Senior EVP and Head of Enterprise Strategy & Administration, U.S. Bancorp
Adam Graves Interview | TEDxBeaconStreet 2017
2017 TEDxBeaconStreet Interview with Adam Graves. When we feel entitled to something, it changes how we see both ourselves ...
About Adam Graves
In a 2017 TEDxBeaconStreet interview, Adam Graves discussed his journey to developing a talk on entitlement and self-awareness. He described meeting John Warner at a cafe where he is a partner, and how his frustration in finding a suitable TED talk topic led him to explore his own sense of entitlement. Graves stated that his upbringing as an only child, along with his engagement with books, television, and movies, fostered an early interest in self-reflection and understanding his place in the world. Graves emphasized the importance of emotional intelligence and self-awareness, attributing his ability to explore these concepts to his personal experiences. He argued that engaging with people who hold differing views is essential for individual and societal growth, noting that it requires assertiveness to step outside one's comfort zone and share personal stories.
Transcript (8 segments)
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Interviewer0:13
So Adam, thanks for taking the time to talk to me today and give a wonderful TEDx presentation, of course. Thank you very much. I was kidding. I liked your presentation. I was curious what made you want to do this talk.
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Adam Graves0:28
It's a funny story actually. I met John Warner at a cafe around the corner called Ruffalo, where I'm a partner along with Colleen and Auskey, who just gave an amazing talk as well. One afternoon I decided to stop by and speak with an intern that we had, and as it turns out, that intern gave a talk here last year. John happened to be sitting in the corner of the cafe. It was only three of us in the area, and he saw this kid, came over and said hello, introduced himself to me, found out my story in about 15 seconds, and very quickly said, 'You want to get involved somehow?' and I said sure. It's funny, I tried for weeks to come up with the ideal TED talk topic, and I got frustrated because I couldn't find anything that I felt suited me and that I could speak truth about. I got frustrated and said, 'I feel like I deserve to understand what it is I need to do,' and I tapped into my own sense of entitlement in that way, and that allowed me, I think, to make the connection between feelings I'd had in the past and what I was feeling in that very moment. So my frustration in coming up with a topic for a TED talk is what ultimately led to said topic.
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Interviewer1:53
Great. Throughout the talk, you were encouraging to kind of be self-reflective and self-aware, and that sparked the entitlement and being humble conversation. I was wondering if you could relate that back to or speak to emotional intelligence.
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Adam Graves2:10
Sure. So I feel like I have a very fortunate life in a number of ways. Nothing extremely remarkable has happened to me, but I think one thing I was gifted with was the opportunity to self-reflect. I grew up as an only child, and I'd love to explore books, television, movies, video games, basically anything with a plot, and I began to see myself in those plots. So I started to become more and more interested at a very young age in how I perceived myself and my own place in the world. I think that in speaking about entitlement, feelings of entitlement, that relates back to one facet of self-awareness, and self-awareness is due to emotional intelligence. It's completely relying on it, in my opinion. So I feel like I've been fortunate to have an emotional and educational journey that has led me to this point where I feel like I'm able to explore emotional intelligence and appreciate it in others because of what I saw in myself early on.
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Interviewer3:17
Great. If you had one thing that you wanted to share with the audience, kind of takeaway from your speech, what would that be?
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Adam Graves3:26
I would say the most important thing to take away from that, and it's something that I need to be better at as well, is engaging other people. Because that was the second takeaway in the presentation. But it's very easy, I think, to sink back into our own senses of comfort and to deal with the world when it comes knocking for us. But it takes a certain assertiveness to actually be forthcoming and engage people who might disagree with you, and hear more about who they are and what drives them, and share your own story. I think that's the only way that we can really grow individually as well as societally.
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Interviewer4:08
Thank you, Adam.
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Adam Graves4:12
Of course. Thanks so much. Thank you.