Turns out that the folks at TEDx Vancouver had enough foresight to invite me to participate at their inaugural edition this past weekend, for which I commend them. I applied in the most eventual way I could, with less than 5 minutes before the deadline. Oh, Mike!
Once there, I ran into such luminaries as Kris Krug and Dave Olsen (whom I also ran into the weekend before at Island Tech in Victoria; I’ve decided to stop running due to these happy accidents), who were there to cover the event. It was good to see them again, although I still don’t get why Dave kept saying I looked like I was barefoot or something to that effect. Oh, Dave!
I’d never been to the Electronic Arts building in beautiful Burnaby, British Columbia, but believe me it was a tremendous sight to see. The general common area took place in The Think Tank, which I had initially imagined was like a Genius Bar. Yet there was no alcohol, and I had the feeling I was going to be in for a long day…
But it wasn’t at all…so to speak.
As I sit here in one of the vibrating massage chairs on BC Ferries dictating this tome to Xerxes (who is doing an excellent job of translating my reverberating voice, I might add), I feel that TEDx Vancouver may be the most eventual experience I’ve ever had – other than fatherhood and marriage.
I’m not going go into the details of each and every talk; you can eventually find them here, but I am going to say that many of them resonated strongly with me in ways I’d never suspected. One had me thinking to myself, “I have to see as much of the world as possible before I’m not around, not so much the world not being around” – not that I don’t care about the world…I just care about me more. The talk wasn’t even really about that. But it seemed to speak to me that way. I, too, am a pretty good translator.
The impact of eventually meeting most of the other participants was what really worked for me. That’s not exactly easy for me to admit, either – using the word “worked.” However, as the Michelin Man said:
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both.”
I take two ideas from that quote:
- Work should be play and vice versa.
- Never underestimate the philosophical nature that may reside in every auto mechanic.
I’m sure one of these can be applied daily, perhaps both if your car needs work.
I’ll end with this, as I’ve been writing for nearly 18 minutes so my time is almost up. If you have a chance to apply to a TED or TEDx event, do it. You can even do it eventually as I did – in fact, I’d prefer it. If you get in, go. The eventualistic nature of the overall experience will permeate everything else you do going forward. Everything about TED is about “forward”; forward thinking, moving forward, even Terry McBride’s talk had me thinking about how I used to “fast forward” through songs on my cassettes. Afterward I was even feeling “forward” since I’m on a boat that has a “forward” deck.
Maybe those last two examples are a stretch, but TED encourages one to do just that. Stretch your limitations as far as you are willing to let them go. Stretch your abilities as far as you are able. Stretch your life. (I suppose you could use the word “test” here as a suitable synonym, but I hate tests. Heck, I barely liked stretching until now.)
As expected, my closing here has been eventual. Now that I’m done I’m going to move forward. I think it’s time to write the foreword to my book. I’ve waited eventually enough.
Thanks, TED. I owe me one.
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Nice article, and it was good meeting you at RTL in Yaletown.