The Power of Action | Andy Bird | TEDxSFU

[Applause] I shouldn't be here today but I am because of professional wrestling yeah now professional wrestling means a lot more to me than it may to some professional wrestling means well first off when people think of professional wrestling they think of sweaty dudes rolling around in spandex getting all sweaty voilá wedding's going on in the background there's a coffin over here there's degenerates running down and there's cliques forming and I mean all of that is too sweet but to me wrestling means a lot more wrestling to me is storytelling it's an art form it's drama

going back to Phillip wrestling to me is believing in these characters the story of good guys against bad guys and sometimes the bad guys win but sometimes the good guys win too and for me wrestling is very similar to my life wrestling for me was a constant in a life of chaos I have lived in over 25 homes I have attended several different schools I was influenced by my late alcoholic father whose ashes are in this bullet casing right here and I was raised by a single deaf mother making my first language sign language I

learned how to speak through in wrestling and Sesame Street makes me who I am today the lowest point for me was when I was 14 I was homeless I was in grade 9 and I can remember the day specifically when this happened it was on a Friday right before the weekend so if you can put yourself back to grade 9 on a Friday before the weekend you're pretty stoked to go out on the weekend such as I was I can remember opening the doors of the school and going to my friend's car I was staying

on his couch at the time and I hop in the car and I look in the back and all of my stuff was there and I look at him in the back I'm sorry man it it's just it's just not working out at my house so where can I drop you off huh man I got nowhere to go like I have no idea thought popped in my head of my mom's friend who lived in the area so I stopped by there knocked on the door no one was home I put all my stuff in the

back I waited around for a bit to see if they'd come home they never did so that evening I went to a park this park was known in the area for the hangout spot for all the schools so I knew some of my friends and other people would be there and maybe I could find a place to crash so I went to this park and I found someone who I went to school with and wasn't really friends with but I knew him I asked him hey Mack you think I could stay at your place yeah

for sure do you that sounds good sounds good so I hung out with them the entire night just stuck around I'm like a parasite right just clinging to him eventually the night ends everyone clears out we started walking back to his house he opens the front door and he turns around and he stops and I walk up oh you gonna let me in man sorry you can't stay here tonight huh I mean you said I could stay fine it's cool and I left I went back to that same Park and that night I slept under

a tree I was 14 in grade 9 homeless underneath of a tree and it was in that moment when I I could vividly remember sitting there and I was contemplating my existence I didn't know my purpose I had no idea why I was on this earth but the thought that kept popping up in my head you want to be a professional wrestler you want to be a professional wrestler you want to be a professional wrestler and that belief got me through that night fast forward a few years and I found myself living in a drug

house which is the top one in the city I got sick and tired of living in that environment home invasions and muggings and eventually I saw I shot a message out on MySpace when myspace was still a thing sent a message out to a famous wrestling superstar part of the Hart family if you guys know wrestling sent a message out asking hey I want to be a wrestler I have no idea where to go you think he could help me out somehow hoping for a reply believing in a reply I took the action I sent

the message about a week or so later my inbox Bing got one message who open it up sure enough it was her she sent me a message back to his one sentence said hey you want to be a wrestle that's great here's an address it's in Calgary Alberta good luck so I took that address I bought a one-way bus ticket from Saskatoon Saskatchewan all the way to Calgary Alberta with just an address I can remember walking through the city of Calgary and going up to the gym and knocking on the door and then letting me

in and being so captivated when I seen the wrestling ring for the first time fast forward about a year in the City of Calgary decided that they were gonna buy the gym out tear it down and build and build a new downtown making it all fancy-schmancy so they did they bought the gym and I found myself working at a place that I didn't like I was stuck in a corner where I was inhaling these fumes and every time you blew your nose black chunks would come out I was living on the edge of Calgary Calgary

was a big city it took me nearly an hour and a half to get anywhere in town via transit I was living with the roommate I didn't really like and I wasn't training anymore so again I kind of found myself stuck in a position where I didn't know what I was doing and one person changed my life my trainer his name's ravenous Randy he calls me up on the phone and I was sitting in my in my room at the at the apartment there and you know phone rings I pick it up hey how's it

going amen and what are you doing I'm just sitting here doing nothing oh cool cool what do you think about moving to BC huh what's in British Columbia wrestling huh yeah okay sounds good hung up the phone put my two weeks notice at my job put two weeks notice of my roommate and everyone is super mad at me I didn't really care cuz I was going to do wrestling and coming to BC was the best thing that I've ever done see I believed in what I wanted to do and when the opportunities came up I

took action BC was the greatest move I've ever had because it was here where I got to meet this wonderful girl I met her dancing and I went up and started boogying with her and my friends came up and Andy we gotta go we gotta go I'm like okay cool cool just wait I kept dancing no seriously we gotta go we got okay cool cool let me get let me get her number first I pull out my phone I go up to the dance floor what go to her in the dance what hey can I

have your number and for some reason she gave it to me I don't know how she gave me your number put it in my phone pretty cool I'll text you for sure cool head out I get into the taxi cab and I text it right away hey it's so much fun dancing with you I hope to see you again soon no response Oh what could I do oh I know I'll text it again get on my phone and text it again hey it's so much fun hope to see you again no response oh she's playing

hard to get huh yeah one more time and that's it I'm done after this I take out my phone I text it one last time and the phone starts ringing from that number I'm oh she's calling me okay I'll let it ring a few times so song pick it up hello hey hello you got the wrong number dude oh sorry sir she's on the phone I got the wrong number so I took that phone number I changed the last digit to the next one and I texted that one wrong number so I took that phone

number and changed the digit to the next one texted that one wrong number took the same phone number change there's a text without wrong number change of digits other I kept going for a couple hours at night I know eventually I fell asleep woke up phone my hands still all these messages people I didn't know didn't get the number still but I kept going I took that phone number and I changed your last digit wrong number eventually I got tired of it and I you know thought to myself you know I'm gonna text one last

number and that's it I'm done like I can't stand this anymore text one last number put my phone down I walk away and when I come back I pick it up and I got it fast forward to today we've been married for two years [Applause] to make it even better I have a handsome 16 month-old son named Owen so you see I believed in myself and every time an opportunity came up I took action and it all culminated culminated on January 14th of this year in my wrestling career seven years after I started after many

concussions I've hyper-extended my arm I've dislocated a rib the training regimen was crazy we started with a hundred squats each time just like that just a hundred squats that's it easy peasy but it all was worth it because I eventually became the Canadian heavyweight champion [Applause] so believing becomes achieving through action so here's what I hope you all can take from my story maybe there's a person out there who you've lost connection with but you missed them and you want to talk to them but you're kind of scared you're little nervous of what they're gonna

say do it send him a message take some action what's the worst I could happen they'll block you mm great unfollow you ooh maybe there's a job out there that you've really wanted for your whole entire life or maybe something recent came up and you really want it go send in a resume what's the worst suck it up and they say no go in the next day and like here's another one Here I am again I'll see you tomorrow take action because you never know where you'll land if you choose to fly thank you [Applause]