One day — 15 months ago — inspiration struck.
And for all the people who do creative work, you understand this moment. When it strikes, you stop what you’re doing and get to work.
Because if you don’t, you might lose the idea, or worse, the inspiration. So I dropped everything and ran to my laptop.
Forty-five minutes later, a poem was born.
More on this in a moment. But first, the backstory.
I work for PGC Basketball, traveling the country in the summer teaching hoops. It’s an incredible job. I get to teach the game, life, and leadership to middle and high school kids. Because of this, I speak in front of groups a lot — giving up to eight one-hour talks in a four-day span.
And because of that, I constantly look for stories and speaking techniques I can use to teach better.
Two years ago, I listened to a pastor tell a story, where in the middle, she beautifully transitioned into spoken word poetry.
It seemed effortless and I felt its impact. She was masterful in her delivery and the audience fell into a trance while listening.
Ever since that moment, I wanted to do this for one of my talks.
So when inspiration struck one Sunday evening during Covid, I knew what to do.
I sat down to write. I titled the poem, “What do you want?”
It’s a question I ponder often. I think we all do.
After finishing, I didn’t share it with anyone. It sat there on my laptop, buried inside a Google drive folder.
Fast forward 15 months. At that time, I had multiple opportunities to share what I wrote with the players at my summer camps.
Two times, I pulled my iPad out to share, but chickened out. I didn’t think it was good enough. I was afraid.
Then, at my last summer camp, in Portland Oregon, a unique moment developed.
I took the group through an exercise, inspired by this clip, called “Our Way,” from the South Bay Lakers G league team.
Here’s the gist. The team or someone in the organization reads something — a quote or paragraph — and everyone erupts in support. It doesn’t matter what’s said, but they have to support the person speaking.
So I had my group do something similar. We broke into groups and started the exercise.
Then we got back together (40 of us) for one final round. Players and coaches got the chance to come to the front of the room and share. It could be silly or serious, it didn’t matter. The only rule was keep it appropriate and give massive support to whomever was courageous enough to come up and share.
After a few people came up, the group called for me to share something, and started chanting my name. “KY YUL, KY YUL.” I listened as they broke my name into two syllables with each reverberating chant.
I said “okay!” And at that moment, I knew what I’d share.
It was the poem I’d tried to share before, but didn’t have the courage to go through with. At that moment, the support of forty teenagers from fourteen to eighteen years old pushed me over the edge. I knew they had my back.
I grabbed my iPad. I scrolled to the document with the poem. I took a deep breath…
…and began.
While it was a cool moment to share for the first time, I’m still working to put it into one of my talks like that pastor who originally inspired me did.
But for now, if you’d like to watch the video of this moment, Click here.
And if you want the transcript, keep scrolling down.
Transcript begins here.
I plead with you and implore you to take this one suggestion.
Look inside yourself and ask this one question.
What do you want in your life?
See, people don’t lack motivation….they lack clarity.
Not understanding the consequence of confusion, the severity
Waking up and living each day with this, uncertain regularity
Hoping they jump from nothing to…. popularity……
Dreaming of one day having this… unearned prosperity…..
And desiring to become a person, others call a rarity.
But, that’s not how it works.
So again, I’ll ask you.
What do you want?
So many never answer this question, they have no clue.
But I stand here right now to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.
Because I don’t want you to live a life of regret,
a feeling that leads to being upset,
That continually races through your mind like a…red corvette,
that replays over and over like an old cassette,
You don’t deserve that.
So I ask you again.
What do you want?
See, that my friends… Is the question
Asking that gets you on the path of progress, a progression
Asking that makes you like nobody else, an exception
Asking that gives your life a deep meaning, a direction
Asking that helps you thrive, with self expression
Asking that forces you to be courageous, even just for a second.
That’s what you deserve.
So I ask you again.
What do you want?
Because when you find that answer, you become different
You think different. You talk different. You walk different. You sleep different. You train different. You lead different. You study different. You live different.
You are different.
Yeah, different is unnerving, intimidating, and scary
But that’s the price of admission to overcome being ordinary
Difference can change the world.
You can change the world
So my question. My last question for you.
What. Do. You. Want?