When you speak at a Carnegie Mellon University event with Fearless as the theme, you’ve got a couple things to consider.
One: it’s TedX! It’s Carnegie Mellon! Yikes. Intimidating audience of extremely smart people with high expectations. But two: since the event is about overcoming fear, no one will be surprised when you admit to your own fears.
In the 18-minute TED format, I talked about crocodiles, killer whales, strawberries, dropping keys, and writing your own permission slip. It’s fairly personal, so if you’re not interested, no problem.
I enjoyed the event and even enjoyed my part, which is miraculous since I’m usually scared to death of such things. The TED guardians finally released the video, and you can see it here if you’re interested:
Don’t see the video? Here is the direct link.
A few notes and highlights:
Many of us live our lives out of the fear of what other people think of us. We’re waiting for someone to give us a permission slip that tells us it’s OK to be ourselves.
The exotic is rarely the scary part. Moving to West Africa wasn’t scary at all. CHANGE is the scary part. Leaving your home is scary. Walking on a stage is scary. Packing, leaving, taking a leap—those are the scary things.
Don’t try to be fearless or pretend you aren’t impacted by fear. Just try to prevent fear from making your decisions for you.
My thanks to Sachit, Yongho, and the whole TEDxCMU team for organizing the event. You can see photos of the day here.
Last but not least, my friend Jonathan Fields was the anchor speaker for the whole event, and it’s easy to see why they chose him for the honor—check out his video here. If you can only watch one of our talks, watch his!
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June 15, 2010
Alison Andrews
I loved your speech. Have recently taken a small step out from caring what people will think and blocking all of that out and going for it no matter what! Hopefully I’ll tell you something about it later…
June 15, 2010
Drew Long
It can’t be said enough: fear stops us before we start. Thanks, Chris, for presenting on this topic and sharing the video. I also loved Jonathan Fields. What a great event that must have been.
June 15, 2010
Alisha
Well said and very inspiring! Thank you Chris!
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June 16, 2010
Irene Gutteridge
Very nice. It is obvious that that moment, being there, for a TEDX event was a very very pinnacle point for you. The strawberry ending says it all. Congrats on conquering that fear. Irene.
June 16, 2010
Beth Jennings
Well done on a great post, we can all relate to what you say
June 16, 2010
Priya Rudradas
Thank you so much Chris for this talk. I recently quit my job to pursue music. Talks and blogs like yours helps validate the pursuit.
June 16, 2010
Phil
Chris – impressive stuff. I think you must be pretty fearless to get up in front of that crowd and give such a strong performance. Thanks for sharing.
June 16, 2010
tochi brown adimiche
i join my comment predecessors in saying “thank you!” for this speech. excellent, simple, direct, clear presentation. that is the best sort.
i heard this at exactly the right time… again.
isn’t interesting how you can feel fearful on the inside… yet people on the outside rave about how fearless you are? LOL i concur.
the cage and keys quote from hafiz was very appropos. we drop keys, even as we release ourselves, continuously. i will remember that, and be more conscious of it.
June 16, 2010
Keith
Chris – the scariest thing I’ve ever done was speak at my mother’s funeral. And I’d get up and speak about her again in a heartbeat – keep being brave!
June 16, 2010
Wyman
Chris,
Great job on with your talk. I also appreciate that you are not afraid to share links to other awesome people.
June 16, 2010
Rob
Thanks Chris. I picked up this post from Jonathan’s site.
Great talk and a very powerful point about the Strawberry; worthy of deep reflection.
June 16, 2010
Graham Phoenix
Fear is what keeps you sharp and alive! Fear is what makes it exciting. If I am not feeling the fear I am not living on the edge, and I like being on the edge! That moment before you start speaking, when the stomach is churning and you forget what you are going to say…….. ‘Priceless…’
June 16, 2010
Laura Lee Bloor
Excellent job, Chris — you seem so natural on stage! Thanks for such a wonderful talk. Too many times it takes drastic measures (death, sickness, layoff) before we finally allow ourselves to make a change for the better.
Thanks, too, for the link to Jonathan’s presentation — also very inspiring.
June 17, 2010
Nedra
Overcoming is a huge feat a lot of us want to accomplish, I really liked your storytelling approach in how it happens in our daily lives.
Great job, it’s quite an accomplishment to speak for over 10 minutes in front of an audience and to make them feel emotions and reactions. Very inspirational!
June 18, 2010
Russ
Great speech Chris! Very inspirational and motivational!
June 24, 2010
heidi
you’re awesome Chris! Thanks for continuing to inspire – look forward to seeing you in one of the 50 states!
July 26, 2010
Divya Varudhini
very inspiring! thank you! *off to pet my crocodiles.
March 1, 2011
CelestiteBlue
Thank you!
Makes me think of one of my favorite moments in Sandman by Neil Gaiman – it’s in a story about a playwrite who keeps dreaming about falling off a cliff in a dream, and wakes up before it happens. He almost gives up a huge breakthrough in his career because he’s afraid. The beautiful moment at the end of the story gives you the idea: “Sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”
I’m at a leaping moment in my own career, and I think about this a lot.
I’ve jumped off metaphorical cliffs in a lot of different ways in my life, starting pretty young, and I can’t think of a single instance when it hasn’t paid off. It has also always involved a certain period of scariness with the air whooshing past me and not knowing where I was going to land, though, too.
Keep up the good advice, it’s wonderful to get support from another nonconformist!!