“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”
-Richard Tirendi
Richard Tirendi isn’t a Nobel Peace Prize winner. From what I can collect, he has not shaken the hand of any presidents, and his name doesn’t show up on the lists of the highest salaries in the country. But Richard is the CEO and Co-Founder of VisionQuest 20/20, a gamified solution to the public health issue of children’s vision. And while Tirendi may not be a household name, the above quote from a speech he made in 1992 is both a top Google search result and a highly-referenced quotation. I would not have even known of his existence had it not been for a shot-in-the-dark search for a quote on surrounding yourself with smart people. But a few minutes of research has confirmed: Richard Tirendi is a game-changer. And he provides a much-needed reminder in his tweetable thoughts on the people you place around you in your life.
This Valentine’s Day I steered clear of restaurant reservations and gave my day to TEDx Ohio State University. As a marketing and communications professional, it feels like the last 10 years have evolved around various TED talks, from Simon Sinek’s “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” to Brene Brown on the power of vulnerability. As a developing public speaker, I sometimes spend hours watching TED Talks in hopes of picking up a few new tricks in my approach or recalling some of Dr. Kyung-Kims yoda-like wisdom from my undergrad experience. I must admit that I approached TEDx Ohio State University with a bit of weariness, as TED makes it very clear that TEDx events are independently operated. I set myself up to expect a typical, disorganized college event transformed into a self-help conference, but was incredibly surprised from the moment I walked in until the final standing ovation. The TEDx experience was rich in content and knowledge, with a variety of expertise evolving around the theme of the Human Narrative. Even the afternoon host was dynamic in presentation and thought, guiding the transitions with poise and entertainment. Throughout the day I was challenged, provoked, and internally called out for my own misjudgments and unfair assumptions on the quality of content and subject matters. For nearly five hours, I sat in a large auditorium surrounding by over 1,300 people, absorbing information ranging from coral reefs and rising temperatures to a redefining look at feminism. And in retrospect, my only regret was that I hadn’t brought a headlamp to write better notes in the darkness. It was very obvious that I was nowhere close to being the smartest person in the room. It felt legitimately wonderful.
As a city, it is so important to take a step back and shine a light on the immense amount of knowledge, wisdom, and dynamic change that begins here in Columbus, Ohio. We’re not just talking about cancer research, either. The TEDx Ohio State University event was a deep plunge into just a few of the prestigious programs, projects, and campaigns that are based in our city, which has been rightfully noted as the most intelligent city in the United States. Even though I am not an alum of The Ohio State University, I found myself touting pride and radiating glory for my “local” university because of all of the breakthrough that has taken place just a few miles away from my own home. And it’s a shame that an event like TEDx only happens on-campus once per year, given there are hundreds of speaker applicants that are respectfully rejected each year due to the overwhelming popularity of the event. Lives have been saved and generations have been impacted, but we’re only known by the stories that we are able to tell. It’d be a conquest to try to response to each of the day’s speakers, so I’ll simply summarize through individual thoughts. You can see the list of featured speakers here, with videos of their talks to be published to YouTube in the future.
Thoughts from TEDx Ohio State University
On Confidence: ”Self-esteem is a measure of likeness of yourself. Confidence is how sure you are of something. It doesn’t just matter what you think, it’s what you think about what you think.” – Richard Petty, Social Psychologist
On Hope: “I wonder what this world would look like if we all woke up tomorrow with the feeling that the world can be different.” –Charles Noble
On Gender Norms: “Socially-constructed gender norms are always limiting, often harmful, and sometimes deadly. We can change that.” – Lisa Cravens-Brown, Deconstruction Worker
On Laughter: “We may not be able to choose the outcome, but we can choose how we react to it. Laugh it off.”- Ida Abdalkhani, Innovation Practitioner
On Significance: “We are incredibly, unimaginably small…Human beings are entirely insignificant, but we’re not meaningless. And that’s an important distinction” – Dr. John Beacom, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, The Ohio State University
On Suicide Prevention: “What would it look like for the Big Ten to take on the challenge of suicide-free campuses [in the same way we experience our athletic programs and other successes]?” – John Campo, Physician, Psychiatrist
On Your Narrative: “Your voice is one of the most powerful things that can change the world.” – Stephen Snyder-Hill, Activist