Why I quit my job to pursue my childhood dream | Jason Y. Lee | TEDxUCIrvine

I'd like to begin by telling you a story January 12 2010 was my 22nd birthday it was also the day that changed my life forever you see that morning I woke up the dozens of texts saying happy birthday you're the best I love you mostly from my mom but I woke up feeling incredibly lucky that day unfortunately that for noon we started seeing devastating photos of the Haiti earthquake we saw an entire country that was in shambles and Families broken and I really struck me because it didn't feel like a coincidence how was it that I was so lucky to be able to have so many people that I loved but meanwhile I was seeing such terrible heartache and hardship so at the time I had very little money in my bank account as a new college graduate but I had this belief that ordinary people can do extraordinary things so like I need reasonable logical person I decided to grab my guitar and several my friends and go to a New York subway stop to sing and busk to raise a hundred dollars for Haiti now if you ever heard me sing you know this is a terrible idea because I'm the worst singer imagine a cat that is drowning singing a doll that's better than me it's true but the people of New York are incredibly kind to me very generous we raised about $80 and all throughout I was filming and I decide you know what let me take a little quick video about it and I put it online and sent to all my friends and said hey if you that a couple of bucks would love for you to donate we're just trying to raise a hundred dollars for Haiti within a week something really special happened we had 8,000 views that video within a week we had raised $700 for Haiti so of course I call my mom so a mom I guess what we have 8,000 viewers I know I watched it four thousand times so okay we've got 4,000 views okay good job but all joking aside that was a time that I realized that stories and media and film are such a powerful mean to do good my name is Jason Wiley and I am the founder of jublee media today and I am so honored to be with you tonight to share with you my story to talk about my story and how stories can change the world and as a filmmaker I've seen that firsthand but the truth is it's pretty unlikely for me to be here right now sharing with you about being a filmmaker because this wasn't a very likely path for me you see I grew up as the younger child of two Korean immigrants that's me the little one that's my brother with his hand and both of my parents are not only Korean but there are also professors so as you can imagine school is very very important at a household so you know imagine your favorite memories as a child going at Disneyland or going to the ball game with your dad my favorite memory growing up was going to my first day of kindergarten I remember like getting mousse in my hair and I dressed stuff really nice and I was so eager because I had picked out my backpack those Ninja Turtles I had my little you know my little lunchbox I ran to school because I had been told that when you go to school you learn and when you learn you can grow and you can be anything that you wanted when you learn how beautiful is that right my kindergarten teacher mrs. price she was the sweetest lady imagine mr. Roger's wife almost and that day she told us about about school and about taking turns because I was like too overeager kids like hey she goes Jason that's great but you have to wait your turn is that when this is what it means to raise your hand so I was practicing something listed quite a bit and I still distinctly remember the very first day of school she said this is what your homework is for today I want you to go home and think about what it is you want to be when you grow up and I said ooh I know if she goes well Jess and homework is what you do at home I said homework is the worst thing ever and the reason is because I knew deep down in my gut already what I wanted to be right you know you've got all these dreams are in growing up I knew exactly what I wanted to be so I ran home I remember I couldn't sleep is I was so excited to share with mrs. price and all my new friends what I wanted to be when I grow up so I ran back to school the next day and like maybe me me she was just want to go run in a circle and I said okay starting to figure out this like social etu thing it's so Brian saying you know when I grow up I want to be an astronaut like no one cares and then you know Sally is like oh when I grow up only to be a ballerinas like okay and finally it's my turn right and this is price said thank you Jason for waiting patiently and I had my hand up she was know you can you don't have to put your hand up now and this is your turn I said well when I grow up there are two things I really want to be when I grow up she says awesome you can be whatever it is that you want I said okay she goes okay why don't you share with us the first thing I'm well I said I've been thinking about for a really long time and I was really trying to decide between these two but I think this is the thing I really really want to be which is okay Jason what is it that you'd like to be when you go and say well when I grow up I want to be a dinosaur and she looked at me and she said okay and I said you said I could do whatever I want she goes yeah but maybe it's good to have a back-up plan I was like yeah you're right okay that's sensible she said Jason what's the second thing you'd like to be when you grow up I said well when I grow up if I can't be at a dinosaur for whatever reason I want to be a policeman and she said oh that's so wonderful why do you want to be a policeman and I said well when I grow up I want to fight bad guys I want to fight for justice I'm gonna help other people I just said that's so wonderful yes and what a noble profession and I was so proud right that day our activity at school was we were all supposed to draw what it is we wanted to be when I grew up so Brian is drawing this huge astronaut you know like him in the moon and that Sally is drawing herself as a blur of ballerina and of course I'm drawing myself as a huge dinosaur with a little gun and a little bad yeah a boy can dream right I was like this is so amazing I can be whatever I want when I grow up and she said all right now go home and you know we're all rushing home and I I roll up my piece of paper I run home and we're having dinner and my dad likes I mean says Jason how's school so good he said what did you learn and I said I think I know what I want to be when I grow up and by then I think I had realized okay it's not really kosher to say that you want to be a dinosaur I'd like kind of realized that he said okay what is it that you want to be and I said well when I grow up I want to be a policeman and there was silence right there's almost as though I had said I wanted to be a dinosaur when I grew up and there was silence and my dad he took a spoon I remember so vividly he set it down he looked at me said Jason you know I love you when you grow up you're not gonna be a policeman and I said why not he said I want you to have a good career I want you to have a respectable career where you make a lot of money and you're very secure so that you can take care of your family right and I don't think my dad's intention that day was to crush my dreams but it was so weird to hear him say that because all of this time I'd said I'd heard over and over and over again you can be whatever you want when you grow up but here was my hero my father who I loved dearly and he was saying no you can't and it wasn't at that moment but I think it was in a couple years during that time when I started to realize actually there are a couple of things that I could be when I grew up there were four things I could be when I grow up can you imagine what those were I could be a doctor I could be a lawyer I could be an engineer or I could be a businessman right and it wasn't that someone has sat me down and said Jason there's only four things are respectable and well earning no it wasn't like that of society had told me no no no no these things are too risky these things are too difficult these things you be a poor starving artists or a poor starving ballet person or someone who wants to be on that on the moon these are the things that you should do so I started saying okay I can do that and at some point I began to realize this was a secret to success according to my parents according to the world the secret source was this man I'll let you in on the secret it was do really well in school get into a really really good college preferably an Ivy League school preferably harbouring get a good job make a lot of money marry a beautiful girl or boy I have a family retire then you will be happy right knowing that we've never heard that being said but you know that that is the message that we've heard right does that resonate so I said okay I can do that that sounds pretty simple simple simple but I think that's very clear to me I'm very type A so there okay so I went to school of thinking you know what okay I just need to get into a good school Ivy League school what are these schools so I became the kid that was so dedicated so focused on getting into an eye everything school at all costs so I was a kid walking around my freshman year with like I say keywords super nerdy I was a kid who was like getting all A's in class sitting in the front not knowing when to put his hand down still and I could spit in every activity right I was part of the math club I was part of the science club I was the editor of my newspaper I joined the swim team because a swim team was the only team that wouldn't cut anyone and they just let me swim in the last lap by myself really slowly I was part of the Chess Club I was a captain of the chess club I was also the only member of the Chess Club which at times can be really difficult but I was singularly focused on this idea that if I study hard if I apply myself I can get into a good school right and lo and behold senior year wraps around I committed myself that got into the University of Pennsylvania an Ivy League school and the day that that letter came in I was ecstatic and that you should have seen me on the first day of school I literally it probably would have looked like I thought I was going to Hogwarts or something but it felt like this place was magic and the very first day literally this is a photo of the campus I remember sitting in the grass just because I had seen so many photos of kids sitting in the grass I was like oh this is what smart kids do at school and I was so happy right I was like I have worked 17 years of my life to get to this moment and finally have done it and then the first exams came and then you know first semester is over and second semester is over and slowly something really interesting that started to happen I started to look around and started thinking to myself wait a second this is it don't get me wrong Penn was an amazing experience that amazing college but I had this moment where I was sitting around thinking wait this is everything that I was working for and this is it have you ever had that moment when you feel you're not unhappy but you're not happy right and so why am I not happy I was told if I go to this quit school I'll be happy I said oh I know why it's because I don't have that good job yet right I said okay I've got to go to that next step on that ladder so the next four years same thing I joined this swing dance club I I you know I joined student government I was like one of the representatives for our class I graduated with honors and at that time everyone who graduated for more in which is a business clothes going to once either it be investment banker or a management consultant I was like yeah management consultant that's what I want to be when I grow up no one had any idea what those things were but we were like that's all we want to be so I tried so hard running around in a business suit doing all these interviews and lo and behold those four years of work paid off and I got accepted to my dream job at Bain & Company which is this incredible place right and I said my god this is amazing and the first day again it was like Hogwarts but on steroids there's a smell of like fresh paper and ink and I remember someone was okay Jason do you mind stapling this for me like yeah absolutely and I was running around like who else needs me to staple for them right and those because I was so eager I was so happy and then the same thing happened I got my next case my next case and it was an incredible place to learn and grow but I've been told once I make a lot of money which I was I would be happy and again it wasn't that I was unhappy but I wasn't quite happy right that's what I started looking around and started saying wait a second what are all these things that I've been told growing up and some reason they don't seem to be true it was right around that time that I turned 22 and the Haiti earthquake happened to coincide with my 22nd birthday and during that time of searching I said you know what I need to do something so that's what I went to New York subway stuff we made this video and it started getting shared widely so soon after I said you know what just on the side just for fun I'm gonna start making videos and putting on to youtube let's see what happens so I started making videos and slowly they got more and more traction videos went from thousands of views to tens of thousands of views eventually I convinced my older brother Eddie who you saw to join me as well and he was working at the White House at the time right he had graduate from Harvard overachieving kids and we said you know what and I asked my best friend Eric who was a Harvard med school to join me too and so every night what we would do and we were all in different cities right we would come up with scripts and we would film things and we edit it was and hard drives back and forth and slowly all her videos start going viral tens of thousands hundreds of thousands and people started to invite us out to speak at events I said oh wow that's awesome so we would get up there and be like what should we talk about and as events like this and people would say tell us about what it means to follow your dream so every weekend we would go to these college events or these highschool events and say you have to follow your dream you have to live a life of passion and they would say oh you're so brave and every Monday morning would go back to our cubicles to be like oh my god I'm such a hypocrite and it all came to a head at one moment when I was speaking at an event like this and there was another speaker who was wonderful and she was talking about a woman named brownie where if you're a big Ted to talk and you probably heard of Ronnie anywhere but she's a palliative care nurse who is someone who helps people as they're dying and she did a really interesting experiment where she would ask everyone as her dying what is your biggest regret in life and as you can imagine a lot of the responses where you know I wish I spent more time with my family I wish I had traveled more I wish I'd read more books certainly and I wish I'd watch more Netflix everything that you would expect right but by and large across the board the majority of people would actually say the same thing they would say I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself and not one that others expected of me I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself and not one that others expected of me and I still remember where I was sitting and just cut me to the heart just remember thinking and contemplating I looked over at Eddie and Eric and I say we got to quit so we quit which is crazy right because my brother Eddie and I we are the only two children of Korean immigrants as I mentioned and they you know they had send us to great schools we had like these very well respected jobs bein at the White House and we quit on the same day so all the mothers in here like oh my god so you know what happened so I said well I'm the younger brother so I'm gonna call first so I said hey I'm she was hire I love you I love you too by the way just quit my job she was no man and she fainted oh man I in Korean means something I cannot repeat now she's saying oh my god and she said what are you gonna do and I said I'm gonna make videos for YouTube but she was all in I fainted again we hung up okay maybe we should give her about five minutes okay so Eddie calls her up oh hey I'm hi my favorite son how are you and my brother goes oh I'm doing well by the way I just quit my job you Kazama nah and she says what are you gonna do he said I'm gonna make videos on YouTube oh she's like this YouTube who is is YouTube I'm gonna kill him and of course you're gonna imagine that my mother would have this this reaction but the truth is that everyone had this reaction my peers my mentors my boss everyone said you're crazy are you kidding me you work so hard you went to an Ivy League school you're working at the White House you're working at Bain & Company you're at Harvard med school you're gonna give it all up to make videos on YouTube and everyone said don't do it why would you do that you've got so much going on for yourself and it's at that moment I start to reconsider it but I said no there's entire life I've been told if you do this then you will be happy if you take this next step then you will be happy and every time I got to that place I didn't feel that that happiness I was promised me I said you know what for the first time ever I want to live a life true to myself and now when the others expected me so we quit we quit we sold all her belongings we moved everything into our Honda Element 2003 which is like a Lego on wheels everything it fit in there and we decided we're gonna drive across country to LA the place of dreams right Hollywood actors you know everyone's beautiful in LA and they said okay where are you gonna move to LA are you moving to Hollywood or Culver City or downtown or Pasadena we're in LA are you moving and we said we're moving to this great place called Irvine it wasn't until we arrived here that we realized wait a second is this LA it took us a while that we were a little slow on the uptake but in all seriousness there's a such bizarre and difficult time because even when you make this step you've got all these doubts right even when you do what you love you've got all these doubts you've got all these people questioning you and you've got a less self doubt - it all came to the head for me the very first night we were in I and in Irvine and we realized you know what we had know where we're gonna sleep but we had this room but we didn't have a bed so Eddie and I we went to the IKEA up in Costa Mesa right and here I was a 25 year old man and my old my older brother's 26 and we decided to buy a bunk bed I felt like I was Benjamin buttoning in my life because I we had a bunk bed when we were five and six years old and I was you know I was getting older but somehow I felt like I was regressing I like is this really what I want of course I said I want top bunk and you okay now fast forward five years later the choovely media now is a digital media startup and we've made hundreds of videos and we've got hundreds and thousands of followers and every day now I get to wake up doing what I love I get to tell stories to inspire change and we agreed we were able to create videos in the films that not only bridge people together but inspire young people to live for something much greater than themselves I share with you my story in hopes that in some small way especially for the young people in this room that I would remind you of what I talked about in the very beginning the very first lesson that we learned that we hear all the time but that is beaten out of us as we grow older you can be whatever you want when you grow up and this idea that ordinary people can do extraordinary things and this idea that if we live a life of love of compassion and of courage that together we can change the [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 137,739

Rating: 4.937736 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Life, Decision making, Motivation, Personal growth

Id: pCY_k3uka1E

Length: 22min 16sec (1336 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2017