There are nearly 3 billion people in the world under the age of 20.
The above image is a slide and piece of info I included in my talk yesterday at TEDxYouth in Nashville. What an awesome experience.
It was really cool to be able to share with a room full of young dreamers who already have ideas worth spreading. It was an honor to be able to speak into the lives of young people who are taking action to spread dreams or spread color where there is none . It was a room full of young artists and entrepreneurs. It was, basically, a huge pile of hope. (Does that phrase exist already? Could that be used in a brochure? a huge pile of hope … hmm.. okay … on second thought that sounds gross… oh man.. sorry)
I have to admit that going in I felt like I had very little to offer or share that would have any value to anyone. I’m learning to get beyond these insecurities, because I see more and more that rooms benefit from different voices. We need the bookish quiet kid. We need the detail-oriented business kid. We need the brilliant tech kid. We need the goofy pale red-headed kid. Maybe.
In all seriousness, I really do love it when people who aren’t normally in rooms together suddenly find themselves in a room together. It’s in rooms and moments like this that anything is possible. My 10 minutes went quick. I had to rush through the finale and left out a bunch I wanted to say, but somehow still I feel like the essence of what I wanted to share came through. Either way - it was fun and it was just a little part in a larger conversation on how we can all work to make the world a little better.
Yesterday I caught a small glimpse of what just a few of that nearly 3 billion under the age of 20 are up to and, well - it’s awesome. The future will not be boring. Get ready.
