Dream On

By Corinne Feight

For those of you who have yet to watch a Ted Talk, you are sincerely missing out. They are mentally stimulating and very motivational. Many of these speakers are innovators and choose to see the world in a different light. Sometimes they speak about simple things, like Derek Sivers’ “How to start a movement.” Still, this is the talk that really sticks with me. He walks us through the process of initiating a movement, and how you have to have a leader. Yet, most importantly, you have to have a first follower. That follower needs to be nurtured, as it is the follower who will bring the next participants. Sivers makes a very astute observation in the video when he states that the leader is not the first person who starts the movement—though he will be the one to get all the credit, but actually the first follower, as the rest that follow imitate him. Ted Talks have that way of using simple videos and pictures and expanding on them in a way that helps shift perceptions and serve as teaching tools.

Many do not know that Purdue does their own version of these Ted Talks called TED^xPurdueU. Last year’s theme was ‘Innovation’ and the event took place during the spring semester. Our Career Director and I stumbled across one of the videos just the other day. It was a speech by Matt Barnes, who is a professional free-running/parkour athlete and owner/instructor of Momenta Free-running and Parkour Classes. He is also currently pursuing his Masters here at Purdue.

His presentation was called “Dynamic Innovation: Achieving Goals through the Parkour Mindset” and brought up some interesting ideas about following your dreams. He believes that we have to be dynamic in the way that we approach our big dreams. The biggest obstacle we have for ourselves is our preconceived notions and those of others. He breaks the steps down into: what is your goal?, where are you now?, and where are you going? His personal rules are to do something everyday—no making excuses, be humble, and break free—no expectations. Yet, the most impactful part of the presentation was the fact that he gave his phone number and e-mail address to the entire audience in Elliott at the end. He stated that he wanted to be a ‘Where I Am Now Resources’ to anyone who needed it. Who else to you know that could be this for you? Is there anyone you could reach out to? Sometimes it is easy to forget that we cannot reach our dreams alone. One person, at times, can make all the difference.

This year the TED^xPurdueU event will take place sometime in April; the date has yet to be released. I strongly encourage you to go. Find who speaks to you, even if it is just to hear each presenter’s story. That alone, will be worth it.