Nick Vujicic - Keynote Speaker - 87th National FFA Convention & Expo

our next speaker is an artist musician and actor amongst numerous other things he was born and raised in Melbourne Australia but currently resides in Southern California with his wife and son he's the president of the International nonprofit ministry life without limbs and in his spare time enjoys reading swimming and painting he has travelled the world sharing his talents and story with countless individuals inspiring them to find their passions and love all out ladies and gentlemen he's come to kick off the first session of the 87th National FFA convention and Expo please give up for our first session keynote speaker mr. Nick boy pitch well hello everyone how are you love you guys very very much it's my privilege and honor to be here tonight thank you to the FFA for having me here man you guys sound so good the band is so good you guys are awesome I want to thank you for sharing your gifts and talents guys I just want to tell you that I'm here tonight to help you excel and really reach your full potential in any area of your life and the time given to me I'm gonna fly through a lot of things but I always open up with a couple funny stories you know when people they look at me they freaked out a little bit especially little children they're like what happened and I say cigarettes I love freaking little kids out man I love freaking adults out as well one day I was on the beach and I had my little foot under the sand and this woman came up with her dog and she came up and she said wow that's amazing and I said what she said how long did it take you to bury your legs in the sand and I said oh very long time she thought that I had my hands inside my shirt and then I buried my legs in the same so I didn't move deliberately and I waited for her to say goodbye and she said goodbye I said goodbye and she walked away and I waited for her to look back she looked back and I stopped walking like this you should have seen her face man she was like the funniest story of all one day I was in a car and when you see me from the outside of the vehicle all you see is my head and so we're at the traffic lights I'm in the front seat this car comes up next what's this ghost looking at me so I'm looking at her she's looking at me I'm looking at her she's looking at me I'm looking at her and all she sees is my head so just imagine all you see is my head and she was like ah yeah I've done some dumb some crazy things even on a plane we actually dressed me up as a pilot and greeted the passengers as they got on the plane I mean the list goes on I never got handcuffed though which is good guys I'm 31 years old I I graduated at 21 with a double degree in accounting and financial planning never became an accountant never became a financial planner I'm now a speaker I travel around the world I've been to more than a quarter of the world 54 countries just last year we did 26 countries and I was speaking with seven presidents and five governments about helping children with disabilities to go to a normal school teaching society values and principles and putting even my curriculum of values and principles and character in the schools of countries like Dominican Republic and so wherever I go I always want to impart vision and impart dreams and I don't know who you are and I don't know what you're going through and I'm not a guy to say that I'm going through something worse than you I actually believe that it's worse being in a broken home than having no arms or legs when the doctors saw me they didn't think that I would walk and when I realized that I was different from everyone else I knew that I had no arms and no legs but it was more of my fear the fear of being alone that was disabling more than anything I would come home every day and being bullied and teased not knowing what kind of life is ahead you know people they come up to me and say well what do you want to be when you grow up and I'm like honneur three foot three I didn't know what I was gonna be and you know when I was you know eight years old in 1990 I couldn't see what was ahead for me today I can tell you that I'm so happy I cuz I'm so happy I really am happy I love my life two-and-a-half years ago me and my wife got married and one year in one day after we got married my son Kiyoshi was born he's 20 months old and he's already my height and he is so beautiful and I never thought that I'd be able to be happy like when I'm a child I'm like I'm not gonna get married I can't even hold my wife's hand but you don't need hands to hold her heart well I'm not gonna be able to hold my kids when they're crying what kind of a father am I gonna be yes it's true that how many hugs I have with my son and how long it is and how tight that hug is is not dependent on me but on him but if I can be a father to him that he loves me so much that he would initiate a hug then I'm doing okay and surprise surprise three or four months ago he gave me his very first hug and it was the best hug I've ever received in my entire life you see his a kid yeah you can applaud to that you know if you only believe what you see you're gonna miss out how many feet do I have one you only see one maybe you can only see what you can see I could never see that I'll become a speaker and author doing what I'm doing I have a nonprofit organization and we've given away six hundred thousand dollars around the world and I love being here at your convention because the first time I realized how powerful farming is and how it could honestly change the world is when I went to Liberia in 2008 she was my first president I had met Madame Salif Nobel Prize winner and the $30.00 income per month is the average for the family and those thirty dollars every single dollar is spent on imported rice all the way from China and I asked why don't they grow their own food they said well the culture is if you grow your own food you're a second-class citizen and people look down upon you I said don't they understand they don't need to spend 30 bucks on rice they can grow their own fruits and veggies and grains and I want you to know that I'm not here just just to speak about stuff I'm gonna talk about your career in a second but I want you to know to think bigger don't just see and believe what you just see and not think of anything more there is more to come in your industry there is more to come in your generation I actually believe that it's your generation that will actually end world hunger and thanks to social media I only have five million fans on Facebook one day Algol is 400 million fans on Facebook giving $1 a month where a hundred percent of all proceeds go toward feeding the hungry but it can't just be feeding them we need to educate them you know give them a fish or teach them how to fish I want you to know that you and what you're doing can actually change lives and possibly be a part of changing the world forever don't just focus on what you can see technology and everything you're learning can always be applied for me in my life I looked at my life and I could only see what I could see and I never thought I'd be Who I am and I just want you to know in your own heart sometimes negativity overtakes you sometimes fear stops you from trying or trying again let me show you what fear is encouraged I'm gonna jump off the table and do a backflip and land on the stage okay are you ready girls are you ready boys are you ready where do 1 2 3 I'm joking man are you serious and finding that I break my arm or something but encouragement brings you closer to the truth of all that you can be and all that you can do but it's the discouragement that takes you away you see I never saw a hope plan in the future my parents they believed in God and I didn't want to have a faith in God because why did he give me less and for many years I didn't understand that I could still be his hands and feet and be a miracle for someone else and if I could just bring one more person to heaven everything makes sense I mean arthritis is going to give me I mean I'm the legs is going to give me a Threadless later on anyway but I just want you to know that my faith helped me what I wanted you to see this you only see one foot but believing in what you don't see is faith you see this little foot here it's a little cutie and it's quite shy just hides up there nicely but what you gotta understand is when you can't see vision for your life you're going to understand the difference between the truth and the lies and the first thing I want to talk about is your value who are you oh you're ugly or just give up you'll never be anyone you'll never get a job you'll never get married you'll always be alone you just be a burden to your parents you'll never be anyone Nick just give up have you ever thought of giving up is it because of what people say about you why are you so worried about what people say about you why are you so worried about how you look let me ask you do you think I'm cool enough to be a friend but I but I I'll thank you very much but I have no arms and legs it doesn't matter right so if it actually doesn't matter for how we look then why do we tease each other and kill each other with words if it actually doesn't matter we are not valuable because of how we look many men think that they're valuable because of how much money they can bring to the table to the family wrong I would rather be a poor man to never hurt anyone than a rich man who hurts one person meaning I'm not perfect but money doesn't define me or the the value of Who I am I tell so many people all around the world who are politicians how can you expect to honor your country when you cannot expect to even honor your wife you've got to honor your wife before your country and you've got to be a good father to your own kids before you can lead the next generation I will do my best to give my son opportunities for his future and opportunities that I've never had in my life but more than opportunity I want to give my son a father I want to be his father don't be too busy family is so important and I'm thankful for mine who encouraged me every day my mom and dad they dressed me up they brush my teeth when I was a kid okay Nick are you ready for school yes mommy are you gonna do your best yes mommy now don't worry about what anyone else says you're just special and I'm thinking um just a song I didn't want to be special I just wanted to be normal and I'd get these bullies and all these seeds of lies growing in my head and my heart and they were overtaking me to the point of depression at age 8 I entered into depression at age 10 I actually tried to commit suicide imagine how much I would have missed out on don't give up I know you have broken pieces and so does everyone here but you don't know what miracles can come from your broken pieces until you give your broken pieces a chance I want you to give yourself a chance don't give up dream big love yourself in a humble way love others and know this that you don't know what's around the corner until you go around the corner if Thomas Edison attempted 9,998 times he would not have made the light bulb if he attempted to make the light bulb 9990 time 99 times only we would not have a I fall from Thomas Edison today he kept on going and someone came up to him and said hey Tom how does it feel failing 9999 times and he said I never failed 9999 times now I just know 9999 ways in how not to make a light bulb failure equals education we go through life you see my up in my foot we all go through ups and downs ups and downs ups and down and it's all like I never cry again it's not like I'm not scared ever again but I go through life taking one step at a time one step at a time one step at a time being thankful for what I have you see my foot I was actually playing sucker one day and my friend was quite a way back and he was ready to kick it to me and he says are you ready and like I'm like nervous my knees were shaking and he goes okay your girls and he kicks this ball so hard he goes on pull and this thing turns into a missile do you understand this thing is coming after me and I'm like oh my gosh what am I gonna do you know when something's coming for you and it doesn't matter where you go you're dead okay that's the feeling I had and so have you seen the matrix okay it's real y'all yeah and Sammy everything went so slow like slow motion and this balls coming for me I'm like what am I gonna do am I gonna headbutt it no it's a little bit to load ahead but can I kick it now it's a little bit too high to kick so I'm thinking okay I'm gonna have to do something a little crazy and so I jumped up in the air in slow motion and while I jumped up in the air I did a karate kick kick and I went like that and the ball came hit my foot bent it backwards and I heard ik and I was like and my foot went oh now I need this thing I I love this thing I got two toes peace how you doing I can type 43 words a minute on a normal computer and after two cups of coffee 63 words a minute I mean I need this thing to work I mean for three weeks as a 13 year old three weeks is like three months and if I had to walk in an emergency I had to walk like this like what is with that right like seriously I felt like I was disabled or something you know like what's up with that it made me think to either be angry for what I don't have I'll be thankful for what I do have you guys can't change everything you can't change the way someone feels you can't take away regret you can't take away guilt you can't take away fear you can encourage them you can love them you can support them you can listen to them you can be there with them but you can't change them you can pray for them but you can't change them I want you to know that sometimes we get so caught up in trying to change something that we cannot change or wishing that I could change this when I can't change this if I can't change my body then I need to be open to changing my heart and my mind and being at least open and find something that I can do instead of crying about what I cannot do I realize in my life that the value of Who I am is not determined on what people think of me and my happiness is not from everyone say stuff if you give me all the money in this stadium from all your pockets and all your parent parents money and whatever let's say it's a million dollars it's a it's a trillion dollars let's say whatever money in the world you have let's say all the money comes into my bank account I like this story and but then all of a sudden my son dies tonight just because can money really make you happy can money heal your marriage can money make your kids happy no drugs sex alcohol pornography if you put your happiness in temporary things your happiness will be temporary girls your value is not determined on if you have a guy in your life a boyfriend or not you don't need a boyfriend to be loved everyone's a love so many girls are with emotionally controlling abusive boyfriends and they convince themselves that they're not gonna get anyone better you're right you're not gonna get anyone better unless you dump him do you understand you give yourself a chance but because I love him and he loves me of course is going to love you when you give him everything he wants when he wants how he wants it I want you to understand I did not have a girlfriend in my life unless I felt like she could actually be the mother of my children I had a relationship before I met my wife still save my virginity for my wife so I could look my son in his eyes and say I waited for your mother when you do those choices when you make right choices you get those blessings if you make other choices you have some different things that you have to deal with later on but I want you to understand that in every part of our life we're not perfect but we must strive to be just stop focusing on the outside and understand who you are how beautiful you are girls you're beautiful just the way that you are you boys you too man you don't have to be Big Bite you don't have to have big biceps my biceps were so big they fell off you understand me you know those guys going to school and they're just swearing it saying the F word here f this F that all this stuff why because they think they're cool and they're bullying people and that's cool no it's not cool I don't need to swear to be cool I don't need cigarettes drugs or anyone's approval I Know Who I am girls you don't need a boy you don't need a boyfriend you didn't a man who stands by you guys you don't need a girl you need a woman who stands by and I'll tell you what happened with me and my wife three months into my dating period we call it courtship in my world three months into being with her and dating her my business failed do you understand zero dollars in my bank account someone stole $50,000 from me someone owed me $120,000 for future gigs someone only $120,000 for previous gigs I had a two hundred and ten thousand dollar cash flow situation I had to stop my business and I needed money from my parents to survive that tapped into my childhood depression and I turned into a little baby boy do you understand crying I had panic attacks my hair was falling out couldn't eat couldn't sleep she didn't leave me when I told her that I lost all my money she said babe that's fine I don't care I'll get a nursing job and support the both of us that's when I knew she was gonna be my wife and nine months later we put a ring in the creampuff I got her to feed me the cream puffs I ate the cream puffs without choking on the engagement ring and then I said baby let me kiss your hands and I got mama and I went down on her ring finger she thought I got kinky for a second I went down on her ring thing I didn't lay a hand on her I promise and I pulled back and she sold the ring and she started crying and I said baby I love you want to spend the rest of my life with you will you marry me and she's crying crying crying crying and I said so and she said yes and then six months later we got married and you know when I was a kid I remember when I was six years old the earliest memories of being at a wedding I nearly cried because I thought I'd never be able to dance with my bride and our wedding night we danced and we danced in our own way and I just want you to know you don't have to be someone you're not you just have to be you be the best you you can be and my question tonight is do you like you if this was the last 15 seconds of breath that went into your body ten seconds who did you not hug for a while who did you not say thank you for a long time - who did you not say sorry - who should you forgive that you haven't forgiven yet live every moment as if it's your last be the best you you can be achieve your goals achieve your dreams but in the end at your funeral and mine they'll only talk about who you are not what you did who you are changes people's lives more than what you did and if you can marry those two things together you're in a good path dream big don't give up when you know why you do what you do courage overrides all of your fear why am I not jumping off this table well that's a stupid idea but if I am on this table and there's no one around me and the fire is coming to this table do you think that idea now is all of a sudden a pretty good idea yes when you know why you do what you do you're doing crying or not scared or not here I come here I go you want to know who inspired me to be a speaker wasn't my mum wasn't my dad wasn't my family it was my Jenna term my high school the one who cleaned the toilets at Al high school changed my life he looked at me one day and he said Nick you're gonna be a speaker and I said so you're crazy and I started speaking in front of small groups because of him he forced me to he twisted my arm and I said yes and then when I got up in front of 300 sophomore students for seven minutes within three minutes half the girls were crying and I was so nervous my palms are sweaty and I looked at her and she started crying wouldn't stop crying so I stopped she put up a hand she said I'm so sorry to interrupt but can I come up there and give you a hug in front of everyone she came in she hugged me and she cried on my shoulder and she said thank you thank you thank you no one's ever told me that they love me no one's ever told me that I'm beautiful the way that I am that's when I knew I was born to be a speaker and I want you to know that nine years ago I realized something profound that when you don't get a miracle you can still be a miracle for someone else when I was 10 years old I just wish that I met someone else like me with no arms and no legs and I wish that limbless man could come and speak to my school about bullying that would have changed everything well I never got that miracle so listen what happens when you don't get yours I was in front of a crowd and I saw a little boy being held up above them all no arms no legs and the little foot just like me I got the father to bring him up on stage you're sitting up here and I'm looking he's looking up at me I'm looking down at him I can't give him a high-five so I gave him a low two and when I put my little foot in his little foot he started smiling and everyone started crying words cannot express how it felt to see my mom who's crying hugging his mom who's crying my dad who's crying hugging his dad who's crying it was amazing I told his mom that when he goes to school and he gets bullied at school I'm gonna come to his school and go in my wheelchair and run them all over no that's not what I said but I went there to the school three years ago and he was getting bullied and teased and I spoke there at his school just a simple message of love and hope and it was life-changing for him he's now like the coolest kid in the school I actually have to sit him down and start talking to him about humility but at least he's not getting bullying I want to ask you today what would have to happen in your life for you to look back at it and say it was all worth it you have your faith and I have my faith and that's fine I don't force anyone to change anything about themselves but when that boy grows up he's gonna have me as an example so when he feels alone he's gonna remember that he has me in his life in heaven is real with Daniel running to me with two new legs and hands he will come up to me and hugged me and thanked me for helping me believe that that place called heaven was real to me if I can just help one person it's all worth it but I want you to know in unity you guys have a lot of power you have 500,000 members of the FFA you guys have more voice have more power have more creativity than you think you even had and I really really want to encourage you to understand that I'm real I'm real when I say it's your generation that will actually end world hunger it baffles me that I have four vegetable boxes with zucchini squash 400 Tomatoes we didn't know what to do with 40 zucchinis you want to know we did with the zucchinis we tried to give as much as much as we could away we couldn't we couldn't keep up some of those zucchinis rotted on my turf in my backyard you plant a seed put some drip system and it grows and a billion people are going hungry today that is not acceptable and the last generations have accepted it and I don't and the last generation have been waiting for billionaires to stop world hunger and I'm not going to wait for I'm gonna wait on you because 400 million teenagers could easily come together now with Facebook and Twitter and give a dollar a day and end world hunger you guys can give education to the people all around the world to actually make sustainable models and villages where you can build lakes and put tilapia in they they've done it in El Salvador I'm actually going to be starting a ten acre farm for an orphanage they're going to be eating the off the land in Mexico is just with the government just got the free land from the government you will be surprised if you can just start dreaming and you dream around the world and your dream in this nation that what you do and what you know is now your responsibility and please provide for your family please be a good husband please you be a good wife please be a good father and mother but be an amazing citizen of the world in your generation too unchanged dreams and change this world like never before thank you very much in the area be the man I love you mr. Boyd kitch before you say anything repeat after me say I today will do my best do you mind dad to love myself to love myself and give my broken pieces of chance give my broken pieces the chance I would dream big I would dream big bigger than before bigger than before I will do better how will do that and I'll work harder I will work hard and I'll never give up I'll never give up you can stop repeating for a second guys I really believe that many of you said that sincerely and I'm telling the youth all across America October is the National prevention bullying month in America I'm a spokesman for pacer National Bullying Prevention Center please please PLEASE when we talk about world hunger let's talk about first of all stopping bullying in our schools as well you guys got to love each other and stand as one I just want to leave you with this to tell you to find me on Facebook follow me I have books as well and for any girls who are interested in my love story with my wife you can pre-order that right now on any online bookstore it's called love without limits my wives have Japanese half Mexican second and I'll make sure I bring it to Kentucky next time thank you guys very very much god bless you all great mr. Boyd Chooch thank you so much for your time and words this afternoon your story of determination and just pure love has inspired us all to go all out live all out and most importantly love all out thank you so much for allowing us to realize that we can undo those broken pieces in our lives oh thank you so much ladies and gentlemen mr. Nick boy Chooch have a great night make the light

Channel: National FFA Organization

Views: 146,504

Rating: 4.8857141 out of 5

Keywords: National FFA Organization, FFA, Nick Vujicic (Author), National FFA Convention & Expo

Id: rruso9twuk4

Length: 35min 13sec (2113 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 05 2014