Jeff Wang Blog

I went back to my high school today to present a “Ted Talk” (to two separate classes).

It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was 11: giving motivational and insightful speeches

I talked about 3 things:

• Connections
• Influence
• Beliefs

Although the talk was about 10 minutes long, I’ll cut it short to just present the key ideas here.

Connections: Not just having many connections, but having meaningful connections. Having more Facebook friends and Instagram followers don’t count. Instead, ask yourself, how many of your closest friends and family and people you know have the same passion as you? How many connections do you have that can rely on you, and you can rely on them as well for support? Build strong and meaningful connections to help build your supportive net that you can fall back on.

Influence: “You are the average of the top 5 people you spend the most time with” – Jim Rohn

If you have a toxic person in your top 5, delete that person from your life. Those 5 people are such huge influencers of your life, and if you look and carefully examine who your top 5 is, it will make sense. My best friend in high school was a magician. Guess who got me into magic? My sister was academically focused since elementary school… Guess who taught me to get good grades? My good friend in university played basketball, had an inclination for investments, had good morals and ethics, and also was academically smart… Guess who I hung out with the most in my first semester?

Belief: You have to believe in what you do, and believe in what you are passionate about. If I don’t believe in the magic that I perform myself, then it would be crap. And hopefully, my magic isn’t crap. I believed that I could run a daily blog… I believed I could learn magic… and I believed that I am capable of inspiring others in a positive way.

Believe in yourself, surround yourself with strong connections and positive influencers who also believe in you, and use that belief to fuel your passion and you can do great things.

Good Luck and Happy Holidays.