How to find your passion and inner awesomenes | Eugene Hennie | TEDxMMU

Summary

The speaker shares his journey to self-discovery, emphasizing the importance of embracing one's uniqueness and pursuing one's passion. Born in Harlem, he learned charisma and imagination, which he applied in his creative endeavors. Despite initial success in a corporate job, he felt unfulfilled and eventually left to find his 'inner awesomeness.' He encourages the audience to know themselves, embrace their identity, surround themselves with positivity, and work hard to achieve their dreams.

Takeaways

• 🌟 **Find Your Passion**: The speaker emphasizes the importance of discovering your passion and inner awesomeness.
• 🏙️ **Personal Story**: The speaker shares his personal journey from growing up in Harlem to finding his true calling.
• 🎨 **Creativity and Imagination**: He highlights the significance of creativity and imagination from a young age.
• 🎭 **Taking Risks**: The speaker talks about taking risks and participating in performances, which led to unexpected success.
• 💼 **Corporate Life**: He describes his initial corporate job and how it made him feel like a number rather than a person.
• 🚀 **Breaking Free**: The speaker shares his decision to leave the corporate world to pursue his dreams and passions.
• 🌍 **Travel and Experiences**: He discusses the transformative power of travel and new experiences.
• 💡 **Inspiration from Others**: The speaker finds inspiration from meeting successful entrepreneurs and learning from their journeys.
• 🔨 **Hard Work**: The importance of hard work and dedication is stressed, with the speaker sharing examples of people who worked tirelessly to achieve their goals.
• 💥 **Embrace Failure**: The speaker encourages embracing failure as a stepping stone to success.
• 🛠️ **Perfect Your Craft**: He advises to continuously work on improving your skills and talents.
• 🗣️ **Confrontation**: The speaker talks about the necessity of facing confrontations head-on to achieve great things.
• 👍 **Doing What's Right**: The final takeaway is about always doing what's right, as it will lead to positive outcomes.

Q & A

What was the main theme of the speaker's talk?

The main theme of the speaker's talk was about finding one's passion and inner awesomeness.

What was the speaker's background growing up?

The speaker grew up in Harlem, New York City, where he learned to be charismatic, speak fast, and be quick-witted.

What did the speaker do at Florida State University?

The speaker attended Florida State University and was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. He participated in performances with his fraternity brothers.

What was the significance of the code 'eh976a' in the speaker's life?

The code 'eh976a' was how the speaker was identified in his corporate job, which made him feel like a part of a system rather than an individual.

What was the turning point that led the speaker to leave his corporate job?

The speaker received an email from his girlfriend about the world's most awesome job, which sparked his interest in leaving his corporate job.

How did the speaker's perspective change after traveling to South America?

Traveling to South America made the speaker realize that he could have a different life filled with travel, adventure, and happiness.

What was the impact of working in a diverse company in Kuala Lumpur on the speaker?

Working in a diverse company in Kuala Lumpur showed the speaker that people could embrace their passions and do what they loved, which inspired him.

What advice does the speaker give about embracing one's identity?

The speaker advises to embrace who you are, whether you're a nerd or an athlete, as it makes life easier and allows you to speak confidently about who you are.

Why is it important to surround yourself with encouraging people according to the speaker?

The speaker emphasizes that the company you keep can dictate where you go in life, suggesting that surrounding yourself with successful, inspiring people can lead to personal growth and success.

What does the speaker suggest is the key to achieving your goals?

The speaker suggests that knowing what you want and working hard, or 'working your ass off,' is the key to achieving your goals.

How does the speaker define 'failing hard and often'?

The speaker defines 'failing hard and often' as the willingness to take risks and learn from failures, which ultimately leads to greater successes.

What is the speaker's view on doing what's right?

The speaker believes there is a clear distinction between right and wrong, and that doing the right thing will lead to good outcomes.

Outlines

00:00

🎤 Embracing Personal Passion

The speaker begins by expressing gratitude for the opportunity to speak and shares his initial uncertainty about the topic. He decides to share his personal story, hoping it will inspire the audience. The talk focuses on discovering one's passion and inner awesomeness, particularly relevant to university students at a transitional stage in life. The speaker introduces himself, sharing his upbringing in Harlem, New York City, and the skills he learned growing up, such as charisma, quick wit, and the importance of imagination. He reminisces about his childhood creativity, drawing, sketching, and creating animations, and how the support he received as a child in pursuing his interests, without discouragement, helped him continue to develop his talents.

05:02

🚀 Leaving the Corporate World

The speaker reflects on his time in a Fortune 500 leadership development program, where he felt identified more by a code (eh976a) than by his name, leading to a sense of depersonalization. He contrasts the expectations society had of him, the 'clean-cut Eugene,' with his true desires to travel, be with cool people, and experience life beyond the corporate mold. He shares the pivotal moment when an email from his girlfriend, Jasmine, introduced him to an opportunity that promised adventure and fulfillment, which he initially dismissed as a scam. However, after a life-changing trip to South America with a friend, where he experienced new cultures and adventures, he decided to quit his job and embrace a new path. This decision led him to Kuala Lumpur, where he encountered a diverse and passionate workplace, reigniting his own passion and leading him to start a website and podcast, and to travel extensively.

10:05

🤔 Self-Discovery and Personal Growth

The speaker advises the audience to know themselves, embrace their individuality, and surround themselves with encouraging people. He emphasizes the importance of knowing what one truly wants, working hard, and making the impossible possible. He shares his own journey from a place of perceived limitations to achieving his goals, such as attending college, working for a Fortune 500 company, and living in another country. He encourages the audience to view failures as opportunities for success and to continually refine their skills, using the analogy of a blacksmith shaping a sword from raw material to illustrate the need for dedication and effort in perfecting one's talents.

15:06

💪 Facing Challenges and Doing What's Right

The speaker encourages embracing confrontation and taking risks, as doing so can lead to great outcomes. He shares his personal experience of overcoming fears to speak at the event and emphasizes the importance of doing what's right, asserting that there is a clear distinction between right and wrong actions. He concludes by reminding the audience that they already possess their inner awesomeness and that societal pressures often try to suppress this inherent quality. He calls for individuals to stand out, embrace their uniqueness, and unlock their full potential.

Keywords

💡Passion

Passion refers to a strong and barely controllable emotion, often associated with a compelling desire for something one considers to be of great importance. In the context of the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of finding one's passion as a driving force for personal and professional fulfillment. The speaker's own journey of self-discovery and the pursuit of what truly excites him is a testament to the transformative power of passion.

💡Inner Awesomeness

Inner Awesomeness is a concept that suggests everyone has inherent qualities, talents, or strengths that make them unique and capable of achieving great things. The speaker uses this term to encourage the audience to believe in their own potential and to embrace their individuality. It's about recognizing and leveraging one's personal strengths to achieve success and happiness.

💡Imagination

Imagination is the faculty or action of forming new ideas or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses. The speaker reminisces about his childhood imagination, which allowed him to create elaborate stories and characters. This keyword is used to illustrate the importance of creativity and the freedom to explore new ideas without the constraints of criticism or judgment.

💡Rebel

A rebel is a person who resists authority, control, or convention. The speaker mentions being told to be a rebel and question everything, which is a call to challenge the status quo and to think independently. This concept is integral to the video's theme of self-discovery and authenticity, as it encourages the audience to defy expectations and forge their own paths.

💡Corporate

Corporate here refers to the world of business and industry, often characterized by a formal, structured, and sometimes impersonal environment. The speaker contrasts his early career in a corporate setting, where he felt like just a number, with his later experiences where he felt more fulfilled and authentic. This keyword is used to highlight the potential drawbacks of conforming to a rigid system and the importance of seeking a work environment that aligns with one's values and passions.

💡Travel

Travel in this context refers to the act of moving from one place to another, especially over a long distance. The speaker's experiences traveling, particularly his trip to South America, are highlighted as transformative and instrumental in his decision to leave his corporate job. Travel symbolizes adventure, personal growth, and the pursuit of new experiences that can lead to self-discovery.

💡Embrace

To embrace something means to accept or support it readily or enthusiastically. The speaker advises the audience to embrace who they are, their quirks, and their passions. This keyword is central to the video's message of self-acceptance and the idea that one's true power lies in being true to oneself.

💡Confrontation

Confrontation refers to a direct encounter with a problem, person, or situation. The speaker talks about learning to embrace confrontation, suggesting that facing challenges head-on can lead to growth and success. This keyword is used to encourage the audience to be courageous and to tackle obstacles directly rather than avoiding them.

💡Failure

Failure is the inability to do something successfully; not achieving the desired aim or goal. The speaker discusses the importance of failing hard and often, suggesting that failure is a natural part of the process of achieving success. This keyword is used to normalize failure and to encourage resilience and persistence in the face of setbacks.

💡Craft

Craft refers to an activity involving a particular set of skills, especially one that results in the making of handicrafts. In the video, the speaker uses the analogy of refining a sword in a video game to describe the process of honing one's craft or skills. This keyword emphasizes the importance of dedication and continuous improvement in one's field of interest or work.

💡Awesome Job

An awesome job, as described in the script, is one that aligns with one's passions, offers opportunities for travel, and allows one to work on projects they love. The speaker's discovery of such a job opportunity marked a turning point in his life. This keyword is used to illustrate the concept of finding work that is not just a means to an end but a fulfilling and enjoyable part of one's life.

Highlights

The speaker expresses gratitude for the event and shares their initial uncertainty about the topic of discussion.

The speaker decides to share their personal story, hoping it will inspire the audience.

The talk focuses on finding one's passion and inner awesomeness, particularly relevant for university students at a crossroads.

The speaker shares their upbringing in Harlem, New York City, and the quick lessons learned there.

Importance of having an imagination is emphasized through the speaker's childhood experiences.

The speaker reminisces about their early artistic endeavors and the encouragement received.

A humorous anecdote about a fraternity performance and the creativity involved.

The speaker discusses the value of being a rebel and questioning societal norms.

A personal story about a childhood photo that symbolizes the speaker's individuality.

The realization of losing touch with one's awesomeness while working in a corporate job.

The speaker shares the eye-opening experience of being identified by a code in the corporate world.

A pivotal moment of receiving an email about the 'world's most awesome job' from a significant other.

The decision to quit a stable job to pursue a more fulfilling and adventurous life.

The speaker's experience working in a diverse and passionate company in Kuala Lumpur.

The importance of self-awareness and embracing one's true self.

The impact of surrounding oneself with encouraging and successful people.

The necessity of knowing what one truly wants in life beyond material wealth.

The value of hard work and dedication, exemplified by the speaker's entrepreneurial friends.

The concept of making the impossible possible through determination and effort.

The importance of embracing failure as a stepping stone to success.

The analogy of refining raw talent into a powerful tool, as illustrated by the speaker's gaming experiences.

The necessity of confronting challenges head-on to achieve greatness.

The moral of always doing what's right, regardless of the situation.

The conclusion that inner awesomeness is not something to find but something to uncover and embrace.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Queenie Lee Reviewer: Cristina Bufi-Pöcksteiner

OK, so first of all,

I'd like to thank everybody that set this event up.

This is pretty cool.

When I was given the invitation to speak,

I kind of didn't know what I was going to talk about.

But I came to the realization

that I really don't have to make anything up.

I can just give my story,

and hopefully, that'll be inspiring to a lot of people here.

So my talk today is going to be on:

how to find your passion and inner awesomeness.

A lot of people in university, especially if you're students here,

you're in that transition point

where you really don't know what you want to do,

and you kind of have to make changes and decisions

that are going to dictate your entire life.

So it's kind of daunting, it's kind of scary.

But before I go into anything,

I want to give you guys a chance to get to know me a little bit

and understand a little bit more about me.

I was born and raised in Harlem.

Now, Harlem is in New York City,

and Harlem starts at 110th Street and goes all the way to 159th Street.

Now, when I was growing up in Harlem,

there were a couple of things that I had to learn quick, right?

I had to learn how to be charismatic.

I had to learn how to speak fast.

I had to learn how to be real quick and witty.

But I also learned that it's good to have an imagination.

When I was young, I had an awesome imagination.

And I'm sure that many of you - think about it,

go back, when you were around six, seven, even younger than that -

you had a great imagination.

So who used to draw? Anybody? Show of hands.

Who used to draw when you were younger, right?

These are a couple of things I used to draw.

But do you remember when you used to draw that a lot of those things sucked, right?

But nobody told you they sucked, like you would give your mother the drawing,

and she really didn't know what it was, but she would put it on the refrigerator.

Nobody ever told you that what you did wasn't good.

Nobody never told you that you were -

that you were not awesome.

So you stuck with it.

OK, so me, I used to draw, I used to sketch,

I used to do photo manipulation,

and right there on the bottom left, that's actually an animation I did.

I used to spend hours creating these elaborate stories,

coming up with characters, coming up with plots.

And nobody never told me that these things weren't cool.

So I continued to do them.

So I had fun and I took a risk.

So if you look at this right here, don't get scared,

but on the left, this is a competition that me and my fraternity brothers did.

We used to do performances every year for the university.

I went to Florida State University,

and I'm a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated.

So on the left, we're doing Resident Evil.

We did our kind of reenactment of Resident Evil,

it was Zombies versus SWAT.

On the right, we did Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory,

and we had some sick twisted thing,

and all the auto polluters

were kidnapped by Willy Wonka and forced to work in a factory.

But nobody ever told us that this wasn't cool.

And it came to our -

people loved the performances we did.

We performed in front of thousands of people

and won these competitions.

So I was always told to be a rebel and question everything.

So if you guys look at this picture,

this is actually a very funny picture to me

because if you see me right there

I'm the only one making a really silly face, right?

And if you go to my parent's house,

you actually see that this is the first picture you see

when you come into my mother's house.

And what was cool about this picture was,

before we actually took the picture, the teacher told me, she said,

"Everybody, when the photographer says smile, smile."

So I said, "Teacher, why do we have to smile?

Is there a reason we have to smile - we're young kids,

why do we have to wear suits?

Why all the guys in suits, all the women in dresses?

We don't want to be adults."

She said, "Don't worry about it, just smile."

And I said, " OK, if you don't want to tell me why I have to smile,

I want to do something funny."

So when the photographer said "cheese," said "smile,"

I did that face.

OK, but something happened.

When I grew up,

and I started to get older and older,

I forgot that I was awesome.

I'll get to what this code means in a second.

But I was in a Fortune 500 leadership development program

when I got out of college, I was "corporate."

I had a title; I was an account manager;

I was making good money, I was making $60,000 out of college,

so I could brag to friends.

My mother was proud; my father was proud.

I could go on trips once a year.

But I realized that this isn't what I wanted.

Now back to this code: eh976a.

This was the actual code that I was identified by in my company.

So when they wanted to email me,

they didn't email me at Eugene Hennie,

they emailed me at eh976a.

When they wanted to look up my sales records,

they looked up eh976a.

I started to think why don't you guys just call me eh976a.

Because that's how you identify me anyway.

So I realized I was a part of a system,

I was no longer a person, I was no longer Eugene.

So this is what society wanted;

they wanted the clean-cut Eugene,

they wanted Eugene that wore suits,

that wore glasses, that wore specs;

I was all proper, but this is what I wanted.

I wanted to do flips; I wanted to travel; I wanted to hang out with cool people;

I wanted to experience life.

I had to escape life's cubicle.

I was working nine-to-five, I was young and I hated it.

I was putting on something that I didn't want to carry, every day.

And I will come home emotionally drained, spiritually drained

because I was trying to please everybody else

instead of pleasing myself.

But then I got an email from an angel,

and she's going to be mad at me, be mad at me for doing this.

This was from my girlfriend, Jasmine, sitting right there.

You guys give Jasmine a round of applause.

(Applause)

And because of that she sent me an email for the world's most awesome job.

So I came home from work, I was kind of pissed off,

but she sent me an email.

So I opened the message, and I clicked on the email.

It took me to a website,

and the website said,

"Do you want to work in the world's most awesome workplace?

Do you want to be the world's most awesome people?

Do you want to travel?

Do you want to work on projects you love?"

And I was, like, this is a scam.

That can't be true,

because I make $60,000 out of college, right?

You're telling me I can make money, travel, do cool things, meet cool people,

go to all these cool places and still be happy.

That's not true.

So I deleted the email.

What happened next was something pretty cool.

A buddy of mine, he worked for a bank.

He sent me an email, he said, "Hey Eugene,

we want to go to South America.

We want to go on a cool trip to South America."

And he said, "Hey, do you want to go?" I said, "Yeah, man, I'll go."

So I went home, booked the ticket.

Fast forward a couple of weeks,

I'm sitting on a plane, and I am petrified when the plane is about to take off;

this is the first time I've ever been out of the country by myself.

Every negative thought in the world started going through my mind.

What if I go there?

I don't speak Spanish, what if I get lost?

What if they kidnapped me? What if the plane doesn't take off?

All these just thoughts started going through my mind.

So I sucked it up, down on the plane, took off,

and the result was something amazing to us, it was beautiful.

I had the best time in my life.

So I saw beautiful cities, I hung out with the locals,

we white-water rafted, ATVed the volcanoes,

ziplined across jungles,

and we did all this cool stuff.

I look at this picture, like, those are me and all my friends,

and you see the lady right there, she has a baby, and she's [inaudible] with us;

like that was cool, very awesome.

So what I decided to do was I quit - I quit my job.

This's me in the parking lot after I quit.

That's me putting up pictures of my actual travel ticket on Instagram.

I was so excited.

I said, my life is about to change

and all these cool things are about to happen.

So needless to say that when I came to Kuala Lumpur,

I was mind-blown,

because the company that I was around was amazing.

Over 30 different nationalities were represented

in the company that I worked for.

I had people that loved art; people that loved music;

people that loved the design; people that loved business.

Everybody was embracing their passion,

and I said, this is cool, this is awesome.

So something happened, a side effect happened,

and I started to do awesome things again.

I enjoyed entrepreneurs; I enjoyed talking to entrepreneurs.

The guy in this picture right here,

his name is Justin Harrell,

I had a chance to meet him.

He started a company with $50

and eventually sold it for $80 million.

And so now I can see guys like this and be inspired by guys like this

every month, when we organized these events.

The first time I actually spoke since being in Kuala Lumpur

was at an assignment event.

My buddy, ZeiKrew, he is going to be talking about that a little later.

They gave me an opportunity to speak,

and that was my first time speaking in about three years.

I started a website AntiWantrepreneur.com,

and that was pretty cool because we created an online community

where entrepreneurs can come

and listen to interviews with other entrepreneurs,

download how to guides and get all this awesome cool stuff.

Even after that, I started a podcast,

and that was kind of ironic because I was this guy from New York,

this guy from Harlem, that came to Kuala Lumpur;

and now, I'm doing a podcast.

I never thought that I would do a podcast.

OK, I started traveling.

When I'm in America,

the only time I've been out of the country was when I was around 23.

But within six months of being here in Kuala Lumpur,

I went to four, five different countries.

So I had to ask myself why?

When I took a chance, and I just stepped back,

and I decided to ask myself why.

Why did all these cool things happen?

What decisions did I make?

What principles, what code, what commandments?

What was I following that made all these things happen?

So the first thing I would ask you guys -

tell you guys to do - is to know yourself.

Who are you?

What are the things that you like, the things that you dislike?

What pisses you off? What makes you smile?

A lot of people don't know this.

I'm sure that if you were to ask your neighbor,

you know, "Who are you? What do you like?"

A lot of people, they have a hard time,

they don't know what it is that they like.

Number two, embrace yourself!

And I love this picture

because if you're a nerd, embrace that you're a nerd.

If you're an athlete, embrace it,

because once you embrace it, everything in life becomes easier.

It's easy for me to come up here

and speak to you guys without getting all shaky

because I've embraced who I am.

I'm a guy from New York that came to Malaysia to do great things.

And so, my talking about it makes it a little easier

because I've embraced it.

Surround yourself with encouraging people.

I love this photo because this photo shows you that the company you keep

is going to kind of dictate where you go in life.

This is Barack Obama with Steve Jobs, with Mark Zuckerberg,

the CEO of Netflix, the CEO of Twitter,

Yahoo!, Oracle.

Imagine what they're talking about, must be talking about cool stuff.

A quote says, "You're the average in the five people you keep around you."

So if you surround yourself with cool people,

successful people, inspiring people,

you're going to be inspired, cool, successful, motivated.

And if you surround yourself with people that suck,

that people that always want to put their negative energy on you,

you're kind of going down spiral.

Number four: Know what you want.

Now you have to know yourself, but you have to know what you want, right?

Some people think that they want $1 million,

when in all reality, they don't want $1 million,

they want to be able to travel, they want to buy their mothers a house,

they want security, they want some freedom.

So know what you want.

Number five: Work your ass off.

And this is cool

because if you guys don't know Gary Vaynerchuk,

he is kind of like the king of social media.

And he started when he was really young to sell online,

and his advice, he calls it Hustle 2.0.

If you like something, work hard.

That's all you have to do. Lose sleep.

I have a couple buddies, they are my age,

they're about to be best-selling authors.

I have buddies that have products online

that make thousands of dollars because they work their ass off.

They put in the time, when everybody else is out partying,

they are in the house, they are in the lab working on things.

Now make the impossible the new possible.

Now, what do I mean by this?

To me growing up in Harlem,

it was impossible that I would go to college.

But it happened.

It was impossible that I will get a job working for Fortune 500 Company

but it happened.

It was impossible that I would live in another country

and work with cool people

and start a podcast and meet millionaires.

But it all happened.

It became possible,

so my standard went from here to here.

The question became -

it wasn't how could I do this, it was how could I not do this?

So every time I look at a new task, on a new goal, and a new obstacle,

I ask myself: Eugene, you're capable.

You've made it this far, how could you not do this?

Number seven: Fail hard and fail often.

People don't like to fail.

Think about it guys, how many times have you failed?

You had a lot of fails today, but you don't remember your fails.

You remember all your successes, right?

So you have to fail.

Think about coders,

I love to use coders as an analogy, because coders fail all day.

They're at the computers, just coding away, coding away.

And they have bugs, breaks, and code,

but they just try to fix it, fix it, fix it.

At the end of ten hours, or however long it takes coders to do things,

they have a perfect product,

they have a perfect application, because they failed.

If you fail a lot, the successes will be greater.

Number eight: Beat on your craft.

Will Smith said before,

he said that he doesn't feel he's particularly talented at anything.

He doesn't feel that he was like a natural talent.

But he does feel that he has an uncanny ability to work hard.

He has a crazy work ethic.

So I like to use the analogy of - I like a lot of computer games.

I play Elder Scrolls a lot,

and in Elder Scrolls,

you have to build swords,

but you start with the raw material, you start with iron ore;

and you have to make an iron sword.

So think of your talent, your God-given ability

as that raw material.

You have to take it and beat on it.

You have to perfect it, you have to sharpen it;

you spend hours doing this;

and soon, you'll have a weapon you can use to go out and conquer the world.

Number nine: Learn to embrace confrontation.

Now, how many of you guys want a raise at work?

You guys want something from somebody,

but you're afraid to go confront them about it.

A lot of people hate confrontation,

they try to go around it, they go the opposite way.

They'll try everything that they can do to try to avoid confrontation.

But it's when you meet confrontation face-to-face, great things happen.

I had to embrace confrontation coming here today.

I thought, what if I slipped on stage,

what if the projector stuff didn't work, right?

But when I got here,

I embraced it,

and all that fell off me, I kind of left it down there.

So learn to embrace confrontation

because we start taking these risks and meet confrontation head on,

great things are going to happen.

And number ten: Do what's right.

I don't believe there's a grey area when it comes to doing what's right.

I believe there is a right way and a wrong way.

I can go to somebody from another country, that doesn't speak my language,

approach him, say something;

whether it be negative, I can tell how they takes it,

if I said something right, or something wrong.

We all have innate human sixth sense to know what's right and what's wrong.

When you do the right things, good things happen to you.

So when I started this presentation, I wanted to -

I asked you guys a question: How do you find your inner awesomeness?

How do you find it?

The answer is: you don't have to find it, you always had it;

it's inside you.

But the media, television, your friends, your loved ones,

they want to mold you to be something that you're not,

when deep down inside you already have all the tools that you need.

There was a point in time where we wanted to fit in,

remember everybody wanted to fit in, wanted to dress alike?

But now we have to come to that transition and go to standing out as an individual,

because when we find our inner awesomeness,

great things are going to happen.

Thank you.

(Applause)