings are things that go on inside.
OK.
Anybody feeling anything differently than you did when
you first came in?
Yes?
What What are you feeling?
AUDIENCE: A little lighter.
LEONARD RAVICH: A little lighter, a little lighter.
And, anybody else?
Yes?
AUDIENCE: I think I'm more aware of what I'm feeling.
I'm more aware of the way I'm thinking.
LEONARD RAVICH: You're more aware now of what you're
thinking and feeling.
Could you tell me, if you don't mind, what you're
thinking and feeling?
[LAUGHTER]
AUDIENCE: On how I can feel better, on how I can manage
stress or the goof ups better.
LEONARD RAVICH: How you can feel better?
AUDIENCE: Yeah, or how I can manage stress, manage goof
ups, manage mistakes better.
LEONARD RAVICH: OK.
And all of that happened within 10, 15 seconds.
Light feeling?
You get that?
That's what we're talking about, that positivity, that
thing that makes you feel good, that thing that protects
your health, the things that makes you look good and that
makes you stronger, OK?
15 seconds every day, a couple times a day, and you've got
that light feeling.
You've got that good feeling.
Before I go on, I'd like a nice feeling, too.
So please give me a round of applause.
[APPLAUSE]
LEONARD RAVICH: How many people here have heard of a
person by the name of Steve Jobs?
I guess you have.
Bless you.
I suggest that you go into Google--
Google--
search YouTube.
He's got a speech--
2005--
a commencement speech, Steve Jobs to the graduating class
of Stanford University.
I want you to listen to that, because it's very inspiring.
Anybody heard of that speech before?
Do you remember the last two sentences of that speech?
LEONARD RAVICH: Stay hungry--
AUDIENCE: --stay foolish.
LEONARD RAVICH: Stay foolish.
Stay hungry, stay foolish.
Now, stay hungry, I guess it means to be never really
satisfied completely until you get to your destination,
whatever that is, or satisfy your passion.
But stay foolish really stunned me-- and I'll tell you
why-- when I heard it.
Because my parents, my teachers, all told me,
Leonard, be serious.
You're not going to get anywhere in this world if
you're not serious.
You're not going to succeed being a clown.
So I want to do something right now to have you
experience what it feels like to do something foolish, and
why did Steve Jobs say that, and what is that
going to give us?
So I have to look out into the audience and ask you this.
How many people here, in this audience, speak a language
other than English, Hebrew, or Mandarin?
What language do you speak?
AUDIENCE: Portuguese and Japanese.
LEONARD RAVICH: Portuguese and--
AUDIENCE: --Japanese.
LEONARD RAVICH: What do you speak better,
Portuguese or Japanese?
AUDIENCE: Portuguese.
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, but you can speak Japanese, OK?
And your name, again, is?
AUDIENCE: Daniel.
LEONARD RAVICH: Daniel.
Daniel, would you mind coming up here?
Have a nice round of applause for Daniel?
[APPLAUSE]
LEONARD RAVICH:
Daniel, stand over here so you'll be closer to the
microphone.
First of all, thank you very much.
AUDIENCE: You're welcome.
LEONARD RAVICH: This is a surprise for you, isn't it?
AUDIENCE: It is, yes.
LEONARD RAVICH: Now, we're talking about feelings.
So what does it feel like to stand up in front of your
friends here?
AUDIENCE: I'm used to it already, yeah.
LEONARD RAVICH: I'm used to it.
It really surprises me.
Because there was a research done.
The question was, what is the scariest thing in the world?
What do you think it is?
They thought the scariest thing in the world was the
fear of death.
The fear of death is number two.
The number one fear is--
AUDIENCE: Is that being on stage?
LEONARD RAVICH: Yes, speaking in public.
AUDIENCE: With Lenny next to you.
AUDIENCE: With Lenny.
LEONARD RAVICH: Yeah, right.
Speaking in public is a fear worse than death.
So the next time you go to a funeral, just remember, the
guy giving the last speech over the grave
would rather be--
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: --in the coffin.
So we're going to give Daniel a nice round of applause.
[APPLAUSE]
LEONARD RAVICH: Daniel, I want you to do something for me.
We're going to play a scene.
AUDIENCE: All right.
LEONARD RAVICH: Can you give me, just explain to me, just a
little bit, a stressful moment at work, just one little
stressful moment?
AUDIENCE: OK, someone didn't clean the micro kitchen.
LEONARD RAVICH: Somebody what?
AUDIENCE: Someone ate their stuff.
And then, they just left it in the micro kitchen.
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, they left it in there.
AUDIENCE: And I was upset, so much.
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, you're upset.
So I'm the one who did it.
AUDIENCE: OK.
LEONARD RAVICH: Now you come to me, and you are upset.
AUDIENCE: Yes.
LEONARD RAVICH: And I want to talk to me and be upset in
Portuguese.
AUDIENCE: In Portuguese, OK.
LEONARD RAVICH: Now, why Portuguese?
Because I don't know Portuguese.
But I'm going to be foolish, and I'm going to speak
Portuguese gibberish to you.
AUDIENCE: OK.
LEONARD RAVICH: But please don't laugh, OK?
But answer me as if you really understand me, seriously.
And then, I'll answer you, as if I really understand you,
like me and my wife, OK?
AUDIENCE: OK.
LEONARD RAVICH: Because what happens when you get foolish,
you go into the right brain.
And when you go into the right brain, there is a
thing called empathy.
And you start to understand each other even without
understanding each other.
Because you go into a place of
understanding that is not logical.
Am I making myself clear?
Well, you'll see in just a moment, OK?
You come to my office, and you're really upset.
And this is in Portuguese, OK?
I'm on my computer right now.
Act one, scene one, take one, action.
AUDIENCE: OK.
[KNOCKING]
LEONARD RAVICH: Yeah.
AUDIENCE: Lenny, [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE].
LEONARD RAVICH: [SPEAKING GIBBERISH].
[LAUGHTER]
AUDIENCE: [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE]
LEONARD RAVICH: [SPEAKING GIBBERISH]
AUDIENCE: No, no, no, no.
[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE]
LEONARD RAVICH: [SPEAKING GIBBERISH]
AUDIENCE: [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE]
LEONARD RAVICH: Huh?
AUDIENCE: [PORTUGUESE]
LEONARD RAVICH: [SPEAKING GIBBERISH]
AUDIENCE: [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE]
LEONARD RAVICH: [GIBBERISH]
AUDIENCE: [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE]
LEONARD RAVICH: [SPEAKING GIBBERISH]
AUDIENCE: [PORTUGUESE]
LEONARD RAVICH: [SPEAKING GIBBERISH]
AUDIENCE: [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE]
LEONARD RAVICH: [SPEAKING GIBBERISH]
AUDIENCE: [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE]
LEONARD RAVICH: [SPEAKING GIBBERISH]
AUDIENCE: [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE]
LEONARD RAVICH: [SPEAKING GIBBERISH]
AUDIENCE: [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE]
LEONARD RAVICH: [SPEAKING GIBBERISH]
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: Wonderful.
Thank you very much.
Wait a minute.
Let's give him a round of applause.
It was great.
I would like you to have this copy of my book.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
LEONARD RAVICH: Come to me later.
I want to sign it for you--
AUDIENCE: All right.
LEONARD RAVICH: --and give you a signature.
One thing before you go.
I want you to know something.
How many people here know Daniel?
Raise your hand.
You don't know Daniel.
There's one thing about Daniel you don't know.
Daniel was in a great, cruel race, the
cruelest race in nature.
He was in the great sperm race.
There were millions of sperm, all trying to get to that same
egg, but Daniel wouldn't give up.
Because only the fastest, best and healthiest and strongest
get to the egg first.
I'm so sorry that so many of your brothers and sisters died
along the way.
AUDIENCE: Lord knows.
LEONARD RAVICH: Do you have a car?
AUDIENCE: I don't.
LEONARD RAVICH: Do you have a motorcycle, bicycle?
AUDIENCE: I have a bicycle.
LEONARD RAVICH: Put this on your bicycle.
And you'll be foolish.
It says, I won the sperm race.
If you're foolish enough to put this on your bicycle,
you'll take Steve Jobs seriously, OK?
AUDIENCE: Thank you, Lenny.
LEONARD RAVICH: Thank you very much.
OK, nice round of applause.
[APPLAUSE]
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, so what do we get out of being a little
bit foolish?
I can't leave and come over and talk to you in gibberish,
because it won't pick me up.
The mic won't pick me up.
So I'm just going to have to ask you.
We were foolish for a while.
And Daniel, for one thing, was very creative.
This was a very creative moment.
It was a moment that we really connected even though we
didn't understand the language.
What did you get out of being foolish?
Why did you think that Steve Jobs wants us to be foolish?
Anybody feel anything or think anything or that anything
happened to you while we were doing this?
What did you get out of it?
AUDIENCE: We laughed.
LEONARD RAVICH: Sorry?
AUDIENCE: We laughed.
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, a good laugh.
AUDIENCE: And he didn't get cornered.
He wanted to be mad at you and get you in a discussion, but
you just, by dismissing--
LEONARD RAVICH: Yeah.
AUDIENCE: --that seriousness, you lost it.
LEONARD RAVICH: OK.
OK, so we got a laugh lot of it.
Can you think of anything more important than a
laugh in your life?
It's pretty important.
OK, so now we have two attitudes.
One is to laugh at yourself and breathe.
And the other one is stay hungry, stay--
AUDIENCE: --foolish.
LEONARD RAVICH: Stay foolish.
You do foolish things.
As a matter of fact, talk gibberish.
Or just do something foolish, like putting a little sticker
on your car or your bicycle that says I won the sperm
race, and you've done it.
And you feel better.
And you have a good laugh.
Before I go on, may I have a round of applause, please?
[APPLAUSE]
LEONARD RAVICH: About 11 years ago, I was sitting in a
restaurant of a hotel that I was staying at.
And the waitress was taking my order.
And at the end, she said, will that be all, sir?
And I said, yes.
And she said, thank you, and left.
Now, where I come from, I never heard a waiter or
waitress say to me "thank you" by taking my order.
Never happened.
So I was curious.
And so when she came back, I said,
can I ask you a question?
Is it the policy of this hotel for you to say to a guest
"thank you" for taking my order?
And she said no, that's what I got from my home.
We were taught that if I have a chance to serve someone,
it's an opportunity for me to get closer to God.
I was stunned.
She said, why did I say thank you to you?
Because you gave me an opportunity to get closer to
God by asking me to serve you.
Now, why did this have me in such a shock?
Because it's the first time in my life I had ever met a
person who looks at service as something godly or holy, that
actually helping another person or serving another
person is a holy act.
But you know what she did for me--
I thought about it-- and she did it for you, too.
She gave us what our purpose and mission in life is.
Our purpose and mission in life is to serve.
Think about what you do every day.
It's service, OK?
Our purpose and mission in life is to improve other
people's lives.
That's the whole reason around Steve Jobs, Bill Gates.
It's all about improving people's lives.
That's all they wanted to do.
So our mission and purpose in life is what?
Its our meaning in life.
Everybody needs a meaning.
Let me just tell you how important
meaning is in your life.
If anybody's ever read a book called "Man's Search for
Meaning" by Dr. Frankel, Victor Frankel, he says that
in order to have meaning in our lives, it gives us the
reason to live, the reason to live, to have meaning, OK?
And if your meaning is service, if your meaning is
helping other people, improving other people's
lives, that gives you a meaning in life.
And I want to just tell you one little story
about having meaning.
And all of you, before you leave today, I want you to
make that decision.
My meaning in life is, and finish the sentence.
And I'll tell you how it's done.
Across the street from my house, my apartment--
I live in Tel Aviv--
there is a dry cleaning shop.
I bring my clothes there.
And there's an elderly man.
When I say elderly man, I mean my age, which is like
extremely mature.
And I have a show that I do in Tel Aviv.
I have a show at the theater.
And I gave them two tickets.
And I said, come to my show and enjoy yourself.
They came to my show.
And when I brought my clothes in the next day, they said, we
were at your show.
And the man said to me, you know, that you are
performing a mitzvah.
If anybody doesn't know what a mitzvah is, in the Jewish
religion, a mitzvah is doing God's command.
It's a command from God.
He said, you're doing a mitzvah, because you're making
people laugh, and you're teaching them how to be happy.
This is a mitzvah.
And he said to me, you know what?
I am also performing a mitzvah.
I clean your clothes so that you could go on stage and do
your mitzvah.
Did you see that man did, that I want you to do?
In that one second, split second, instead of saying,
I've got to clean these clothes.
I've got to wash these.
Look at all this laundry here.
My god, what am I going to do?
That's what I do.
All day long, I do this.
What meaning does my life have?
He gave himself that meaning, that moment.
I clean your clothes so that you can go on stage clean.
And you do your mitzvah, and I do mine by
cleaning your clothes.
Were both doing God's command.
So please, before you leave here today, make up your mind
what your meaning in life is.
My mission and purpose, and I think it's
yours, too, is service.
It's improving other people's lives any way you can.
That's the way to happiness.
That's the way to feel good.
That's the way to positivity.
And before I go on, I'd like a nice round of applause.
[APPLAUSE]
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, I think we're doing OK.
When I was younger, my father told me, Lenny, live every day
as if it's your last, because one day
you're going to be right.
This was the best advice I ever got.
Live every day as if it's your last, because one day you're
going to be right.
Because when you live every day as if it's your last,
you're giving life some kind of urgency.
You know, we're not all going to live forever.
We're here temporarily.
What we have is a temporary gift.
This thing we call life, it's fun, but it's over.
And it's only temporary.
So when you look in the mirror, and you say, today is
my last day, let me give you an example how I do it.
I was in Turkey with my wife.
And we were in a resort area called Bodrum.
It's not bedroom.
And she's talking about going to Pamukkale.
Let's go to Pamukkale.
And I said, what's Pamukkale?
She said, I read all about it.
It's a beautiful place.
You must come.
It's 12 hours by Turkish bus there and 12 hours
by Turkish bus back.
I said, sweetheart, you go, I'm staying here.
She said, I am going.
But why aren't you coming?
And I said, because today's my last day, and I don't feel
like dying on a bus.
So she said, where do you want to die today?
Great question.
We should all be asking ourselves that.
So she said, where do you want to die today?
I said, next to the pool with a nice cold glass of beer.
And if the angel of death doesn't come, I'm going to
order a hamburger.
And this is a philosophy I took from my mother.
My mother used to eat garlic, garlic, every night before she
went to sleep.
One night, she forgot the garlic, and here I am.
[LAUGHTER]
Let me explain it to this side.
See, she ate--
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: --she ate the garlic.
You see, my father came to bed, and you know, one night
she forgot.
Never mind.
OK.
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: I said, Mom, why do you eat
garlic every night?
You know what she said?
She said, if the angel of death comes tonight, I'll wake
up and ask, who is it?
The angel of death will go, [SPITTING SOUND], I'll come
back tomorrow.
So we have now four tools, four attitudes, I want you to
take with you.
Again, this is just awareness.
Any one you want to take with you, laugh at
yourself and breathe.
Number two, stay hungry--
AUDIENCE: --stay foolish.
LEONARD RAVICH: Stay foolish.
Three, you've heard the sentence, Mission Impossible?
Number three is mission possible--
service--
serving happiness.
And number four is live every day as if it's your last,
because one day you're going to be right.
I think I have enough time.
Yes, number five.
But don't leave, I've got a bonus for you.
Number five is this.
Remember, I told you who wants to live a more flourishing
life, happier, healthier life?
OK, I want to give you a sentence to say to everybody
who asks you this question.
And there's going to be a lot of people who are going to ask
you this question.
And they're going to ask you, how are you, hey, how you
doing, what's up, [GERMAN].
If you say this sentence to everybody who says, how are
you, or asks you how you are, the cells in your brain will
begin to change slowly over time.
Trust me, this goes on.
If you say this sentence, the cells in your body will begin
to change over time.
You'll start to think
differently and look different.
Your whole system will reorganize itself to serve
you, to be happier serving happiness.
Would you like to learn that sentence or not?
AUDIENCE: [IN UNISON]
Yes.
LEONARD RAVICH: A little bit more passion, OK.
AUDIENCE: [IN UNISON]
Yes.
LEONARD RAVICH: [SHOUTING]
Would you like to learn that sentence or not?
AUDIENCE: [IN UNISON]
Yes!
LEONARD RAVICH: That's passion.
If somebody comes over to you and says, hi,
how are you, Alex?
The answer is this.
Now is my best moment, because there is no other moment.
And it's gone.
Another one's gone.
So when is your best, most exciting, most significant
moment in your life?
When?
AUDIENCE: [IN UNISON]
Now.
LEONARD RAVICH: I can't hear you.
When?
AUDIENCE: [IN UNISON]
Now.
LEONARD RAVICH: All you've got is now.
I say this to my neighbors.
I make sure that everybody knows this when they ask me on
the bus or in the elevator.
They say, Lenny, how are you?
And I say, now is my best moment, because there is no
other moment.
And they say to me, that means something's wrong with you.
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: Don't you read the news?
My wife does not watch the news.
She records the news.
Then, she watches it much later, comes to me and says,
boy, am I glad that's over.
The past is history, the future--
AUDIENCE: --a mystery.
LEONARD RAVICH: A mystery.
All we have is the--
AUDIENCE: --present.
LEONARD RAVICH: Present?
What is present?
AUDIENCE: Now.
AUDIENCE: A gift.
LEONARD RAVICH: A gift.
You give someone a present, you give a gift.
If you're living in the present, you're
living in the gift.
How many people--
if anybody here right now feels the gift--
if you feel the gift right now, applaud.
[APPLAUSE]
LEONARD RAVICH: A little louder.
Who feels the gift now?
[APPLAUSE]
LEONARD RAVICH: I got enough time for a bonus.
Did I hear somebody say something?
Are you enjoying yourself so far?
AUDIENCE: [IN UNISON]
Yes.
LEONARD RAVICH: Because we're about to finish.
And you can't get me again after this.
You know, you'll have to call me.
Lenny, come back.
I want you to do me a favor and start to dream.
And don't go around with an editor in
your head or critic--
when you say, you know what I would love?
I would love, nah, you can't do that.
Or somebody says, you can't do that--
OK, I want you to please dream and make your
dreams become a reality.
And I'm not just saying that.
I'm going to do it for you right now.
There's nothing here today, that I said to you, that you
didn't get instruction exactly from me how to do it.
Laughing at ourselves, being foolish, OK?
I did it all, because I want you to see it
and think about it.
And I want you to see right now and witness somebody who
has a dream and makes that dream become a reality.
Are you ready for this?
I have a dream right now.
And my dream is that I say to you, how are you?
I envision, in my mind's eye, that all of you yell back,
with great passion, now is my best moment, because there is
no other moment.
And then I envision myself saying to you, thank you,
Google, for inviting me into your lives.
And thank you for coming into mine.
And then, I envision all of you standing up--
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: --and giving me a standing ovation,
screaming, bravo, with whistles and screams.
And then you sing to me, that's the
way, uh, uh, uh, huh--
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: --I like it, uh, huh, uh, huh.
Now, why is this dream important for me to come true?
Because when I leave here, I'm going to call my wife.
And I know exactly what she's going to ask me.
Hi, how was it at Google?
And I'm going to say these words to her, exactly,
Darling, you won't believe this.
At the end of my talk, everybody stood up.
They gave me a standing ovation.
You won't believe this.
They screamed, bravo.
Yeah.
And you know what else?
They sang to me, that's the way, uh, huh, I like it, uh,
huh, uh, huh.
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: And I don't want to lie to her.
So don't embarrass me.
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, let's make his dream a reality.
How are you?
LEONARD RAVICH WITH AUDIENCE: Now is my best moment, because
there is no other moment.
LEONARD RAVICH: And thank you, Google, for inviting
me into your life.
And thank you for coming into mine.
Get up!
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
LEONARD RAVICH WITH AUDIENCE: That's the way, uh, huh, uh,
huh, I like it, uh, huh, uh, huh.
That's the way, uh, huh, uh, huh, I like it--
AUDIENCE: -uh, huh, uh, huh.
LEONARD RAVICH: Thank you so much.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
LEONARD RAVICH: Right on time, boom.
MALE SPEAKER 1: Questions?
May I have five minutes for questions?
MALE SPEAKER 2: Any questions?
MALE SPEAKER 1: Does anyone have any questions for Lenny?
I guess not.
LEONARD RAVICH: Yes?
What is your name?
AUDIENCE: Vicki.
LEONARD RAVICH: Vicki.
Yes, Vicki.
I have to stand here, Vicki, because the
microphones is here.
AUDIENCE: What is the happiest moment of your life so far?
LEONARD RAVICH: Right now.
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: Ask me again.
AUDIENCE: What's the happiest moment of your life so far?
LEONARD RAVICH: Right now.
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: Let's keep doing this.
Really, I can't think of any other moment but this.
And I can't think of a happier moment than right now.
Thank you for the question.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: How do you keep your attitude like that every day?
LEONARD RAVICH: How do I keep this attitude every day?
In the morning, I won't get out of bed until I have
thanked God for everything I have.
I go through a tremendous list of perfect health, family,
friends, children, grandchildren.
And I think, if you do that every day, it's called an
attitude of gratitude, I just simply won't get out of bed
until I thank God for allowing me to take what she has given
me and has helped me to give to you, to take my gifts, what
I do best, what God has given me, so I'm able to relate it
to you, to bring today.
So I'm thankful for this.
I'm thankful for the creativity.
I'm thankful for my life.
I'm thankful for everything.
And I go through a whole list.
And every night before I go to sleep, I go through this whole
list again.
And this keeps my attitude up and my feelings good, because
I have a lot to be grateful for.
And it's called attitude of gratitude.
And I think that you all could do that.
It's better than counting sheep before you go to sleep,
you know, [SNORE]
two, three, and so on.
Here comes a blessing.
You know, this.
And think, you'll find so many wonderful things about your
life that you have that we take for granted that you
could just give thanks for, OK?
Does that answer your question?
OK.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: Just as a follow up, in particularly difficult
time, if it happened in any life, difficult times, how do
you practice this?
LEONARD RAVICH: How did I deal in difficult times?
AUDIENCE: Very difficult times.
LEONARD RAVICH: Very difficult times.
I had a lot of faith.
I felt that somehow there was a certain belief that I was
going to get through this.
And in many times in my life, I think 100% of the time, when
I really look back at the difficult
times, I caused them.
And the reason I caused them was because I
had to learn a lesson.
If I look back on my life, and I think of all the monsters
I've met along the way, those monsters have
been my best teachers.
Those difficult moments have made me into the human being
that I am today.
And so without the difficult times, I wouldn't have been
able to be on this journey.
And if I look back on it all, I created it.
Every monster I created.
And I learned, through a movie I once saw called "Shrek,"
that everybody--
did you see "Shrek"--
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
LEONARD RAVICH: --where the donkey and Shrek come to take
the princess and there's a dragon?
And the dragon is scaring everybody and breathing fire.
And the only one that faces the dragon is the donkey.
And he looks into her eyes.
He says, oh, you're a girl dragon.
And she goes [PREENING GESTURE].
[LAUGHTER]
LEONARD RAVICH: That's the way I look at my dragons today.
I try to find something beautiful, something exquisite
about them, and turn those dragons into something lovely.
He finally marries her, and they have
dragon-donkey children.
Thank you for coming.
Really enjoyed it, yes.
[APPLAUSE]
MALE SPEAKER 1: Guys, there's also books.
If you want to enjoy Lenny's humor more,
there's books for sale.
And otherwise, thanks for bringing some
light into our afternoon.
LEONARD RAVICH: OK, my pleasure.
MALE SPEAKER 1: It was very enjoyable.
LEONARD RAVICH: Thank you.
MALE SPEAKER 1: Thank you very much.
LEONARD RAVICH: Thank you.