A great talk & life advice from Sam Berns

A great talk & life advice from Sam Berns

Sam Berns gave a talk at TEDxMidAtlantic in Washington DC. The video below of his talk was posted in December, just about a month before Sam passed away. Sam touched the hearts of many people while he was alive on this planet, and through this presentation, he will continue to do so. 17-year-old Sam Berns gives us some excellent advice, but he also exhibits how to tell your story in 12-minutes in a way that is simple, clear, and appealing.

Sam’s attitude towards telling his story

Sam does not commence his presentation by discussing Progeria because of his whole point—his subject—is that the disease is not the major part of his life. Instead, he starts off with a short story from his life about a challenge. And conquering that challenge without even ever mentioning the disease. That was what his life was like: Conquering and moving forward.

Sam opens with a mini-story where he tells of his deep desire to play snare drum in the high school marching group. The trouble was the frame for the snare drum weighed 40lbs, but Sam only weighed 50lbs. A clear conflict. He was distressed by the reality that he would be unable to accomplish one of his dreams. His body was not up to it though his spirit was. We learn, then, that he was, however, able to work out the trouble. Thanks to the compassion and brilliance of an engineer who created an exceptional snare drum frame that weighed only 6lbs. Right from the start, we have a story of conflict and resolution. Moreover, the snare drum story returns later on in his talk with added significance.

Sam does get the facts of what the disease is. The viewers need this knowledge to realize what follows, and to understand just how amazing his wisdom is, given his difficult circumstances. We usually distance wisdom for the old, clearly because they have been through so much. Well, Sam too, even though only 17, had been through a lot. Sam recalls that when he was interviewed by an NPR interviewer “What is an essential thing that people should recognise about you?” His response was “I have a very blissful life”. Sam said that Progeria did definitely present many challenges but that people should not feel sad for him. Besides, he said, he was able to conquer most of the challenges anyway.

Sam’s advice

“My Philosophy,” he said, “has three parts, essentially.” Sam then prefaces his list of three with a quote from the movie Ferris Bueller:

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”.

(1) “Be OK with what you ultimately can’t do, because there is so much you CAN do”.

Sam said he is very much conscious of the things he can’t do, like ride a roller coaster. But instead of focusing on that he instead focuses on the things he can do, and the things he is passionate about. Sam said you can put some things that were unfeasible or out of reach before in the “can-do category” by making adjustments. To demonstrate this point with an example he plays a clip of himself with the marching band, the story he began with, which further explains his theme or his core message.

(2) “Surround yourself with people you want to be around”. Sam talked about the significance of having high-quality folks and great friends in your life and a close family. “We see each other for who we are on the inside,” Sam said of his friends and treasured ones. You can see Sam chokes up when talking about how the relationships in his life do well even after all the other upbeat aspects of his life. Our friends, our family, our communities, Sam said, are actually the things that can make a massive variation in our lives.

(3) Keep moving forward. Here Sam quotes Walt Disney: “Around here…we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things”. Sam said he was able to get through hard times by always having something in the future to look up to, even if it was a just as small thing as a new comic book or a football game. “This attitude includes staying in a forward-thinking state of mind. I try hard not to waste energy feeling bad about myself” Sam said. He continues to say, ” because when I do I get stuck in a contradiction where there is no room for happiness or any other emotion”.

Sam was so encouraging and so optimistic about his future. “No matter what I decide to become, I think I can transform the world. And as I am determined to change the world, I will be happy”. He showed a clip from the film which he said personified his philosophy. Even though he had modified in 4- years, he said, his beliefs had not. Sam told a story, at the last part, of being very sick. It was a time he had to use all his power and put his beliefs to the challenge. It was the three keys above that saw him through the hardest times, he said. “Being brave isn’t supposed to be easy,” Sam said, “But it’s the key to moving forward”.

Sam’s talk is optimistic, genuine, and from the heart. His presentation is an amazing gift that is progressing to tap people and move them to live life as fully as they can.

You can watch the entire video of Sam Berns talk through the following link:

My philosophy for a happy life | Sam Berns

Thank you so much, Sam. You live on in many ways than you could have ever imagined.