The Highlight Effect

hello everyone my name is tanaka ishana

sutava

and i’m a 22 year old creative

entrepreneur

and baylor university senior student and

i just want to say thank you so much for

taking the time out

to be able to listen to my idea and also

another special thank you to the tedx

csuf team for their hard work and their

dedication

for allowing all the speakers to be able

to share their idea

now first off i just want to say this is

one of the most craziest and honorable

things that i’ve done so far

and given a ted talk at my age i always

knew what i was gonna give one but i

never did i think it was gonna happen so

fast

i thought this was gonna happen when i

was 30. but

here we are now who am i and what am i

about i am a proud

first generation zimbabwean-american who

was raised by a village

of resilient support system my parents

come from zimbabwe

and at the young age of 23 and 24 years

old they came over to america

and i am the eldest son of two

intelligent immigrants

who sacrificed for me my siblings

to live the life that we have today so

standing in front of you today is a huge

blessing because at one point in time

there

was a time when i wasn’t able to speak

not because i didn’t have the fear of

public speaking

but because i had an ear infection when

i was young that caused me to go mute

and i did and it delayed my speech until

i was four years old

and there was a point of time when my

mom didn’t think i was going to speak at

all

and that being said i’m a young man on a

mission to inspire and leave something

of value

as a 22 year old creative entrepreneur

used in the form of multimedia to share

the stories

from different perspectives and bring

people together

the main goal is to influence

by empowering underrepresented groups to

build towards something more build

towards generational wealth

through authentically living their lives

and now the idea that i’m presenting to

you is called

the highlight effect now you might be

thinking what is the highlight

effect now truth be told

research in human psychology states that

everyone

wants to be noticed and i mean everyone

even from the most introverted of people

they want to be recognized for what they

do

and who they are and so

everyone has heard the snowball effect

and the butterfly effect

but my thesis my idea is the highlight

effect

and the highlight effect is this how

being your authentic self creates

opportunities

to create impact and share the vital

stories of others around the world at

any level regardless of your age and

identity

now most people think that they need to

be a huge social media influencer

a celebrity or a politician to have an

impact on somebody

but that could be further from the truth

according to harvard’s psychologist the

average person in their lifetime will

influence over 70

000 people think about that

70 000 and that number has

not only increased but has exponentially

been

blown to proportion because of how

connected we

are due to the internet

as a creative storyteller i wanted to

create a dialogue about equity and

diversity within my academic environment

among students

faculty and staff and be able to help my

student body

guide and provide insight of other

perspectives that weren’t usually heard

a couple years ago i was tasked as a

diversity inclusion

chair for student government at baylor

and the very first thing that came to

mind was lebron james

yes he is an nba champion an

executive producer and one of the

greatest basketball players to ever live

but the way that he utilizes his

platforms not for his own personal gain

but to be able to shine a light on other

people

is what inspired me to do the same

to create a podcast or a talk show and

that talk show was campus cuts

i wanted to dedicate this platform to

highlighting the members of the

community

and i mean all the members that i could

from my professor deanna totem beard the

head of the baylor theatre department

where she shared her perspective on the

current climate of education

theatric arts and entertainment

to one of my best friends megan peck a

baylor alumna

who is a social activist an author a

fellow podcaster

who advocates for lgbtq plus equality

and social justice for black lives

another member was john henry a first

generation american who built

his company at 19 and who sold it over

for a million dollars at 21

being featured on forbes 30 under 30

list and had a chance to be able to be

host of a tv show called hustle on vice

tv

and last but not least to my mentor big

bro

joe who i go to calvary church with who

shared his story

on prison reform and he used the gospel

to transform the lives of other people

in the prison system

and these are just a fraction of the

stories that have been highlighted

but not only have they touched me but to

the thousands that listened

when i think about the highlight effect

what comes to mind is the liberty mutual

pay it forward commercial which made its

rounds during the 2010s

and to sum it up it was just a

commercial of

other people seen doing good deeds

and another person seeing that and then

they wanted to do the same thing

i’m not sure about you but i know for

this

when you see someone in your life

whether you know them personally

or not that opens the door for another

person

you want to do the same thing

now my takeaway for you all

and how to apply the highlight effect in

your life is

the more the majority of time the

highest form of

impact is when we realize we just got to

be ourselves

whatever that means to you it is the

people who will be moved by what you’re

doing

inspired by you that will take the next

action step

in their life to whatever goal that

they’re pursuing

so whether you are a ceo a club

president

a professor a student a waitress

the skills that are embedded in you have

and will significantly change the

trajectory of someone

someone’s life and all i want you guys

to realize is this

you don’t have to be an icon to do this

you don’t have to be a certain age

all you have to do is be yourself

you being yourself is a superpower that

we all possess

and that superpower and our skills

that are inside of us allow other people

to be inspired to use their superpower

once you’re able to understand your

uniqueness

the talents and skill sets that are

possessed that are instrumental in

providing change wherever you go

it is the catalyst to provide people a

seat at the table

to contribute to a changing environment

and ultimately the key to living a life

filled with purpose

and all you have to do

is be you you for coming to my ted talk

i appreciate all of this and i

appreciate

all of you more than you will ever know