WEBVTT 1 00:00:18.990 --> 00:00:22.320 I've written two books, one called On Purpose. 2 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:26.860 Lessons in Life from the Dung Beetle and Julia. 3 00:00:26.860 --> 00:00:28.730 And I wrote another book. 4 00:00:28.730 --> 00:00:30.931 And that is a graphic novel. 5 00:00:30.931 --> 00:00:36.490 And that was special book that I wrote after my daughter Julia passed away. 6 00:00:36.490 --> 00:00:38.660 And she was 19 years old. 7 00:00:38.660 --> 00:00:40.830 She was a heart transplant recipient and 8 00:00:42.070 --> 00:00:44.780 caught a chicken pox virus when she was six months old. 9 00:00:44.780 --> 00:00:48.188 And she was born healthy, this attacked her heart and 10 00:00:48.188 --> 00:00:51.065 her only hope was to get a heart transplant and 11 00:00:51.065 --> 00:00:54.871 we had to decide whether to do that or not in the first place. 12 00:00:54.871 --> 00:00:58.369 And we decided that if we could give her a big life. 13 00:00:58.369 --> 00:01:04.438 A life that was transcending, something important with love. 14 00:01:04.438 --> 00:01:06.932 Even if she died at three years old or 15 00:01:06.932 --> 00:01:10.220 five years old It'd be a life worth living. 16 00:01:10.220 --> 00:01:12.220 We'd want to do that. 17 00:01:12.220 --> 00:01:14.830 So we decide to list her for heart transplant and 18 00:01:14.830 --> 00:01:18.480 she became one of the first kids to get a new heart. 19 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:20.958 So we didn't know much about this. 20 00:01:20.958 --> 00:01:28.390 [LAUGH] And so we lived every day of her life as if it might be her last day. 21 00:01:28.390 --> 00:01:32.001 And we started realizing, wow, this is actually kind of fun. 22 00:01:32.001 --> 00:01:35.239 Our lives turned from black and white into, technicolor, 23 00:01:35.239 --> 00:01:37.850 where we thought wow today we might die. 24 00:01:37.850 --> 00:01:39.599 You know, not just her, we might all die. 25 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:43.530 So why not build this really special big life? 26 00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:46.650 Because you know we are not here on this planet very long, 27 00:01:46.650 --> 00:01:50.950 whether we live to be 120 or three. 28 00:01:50.950 --> 00:01:54.350 So, we lived an interesting life with her. 29 00:01:54.350 --> 00:01:59.410 And she passed away when she was 19, and it was very sudden and unexpected. 30 00:01:59.410 --> 00:02:03.080 And when that happened I went through a real grieving process, 31 00:02:03.080 --> 00:02:06.100 obviously you lose your child you grieve. 32 00:02:06.100 --> 00:02:11.260 But what I realized deep down was that, I was also losing 33 00:02:11.260 --> 00:02:16.830 my purpose in my life and I needed to regain and rebuild my life. 34 00:02:16.830 --> 00:02:19.810 It was like rebuilding an engine from scratch. 35 00:02:19.810 --> 00:02:24.284 Just somehow the cylinder block was cracked and you had to just say we've 36 00:02:24.284 --> 00:02:28.990 got to just tear this whole thing apart and fix it all but start from scratch. 37 00:02:28.990 --> 00:02:34.870 And I thought wow I have this opportunity to build my life up Into a whole new life. 38 00:02:34.870 --> 00:02:36.520 And so, I started thinking about that a lot. 39 00:02:37.690 --> 00:02:44.430 And I found that building a new purpose myself actually was healing. 40 00:02:44.430 --> 00:02:45.840 It was the best thing I could have done. 41 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:47.850 It saved my life, in fact. 42 00:02:47.850 --> 00:02:51.963 And one of the parts of my new purpose, and I didn't even call it a purpose at 43 00:02:51.963 --> 00:02:56.009 the time I just said, one of the things I'm going to do is teach every one of my 44 00:02:56.009 --> 00:02:58.779 students as if they're my own daughter, Julia. 45 00:02:58.779 --> 00:03:02.350 And I started taking tremendous joy in teaching. 46 00:03:02.350 --> 00:03:07.704 In fact I was, the school suggested maybe I shouldn't even teach for a year. 47 00:03:07.704 --> 00:03:09.236 You know, just take off. 48 00:03:09.236 --> 00:03:12.774 Do whatever because, you know, losing your child is a big deal. 49 00:03:12.774 --> 00:03:13.857 It's hard. 50 00:03:13.857 --> 00:03:16.730 But I thought, and at first I took him up on this. 51 00:03:16.730 --> 00:03:19.474 And then I thought, no I'm going to try teaching. 52 00:03:19.474 --> 00:03:21.542 But I'm going to teach in a totally different way. 53 00:03:21.542 --> 00:03:25.144 I'm going to teach every student as if they're my daughter, 54 00:03:25.144 --> 00:03:29.766 which means If they need anything from me, if they have a problem in school. 55 00:03:29.766 --> 00:03:34.138 If they need a recommendation to med school or to grad school, 56 00:03:34.138 --> 00:03:39.688 if they have an issue with alcohol or with anxiolytics or with their roommate or 57 00:03:39.688 --> 00:03:43.744 their boyfriend or their girlfriend I'm here for them. 58 00:03:43.744 --> 00:03:47.418 I'm not a counselor, I'm not a guru, I remind them all, believe me, 59 00:03:47.418 --> 00:03:49.571 go to counseling services if you need it. 60 00:03:49.571 --> 00:03:52.219 But at the same time, I'm just here for them. And I started getting so 61 00:03:52.219 --> 00:03:58.683 much joy from this, and I think the students really enjoyed this too. 62 00:03:58.683 --> 00:04:02.261 And it's not that I am perfect at this by any means. 63 00:04:02.261 --> 00:04:07.557 Sometimes I don't have time, but I really try as if that person were my daughter and 64 00:04:07.557 --> 00:04:10.291 I was a professor of that, of my daughter. 65 00:04:10.291 --> 00:04:15.205 And I really needed, I would hope that the professor would do a lot for 66 00:04:15.205 --> 00:04:17.341 them, really help them out. 67 00:04:17.341 --> 00:04:20.373 And so, that really changed my whole life. 68 00:04:20.373 --> 00:04:25.191 I started realizing, this is a purpose and a direction. 69 00:04:25.191 --> 00:04:27.269 And it's nothing terribly spiritual. 70 00:04:27.269 --> 00:04:30.003 It's more like a goal. 71 00:04:30.003 --> 00:04:31.333 It's almost like a checklist. 72 00:04:31.333 --> 00:04:34.871 When you wake up in the morning, you say, what do I have to do today? 73 00:04:34.871 --> 00:04:38.183 I've got to do this, and this, and this, and this, or you create a checklist and 74 00:04:38.183 --> 00:04:39.870 you tend to get that checklist done more. 75 00:04:39.870 --> 00:04:43.698 Or if you say, I want to walk 10,000 steps and so 76 00:04:43.698 --> 00:04:48.223 you have a some sort of biometric device on you to monitor that. 77 00:04:48.223 --> 00:04:52.315 And you set a goal around 10,000 steps, you're more likely to walk longer, 78 00:04:52.315 --> 00:04:53.083 walk further. 79 00:04:53.083 --> 00:04:55.031 And it's the same, that's what a purpose is. 80 00:04:55.031 --> 00:05:01.220 It's really a goal that you deeply, deeply value, or set of goals. 81 00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:04.730 And so I started thinking more about this idea of purpose, 82 00:05:04.730 --> 00:05:09.640 and I started thinking, wow, this is kind of a healthy thing. 83 00:05:10.650 --> 00:05:14.710 And also, its got me to start changing other health behaviors because in order to 84 00:05:14.710 --> 00:05:17.050 teach everyone of my students as if they are my own daughter, 85 00:05:17.050 --> 00:05:20.040 I have 250 students, that's a lot. 86 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:23.720 And it means that I need to have a lot of energy. 87 00:05:23.720 --> 00:05:25.920 And I need to have a lot of self control or willpower. 88 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:30.850 And I start thinking about these things and I read a really neat quote by Seneca, 89 00:05:30.850 --> 00:05:34.760 this stoic philosopher, 2000 years ago, 15 AD. 90 00:05:34.760 --> 00:05:35.320 He said, 91 00:05:35.320 --> 00:05:39.300 It doesn't matter how much wind is in your sails if you don't have a harbor. 92 00:05:40.340 --> 00:05:43.653 And I thought wow I know a lot of people with a lot of energy, 93 00:05:43.653 --> 00:05:46.034 a lot of wind in their sails and no harbor. 94 00:05:46.034 --> 00:05:46.578 We call them annoying people. 95 00:05:46.578 --> 00:05:52.050 [LAUGH] They're just like I want to do this, I want to do that. 96 00:05:52.050 --> 00:05:56.220 And I thought, no, I don't want just a lot of wind in my sails and no harbor. 97 00:05:56.220 --> 00:05:59.230 I want this harbor, I want this purpose, this direction in my life and 98 00:05:59.230 --> 00:06:01.120 that's why I need wind in my sails. 99 00:06:01.120 --> 00:06:04.690 But I also, to extend that metaphor, I need a rudder. 100 00:06:04.690 --> 00:06:07.290 I need like, willpower. 101 00:06:07.290 --> 00:06:12.920 And I also need a strong boat to handle storms, because storms just happen. 102 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:16.000 And I stopped worrying so much about all the storms, and 103 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:19.700 stopped worrying about the crazy waves in the water, and the eddies in the water, 104 00:06:19.700 --> 00:06:21.840 and in other words all of life's stressors. 105 00:06:21.840 --> 00:06:22.989 Because those happen. 106 00:06:22.989 --> 00:06:25.350 There is nothing I can do about a lot of them. 107 00:06:25.350 --> 00:06:29.890 Some things I can control, most things I can't control and stuff just happens. 108 00:06:29.890 --> 00:06:35.745 And if I have those thing, If I have a strong boat and I have wind in my sails. 109 00:06:35.745 --> 00:06:40.610 And I have a rudder and especially if I have a harbor if I have a purpose 110 00:06:40.610 --> 00:06:43.270 then I don't worry so much about the stressors. 111 00:06:43.270 --> 00:06:45.800 I don't let other things bother me so much and 112 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:48.720 in fact what I really do is start focusing on that harbor 113 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:52.670 as opposed to the 19 other harbors that are available to me that day. 114 00:06:57.851 --> 00:07:01.980 Our life was very rocky, very crazy, there's no doubt. 115 00:07:01.980 --> 00:07:04.940 But we also kind of lived a big life. 116 00:07:04.940 --> 00:07:11.578 I think this idea from the Buddha that suffering can bring wisdom and 117 00:07:11.578 --> 00:07:17.995 bring a greater connectedness with real life is very important. 118 00:07:23.268 --> 00:07:26.566 That's a fundamental difference that in Hinduism and 119 00:07:26.566 --> 00:07:29.440 Buddhism we believe that we're born godlike. 120 00:07:31.110 --> 00:07:36.460 And we have this thing called the atman inside us, and It's interesting. 121 00:07:36.460 --> 00:07:42.030 Even Aristotle talked about, as well as Socrates, talked about this inner daemon, 122 00:07:42.030 --> 00:07:46.520 depending on how you want to pronounce it, this true self, inside us. 123 00:07:46.520 --> 00:07:50.640 And Aristotle talked about you daemonic well-being, 124 00:07:50.640 --> 00:07:55.180 being in touch with your true self, your inner self, your god-like self. 125 00:07:55.180 --> 00:08:01.450 When you look at biology now, sure enough you find that, There are so 126 00:08:01.450 --> 00:08:07.950 many animals that exhibit empathic behavior, altruistic behavior. 127 00:08:07.950 --> 00:08:13.260 Even rats will release another rat from an inner cage to allow them to go ahead and 128 00:08:13.260 --> 00:08:16.540 share chocolate chips together. 129 00:08:16.540 --> 00:08:20.910 Whereas, if the rat was acting they way we would think rats act, they'd say, yeah, 130 00:08:20.910 --> 00:08:26.900 you stay in the cage while I eat all the chocolate chips but that's not the case. 131 00:08:26.900 --> 00:08:32.160 And, bonobos, chimpanzees, elephants, 132 00:08:32.160 --> 00:08:36.540 dolphins, they all exhibit this kind of altruistic behavior. 133 00:08:36.540 --> 00:08:40.870 And so it could well be that this hardwired into us and 134 00:08:40.870 --> 00:08:44.160 that it's selected for, evolutionary. 135 00:08:44.160 --> 00:08:46.040 So I am a believer in that. 136 00:08:46.040 --> 00:08:49.599 I am a believer that most of us, maybe not everybody, but 137 00:08:49.599 --> 00:08:53.455 most of us are born with a very, some sort of inner good in us and 138 00:08:53.455 --> 00:08:57.333 that's hardwired in us and that we have to connect with that. 139 00:08:57.333 --> 00:09:01.681 And often that's kind of frightened out of us. 140 00:09:01.681 --> 00:09:06.033 It's frightened out of us to the extent to say, if you don't make a lot of money, 141 00:09:06.033 --> 00:09:08.220 you will suffer, you'll have a bad life. 142 00:09:09.860 --> 00:09:15.255 Or if you don't protect yourself all the time, you'll die early. 143 00:09:15.255 --> 00:09:18.990 Well, some of the most interesting people I know are not worried about money and 144 00:09:18.990 --> 00:09:23.160 they're not worried about death, and that's a very Buddhist thought. 145 00:09:23.160 --> 00:09:27.461 But I'm not a Buddhist, and I haven't really followed or practiced or 146 00:09:27.461 --> 00:09:31.907 read too much about that, but I do know enough that those are very Buddhist 147 00:09:31.907 --> 00:09:34.003 thoughts and I do believe in that. 148 00:09:39.897 --> 00:09:45.460 Ideally as Nietzsche says, you should find your own path and your own purpose. 149 00:09:45.460 --> 00:09:48.880 And once you start doing that, then you start becoming successful. 150 00:09:48.880 --> 00:09:50.380 I think that's really the key. 151 00:09:50.380 --> 00:09:54.080 One of the real keys is slaying the thou shalt dragon. 152 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:57.860 So one of the keys to success is finding your purpose. 153 00:09:57.860 --> 00:09:59.810 And by the way, purposes change over time. 154 00:09:59.810 --> 00:10:02.940 It's not like you have this life purpose and you have to stick with it. 155 00:10:02.940 --> 00:10:05.360 And it's not like you have just one purpose. 156 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:08.710 I have a personal purpose, which is to enjoy love and beauty. 157 00:10:08.710 --> 00:10:11.650 I have a family purpose, to be an engaged husband, father, and 158 00:10:11.650 --> 00:10:16.520 now grandfather and son, I have two 85 year old parents. 159 00:10:16.520 --> 00:10:21.320 But also my work purpose, to teach every student as if they are my own daughter. 160 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:24.150 And then a community or global purpose, which it to help 161 00:10:24.150 --> 00:10:27.870 over 1 billion people find greater purpose and meaning in their lives. 162 00:10:27.870 --> 00:10:32.630 And that, along with my work purpose relates to how 163 00:10:32.630 --> 00:10:35.840 I hopefully have become successful. 164 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:40.720 I don't think about success by the way, that's the last thing on my mind. 165 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:46.096 Success or fame or some sort of image that I develop is the last thing, 166 00:10:46.096 --> 00:10:50.548 because I don't think you become successful that way for 167 00:10:50.548 --> 00:10:55.667 one thing, and success to me, Is being aligned with my purpose. 168 00:10:55.667 --> 00:11:00.001 So having some purpose or direction or harbor as Seneca said. 169 00:11:00.001 --> 00:11:03.501 Giving myself enough energy everyday to align with that, but 170 00:11:03.501 --> 00:11:06.811 also enough will power or self control to align with that. 171 00:11:13.809 --> 00:11:18.693 When you have this purpose or this vision of what could be. 172 00:11:18.693 --> 00:11:23.650 And if you can convince other people to follow you and to work with you and 173 00:11:23.650 --> 00:11:27.201 to go over the hill with you essentially to fight for 174 00:11:27.201 --> 00:11:31.344 that purpose, then you have something called a business. 175 00:11:31.344 --> 00:11:36.313 And that's how it starts, so if you don't have that sort of collective purpose, 176 00:11:36.313 --> 00:11:40.144 if you don't have other people kind of following your vision. 177 00:11:40.144 --> 00:11:42.324 Not necessarily obeying you or anything, 178 00:11:42.324 --> 00:11:44.996 it's just that they're connected to your vision. 179 00:11:44.996 --> 00:11:50.205 If you have that, then suddenly you have something that's kind of a juggernaut, 180 00:11:50.205 --> 00:11:53.160 and you may have for me since I build software. 181 00:11:53.160 --> 00:11:55.918 You have some software engineers, you have some designers, 182 00:11:55.918 --> 00:11:59.310 you have some creative people, but also you have to have some sales people, 183 00:11:59.310 --> 00:12:02.084 you have to have marketing people and all these individuals. 184 00:12:02.084 --> 00:12:06.070 And for me also I use a lot of psychology. 185 00:12:06.070 --> 00:12:09.880 So you have behavioral scientists working with you, and physicians working with you, 186 00:12:09.880 --> 00:12:13.125 and they're all connected in this purpose because they're following you 187 00:12:13.125 --> 00:12:13.808 over the hill. 188 00:12:13.808 --> 00:12:18.032 Then you have something that's very important and that can lead to success. 189 00:12:23.448 --> 00:12:26.480 I have a business called Jool Health, J-O-O-L. 190 00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:31.390 And Jool was my daughter Julia's nickname, so this really is her legacy. 191 00:12:31.390 --> 00:12:35.250 And my purpose is to help 192 00:12:35.250 --> 00:12:39.390 over 1 billion people find greater purpose and meaning in their lives. 193 00:12:39.390 --> 00:12:45.100 And so I created a platform that includes a couple of different apps, 194 00:12:45.100 --> 00:12:51.020 applications for smartphones, as well as a web app that helps you find your purpose. 195 00:12:51.020 --> 00:12:55.484 Your work, your personal, your family, and you community purpose. 196 00:12:55.484 --> 00:12:58.139 It starts by asking you about your core values and 197 00:12:58.139 --> 00:13:01.650 then it asks you about your purpose and it uses that as an anchor. 198 00:13:01.650 --> 00:13:06.510 We literally use this metaphor of a boat with wind in its sails, and a rudder, and 199 00:13:06.510 --> 00:13:07.790 this harbor. 200 00:13:07.790 --> 00:13:14.055 And then we ask everyday five questions about your behaviors. 201 00:13:14.055 --> 00:13:17.960 Every day we ask you five questions about your behaviors, what I call SPACE. 202 00:13:17.960 --> 00:13:20.520 How well did you sleep in the last 24 hours? 203 00:13:20.520 --> 00:13:22.600 How present or mindful were you? 204 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:24.090 How active were you? 205 00:13:24.090 --> 00:13:25.720 How creative were you? 206 00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:27.290 And how well did you eat? 207 00:13:27.290 --> 00:13:31.741 What I call SPACE, sleep, presence, activity, creativity and eating. 208 00:13:31.741 --> 00:13:35.190 And these can be asked very quickly, less than 45 seconds. 209 00:13:35.190 --> 00:13:39.900 We also ask you how much energy you had today, in the last 24 hours and 210 00:13:39.900 --> 00:13:42.438 how much will power you've had in the last 24 hours. 211 00:13:42.438 --> 00:13:47.591 We also though, using big data analytics, we can pull in data on the weather. 212 00:13:47.591 --> 00:13:51.106 Knowing your location, we know if it's been raining, and if it's snowing, 213 00:13:51.106 --> 00:13:54.515 if the sun is been shining whether its been a change in any of those things what 214 00:13:54.515 --> 00:13:57.830 the humidity is like, the biometric pressure, the temperature. 215 00:13:57.830 --> 00:14:02.380 We can look at all sorts of information related to time, 216 00:14:02.380 --> 00:14:04.750 such as the or the week or day or the month. 217 00:14:05.800 --> 00:14:06.410 Are you the same, 218 00:14:06.410 --> 00:14:09.750 do you have the same energy typically on a Monday as you do a Friday? 219 00:14:09.750 --> 00:14:12.092 Not usually, most people don't anyway. 220 00:14:12.092 --> 00:14:14.760 How about at the end of the end of the month when you're paying bills, 221 00:14:14.760 --> 00:14:15.361 probably not. 222 00:14:15.361 --> 00:14:17.300 How about in different phases of the moon? 223 00:14:17.300 --> 00:14:19.260 How about when gas prices are high versus low? 224 00:14:19.260 --> 00:14:21.870 How about when your sports team won or lost? 225 00:14:21.870 --> 00:14:25.230 We can look at all of those things and we pull in all these big data. 226 00:14:25.230 --> 00:14:30.140 We combine it with your SPACE data, sleep, presence, activity, creativity and eating. 227 00:14:30.140 --> 00:14:33.970 And we combine that and start predicting your energy and your willpower and 228 00:14:33.970 --> 00:14:35.830 what makes you tick. 229 00:14:35.830 --> 00:14:40.410 So we build a predictive model of you, 230 00:14:40.410 --> 00:14:43.910 as opposed to a predictive model of a population. 231 00:14:43.910 --> 00:14:46.250 You're not an average, I'm not an average, so 232 00:14:46.250 --> 00:14:51.570 an average product would not work for anybody it turns out. 233 00:14:51.570 --> 00:14:55.530 But you being an individual, we can start building a model, 234 00:14:55.530 --> 00:15:00.760 a predictive model of just you, and that model gets smarter over time. 235 00:15:00.760 --> 00:15:05.700 So after ten days we can build a model that's quite accurate of you. 236 00:15:05.700 --> 00:15:09.120 We can even give you a forecast, like a weather report of you. 237 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:13.460 Well today it looks like Vick, you're going to have more energy, or less energy. 238 00:15:13.460 --> 00:15:14.890 Why am I going to have less energy? 239 00:15:14.890 --> 00:15:18.800 Well because you ate like crap last night, and you didn't sleep well, and 240 00:15:18.800 --> 00:15:22.040 the moon is full, and that's when you tend to have less energy. 241 00:15:22.040 --> 00:15:24.410 Really, well what can I do about all this? 242 00:15:24.410 --> 00:15:26.670 And it looks at the predictive model and it says, 243 00:15:26.670 --> 00:15:30.310 if you're more present today, you would be able to solve that problem. 244 00:15:31.330 --> 00:15:33.151 So, that's what this program does. 245 00:15:33.151 --> 00:15:37.598 It's a very unique wellness to well being product. 246 00:15:37.598 --> 00:15:41.315 So there are really two things that we're moving and trying to shift. 247 00:15:41.315 --> 00:15:44.210 One is from wellness, which is so focused on physical health, 248 00:15:44.210 --> 00:15:49.490 to well being in this Aristotelian sense of being in alignment with your true self, 249 00:15:49.490 --> 00:15:51.260 with your purpose in life. 250 00:15:51.260 --> 00:15:56.250 And the second is moving from population health, because I'm in a school of public 251 00:15:56.250 --> 00:16:00.260 health, to personalized health, to precision health. 252 00:16:00.260 --> 00:16:02.190 Precision wellbeing is what we call it. 253 00:16:02.190 --> 00:16:06.826 So that's very exciting, and again, that's something that I didn't 254 00:16:06.826 --> 00:16:11.617 really care what other people said when they said well, no one can do that. 255 00:16:11.617 --> 00:16:14.370 It doesn't matter to me what they say. 256 00:16:14.370 --> 00:16:17.490 I had this purpose, this vision that we could do this. 257 00:16:17.490 --> 00:16:20.040 I rounded up of a bunch of amazing software engineers, 258 00:16:20.040 --> 00:16:24.600 some amazing predictive analytic mathematicians and physicists. 259 00:16:24.600 --> 00:16:26.560 And we all got together, and 260 00:16:26.560 --> 00:16:31.280 then I got this amazing creative person working with me and an artist to boot. 261 00:16:31.280 --> 00:16:35.480 And we started just building this product, and now it's doing very well. 262 00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:39.670 Jewel Health is a software as a service business to business company. 263 00:16:39.670 --> 00:16:43.970 So we're licensing our Jewel platform to companies, 264 00:16:45.400 --> 00:16:50.120 large employers, insurance companies, health plans, healthcare organizations. 265 00:16:55.825 --> 00:17:00.820 I would say that when you have a very strong vision in your mind of 266 00:17:00.820 --> 00:17:06.097 what you are here on this planet for this brief period of time to do, 267 00:17:06.097 --> 00:17:10.641 you start getting people watching you or following you. 268 00:17:10.641 --> 00:17:13.592 Or saying, hey, I'll go over the hill with that person, 269 00:17:13.592 --> 00:17:15.229 because I want what that person has. 270 00:17:16.860 --> 00:17:18.520 Because it gives you energy too. 271 00:17:18.520 --> 00:17:22.200 Having a strong purpose requires energy, but it also gives you energy. 272 00:17:23.470 --> 00:17:26.380 So anyway, that's how I try to live my life. 273 00:17:26.380 --> 00:17:30.765 And my daughter, Julia, really changed how I live my life in that way. 274 00:17:30.765 --> 00:17:34.832 I am quite certain that if she had not gotten sick and 275 00:17:34.832 --> 00:17:39.468 caught this chicken pox virus when she was six months old, 276 00:17:39.468 --> 00:17:44.481 that I would have gone through the standard professor track and 277 00:17:44.481 --> 00:17:49.419 written as many articles as I could and gotten as many grants. 278 00:17:49.419 --> 00:17:55.263 And I did that anyway, but I didn't care about doing it just to get promoted. 279 00:17:55.263 --> 00:17:59.493 I started doing it because I wanted to change the world. 280 00:17:59.493 --> 00:18:02.203 And so I started moving into areas in my research that 281 00:18:02.203 --> 00:18:06.153 I thought would have the greatest impact and the greatest meaning to people. 282 00:18:06.153 --> 00:18:11.683 Not just the things that would get me promoted to an associate professor or 283 00:18:11.683 --> 00:18:12.863 a full professor. 284 00:18:12.863 --> 00:18:14.640 I actually didn't care about that, and 285 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:17.960 in not caring about that, I ended up getting those things very easily. 286 00:18:17.960 --> 00:18:22.190 I ended up getting grants very easily and writing articles very easily. 287 00:18:22.190 --> 00:18:26.765 That just didn't become a problem because I didn't care about that just for 288 00:18:26.765 --> 00:18:27.740 promotion's sake. 289 00:18:27.740 --> 00:18:30.935 I actually thought maybe before Julia got sick, I thought, 290 00:18:30.935 --> 00:18:34.144 maybe I'll become a full professor and then I can golf more. 291 00:18:34.144 --> 00:18:36.710 I mean, who cares? 292 00:18:36.710 --> 00:18:40.410 So now I care a lot about my life and what I do and 293 00:18:40.410 --> 00:18:42.220 the brief period of time that I have. 294 00:18:42.220 --> 00:18:46.218 Steve Jobs was interviewed by Walter Isaacson for 295 00:18:46.218 --> 00:18:51.357 his book on Jobs, and Steve Jobs surprised Isaacson by saying, 296 00:18:51.357 --> 00:18:54.992 I never expected to live past the age of 30. 297 00:18:54.992 --> 00:18:58.641 And Isaacson said what, were you sick or something? 298 00:18:58.641 --> 00:19:01.258 He said no, I don't even know why. 299 00:19:01.258 --> 00:19:05.815 But I never expected to live past 30, and Isaacson asked him something like, so 300 00:19:05.815 --> 00:19:07.347 how'd you live your life? 301 00:19:07.347 --> 00:19:09.706 Did you change how you live your life? 302 00:19:09.706 --> 00:19:13.265 He said, well, I did, I had this urgency in my life. 303 00:19:13.265 --> 00:19:16.299 And how did that reflect who you are, and what you do? 304 00:19:16.299 --> 00:19:19.635 He said, well, I created Apple before I was 30, so 305 00:19:19.635 --> 00:19:24.320 I had this urgency in my life because I knew I wasn't going to live forever. 306 00:19:24.320 --> 00:19:28.684 And in Jobs' 2005 commencement address at Stanford, 307 00:19:28.684 --> 00:19:31.836 he knew he was dying of pancreatic cancer. 308 00:19:31.836 --> 00:19:36.279 And he said these amazing words, he said, death is life's change agent. 309 00:19:36.279 --> 00:19:40.794 And he said it's the single greatest invention of life. 310 00:19:40.794 --> 00:19:43.995 What an amazing thing to say to all of these young students, 311 00:19:43.995 --> 00:19:46.887 who have everything in the world to live forever for. 312 00:19:46.887 --> 00:19:51.698 They probably think they're going to live forever, and he's going no, 313 00:19:51.698 --> 00:19:53.949 you're not going to live forever. 314 00:19:53.949 --> 00:19:58.239 You'll live for a very brief time, and in thinking about that, you will end up 315 00:19:58.239 --> 00:20:02.479 becoming more successful in the sense that you will become more purposeful. 316 00:20:02.479 --> 00:20:06.983 And you'll start aligning with that purpose more every day because you'll 317 00:20:06.983 --> 00:20:09.737 realize you don't have a lot of time to waste. 318 00:20:09.737 --> 00:20:13.984 Imagine if you had to live 500 years, or the promise of medicine, 319 00:20:13.984 --> 00:20:17.804 which is now, you can live 120 years or 150 years. 320 00:20:17.804 --> 00:20:19.922 If we think that we're going to live this long, 321 00:20:19.922 --> 00:20:22.650 we're going to squeeze in a lot of stuff. 322 00:20:22.650 --> 00:20:25.040 And that's, I think, the key to success. 323 00:20:32.258 --> 00:20:34.903 In my new book, Life on Purpose, 324 00:20:34.903 --> 00:20:39.350 I interviewed three people from Sub-Saharan Africa. 325 00:20:39.350 --> 00:20:45.270 I'll just give you one, James, who was what many people call an AIDS orphan. 326 00:20:45.270 --> 00:20:47.380 So his parents both died of HIV, 327 00:20:47.380 --> 00:20:51.590 he was orphaned, he was living with his grandmother. 328 00:20:51.590 --> 00:20:56.990 And his grandmother wanted James to be educated, so she walked 329 00:20:56.990 --> 00:21:04.600 with James 300 miles to the house of the President of Uganda. 330 00:21:04.600 --> 00:21:11.330 And knocked on the door, and the wife of the President of Uganda answered. 331 00:21:11.330 --> 00:21:15.790 And she said I would like to give my grandson James an education. 332 00:21:17.120 --> 00:21:19.780 And he became educated then. 333 00:21:19.780 --> 00:21:22.980 And he now runs Teach for Uganda. 334 00:21:22.980 --> 00:21:26.750 He created it, he directs it, he runs it. 335 00:21:26.750 --> 00:21:28.860 And I asked him about purpose. 336 00:21:28.860 --> 00:21:32.829 And I said, a lot of people in the US think that purpose is 337 00:21:32.829 --> 00:21:36.812 something that you have once you have everything else. 338 00:21:36.812 --> 00:21:41.060 Kind of like Maslov's hierarchy, I've got everything else, now I need a purpose. 339 00:21:41.060 --> 00:21:43.210 And he just laughed, he said, that's so Western. 340 00:21:44.700 --> 00:21:50.560 He said purpose gives you hope, purpose sustains the poor, it's essential. 341 00:21:50.560 --> 00:21:53.150 Without purpose, I would die. 342 00:21:53.150 --> 00:21:56.206 And I've led my whole life through this, and 343 00:21:56.206 --> 00:22:00.723 it turns out the other two that I interviewed had the same feeling. 344 00:22:00.723 --> 00:22:05.502 I had a doctoral student last year who studied purpose in life among 345 00:22:05.502 --> 00:22:09.860 kids in inner city Detroit, in a very tough area. 346 00:22:09.860 --> 00:22:13.840 And it turns out that the tougher your area, the tougher your neighborhood, 347 00:22:13.840 --> 00:22:18.150 the stronger your purpose in life was among these kids. 348 00:22:18.150 --> 00:22:24.570 So let's not pretend that purpose is unimportant for the poor. 349 00:22:24.570 --> 00:22:26.560 Purpose gives you resilience. 350 00:22:26.560 --> 00:22:32.036 And we know that too, people who've gone through this major Pakistani earthquake, 351 00:22:32.036 --> 00:22:35.089 and China went through a gigantic earthquake. 352 00:22:35.089 --> 00:22:39.181 Or the people in Japan who suffered through this major tsunami, 353 00:22:39.181 --> 00:22:42.969 the people who had purpose, actually, were more likely to 354 00:22:42.969 --> 00:22:47.250 experience post traumatic growth than post-traumatic stress. 355 00:22:47.250 --> 00:22:49.900 And by the way, it wasn't far away from the epicenter. 356 00:22:49.900 --> 00:22:52.130 The closer you were to the epicenter, 357 00:22:52.130 --> 00:22:56.460 the more likely you were to experience post-traumatic growth. 358 00:22:56.460 --> 00:23:00.939 So let's not assume that bad things always lead to bad things in people. 359 00:23:07.235 --> 00:23:10.376 Aristotle talked about purpose not as if I have a purpose, 360 00:23:10.376 --> 00:23:11.922 now I can go to Disney World. 361 00:23:11.922 --> 00:23:17.860 He talked about it more as I need to align myself with this purpose every day. 362 00:23:17.860 --> 00:23:21.860 That's what he called eudaimonic well being, being in touch with your inner 363 00:23:21.860 --> 00:23:26.380 daimon, and he said that it requires energia and it requires will. 364 00:23:26.380 --> 00:23:28.150 And it's something that happens every day. 365 00:23:28.150 --> 00:23:31.660 He once said, one swallow does not a spring make. 366 00:23:31.660 --> 00:23:34.980 In other words, you have to have this happen time and time again, 367 00:23:34.980 --> 00:23:36.300 you need to train yourself. 368 00:23:36.300 --> 00:23:40.610 It's almost an athletic kind of training that you engage in. 369 00:23:40.610 --> 00:23:45.915 And that's why we built Jewel, because we want to help people build more energy and 370 00:23:45.915 --> 00:23:49.845 more willpower in their lives, so that they can be aligned with their purpose. 371 00:23:49.845 --> 00:23:52.465 And then we have them start thinking about some essential, 372 00:23:52.465 --> 00:23:57.910 basic behaviors, like sleep, or presence, or activity, creativity, or eating. 373 00:23:57.910 --> 00:23:59.558 That you can engage in every day. 374 00:23:59.558 --> 00:24:01.092 And as Socrates said, 375 00:24:01.092 --> 00:24:05.705 Socrates was kind of the philosophical grandfather of Aristotle. 376 00:24:05.705 --> 00:24:09.019 And Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living, so 377 00:24:09.019 --> 00:24:10.670 let's examine our lives. 378 00:24:10.670 --> 00:24:12.720 But Aristotle said, essentially, 379 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:16.180 that the purposeless life isn't even worth examining in the first place. 380 00:24:16.180 --> 00:24:17.740 So let's do both things. 381 00:24:17.740 --> 00:24:20.440 And that's what I'd recommend for success. 382 00:24:20.440 --> 00:24:23.460 What I'd recommend for success is that you think about 383 00:24:23.460 --> 00:24:27.640 a purpose that you have in your life, or multiple purposes. 384 00:24:27.640 --> 00:24:29.722 And how to build the energy and 385 00:24:29.722 --> 00:24:34.144 willpower to maintain alignment with that purpose every day. 386 00:24:34.144 --> 00:24:38.361 And so, that's why I talk about sleep, and presence, 387 00:24:38.361 --> 00:24:41.740 activity, creativity, and eating. 388 00:24:41.740 --> 00:24:45.350 And figure out what works for you, because you're different from me. 389 00:24:45.350 --> 00:24:48.265 So for me, it's creativity and it's presence. 390 00:24:48.265 --> 00:24:51.195 But for you, it may be sleep and it may be eating well. 391 00:24:51.195 --> 00:24:53.825 Whatever it is, you need to figure that out. 392 00:24:53.825 --> 00:24:56.945 And once you have that, then you'll start building the energy you need and 393 00:24:56.945 --> 00:24:59.445 the willpower you need to be successful. 394 00:24:59.445 --> 00:25:03.515 because, believe me, to be successful, this is a long term. 395 00:25:03.515 --> 00:25:06.725 To be successful, it's like a marathon. 396 00:25:06.725 --> 00:25:07.477 It's not a sprint. 397 00:25:12.723 --> 00:25:17.091 One thing that we've learned, in addition to having a lot of energy, 398 00:25:17.091 --> 00:25:21.250 it really, success requires self-control too, or willpower. 399 00:25:21.250 --> 00:25:22.920 And we know a lot of people with a lot of energy, 400 00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:27.500 and they can be annoying without some degree of self control or willpower. 401 00:25:27.500 --> 00:25:29.988 So combining those two things is very important. 402 00:25:29.988 --> 00:25:34.290 We know willpower now is increasingly viewed by psychologists as a muscle that 403 00:25:34.290 --> 00:25:36.580 can be trained, it can be strengthened. 404 00:25:36.580 --> 00:25:39.123 It can be fueled with glucose, in fact. 405 00:25:39.123 --> 00:25:41.660 It can be depleted over time. 406 00:25:41.660 --> 00:25:45.900 So if you exert a lot of self-control over a couple of hours, 407 00:25:45.900 --> 00:25:49.980 then it's more difficult to exert self-control as time goes on. 408 00:25:49.980 --> 00:25:51.200 It becomes depleted. 409 00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:55.370 So how do I build that muscle up and how do I fuel that muscle? 410 00:25:55.370 --> 00:25:58.060 That's something that my book talks a lot about. 411 00:25:58.060 --> 00:25:59.750 >> What are some takeaways from that? 412 00:25:59.750 --> 00:26:01.576 >> Some of the things- >> What are things people can do to fuel 413 00:26:01.576 --> 00:26:02.540 that muscle? 414 00:26:02.540 --> 00:26:06.365 >> Some of the things that you can do to fuel willpower are thinking about your 415 00:26:06.365 --> 00:26:07.915 glucose intake, actually. 416 00:26:07.915 --> 00:26:11.340 So glucose is essential for brain activity. 417 00:26:11.340 --> 00:26:15.340 And so, when we decide to give up on glucose, 418 00:26:15.340 --> 00:26:18.500 if we drink nothing but Diet Coke, for example, 419 00:26:18.500 --> 00:26:22.430 or some diet drink, we're depleting ourselves of glucose actually. 420 00:26:22.430 --> 00:26:25.680 It is important to have glucose, which is sugar. 421 00:26:25.680 --> 00:26:28.860 You just don't want giant bowlesses of it or bowli of it. 422 00:26:28.860 --> 00:26:30.820 You don't want giant bowli of this. 423 00:26:30.820 --> 00:26:34.775 Big peaks of glucose, where then it goes up a lot and then it shoots down a lot. 424 00:26:34.775 --> 00:26:36.090 You don't want that. 425 00:26:36.090 --> 00:26:39.296 What you ideally want is to think about eating right. 426 00:26:39.296 --> 00:26:43.401 And a Mediterranean diet that's filled with fruits and 427 00:26:43.401 --> 00:26:49.170 vegetables that release glucose gradually over time is really good for you. 428 00:26:49.170 --> 00:26:53.110 Another thing to do is ignore what your nutritionist said, or 429 00:26:53.110 --> 00:26:58.432 your teacher said when you're a kid or your parents said, which was don't snack. 430 00:26:58.432 --> 00:26:59.733 Make sure you snack. 431 00:26:59.733 --> 00:27:03.886 Make sure you snack on healthy things throughout the day. 432 00:27:03.886 --> 00:27:08.645 So I encourage my students to bring a snack with them during class because I 433 00:27:08.645 --> 00:27:10.949 want them maintaining willpower, 434 00:27:10.949 --> 00:27:14.730 self-control while they're listening to me blab away. 435 00:27:14.730 --> 00:27:18.991 Another way to build willpower is through greater presence or mindfulness. 436 00:27:18.991 --> 00:27:23.909 So, meditation seems to build a person's self-control. 437 00:27:23.909 --> 00:27:30.102 So, I'm a big advocate of meditation and I've been meditating for 35 years. 438 00:27:30.102 --> 00:27:31.580 So, I'd really recommend that. 439 00:27:31.580 --> 00:27:34.010 But there are over 200 kinds of meditation. 440 00:27:34.010 --> 00:27:38.440 Some meditation actually allows you to release your self-control. 441 00:27:38.440 --> 00:27:40.521 It's observational mindfulness. 442 00:27:40.521 --> 00:27:44.770 Whereas other mindfulness that's focused on a mantra or your breathing, 443 00:27:44.770 --> 00:27:47.274 helps you develop greater self-control. 444 00:27:47.274 --> 00:27:49.960 So there are a lot of different kinds of meditation. 445 00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:51.258 But you can look online, and 446 00:27:51.258 --> 00:27:53.812 find different kinds of meditation that works for you. 447 00:27:59.353 --> 00:28:03.994 First of all, my own development of purpose came from my experience with my 448 00:28:03.994 --> 00:28:07.880 daughter, Julie, so I had this personal experience. 449 00:28:07.880 --> 00:28:09.950 And then, you can read philosophy. 450 00:28:09.950 --> 00:28:12.840 You can read Aristotle and you can read many other people. 451 00:28:12.840 --> 00:28:14.930 Alber Camus talked a lot about purpose. 452 00:28:15.980 --> 00:28:18.020 Or Nietzsche talked a lot about purpose. 453 00:28:18.020 --> 00:28:20.240 And so you can read about this philosophically. 454 00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:23.730 What's amazing to me, though, is the latest science about purpose. 455 00:28:23.730 --> 00:28:27.030 Where people with a strong, you diamonic purpose. 456 00:28:27.030 --> 00:28:30.610 In other words, really being in alignment with this true self, 457 00:28:30.610 --> 00:28:36.030 especially a transcending self, actually their DNA is more likely to be repaired. 458 00:28:36.030 --> 00:28:36.780 It's amazing. 459 00:28:36.780 --> 00:28:39.740 So our telomeres, which are the ends of our chromosomes, 460 00:28:39.740 --> 00:28:42.860 these are like the plastic caps or aglets on our shoelaces. 461 00:28:44.230 --> 00:28:47.940 When they get shorter, our DNA starts to fray, and 462 00:28:47.940 --> 00:28:51.841 when that happens, we start getting sick and we die. 463 00:28:51.841 --> 00:28:56.761 Well, it turns out, people who develop greater purpose actually have 464 00:28:56.761 --> 00:29:01.680 greater repair of these telomeres, this DNA, and that's amazing. 465 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:06.260 Also, the gene expression, the expression of our genes of chemicals that are good 466 00:29:06.260 --> 00:29:10.180 for us, such as antibodies, are higher among people with purpose. 467 00:29:10.180 --> 00:29:13.620 And things like pro-inflammatory cells 468 00:29:13.620 --> 00:29:17.940 are more likely to be expressed when you don't have a strong purpose. 469 00:29:17.940 --> 00:29:19.280 So I didn't know that. 470 00:29:19.280 --> 00:29:23.880 It turns out that people who have a strong purpose who have recently retired, 471 00:29:23.880 --> 00:29:28.440 seven years later, are 2.4 times less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease 472 00:29:28.440 --> 00:29:30.130 than people with a weak purpose. 473 00:29:30.130 --> 00:29:34.042 And this is after statistically controlling for the kitchen sink, age, 474 00:29:34.042 --> 00:29:38.119 race, gender, income, education, health status, health behaviors. 475 00:29:38.119 --> 00:29:41.890 After all those things, you still see people with a strong purpose 476 00:29:41.890 --> 00:29:45.860 less likely to develop heart attacks, stroke, more likely to live much longer. 477 00:29:45.860 --> 00:29:49.590 Less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, I could go on and on. 478 00:29:49.590 --> 00:29:50.300 It's amazing. 479 00:29:50.300 --> 00:29:51.010 The other thing, 480 00:29:51.010 --> 00:29:54.275 if this were a pill, this would be a billion dollar drug, wouldn't it? 481 00:29:54.275 --> 00:29:58.084 It'd be the greatest drug ever, and yet it's free. 482 00:29:58.084 --> 00:30:01.042 And then you might ask, well, okay, if this were a drug that 483 00:30:01.042 --> 00:30:05.000 prevented Alzheimer's and helped you live longer and all these things. 484 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:06.310 What would be the side effects? 485 00:30:06.310 --> 00:30:07.870 Well, if it were a regular drug, 486 00:30:07.870 --> 00:30:10.280 there would be three pages of side-effects, right? 487 00:30:10.280 --> 00:30:12.474 Every part of your body would fall off. 488 00:30:12.474 --> 00:30:17.006 But the side-effects to having strong purpose seem to be, first of all, 489 00:30:17.006 --> 00:30:18.478 you have more friends. 490 00:30:18.478 --> 00:30:22.092 People with purpose have more friends and better sex. 491 00:30:22.092 --> 00:30:24.403 People with purpose have better sex, nice. 492 00:30:29.862 --> 00:30:33.554 My first job was as a paper boy, and it was in Michigan. 493 00:30:33.554 --> 00:30:38.610 So you'd wake up on a Christmas morning or pre-Christmas morning and 494 00:30:38.610 --> 00:30:42.480 you've have papers that were a couple inches thick. 495 00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:45.320 And you'd deliver 100 of those things, 496 00:30:45.320 --> 00:30:48.410 and they're pretty heavy when you're a little kid, when you're 14 years old. 497 00:30:48.410 --> 00:30:50.839 And you also have to wake up before anybody else woke up, 498 00:30:50.839 --> 00:30:52.193 when it's still really dark. 499 00:30:52.193 --> 00:30:55.853 And there's maybe half a foot of snow on the papers and it's freezing out. 500 00:30:55.853 --> 00:31:00.394 And you've got a pile of papers that literally is as tall as you are, 501 00:31:00.394 --> 00:31:01.280 sometimes. 502 00:31:01.280 --> 00:31:03.390 It's 6 o'clock in the morning or so, and 503 00:31:03.390 --> 00:31:05.799 you need to walk around delivering these things. 504 00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:09.450 That's a lot of work, actually. 505 00:31:09.450 --> 00:31:11.130 That is tough. 506 00:31:11.130 --> 00:31:14.004 The other part though, is you have to be an entrepreneur, 507 00:31:14.004 --> 00:31:16.655 because you have to go out then and collect the money. 508 00:31:16.655 --> 00:31:19.407 [LAUGH] I remember, collecting the money was the hardest part. 509 00:31:19.407 --> 00:31:21.759 Because, literally, there are some people who would go, well, 510 00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:23.912 I didn't like the news this week, so I'm not going to pay you. 511 00:31:23.912 --> 00:31:27.785 [LAUGH] I go, I didn't make the news, I'm sorry. 512 00:31:27.785 --> 00:31:32.285 But somehow you have to convince, cajole people who didn't want to pay you 513 00:31:32.285 --> 00:31:37.770 the couple dollars a month that they needed to pay you for the paper. 514 00:31:37.770 --> 00:31:39.530 And so, that was always work. 515 00:31:39.530 --> 00:31:41.830 It was never easy to collect the money. 516 00:31:41.830 --> 00:31:46.014 It was never really easy to get all these papers into the paper boy bag and 517 00:31:46.014 --> 00:31:47.075 get them all out. 518 00:31:47.075 --> 00:31:49.857 And then people would complain, or somebody would take, 519 00:31:49.857 --> 00:31:53.107 steal a paper, or they couldn't find their paper for some reason. 520 00:31:53.107 --> 00:31:58.690 And it was just a lot of work for the money that you got and it taught me a lot. 521 00:31:58.690 --> 00:32:00.160 So that was a great job. 522 00:32:00.160 --> 00:32:02.201 What it taught me first of all is endurance. 523 00:32:02.201 --> 00:32:05.278 [LAUGH] Of all the things that I've learned, 524 00:32:05.278 --> 00:32:07.950 I really think that I need endurance. 525 00:32:07.950 --> 00:32:11.996 It is a marathon and doing this paper route, which I had a big one, 526 00:32:11.996 --> 00:32:14.360 I would run the paper route everyday. 527 00:32:14.360 --> 00:32:18.660 And it taught me just how important endurance was. 528 00:32:18.660 --> 00:32:21.700 Even if I had a big paper bag, I'd run the route so that I could get done. 529 00:32:21.700 --> 00:32:23.830 I was always like, for some reason, anxious. 530 00:32:23.830 --> 00:32:27.791 I had an urgency, I have to get this thing done. 531 00:32:27.791 --> 00:32:28.920 And so, I would do that. 532 00:32:28.920 --> 00:32:33.620 So it also taught me how to interact with people at a very young age. 533 00:32:33.620 --> 00:32:37.580 Like how do you interact with adults who are grumpy because you're asking 534 00:32:37.580 --> 00:32:38.800 them for money? 535 00:32:38.800 --> 00:32:42.400 How do you deal with a dog who sprints out of a person's house and 536 00:32:42.400 --> 00:32:44.825 starts biting you [LAUGH], or wants to? 537 00:32:44.825 --> 00:32:50.840 Just you're dealing with blocks and blocks of people who are pretty much strangers. 538 00:32:50.840 --> 00:32:51.870 And you're knocking on their door and 539 00:32:51.870 --> 00:32:54.490 you're interacting with them and you're 14 years old. 540 00:32:54.490 --> 00:32:55.384 That's a good job. 541 00:33:01.053 --> 00:33:05.531 If I hadn't become a professor, what would I do instead? 542 00:33:05.531 --> 00:33:08.370 I have no idea, I really don't. 543 00:33:08.370 --> 00:33:12.690 Sometimes I do think about that, it's a question I ask myself. 544 00:33:12.690 --> 00:33:18.000 I got very lucky, I think, in fitting into this field called public health. 545 00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:19.480 Which is such a broad field. 546 00:33:19.480 --> 00:33:20.230 I mean, what does it mean? 547 00:33:20.230 --> 00:33:25.440 It's sanitation or it's epidemiology. 548 00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:31.520 It's health services or it's the delivery of medical care. 549 00:33:31.520 --> 00:33:34.003 But it's also health related behaviors, and 550 00:33:34.003 --> 00:33:37.769 our health behaviors contribute to over 50% of disease and death. 551 00:33:37.769 --> 00:33:42.690 And I thought, wow, that's interesting, why we do what we do. 552 00:33:42.690 --> 00:33:46.460 And helping people live better lives, I thought, that's such an awesome area. 553 00:33:46.460 --> 00:33:47.980 So I got into that. 554 00:33:47.980 --> 00:33:51.740 But I honestly, I think I could have done a lot of different things. 555 00:33:51.740 --> 00:33:57.260 I think the key is, regardless of the job, finding the beauty in that job. 556 00:33:57.260 --> 00:34:00.200 Finding out how you could be creative in that job, 557 00:34:00.200 --> 00:34:03.920 how you could do that job extremely well. 558 00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:05.900 And get into the job. 559 00:34:05.900 --> 00:34:09.330 So I don't really think about other jobs, what would I have done, 560 00:34:09.330 --> 00:34:12.830 because I probably could have ended up doing 100 different things. 561 00:34:12.830 --> 00:34:18.390 What I would hope I would do in any of those things is try to create 562 00:34:18.390 --> 00:34:23.720 meaning from that and create some kind of purposeful life out of that job.