TEDxToronto - Drew Dudley "Leading with Lollipops"

 Being a Leader

    Everyone has dreamt of being a leader at one point in their life. They've dreamt of making a change in everyone and becoming an idol for them. Drew states, "And I’ve come to realize that we have made leadership into something bigger than us. We’ve made it into something beyond us. We’ve made it about changing the world. And we’ve taken this title of leader, and we treat it as if it’s something that one day we’re going to deserve, but to give it to ourselves right now means a level of arrogance or cockiness that we’re not comfortable with".This means that we always believed that to actually deserve to become a leader you need to change how the whole world thinks, but that's not true. We have all changed someone's life and most of the time it's without even realizing it.

Drew describes a conversation he had with a freshman girl who was in line with her parents to register for classes. The young lady had concerns and uncertainties regarding her future at the university. When Dudley entered her life, she was about to turn to her parents and cancel her intentions to go to school. To raise awareness about the charity he was supporting, Drew was handing out lollipops to passersby. He went to the man in front of the anxious girl in line and said, "You need to offer a lollipop to the lovely woman next to you." The man became very crimson, took the lollipops, and then grudgingly held them out for the girl to take. Everyone in line started to giggle as Drew made a few more hilarious comments, even the anxious first-year student. The young woman claims that at that point, her life was irrevocably altered. Unexpectedly, she was overcome by the conviction that everything will turn out OK. Four years after that amusing incident, the now-graduated woman told Drew how much of an influence that one incident had on her life. She is getting hitched by the man who gave her the lollipops, which adds to the sweetness of the tale. The final straw is that Drew has no memory of this day. Every time he has searched his memories, he has come up empty. For this young woman, this interaction changed her entire course of events. She decided to continue her college studies as a result of a moment that lasted less than a minute. Drew was so motivated by this that he has now made it his life's work to share this tale, which he refers to as his "lollipop moment."

For the people who didn't understand, the lollipop moment is a special moment where one individual positively shapes another person’s life, but may not realize his or her impact. I personally remember one specific lollipop moment that happened to me. When I first came to CISE, the new school I'm currently in, I didn't know anyone. Yet I remember that one of my current close friends that I didn't know at the time was very kind to me. He also showed me around the campus and tried his best to make me feel welcome. Drew taught me to try to give people those small lollipop moments. To assist in shaping the other person's life and at that point, I will deserve to be called a leader without changing the whole world.