TED Community » sarah boardman-miller

More About Me

I'm passionate about

I am passionate about the relationships that are formed to create change and bringing out the Leader in everyone.

People don't know that I'm good at

That I tell funny stories.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +3.10 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: Are you prepared for Impact?

  Aug 5 2012: Feyisayo,
  You are right on. It's not the situation at hand...the impact itself. How ado we prepare ourselves to have the brain space and heart space to wade through the inevitable.
  
  Thank you
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: How we can start any business with empty pockets?

  Jul 16 2012: Naeem,
  Read the story of Fred, who started Fedex.
  
  From experience I started a company with next to nothing and none of the skills that it required. I surrounded myself with people that were smarter and knew the how.
  Worked my ass off and it grew. It took 6-7 years and the company was doing multi millions.
  
  If you are truly ready to begin and have the belief it can happen.
• +2

  A reply on Conversation: How we can start any business with empty pockets?

  Jul 16 2012: Mr Ikram, This is a bit of a defeatist attitude. How do you know that things were not "hard" for Gates and Jobs?
  You have a special something....a special skill and you want it to go out into the world. Then find the people that are smarter than you and tell them your story.
  Keep telling your story until someone listens.
  Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken heard "No" almost 1000x's before someone said....hmmm this chicken is good, people will buy this.
  
  Tell your story, someone will listen. There are 100's of broke people with a dream holed up in apts/houses together in Palo Alto waiting for that moment to tell their story to a waiting Venture Capitalist.
  
  Tell your story.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: Does prison work?

  Jul 16 2012: Great question.
  One the whole, prisons, especially in the US are not set up to work.
  The is a lot of money to be made in the prison system and yes there are an enormous amount of inmates that are addicts and not going to get the help they actually need. They serve inedible food and have little or no structure in most-such as cleaning/washing duty, jobs, etc.
  Yet, some great examples are the 10 day course of Vipassna, there is a wonderful documentary called Doing Time, Doing Vipassana in prison in Jaipur, India. These were rapists, murderers, addicts and all sorts coming together and being taught to meditate.
  Here in the US, the Department of Corrections in Oregon needed help defraying costs and put the inmates to work. One of the companies that grew out of this is Prison Blues. Inmates get paid and have a feeling of accomplishment/self-worth and the OCE is beefed up.
  
  The system is terrible. There are inmates that will be there for life and some that will be in for 2,5,15 years. They need education, jobs, training, and counseling.
  Why not have Edx or Coursera offer these amazing courses from MIT, Stanford and Harvard to prisons?
  Some prisons do have GED courses, there needs to be more.
  
  This is a part of society that is swept under the rug. It eats it own tail.
  Treat a human like a piece of garbage.....expect that human to treat you the same.

• A reply on Conversation: How will you spend your time and/or make a living between ages 60 and 100?

  Jul 15 2012: Hi Kay, you right it does not. Volunteering can be a couple of hours here and there-afterschool tutoring. It could be one day a month at Habitat for Humanity.
  Somehow there is a idea that if one volunteers you are wealthy. In my experience, this is far from the truth. Most of the people I have the honor of doing service work with, including myself, work 40,50-80 hours a week, raising children and running households.

• A reply on Conversation: If one's mental illness could be cured by a single pill, would you choose to do so?

  Jul 14 2012: Joel, such an amazing thought and question.
  
  Leo, you are spot on. Would the world lose out on some of the most incredible minds? I loathe to think of what this world would be like without people who have a spectrum of this, in my opinion a doorway into the mind that most do not have access to. Yes this sometimes comes at a very high price-ones health, suicide, inability to function.
  Thank you to all for sharing your lives and insight.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: What is Your BIG IDEA in just 6 WORDS?

  Jul 14 2012: Say YES to possibility right now
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: What is the source of intuition?

  Jul 13 2012: Love this Question!
  The Whisperer, Voice inside, 6th sense, Intuition....whatever you want to call it, I feel is written in the code of your DNA. Some will choose to listen, develop and utilize it everyday and every moment. Like you said, when we choose not to listen to this voice.....we pay the price.
  Over time, I have come to realize that this is part of the intuition as well. Continuing to go back to the river one must learn how to cross until you can actually do it. This learning lesson deepens the intuition and gives it a clearer voice.
  
  Some people have stronger intuition, comes more naturally. For them it was not a question of listening, just to listen and abide. For others it has to be a more conscious action to listen and tune in.
  
  However you get there, Intuition is powerful....an important tool in your box.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Fill in the Blank - What the World needs now is __________ ?

  Jul 9 2012: Take a step back and breath.
  Remember that we are all in this together.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: How will you spend your time and/or make a living between ages 60 and 100?

  Jul 9 2012: Volunteer more. Teach others the joy of reading. Walk across each continent. Listen to more music. Sing again. Join a ballet class. Complete the seven summits. Volunteer more.