Finding Purpose in the Classroom

What is your biggest regret? Oo, 0:10 >> great question. Biggest regret. 0:18 For most of my life, the only things that I had been good at didn't produce 0:22 the sorts of rewards that people admired. 0:25 I ran weird. My arms did this. I could throw. I couldn't catch. I was a lousy 0:30 swimmer. Finally, I had found something I was good at, which was sales, that 0:33 produced a reward that people did admire, which was a W2. 0:37 I was an excellent salesperson my first month working in sales. I was on a sales 0:42 floor of 145 people. I was the number two sales guy on the floor. My first 30 0:47 days at the company, I had never made more than $1,100 in a 0:52 month when I got out of college, and I earned $8,000 after taxes my first month 0:56 working in sales. The way I was keeping score was money. I 1:00 never thought to stop and ask if that was a good way to keep score. 1:07 At the beginning of co all we salespeople got shunted off into our 1:11 houses and handed laptops and told sell. I I think that was the moment that I 1:14 came to the realization the reason that I do this is I crave the admiration of 1:19 my peers. It lost all of its allure very quickly. Like you don't feel like the 1:24 star quarterback anymore. You're just some lonely guy sitting in his living 1:27 room in his underwear selling software to some guy in Jangry Law. 1:35 I came home for what was supposed to be a 3-we vacation. I got bored on day 1:40 three. I was staying close to my old high school alma mater. I called the 1:44 principal of St. Stevens Academy and said, "Do you need substitute teachers?" 1:53 I start going through the sub plan. Things start going off the rails and I 1:57 go, I'm a sales guy. I know what to do. Things go off the rails. Get the room 2:01 back. So, I got up there, started writing on the board. Two kids got it. 2:04 Was like, awesome. You guys move on to the next thing. I'm going to be right 2:07 back with you. Come see me at lunch. I'm a first day sub. I can't tell kids to 2:10 come see me at lunch, but I'm like, we're doing this. We're doing it. One 2:14 kid stayed stuck. So then that night I went home and I spent an hour and a half 2:18 drawing and writing all this stuff and I scanned it and I emailed it to him. I 2:22 had never done an hour and a half of work that I wasn't paid for in my life. 2:27 And I realized in that moment, oh no, I'm just excited enough about this kid 2:31 getting pre-calc. I came in the next day. I came in the 2:37 day after that. I came in the day after that. 2:42 >> I learned that they had lost a teacher. He he brings me to the office. He goes, 2:45 "I have a crazy idea. You should quit your job and come work for me." I told 2:50 him, "I I I can't do that. I can't do that." The only thing in my head is 2:54 numbers. Like, go from this to this. And then I start playing with the idea. 3:01 Couldn't play golf 5 days a week. I don't really like golf very much anyway. 3:04 Couldn't drive a Mercedes. Hate my Mercedes. Couldn't live in a luxury 3:07 apartment. Don't care about my luxury apartment. I live at the office. 3:11 what improvements in my quality of life as a consequence of this income? And it 3:16 just hit me like a ton of bricks. It's like none. 3:21 It was the sudden realization, I don't have to do this anymore. I have 3:25 permission to stop. I resented myself for remaining for so 3:47 long and then started to realize that the 3:52 Lord's timing is always perfect. 3:54 >> Come in gentlemen and those years were reclaimed. 3:59 >> Sitting on the couch with hot chocolate. Classical education 4:04 is asking questions of goodness. 4:10 How good is it? How true is it? How beautiful is it? 4:15 >> He never misses the opportunity to build someone up. He uses his words to 4:20 encourage the people he interacts with down the right path. Introducing the St. 4:25 Stevens Academy commencement speaker, Mr. John Lorie. 4:30 My my biggest regret is not asking that question sooner. 4:34 Just not asking what actually matters to me. 4:40 >> My students knew I was going to propose to her before I did. I told them if I 4:44 hadn't fallen in love with you first, I never would have fallen in love with my 4:47 wife. 4:51 >> I don't think you found your place when you found what you're good at. I think 4:56 you found your place when you find yourself surrounded with the kind of 5:01 people that you want to call old friends in 30 years. 5:03 >> That is literally the line. 5:06 >> I love you. 5:08 >> As you sojourn through this world, you will be asked to do something that seems 5:13 beyond you. You will find that God's grace and your own tenacity are enough. 5:20 A life well-lived is anchored in five or six extraordinary days. You never know 5:28 when the next one is tomorrow.