Translator: Radost Tsvetkova Reviewer: Ivana Korom
(Polish) Welcome!
Ah, that is it, no more.
I want to meet the guy, who invented the Polish language,
on a dark street some night with nobody else around.
I'm going to say, "What were you thinking?"
Unbelievable.
(Polish) Unbelievable.
(Polish) I've lived in Krakow for 6 years,
but I don't speak Polish, sorry.
It is impossible for me.
So, back to English.
What do you care about?
I mean, what do you really care about?
No, I mean, underneath that, beyond that, what do you really care about?
Because what you care about actually determines where you end up.
Where you're coming from, upstream.
What you are doing right now in your life is like the end of the pipe.
And it's a trickle sometimes
of what this huge river is, that's inside of you,
of meaning and of commitment,
and of yearning for something in the world.
So, we work with people to help them release the block,
so that more of the raging river that's in you, can flow.
So, where you're coming from determines - you can't fake it really,
you can pretend for a while to care about something,
but ultimately what you really care about is going to leak out.
So why not get yourself to care about something,
that's worth caring about.
Here we go! Dave Wondra. Great, dear friend of mine.
He is a coach to executives around the world.
Dave is a trumpet player, lives is Minnesota.
And his trumpet teacher, Bobby Shew,
is one of the greatest trumpet players in America, he's a jazz trumpet player.
And as Dave told me the story, he said, one day he was playing for Bobby Shew,
and he was really playing, and playing, and Bobby tapped him on the shoulder
and said, Dave, you have got to decide: are you trying to impress people
or to move them?
Isn't that fabulous?
So, in your life when you're doing things, like I am standing up here,
how much of what I'm doing up here is trying to impress you, what percentage,
and how much of it is me, hoping to move you?
So, in my preparation I've been doing everything I can
to reduce the amount of time of intention in me to impress you
and increase the amount of energy and commitment inside me to move you,
so, let's hope it works.
(Polish) We'll see.
You want to move people with the music in your life, great. Sounds great!
What do you want them to move from?
You want to move people? From where, to where, and for what?
From what, to what, and what for? Why?
Why do you want to move people?
If you want to move them, why? This is an extremely important question.
I was introduced to this question in my 4 years as a combat officer
and on the USS Eaton in the US Navy, 1962 to 1966.
How do you move - oh, that's lieutenant Scherer there,
I can't believe that was the same guy -
yes, we had a band on the ship, right there, you can see.
That's me with the guitar in the front.
And that's me with the Thompson submachine gun.
We had a combat team that we had to work with,
and the question is,
"How do you move people, how do you motivate people
to do things that are difficult and dangerous, but extremely important?"
So, I like to say, that's warrior 1 right here, and this is warrior 2.
I can tell nobody here does yoga, but that's actually the warrior position,
that's warrior position number 2.
I've done yoga almost every day of my life for about 30 or 40 years.
Maybe that's why somebody thought I was 50, something like a few weeks ago,
I said, "I'm actually 54 and holding,"
and she said, "How long you've been holding?"
And I said, "20 years."
So, this is me, starting the 200 butterfly as a swimmer in Roanoke College,
I'm still trying to learn to ski,
that's me, trying to learn to climb here in Krakow.
And this is,
we were in a basketball tournament, my two sons and one of their friends,
and they said, "Dad, we carried you all through the tournament,
so, we're going to carry you in the team photograph."
I thought that was... you know, this is really funny,
you guys don't laugh much, do you? (Laughter)
One time I was doing this - I think I said it in my [TEDx] talk,
after this workshop this guy came up and I said, "How was this for you?"
And he said, "Nieźle".
(Laughter)
I turned to my Polish friend and said, "What does that mean?"
And he said, "Not bad". And I said, "Not bad?"
He said, "John, the guy said you just changed his life."
And I said, "Well, what do you mean?" He said, "He told you it was not bad.
This is Poland, John, not California."
So, I'm trying to read the signs here. Like, are you with me?
Or you're just so stunned, that... no. So, we'll get there eventually.
So, here is a great question: Where does the future come from?
Where does the future come from?
Does it just kind of show up? Out of nowhere? Where does it come from?
And there are two words that are used from Latin,
one is "futurus", which is the future tense of the verb "to be",
and it says that the future will be an extension of the past.
You want to know what the future is going to be, like when you budget:
you look at last year's budget and you add some percentage,
and that's how the rest of the world is going to be,
something like last year only a little bit different.
What you're seeking is certainty.
The skill you need to have is predicting the future,
and what you're trying to do is to look good,
and avoid mistakes.
So, if you want to use the "futurus" approach to the future,
and you're standing in the present,
where do you look for what the future is going to be like?
Where do you look?
There is a test.
To the past, thank you. Great!
How in the world could I have looked in my past and found any evidence,
that I was going to be running around the "Błonia"
in the morning in Krakоw, Poland.
There was no evidence for this.
Or, you know, standing on "Mały Rynek" in the rain, I love these photographs.
or eating on the Vistula when really my home is in Seattle.
There's nothing in my past that would have had me be here.
And yet, here I am.
Why is that? Because there's another view of the future,
which comes from the Latin word "adventus", "advinio", coming towards.
This means that the future is actually open,
it's unknown, and it's coming toward us.
It is approaching us to be met, to be shaped, we have a relationship.
When you're in a relationship, you have an impact
on the person you have a relationship with.
We have a relationship with the future, and most people don't understand this.
The future is being shaped by what you do today.
What you're seeking is discovery, the skill as curiosity and wonder,
and kind of engagement, and what you're after is,
how do we now, today, stand here in the present,
and imagine into existence.
We don't look backward. We can, it is interesting.
It's very important not to repeat the mistakes of the past,
but let's not recreate the past, let's do something completely new.
Now, that takes a very important shift in your attitude,
and it comes from what you care about.
You can only create a future, and really stay with it,
based on what you care about.
So, you're shaping your future and the future.
Everybody, hold up your thumb, please.
Great, OK. Look around the room.
There is nobody in this room - you can put it down, thank you -
there's nobody else in this room that has a thumb print like yours.
Not only that, there has never in the history of the world, ever,
been someone with a thumb print like yours, ever.
And this is what's really amazing.
There will never be in the entire future of the Universe
anyone, who has your thumb print.
There will never be anyone, who sees the world the way you do,
who creates meaning like the way you do.
Who cares about the things that you care about.
There is something absolutely, completely unique about you sitting here.
Now, they tell me it's also true about snowflakes.
Apparently, there have never been two snowflakes alike
in the history of the world.
Now, I want to know, How do they know for sure?
(Laughter)
I mean, you're trying to tell me that in Siberia there is a snowflake,
and there isn't one exactly like it like in Colorado or some place?
Come on, you have got to be kidding! But apparently not.
There's something completely unique about you, sitting here.
What is the deep need in the world that you're perfectly designed to address?
Some years ago I had created a consulting business,
we went upside down, we went bankrupt.
One partner left town, the other partner did go bankrupt,
and I was left holding all this stuff.
I called my friend, the consultant Dickson Delaney,
I said, "Dickson, I need your help."
He came in and worked with me, and said, "OK, John, what really drives you?
What runs you right now?"
And I said, "Getting out of debt and making it through the next quarter."
And he said, "Is that a purpose worthy of who you are?"
And I said, "Yeah, right! I've been put on Earth
to get out of debt and make it through the next quarter.
I don't think so."
He said, "What would be a purpose worthy of who you are?"
I said, "I don't know."
And he said, "How about this tag line under your logo,
'Transforming the world at work?'"
I said, "No, that's a marketing statement I made up in the shower one day."
He said, "Call me, when you figure it out, I'll come back."
About a month later I called him and I said,
"Dickson, I'm ready to talk to you."
He said, "So, what are you about really?
What do you really care about?"
I said, 'Transforming the world at work'.
It turns out that was just more than a marketing statement for me."
So, what's a need in the world that's really important, you go after it.
Don't do anything less than that.
Make sure that everything that you do is somehow connected
with that thing that you care deeply about.
What do I care about?
I care about developing leaders, who create organizations,
successful organizations, that contribute to life,
and are safe for human beings.
Here is what I care about:
This is in Krakow, just a few months ago.
Here's a group of people at one of our seminars.
Here's Spain, Israel, Iran, California, Poland, the UK,
I love this!
People come to Krakow to learn how to do this.
And nobody knows about it, it's fabulous. All right.
Here is the executive team from Netia, 8 years ago,
the first program I ever gave in Poland.
This is the executive team from Netia.
And this is teaching people how to do yoga,
like we had up here.
I don't think I've ever been more prepared and warmed up for a talk in my life,
than I have now.
This is for the Canadian government, but what I really care about
is this picture right here: this guy, Przemek.
In the merger that Netia did we were involved in
bringing all the cultures together.
We trained a bunch of people inside the company,
regular people, this is an IT guy.
He said, "John, I've never held a magic marker, ever, in my hand.
I've never talked to more than two people at the same time in my life.
I stare at the computer screen all day long, go to lunch and come back.
And I am going to be doing what? I'm going to be facilitating these groups
of merging and conflict and everything?"
And here he is. Standing there, presenting material to a group of 50
high-level managers from a shared service company, its name you would know,
and just absolutely knocked them dead.
That is what lights me up.
What do I care about, is seeing ordinary people do extraordinary things,
see organizations that think they're about this,
and helping them find that they're really about something else.
We're going to come back to that in a second.
Here we are with the Maasai, I love working with the Maasai.
This girl walked in front of our thing one time and my Maasai warrior said,
"Don't move."
And this leopard walks about this far from here to the camera there
in front of us, and we're like this.
That will make you think about what you care about.
(Laughter)
Really, really deeply.
And then, the other thing is -
What I've learned from the Maasai is absolutely incredible.
So, it's not so much going to help the Maasai, my goodness!
They know how to live in peace with each other and with the world.
In October we're going to take people - we have this thing:
"Find yourself in the desert,"
so anywhere I can go to do that, I will find a chance.
These are some of the clients who have been very, very fortunate.
They care about the same kind of thing.
What else do I care about?
This is my oldest son, the rock musician, this is my middle son, the rapper,
this is my younger son, who is a piano and trombone player and a math teacher,
my daughter, who is an actress, a dancer, and a singer in Paris, France.
That is the future that drives me: my two grandsons, my daughter in law,
a couple of fiancées that are not on the picture.
You know. (Laughter)
This is what gets me up in the morning.
Whatever can I do today, and being here is one of them,
that will help create a world that will be right for these people.
This is really crucial, so, here you go.
What's something you really like to do? You just love it.
When you do it, you feel excited. You just can't wait to do it again.
It's like, "Wow, I love it, I feel excited when I do this!"
And you're good at it. If you aren't go at it, get good at it.
Because that's where your passion lives.
And then, does the world need it?
And if the world does need it, that's where your mission is.
And then, can you get paid for it.
That's a very important thing,
because that's when your profession comes into existence, and also your vocation.
You know what, you and your life purpose live at the center of that.
So, you want to know what you need to care about?
It's right in the center of that place right there.
Now, I want to tell you a quick story, because it looks like I don't have -
I was going to do some magic for you, but we have no time,
I'll look at Richard, wherever Richard is, and see.
We don't have time, OK.
So maybe this will be magic enough, I hope so.
Here in Krakow, there is a company, called "u2i", it's a technology consulting firm.
They, the CEO and the people are totally committed
to being this kind of organization, that is very successful in the world,
and is up to something worthwhile.
And they're safe for human beings.
And I was talking, yesterday, with one of the programmers,
we're doing a project.
The CEO was putting everybody through a leadership development program.
Why? Because leadership is an attitude, not a position.
You want to create the future, start thinking like a leader.
It has nothing to do with what box your name is in,
you want everybody thinking like a leader.
I was talking to this guy, and I said, "What really lights you up?'
And he said, "Writing code."
And I said, "Great, what lights you up about that?"
He said, "Writing great code."
And I said, "So that what might happen if you write great code?"
And he said, "Hmm, well, then our client, Scholastic Books, will be really happy."
I said, "OK. And then, what might that make possible?"
He said, "Well, I guess Scholastic sends this out to school teachers."
And I said, "How many?" And he said, "Oh, a couple of million."
And I said, "And then, what do they do?" And he said, "Oh, they work with -
and then the light went on, and he said, "Aha! The great code, that I write,
that"s great, I love writing great code, but really what I'm doing is,
I'm contributing to the educational excellence
of millions, and millions of children around the world."
Now that is something! He said, "I think I could care about that."
So I am going to finish with this: Be thinking deeply, deeply
about what you care about.
You're at a certain point -
I'm 74 to be 75 in September,
I don't know how much tread is left on the tires,
I don't know how much more I have, but I want to live
as fully and completely for as long as possible.
I like what Woody Allen said: "I want to live forever."
He said, "So far, so good."
(Laughter)
So, you have lots of tread left, you have tons of it,
don't waste it on something that you don't care about.
So I'm inviting you right now to think about what you care about,
and make sure, that your entire life, as much as you possibly can,
is invested in that direction.
So that what comes out at the end of the pipe is not a trickle,
a trickle of who you are,
but is a raging river, full of your uniqueness.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for inviting me here. (Applause)
Have a fabulous night! Thank you.
(Applause)