20 days that changed my life | Patrick Lehoux | TEDxNickelCity

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so today I want to talk about the 20 days that changed my life 20 days that ultimately brought me to the stage but before I get into that I want to talk about the person I was before this happened I was an introvert a perfectionist curious about the world and a strong passion to try new things I had this habit and I still have it of collecting Hobbies like most of you might collect new favorite songs I've collected a lot it's like I have this want to collect marit badges for everything this world has to offer it's this passion to try new things that started my journey it started on a Monday afternoon in the spring of 2012 I was in between Ventures at home just relaxing surfing the internet and I discovered this site called Kickstarter for those who don't know Kickstarter is a crowdfunding site the basic premise is you take your idea and you upload it to Kickstarter via a video the kickstarter Community I.E the backers and there's millions of them now if they like the idea and believe in the idea they will fund it with real dollars within minutes of discovering this site I had that feeling I always get when I perceive a new merit badge opportunity I was pretty excited I only had one snag I needed an idea so you need to understand that the purpose for me to do this was never to start a business it was simply to have a Kickstarter experience a new badge so the next day oh too fast the next day I spent the whole day trying to come up with something uh I came up with what I thought were three viable ideas the first after some investigation I realized would have required several months of R&D and the second was no better but the third was surprisingly simple it was a bottle cutter of all things inspired by a YouTube video this is the video here it depicted someone cutting a bottle with a piece of string dipped in acetone and then lit on fire and I thought wow that's pretty cool but we could do better than that so I spent the next 20 days building and testing multiple prototypes Gathering hundreds of bottles to cut estimating calculating manufacturing costs uh some things were easier than others things like applying for a patent or designing a 3D CAD version of this device or even filming a pitch video were things I had never done but my general attitude was and still is today that most things in life are not rocket science except for maybe rocket science that looks complicated um so I kept pushing through the 20 days uh when I got I think to day 16 I got a copy of the pitch video we had just filmed now while the video turned out great the more I watched it the more I realized I started getting this uneasy feeling that I had never really put myself out there like this I was an introvert there was no YouTube videos of me out there to the point where I started thinking having my face framed in HD on the web brought on some serious anxiety so I started my internal dialogue was like yeah you really want to do this it's probably not going to work maybe we shouldn't do this so I was starting to talk myself out of it uh and then that night I saw something on Facebook that changed everything a small little picture tucked away inside my newsfeed this is the picture here uh depicting a small little circle depicting your comfort zone and a much larger Circle depicting where the magic happens when I saw this picture I had this aha moment a series of clicks happened in my head I realized that we all create the boundaries of our comfort zone very early on in life and once these boundaries are established we rarely look outside of them and as we go through life every time we encounter a problem or an opportunity we really only consider the options inside that zone so it doesn't take long before you exhaust these options and you basically get stuck so when I realized that I knew I needed to step out and I figured I have a Kickstarter that's ready to do it so let's do it so on the 20th day after having my idea I hit the launch button on my campaign I remember instantly getting messages from friends wow never saw that coming this is awesome what one that really hit it home was from a close friend a long life friend was that he said I've been waiting a long time to see you put yourself out there like this congrats that cutter went on to be funded and manufactured it led to a second Kickstarter and eventually a third my products have now been sold in over 50 countries around the world they sell every day um to say that this experience has changed my financial life is an understatement um but more importantly than that it's really changed my life I spent a lot more time with my kids and the time I spend with them they're much more I'm much more present when I'm with them the I've my mind has been freed of The Daily Grind and all the stresses associated with it sometimes I forget which day it is um and I get to travel the world meet some incredible people it's really been an amazing experience every day I get up and I feel completely blessed that this has happened to me so about 8 10 months ago I wanted to find a way to give back and I tried several things and I found one that worked for me I get emails almost daily from people around the world looking for advice or guidance how to launch their own ideas while I can't respond to all of them I make it a point to pick one a week and I set up a Skype call these calls typically last upwards of four hours and I do one a week and it's actually my favorite time of the week we talk about strategies their idea some dos and don'ts and most times we end up talking just about life in general and who we are and what we're doing um I've met some amazing people out there with some incredible ideas some of them have gone on to launch their ideas quit their day jobs start a whole new life like me uh it's become a great community and we chat often now despite what it might sound like the last 18 months have not all been Rosy somewhere in there I went through some extremely difficult times in my personal life to the point where I found myself riddled with anxiety and spiraling into a deep depression what I I in somewhere in the darkness of that depression I realized that all my unhappiness and all my anxieties were tied up in fears fears that for the most part were not even real fears of being alone which is ridiculous I come from a huge family but in the moment you kind of get lost fears of insecurities and fear of the fear when I realized that I remembered the aha moment so I decided I was going to start if those were the sources of my anxieties and my unhappiness I was going to start tackling my fears one by one in a systematic fashion by stepping outside my comfort zone so I adopted this new mantra which was lean into the fears until they become familiar and comfortable so we all have fears fears of appearing vulnerable in front of someone fears of public speaking fears of flying so I want to share an example today of the steps I took to conquer one of my bigger fears which was the fear of judgment from others I've had it my whole life and I still have it for some extent but I lean into it all the time I knew that if I wanted some of that magic I needed to do something I would never have done before so I decided I was going to play guitar and sing in public now some people do this for a living they think it might not be a big deal but for me it was huge I was like oh my God you're really going to do this um now while I played guitar on and off in my life uh it's one of my original Hobbies it's uh I never saying fear of judgment to the point where I never even sang in front of my kids who have to be the least judgmental people on the planet when it comes to me um but I decided I was going to do this I wasn't sure what the format was going to be so the next day I signed up for vocal lessons thinking I should probably practice I took four vocal lessons and two weeks later I did my first open mic night downtown I was a Tuesday night at a local bar and I swear those in attendance must have thought I was having a stroke cuz that's what it felt like every single pore in my body was on fire and oozing sweat it was a surreal experience it La I did five songs that lasted about 25 minutes um yeah it was incredible since then I've done half a dozen Open Mic nights I still get nervous but they get easier every time and the crazy and amazing thing about that whole experience or the magic was that it turns out that singing and playing guitar is now one of my favorite activities it's it's it's mindblowing like it's my go-to activity to just lose myself or my best tool to beat back anxiety and it occurred to me that I could have gone my whole life without knowing that experience so it just reinforces the fact that you have to continually step out of your comfort zone to get some of that magic there's a quote well actually in this talk honestly a little bit outside my comfort zone look at the size of the screen right it's it's out there so there's a a quote um that I've been identifying with a lot over the last 18 months by Wayne Gretzky and the quote is you miss 100% of the shots you don't take and for me this quote Rings true in every part of life whether it be your personal life or your business life if you're unwilling to put yourself out there nothing new will ever happen so sometimes people ask me what could they do to bring about similar changes so I've made a list of things that have worked for me first one is the world is an amazing place especially today it's so connected put yourself out there take lots of chances you never know where and when the magic will happen connect with as many people as possible so many of the great things that have happened to me are direct result of these connections and before I started on this journey my Social Circle was really small introvert it's just who I was uh my Social Circle now is much larger than I ever thought it would ever be and it's growing every day and it's amazing have the courage to show vulnerability and this is difficult for everybody um people respond to your vulnerability by showing their own vulnerability and you would it's like for me that wasn't intuitive until I really felt it um but it's really the quickest way to truly connect with someone lean into the fears until they become familiar and comfortable and I still strive to do this every day give back you don't have to solve The World's problems but you can start by helping out a single person and like I said when I do that every week it's literally my favorite time of the week I get to connect with someone new and I get to help them and they're super grateful it's an awesome thing there's a big difference in believing you can do something and knowing you can do something every small victory you have moves you from believing to knowing and once you cross that bridge life will never be the same I guarantee it all these obstacles that people think in are insurmountable as soon as you know you can do something it just they just disappear even if my entire bottle cutting business completely fell apart I would just start up with something else because I know I can do it Life's too short and precious not to try we don't know what tomorrow brings so start today and lastly opportunities are everywhere literally everywhere and once you know this you'll start to see them and I see them every day so I would like to end my talk today by asking you guys one question what are you guys doing in the next 20 days thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 133,968

Keywords: ted, ted talk, tedx talk, Canada, tedx talks, ted x, English, tedx, ted talks, Culture, Design, TEDxTalks, Sustainability

Id: 3QnhMMxa4m8

Length: 13min 40sec (820 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 27 2014