The Myth of Scarcity: Chris Gardner (Transcript)

Here is the full transcript of Chris Gardner’s talk titled “The Myth of Scarcity” at TEDxSwansea conference.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

The Power of Generosity

Well, I’ve come to ask you a question today that I truly believe has the ability to totally shape your life. The truth of the matter is, what I want to speak to you about today is a little bit different than what most would think. I want to speak about because, as I speak about the myth of scarcity, what I would like you to think about is I’d like you to close your eyes for three seconds. And I want you to think who are the two people who have most positively impacted your life.

Now, I’ve had the privilege of asking this question across many cultures and many different languages. I’ve had the privilege of asking it at the basin of the Amazon River, I’ve asked it in the world’s driest desert, and I’ve asked it in the most populated places around the world. And the answer that I receive always comes back to one thing. No matter how many languages are involved or how many translators to get across the message to me, the answer always comes back to the person that impacted you has impacted you through their generosity.

Now, when we hear the word “generosity,” it takes our mind to thinking of different things. It takes our mind to thinking of what can happen, what changes could happen if only. “You know, if only we could spend someone else’s money, we’d be generous then, wouldn’t we?” If only we could spend someone else’s money, hey, if only we could do that. Isn’t it funny how the easiest money to spend is always someone else’s?

Now, if you want to understand more about that, you could ask my children. For those of you that are wondering in the crowd today, those that they laugh around to, they don’t have children yet. And so they don’t understand that, but the idea of generosity, it shapes everything of who we are. When I was 12 years old, I took a trip on my first airplane. I was so excited to get on the airplane, but we were going on a journey that was different than most.

A Journey of Generosity

We were going to a city that was nestled at over 8,000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains. And the biggest difference about this trip for us was the fact that we had no return ticket. You see, my family was moving to a country that was in major turmoil, they had been through some crazy things in their trajectory, in their life. And we come to this spot; I was headed to Peru, South America.

The city of Lima, the capital city, if you didn’t live there, you were only made about $20 a month. It was truly a place that was in major turmoil. I still remember sitting around and looking at it and feeling it. At the age of 12, you couldn’t even feel this; I was staying with my family, my adopted family, after flying into Peru.

And the country of Peru is a country that I love with all of my heart; it’s still my adopted country and the place where all of my best friends live until this day. And this turmoil that could be felt, this desperation that could be felt in the air, the media talked about it all the time. And honestly, every time you turned on the TV, every single time, it was like, “oh no, not again.” Not talking about the problems again because the people were honestly tired of hearing about all the problems that they had.

I still remember that one of the things that impacted me the most was this: I learned that generosity is not an amount; generosity is a mindset. We’re sitting there in this country of Peru, in the city of Arequipa, 8,000 feet above sea level, and there was nothing but despair on the news. And I still remember my dad had this crazy idea; he thought that he had a way to help people that were in such difficult and poverty and such a hard day-to-day life that they lived. My dad’s idea, I was in the audience there at the church when he said it.

A Christmas to Remember

He said, “This year, we’re going to do something different.” You see, I was 12 years old and I’d been hearing crazy thoughts and crazy things going on around me. And can I just tell you, at 12 years old, you’re not supposed to feel desperation in the air, but I could feel it. It was a crazy time to feel that because, see, it was right around Christmas time.

Can I tell you that Christmas is not the time you’re supposed to be feeling this, especially at the age of 12? When my friends and I got together, we discussed many things, but we didn’t really discuss who was getting what or what Santa was going to bring them. For a matter of fact, our discussions were way different because while I was used to having that conversation where I was from, that’s not the conversation they were having.

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For a matter of fact, I heard my best friend’s mother talking to her friends and saying, “Christmas is the absolute worst time of the year. It’s the year that we understand that we have nothing. It’s the time of the year where we don’t understand. We can’t give to our children and they watch movies and they get ideas, but we can’t do that.” Think about living like that at the age of 12 and hearing that.

My dad had this idea and he said, he announced that day, here’s what he said, “This year we’re going to give out Christmas baskets to 10 different families that are in more need than we are.” Now, my dad didn’t have what I had because he, at the age of 12, I lived growing up and living almost in the houses of my adopted families. Like weeks at a time spending the night at their houses. We were sitting there and when my dad announced this, I was there at church and I promise you, I have never felt as angry in my life. It was like the blood in me started to boil. I thought, how in the world can he think that’s a good idea?

Generosity in Action

He doesn’t know the reality; I cannot imagine him pushing an agenda of asking my friends and their families to give stuff away. For a matter of fact, I’ve been laying in bed with all the siblings; we’ve been laying in bed trying to go to sleep one night and I couldn’t go to sleep. Small of a house as it was, I overheard the parents talking and whispering to each other how they didn’t know what they’d be eating the next day. And my dad talking about giving stuff away.

While I was sitting there at church, my blood began to boil when I looked around and thought everybody else would be mad too. But I realized they weren’t; they were way more receptive to the idea than I was. That day as we left church, we started walking back home and I’m telling you, the conversations on the way home were the craziest conversations ever. Because my context, what I had heard, was there wasn’t enough to eat; but on the way home, they were talking about ways that they could mix stuff and build stuff and do stuff to help families that had more to eat than they did.

I still remember as we were walking back, that night it wasn’t just me trying to go to sleep. None of us could go to sleep because of the conversations; we were sitting there and saying, what can we build? What can we do? What can we get? And these weren’t gifts that we went to the local grocery store or the local market to get; these were gifts that we had to come up from nothing to do.

Crafting Joy from Nothing

So we came up with the idea; we’re going to build little tiny pistols to give to people out of wood. “You say, why did you choose that?” Because there was some scrap wood around; that’s the way we came up with that bright idea. So we were sitting there and me and my friends for days and for weeks were just so excited; we took sandpaper and we were sanding down these pistols and then we had the bright idea that we could take condensed milk cans.

We could take these condensed milk cans and we could build robots out of them. You put construction wire and you put them together and I’m talking about, I am not the greatest builder in the world, but I didn’t have to be because we were just sitting there and having the time of our lives building this. And we were with Sharpies, we were drawing the faces on the cans so that they could have these cans built into these robots.

I’ll tell you this, Christmas morning could not come soon enough. I’ve never felt the anxiety and the excitement that I felt that year because I was so excited that I was going to be a part of giving away these gifts that we had built. It was amazing; I’ve never, to this day, never felt that again. We walked out and we went to the houses of people that really had some desperate need and we had baskets and they had this beautifully built robot. You say, why do you say it was beautifully built? Because I was quality control.

The Impact of Generosity

And I knew it was beautifully built. And so, that beautifully built robot, we started out with pistols, and they were decent-sized pistols, and then we looked around and we’re like, we no longer have scraps that big. So they became little tiny pistols. So we gave them these pistols, we gave them robots, and we grabbed dolls and a little bit of food in the basket, and I’m telling you, at the age of 12, something happened in me that totally changed my life.

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Because I was able to give all of this stuff away with my friends as we’re going from house to house, knocking on doors, and I’m telling you, the excitement on the face of the people that were receiving these gifts, it would change anybody’s life. I’m 48 years old and until this day, I still remember that as if it was yesterday. The impact we made on them was amazing, but can I tell you that the impact we made on them was absolutely nothing in comparison to the impact that it made on me.

What I learned about generosity that time was this: generosity fulfills the giver more than it does the recipient. I also learned about generosity and how it bonds people together that have decided to be generous. Not just one-offs, but together — to put together a plan to be generous. And then the third thing that I learned that was a very powerful lesson is this: generosity is not always tied to money. For a matter of fact, we misuse the idea of generosity when we tie it to currency.

Because see, generosity is not an amount; generosity is a mindset. So today, I’m coming to tell you that there’s a myth that we’re scarcity around the world. Because truly, there’s no scarcity of the things that really matter. Because I can tell you what we did that day changed my life, and it changed the lives of my friends as well.

Generosity: A Contagious Virtue

The overarching truth of everything we learned is this: generosity, it inspires generosity. And you better watch out, because it is contagious. Generosity inspires generosity, and it is contagious.

We walked home. Funnest walk home ever that day. We walked, and we walked, and we were laughing, and we were crying, and we were so excited about what had happened. And a few days later, my adopted mom was sitting there talking to her friends, explaining to them how she had never had a Christmas quite as great as this Christmas in her life. Because see, generosity, it inspires generosity.

And you better watch out, because it’s contagious. What happened was this: my adopted mother, she found abundance in the midst of scarcity. And she did not find abundance in the midst of scarcity because of some dollar bills that she found, or some currency, and so on, that sort of increased it during that time. She found her abundance because she understood that she could still be generous.

Teaching Generosity

Now see, there’s a lot of stuff we can do, and one of the things I would encourage you to do is this: we can learn as we teach our children about generosity. Because see, your children don’t really understand what generosity means when it comes to money. They don’t understand money, but you can teach them to be generous when it comes to their toys, their sharing with others, their caring about other people around you. Because see, when we live lives of intentional generosity in front of those that we love, it teaches generosity to them.

And there are things in your DNA that you just pass down because it’s taught, not because it’s taught. In the year 2022, Cerulli Associates made a study, and this study kind of scares me. In this study, the Cerulli Associates came out and they said by the year 2045, there will be over $85 trillion, with a T, dollars, handed down from one group to the next group. And see, if we don’t have children that understand generosity, that should scare you.

Over $70 trillion of those dollars will go directly to the children. But see, if you’re modeling generosity, you can teach generosity, because here’s what I can tell you: the impact that that amount of money can make could revolutionize and change the world, but it will only be seen through the lens of generosity when we model generosity. Talking about it’s one thing, but modeling it is a totally different thing. In the world I work in, they call the transfer of wealth that’s about to happen the greatest wealth transfer of all times.

A Challenge of Generosity

$85 trillion. But see, if we look at it through generosity, everything changes. So I challenge you today. I’m going to challenge you today, because see, when you model those two people, the funny thing is, if I were to have you up here one by one to tell me the story, I can almost guarantee you, almost guarantee you that not a single story in this room has anything to do with money.

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It was that teacher that when she taught you, she paid attention and she cared for you in ways that nobody else had. It’s that parent that just took some special care because you really, really needed it. Generosity, it inspires generosity. And it’s contagious, so I challenge you.

Here’s what I challenge you with today: I encourage you today to go home and say, “I will wake up every morning and think about two people that I can impact with my generosity.” You don’t have to have deep pockets. You just have to have a real heart. You don’t have to have a lot of assets.

All you have to have is the willingness to say, I will impact the life of another person. And here’s what I can promise you if you do that: I cannot promise you that your generosity will change the world. What I can promise you is it will change someone’s world. Well, I can promise you even more than that.

The Legacy of Generosity

I can give you a money-back guarantee that it will change your world. Generosity changes things. I’d like for you to think today about those two people that have impacted you the most. And I want you to think about 20 years down the road, 30 years down the road, when your family gathers around for a special event, something like Christmas.

As they gather around and as they’re talking to each other, here’s what I want you to think about: I want you to think about how they will talk about you and the legacy that you left behind. Now, can I tell you that the idea of legacy is one that I believe is misplaced? Those that focus on leaving a legacy never do. And those that care about living a legacy always do.

What will your family say about what you left behind? Will they talk about how you have impacted others? Because see, what I hope my family says when I’m gone is that he impacted other people’s lives because he was generous with them. Now, I wish I could take you back in time to when you were 12 years old and you could experience the same thing that I experienced, but you cannot.

Here’s what I promise you: You will have your own stories to tell if you decide to be generous. So I challenge you. Be generous. Be who you are, but give away to others.

The Choice of Generosity

Now, I’ll close with this thought: something for you to consider is this. Think about how people know you today. Think about the changes that you make to those around you. Now, I want you to scroll back a few minutes before when I told you to think about a world where you are being impacted by generosity.

Here’s the question I’d like to ask you today: think about this. Think about if we’re lucky enough, ten years down the road, somebody goes back and is watching this TED Talk. They close their eyes to think about the people that have most impacted their lives. Would it not be amazing if they thought about you?

The good news is you choose whether or not that’s what happened. I want to close with a quote or a question for you today. The question is this: we all know that the Grinch was unhappy. But have you ever met a generous person that’s unhappy? Let’s be generosity-driven. Thank you.

SUMMARY OF THIS TALK:

Chris Gardner’s talk titled “The Myth of Scarcity” explores the powerful concept that scarcity, especially in terms of resources and opportunities, is more of a societal construct than an actual limitation. Gardner eloquently dismantles the common belief that there isn’t enough to go around, arguing that this myth holds many back from reaching their full potential. He emphasizes that abundance exists in various forms and that recognizing and tapping into this abundance can lead to significant personal and communal growth.

By sharing personal anecdotes and observations, Gardner illustrates how a shift in mindset from scarcity to abundance can inspire generosity, innovation, and a more fulfilling life. He challenges his audience to reconsider their perspectives on wealth, success, and generosity. Gardner’s message is clear: embracing the abundance around us can break down barriers to success and foster a more inclusive and prosperous society. His talk is an inspiring call to action to redefine what it means to live a rich and rewarding life.