Together stronger. A catalyst for shared prosperity that unites businesses, nonprofits, government and citizens to combine their strength to alleviate poverty for millions of people worldwide. Please give a warm welcome to michelle sullivan. [applause] thank you so much. Thank you to savanna book festival for the fabulous event. My first time here, i absolutely love it. Ill definitely return. I also love the weather. When i left home yesterday, it was minus eight in illinois. I deeply appreciate the 60 some degrees weather today. [laughter] i also thank you for your time today. Take it home and treated like its everybody else. Thats advice that my parents said five decades ago. The day i was born. This is after he discovered i had a type of dwarfism which a few years later, they found out was a very rare type of dwarfism. I like to think my parents would have done that anyway, take me home and treat me like everybody else but the affirmation is always nice. You may not think that was a big deal but back in the 60s, people who were born with a disability were not treated like everybody else. To some extent, that is true today, unfortunately. The things that have definitely improved. I didnt know i was any different. Until i went to kindergarten. My big brother had gone to school and i was ready. My mom got me dropped off, i walked on the health like i owned the place, i went in the classroom and my teacher told me to go in a circle and play with the kids until class started. So i did that, i went over and plopped myself down and got right into it. It didnt take but a few minutes and the boy next to me, i remember like it was yesterday. He said in a very loud voice, hey, why are you so little . What is wrong with you . I didnt think he was talking to me so i kept on playing. It didnt take very long and the girl on the other side of me said, yeah, why are you so little . And i hooked up and i could see all of the other kids staring at me. I could feel the confidence go right out of me. I didnt understand why. Have you ever had that feeling of being overlooked or underestimated or not being included . Most people have some time in their life. But my first time when i was five in kindergarten. I had no idea what just happened. As the day went on, i was outside the circle. Both literally and figuratively. I wasnt included, i certainly wasnt fitting inside the circle so when i got into the car, my mom said how was it . I looked at her and eiko, is there something wrong with me . Shes like, she paused. Ive never had my mom pause hesitate so it kind of scared me. She goes well, we are all born different. So thats the way god made us and you will be smaller than most people but you are still going to be able to do whatever he want to do. Maybe in a little different way, no pun intended but you will be able to do whatever he want. Of course, i had no idea what she was talking about. It didnt make me feel any better at the time. But as i went into first grade and then into the second grade, the kids, i was in the same class so they really kind of got over it. They got to know me and it didnt become an issue but when i go out in public, the stairs were always there. There came a time when i didnt want to go out at all. When i did, i hid behind my parents. I wanted to hide. I didnt understand what was happening. It was all because i was shorter and as we got older, the gap increased. So i came to second grade and the teacher introduced us and she used flash cards and somebody stood next to somebodys desk and whoever gave the answer first got to move to the next step. You cant, however one got to keep moving. I come to realize i was good at math. I was great at math and i always won around the world. When you one, you got to take the Bulletin Board and put it outside the cage. Of course i picked the draft, its tall and had a neck, both of which im not. I put my little animal out on the outside because i won the game. It was the first time i started to realize what my parents were trying to tell me. Theres really two kinds of growth. This is one of the first chapters in my book, looking up. We spent about the first 18 20 years growing on the outside. For me, it was ten years. [laughter] then we spent three quarters of our life growing on the inside. Because these kids started to say, you know michelle, the one thats smart in math, on the other hand, you know michelle, that little girl. As the first time i noticed i was known for something other than my size. It was a great feeling. I never had that before. Keep in mind, i only have that feeling as well. Still, when i went on in public, it wasnt there. I started to realize i still am growing on the inside. You grow all your life. Think about your emotional stability, emotions, relationship, psychology and all of these things that make who you are, continues to evolve the rest of your life. So then came third grade and it was a rainy day, so the teacher taught us chest. Then we play a lot. Guess what, i was great. I would win tournaments. There it was again. I would go into the halls and i hated walking into the chest hall, a huge room, so many tables and when i would walk in, everybody was staring and i was like please god, just give me to my table and i climb up the table and i had to sit on my knees or i couldnt see. Most of the time, mostly boys and they would stare at me and a lot of times i beat them in ten minutes because they were busy talking. But a win is a win. So then i get the trophy at the end and the first time it happened, a boy brought his mother over and eiko oh, what is he going to say. I had my guard up. He goes mom, this is that girl i talk about. She one. She won the whole thing. A girl. This girl. [laughter] so once again, i was looked up to. So as life goes on, we learn the lessons and it didnt help a lot when i got in public, i still needed other tools and resources. My mom always told me i will start where you are, heres what you have, use what you have and do what you can. Thats what we all do in life. We go at a different pace. Then it came about time to deal with my orthopedic problems. My type of dwarfism has a lot of knee problems. I could say i was born with my check engine light on. Thats how it is. So my parents took me around the country to find someone who could help with my dysplasia and we learned why someone who happened to be the first little person i ever met. I never met another little person until i was 12. I thought i was the only one. Keep in mind, this is before you had cable tv and 300 channels. So we went out to baltimore to meet the doctor who specialized in this dysplasia. Along the way, he called us and in the first thing he started talking to me was about my personal self. All the other doctors i meant, because i do have a rare type of dwarfism and im sure they never saw another person like me who had that type of dwarfism and treated me more like a specimen. He asked about school and my personal life from all these things, im 12. I hadnt even thought of that myself yet. His point was, youre more than just your dysplasia. I had a series of surgeries and the first time i went was in 1979, my first surgery was at 12, i remember very well. After the surgery, i had this nurse named kathy who was a student nurse. She is about seven years older than me. She was there the whole ten days that i was there and joyce came in and we really had a connection. I dont know what it was but she was so open and caring and she teased me a lot, which i loved. We had a lot of fun because it wasnt the most enjoyable environment but kathy made it enjoyable. I thought it was so cool that she was going to college and being a nurse. It was time to go home and she goes, give me a call when you come back in three months for physical therapy. So its time to come back and mom and i thought, should we call, shouldnt we call . My dad goes, call if you want. What have you got to lose . So we called and we didnt, cap because you are back in town and she came back. I stayed there for therapy and my parents had to go back home, it was kathy who took me out. She took me to her house and laid me on her kitchen counter, no kidding. She would do her homework and we would chat and i just thought she was the coolest person. She was my mentor. I looked up too her so much. There is also kathy who taught me that my parents had tried for years, you finally realize have to let your guard down for people to come in. I always have my guard up, even today, you never know when someone is going to come up and say, youre always ready for anything. But she really taught me, you have to let your guard down and let people get to know you. So i do that, i did that through school and people really started to know who i am and what i was about more than my size. I had to be more than that. Anytime you walk in the room, you understand the room and you think who can i talk to . Right . Who will be receptive to me . Who looks more like something i would be interested in for whatever particular reason. Would i want to talk to . People sometimes look right over me like im not even there. I understand that, it is a little awkward. So ive learned to make the first move. My parents joke with me that i was born with the gift of gab. I cant imagine pride theyd say that by was. I really use that to make the first move and talk to people. Then they get comfortable and you start chitchatting. Goes along with that is a bit of humor. At the hotel for instance, if i needed to go to floor ten, i can only reach three. If somebody is in there, you go you know what, i really like to see all the views on ten, would you mind hitting the button and they are flapping and when that they came in handy, i travel quite a bit for my job so i was on an airplane and you know, make the calls once in a while so i get up and i go to the restroom and i asked the Flight Attendant, would you mind watching the door for me . Sure, because i cant reach a lot. Think about how i am, im for fetal. So i am doing my duty, waiting, the door flies open. Its a man. What you say . I said hello. [laughter] i didnt know what to say. These are chapters in the book, things about the two types of growth, letting your guard down, making the first move in for me, asking for help is a strength, not a weakness. I had to ask the Flight Attendant to help me. I need help all the time. I needed help on the stage earlier and i am really restraint, is not a weakness. The other piece, but also important, whenever someone steps in, its always important that you try to have them have faith. That man felt a lot worse than i did. I sat in there a little longer than normal. [laughter] and i thought, what am i going to do . Ive got to get out of here, right . 250 people on the plane, i probably wont even see him again. So i come out, im walking to my seat, i was on the isle and there he was on the other side of the aisle. I think he was put there on purpose because it gave me an opportunity to walk up to him, his face was all red and so was mine. I walked up to him, i leaned in and i said, are you going to remember this as much as i am . [laughter] he goes, he laughs and he goes, probably. However, im sure hes not talking about it publicly like i am. [laughter] but any time somebody does Something Like that or says something and i go into detail and one of the chapters about this because looking up is about elevating the viewpoints and value of others, we all have value and i look up to people my whole life, literally but it taught me the most important posture, which is to look up to people figuratively. Because we all have value. We are all dealing with challenges every day, you can see one of mine but its not my only one. When you see people and they may not be in the best of moods, or whatever, think about smiling or somehow making a gesture that gives them a positive feeling. You dont know what they are dealing with, are they dealing with financial problems . Are they dealing with Mental Illness . Are they dealing with infertility . Any type of issue. You just dont know. The book is about why you cant walk in my shoes, mine are size one by the way. [laughter] we can walk sidebyside each other which is really important. To get to know people, just like the gentleman on the plane, we talk the rest of the flight. He was a sports person, so and i. We really got to know each other and it started to break the ice. The most important thing for me from the plane ride, was to make sure that he would talk to someone who is different the next time. That he wouldnt shy away and never look at them or look right past them because nobody likes to be overlooked for whatever reason. It was so important for me that day to leave him with a positive moment. So when the plane landed, he got up and said michelle, i notice when you sat down, somebody lifted your suitcase up. I said yeah, i have that effect on people. Im not going to catapult that thing in there. [laughter] he said well, can i get it down for you . I said yes, thank you so much. That would not have happened had i not started to talk to him and we started getting to know each other. So when you try to influence people, intimacy works better than influence. When you start to break that ice and you start to get to know people and that your guard down, you really come together with someone and move and you start to look up to them. This is important because all my life, people said michelle, you need to write a book. Unlike what about . I said we all have a life, we all have a story. I didnt think it was ready yet to write a book. So as my life went on particularly as i started at caterpillar, i started to notice a few things that you know, i may have something to contribute but im not ready yet. So when i graduated college, interviewed a caterpillar for instance and i got this job, this was 31 years ago. They hired the smallest employee. On top of that, a woman. I had a variety of jobs, i worked in marketing, product support, etc. When i first went into marketing, it was in the north american commercial division, which was the most important division in terms of sales for the company at the time in the 80s, i remember Walking Around the aisle on each side, all glass windows, the managers, halfway up there was a wall and it was glass. When i walked by, first off, im here. They saw the top of my hip and thats it. Like my kindergarten day, i remember this first day walking in there. All i saw all they saw was a top of my head. They would say what is that . I go right by the window. I happen to have that at every office. They didnt know me. Like i said, getting to know people, and is was better than influence. I shouldnt have giggled but i thought it was funny. They had no idea and the more i went, the more i giggled. Then it was my turn to show my value. My job was to figure out what their requirements were so they could do their job better. What information do they need . Beat that into it to get that information to them. It was me who had to make the first move as i talked about in my book to go in to these white allamericans looking males, which they were back then and introduce myself and they got what you want . I said im here to help you. One of them said really . [laughter] and i said really. We started talking. I went to all the managers and started realizing they all needed the similar type of reporting. So i worked on that. Not long after that, all the reporting came online they started using it. I would go back and ask how its going and as i got familiar with it, it was going really well. Then i remember the day i started walking back down and instead of all of the hussle and bustle trying to figure who just walked by, it was michelle, come in. Come in. Then i come in info this is what i need now. This is great. I go okay. I can go down the aisle without getting called into the office because they saw value in what i was doing. But they had to get to know me and what my value was. In the book i talk about dont we all have that role to play . You have to show your value to people and they have to be open to see it. Because at the end of the day, we all have choices to make every day. One is, we all have challenges and differences, am i going to hide in the world and just let it be there . Or my going to try and fit into the world as it is today . Or embrace the differences or challenges, chasing the assets and realize they could be used to impact other people . We make that choice every day about whatever your challenge is. I have to do it, too. My parents kicked me in the butt when i needed it. We all have pity parties but they cant last long. Nobody likes a pity party. You do get down once in a while and i completely understand that. To this day, kathy and i are best friends, she has impacted so many peoples lives and it all started in 1979 in june when i met her. When you think about someone like that in a friendship that long, theres Something Special there. Kathy has looked up to so many people because shes now a hospice nurse. A job i could not do. God bless her. When you think about the type of impact we all have on each other and that we can make thats very important, and in the book, i go on to highlight people who i have looked up to in my life like kathy and we all need people to go around with and lean on when something really good happens and when something not so good happens and i call it my Kitchen Table. When something, and you are probably going to go with something really bad happens, dont you call a few people, its like your Kitchen Table, used to have dinner every night and mom and dad would go, how was your day . Of course, when your kids, the most exciting thing is tony puked today. It went all over the floor. You go into detail, right . Other than that, how was your day . [laughter] they were trying to get at, what did you learn today and so forth . So my Kitchen Table was very important in my life because there were days when i get teased, i got knocked down because i always wanted to be in the middle of everything. When i get knocked down flat, being in the emergency room, you dont always have to be right in the middle of the action and second, sometimes you have to go to the side and not walk straight through because people cant see you. I didnt understand that. I kept walking in the middle. It bounces back up and that would be me. So when you think about it, whos your Kitchen Table . Then once you get your head around whatever your opportunity or challenge is, they will expand out a little bit and i call that my village. I have a tremendous village. Come here today, i had help me get here, fly here and help me get on the stage, help me around yesterday and your village changes and your Kitchen Table changes. Comment go with friends and low and behold, something happens and you reach out and they reach out to you and its like no time has passed. Another piece we have to ask for help. Asking for help is a strength, not a weakness. So heres one for i had to talk to my village about a great opportunity. It involved non for profits when i was a teenager and its a passion of mine. And that the