Amanda Bauer-Frisch, serial entrepreneur and the CEO of the Enduring Legacy Company, explains the idea behind her TED talk, and why simply participating, not necessarily winning or failing, is powerful.Hear Amanda's full interview in Episode 49 of Let's Talk Legacy.
you learned it isn't about winning or failing. It's about simply participating. And that being absent is the worst thing you can do. So talk a little bit about that. Yeah, I was able to participate in a TEDx event. And the title of my talk was in defense of participation trophies, which I know is a is a hot button issue for a lot of people.
And it's quick to kind of dismiss them as junk or just encouraging this everyone's a winner culture. But I know from personal experience, when I was really in the depths of grief after my husband died, it was very easy to want to just lay in bed all day and not participate in basic things in life or the community or my family.
And I think if we kind of reframe our thoughts around what it means to participate, you credits his success to missing over 9,000 baskets during his career. And if we take that mindset of I'm capable of doing anything if I put my mind to it and I keep trying until I get it right versus, oh, I didn't make it on the first time I tried, so I best just give up.
I think that type of growth mindset could be beneficial to a lot of people. Absolutely. Yeah. But it all goes to a person's self-worth and self-esteem. Absolutely. There's a couple famous sayings. One that comes to my mind is you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And then whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.
And if you surround yourself with people who believe in you and see your effort, you will start to make your goals a reality. And it's not a perfect science, but it's pretty darn right. Absolutely. Or if you're in one of those funks, I think take an audit of who you're spending your time with. Maybe it's time to change those five people. Absolutely.
I think if there's one thing that people can take away from my message is that participation really can be so powerful. and having positive effort in the world. I think people are very quick to give up on their own hopes and dreams because they're afraid of participation.
And if you can take that first step towards whatever is the legacy that you want to pass on, take that first step outside of your comfort zone and see what happens. I think that could be really powerful.