A Matter of Time

[Music]

[Applause]

so oldest ready how many people here

know who otis redding is

so if anybody know any otis redding song

they know this one

now i’m not a great singer so i’m gonna

need a little help with it but just

sitting on the dock of the bay

watching the tide roll away

sitting on the dock of the bay

wasting time all right that’s enough see

i got a problem with that

i got a problem with that am i the only

one to have a problem with

sitting on the dock of the bay wasting

time would we sit on the dock of debate

wasting food

or money or heating oil or gasoline

why is time the only asset we’ll sit

and watch roll away is it because time

we can’t see it like the other resources

that we value

is it because time doesn’t sparkle or

shine like diamonds

because it’s not transferable like

currency maybe it’s because we can’t

spend time like we spend money

or can we when i was young somebody told

me time is money

and i’m a visual person so when i hear

tommy’s money i think of me going out

and buying things with my time like i’ll

give him 45 minutes and i’ll get this in

return

i give them two hours i’ll get that in

return what kind of world would we live

in

imagine a world where we could spend

time like currency

my name is jermaine archer and tonight i

want to talk today i want to talk about

time

now in full disclosure i’m doing time

right now state time

prison time one day i woke up in a

maximum security prison

sentenced to 22 years to life for a

crime i did not commit

so i made my way to the prison law

library and i found me a prison law

clerk and i was like excuse me i need

your help

i’m here for something i didn’t do he

just shrugged like don’t matter

yo my man i don’t think you heard me i

said i’m in here

for something i didn’t do he took his

glass off glasses off looked right at me

and said my man

i don’t think you heard me it don’t

matter

you’re gonna do the time regardless and

that blew me away i mean can you imagine

i’m brand new into the state

penitentiary this is a law clerk so he

obviously knows what he’s talking about

and he is telling me it don’t matter if

i’m guilty or not

and i remember thinking if my innocence

doesn’t matter

what does i have to find what matters

now when i grew up i grew up valuing

stuff things so

the more things i had the happier i

usually was so early in my incarceration

i started accumulating things you know

money jewelry

clothing footwear and over time i

replaced most of the things that i lost

due to my incarceration

but it didn’t matter how much money i

saved or how many pairs of timberlands i

had under my bed

i wasn’t getting any happier and one day

it kind of dawned on me that

the money the jewelry the clothing the

footwear they’re all replaceable

but i was doing time and no matter how

much money i saved

or how many clothing and articles of

clothing and

sneakers i bought i would never be able

to replace

one second of time that passed while i

was incarcerated

i had found what mattered to me my time

now see the courts understand how

precious time is that’s why they take it

as a last resort

they’ll find creative ways to punish you

you know they’ll confiscate your

property they’ll

find you money they’ll put you on

probation they’ll make you perform

community service but when they take

your time

when they sentence you to time in prison

it’s generally for something

serious one day i was talking to a

colleague of mine d.e marks about the

value of time he just made a remark like

casual you know the only real difference

between success and failure is

how people use the same time and i

remember

whoa i don’t even know if bro know how

deep he just got with me that’s a

profound

like time is time you know what i’m

saying is

we all get 24 hours in a day whether you

free

or you incarcerated whether you’re

guilty whether you’re innocent

whether you’re in new york whether

you’re in shanghai time is time

steve jobs had 24 hours in a day so did

einstein

uh michelle obama jay-z beyonce steve

forbes they all had 24 hours in this day

it’s just they used them more

efficiently so in 2006

beau lozov came speaking of time beau

lozov visited sing sing and he wrote a

great book called we’re all doing time

and i remember when i saw the cover of

that book i was blown away again

because we’re all doing time time on

earth is a life sentence

and i’m just serving part of my time in

a maximum security prison but i get 60

seconds out of every minute 60 minutes

out of every hour

24 hours out of every day just like

everybody else in this room

we’re all doing time so it came a time

when i felt the need to commoditize my

time

to find a way to spend this time and get

something in return for it

so i said you know what i’m gonna make

me a to-do list that’s what i need it’s

gonna work right here so i got me a

to-do list

and these are the things i’m gonna spend

my time on i’m gonna learn a foreign

language

and i’m gonna earn me a college degree

and i’m gonna learn how to play

a musical instrument and i got me some

highlighters and i covered up the papers

and made sure i could see it every

morning when i woke up i saw that list

on my cell wall

and i look at it and i would feel good

and every night when i went to sleep i

was like what happened

i didn’t get any of that stuff done

where did the time go

and then i would sit back and think okay

what did i do today

i played dominoes for a couple of hours

i watched tv for about four hours i sat

in the yard talking about absolutely

nothing for about three hours

i was spending all my time on

recreational activities when you think

about that in hindsight

it makes recreation less fulfilling

because recreation is supposed to be

like

a temporary escape from work or school

or chores or duty

but when you spend all your time doing

recreational things it’s no longer

recreation

this is how you spend your time and i

was spending my time and getting nothing

in return

so i went back to myself i took that

to-do list down i said can’t work with

that that ain’t gonna work this fail

i feel like i’m counting time i made a

can’t do list

i made a list yeah can’t do it’s a list

of things i can’t do if i’m trying to

get where i’m going you know

i i can’t play dominoes all afternoon i

can’t sit around talking about nothing

all day it’s just not gonna work and and

and i stuck to that list

and i wasn’t worried about what i was

doing i made sure i wasn’t doing the

things i wasn’t supposed to be doing

and i started seeing progress i would

look back at my day and say what did i

do today i learned a couple of french

words

play bien you know i learned i learned

some stuff about accounting dual

principle bookkeeping and

accounts receivable accounts payable i

got a good workout i call my family i

feel good i even remember some of the

german that i was studying

you know things was happening and i felt

good i remember walking by the table one

day and the guys called me to play

dominoes and i

was like yo come on come play dominoes i

can’t do it

and they was like come on man you don’t

play with us no more you think you’re

better than us and i was like nah man we

just got to live now man

i can’t spend 22 years playing dominoes

i just can’t do it and they tell me i’m

getting stush and i’m getting funny

and i was like listen life ain’t waiting

for us man i know you want to go home

and open up a construction firm you want

to go and be a personal trainer and you

want to go home and be a lawyer

we got to do some of these things now

and and i we don’t get no timeouts

there’s no time outs there’s no stop

time in life so some of them agreed with

me and some of them looked at me like i

was crazy but i kept on going and over

time i realized

two important things two very important

lessons that i learned one

people that think something is

impossible shouldn’t get in the way of

people doing that impossible thing

you know what i’m saying get out my way

i got things to do

and two talking about what we need to do

that’s important

but it shouldn’t be confused with action

you know we just talking about what we

need to do we still got to go around and

do it so to make a short story shorter i

was spending my time wisely

and in exchange i was speaking french

out of the blue i woke up

my school just do i feel kicking

shoulder moto people was like what is he

talking about yeah

you know my spanish i was speaking good

spanish

and and people surprised cause they

would come and be like we gets and i

said you get to singing

that’s to me especially i was speaking

german what paul

crayo tudo italiano it was just

happening i earned a master’s degree

i played music with professional

musicians from carnegie hall

i performed in shakespeare with

rehabilitation through the arts

i helped create a short film of voices

from within to reduce

gun violence and youth violence i

actually helped create a documentary

to talk about the importance of

education in prison something i’m really

passionate about

i emceed the first tedx event in new

york state prison

i felt good you know suddenly i didn’t

feel like i was in prison anymore

suddenly doing time felt good work felt

good school felt good rest felt good

and when i felt like doing it recreation

felt good and i remember time i ran into

a guy named bruce bryan

and he used to always try to track me

down jeremy talk to you i ain’t got time

jermaine i want to talk to you not now

can’t do it and one day he cornered me

at my job at my program and said i’m on

to you slick and i said what you talking

about

he said you figured it out i said why

whatever do you mean

he said you done figured out a way you

not serving tom no more

you found out a way to make tom serve

you that was the biggest compliment he

could have ever gave me

i felt so good because that’s exactly

what i wanted to do i failed i explained

to him time is precious man

we all come into this world with a

limited amount of time

and and no matter what you do once you

spend that time

you can never get it back so we got to

talking about it and i let him know i’m

never

going to worry about the time that was

spent but i’m going to make sure

that the time i do spend now is going to

be spent wisely

now i have a couple of questions before

i leave how many of you have ever heard

you know what a deathbed request is

right everybody know what the deathbed

request is it’s kind of like

when you you know someone has a certain

amount of time left to live in

they make a final request have you ever

heard anyone in that condition actual

million dollars

or diamond necklace or you know maserati

no you know why because when that time

comes none of that matters you know what

matters

time they always end up asking for a

little more time

to do things a little differently before

time’s up my time on the stage is almost

up

so i have two final questions for you

the first question is you ever ask

yourself where did the time go

like tom just flew by all of a sudden

you know i was 27 the other day now i’m

i don’t know how old 40 something 50

something

i went to sleep it was new year’s today

is february 7th where did the time go

time didn’t go by any faster you still

had 24 hours in every day

maybe you were just sitting on the dock

of the bay

wasting time i don’t know but my final

question is are you ready to redefine

your time

everybody ready to redefine your time i

can’t give you a pill i don’t have a

truth serum i don’t have no magic meal

but what i can give you is three small

steps that’ll get you on the right path

and and it’s not rocket science and it’s

not high finance step one

they don’t lose i don’t want to lose you

now step one every once in a while look

back and see what you are spending the

majority of your time on

in your days what is the bulk of my time

going to is it social media is it

exercise does it work

whatever it is determine that step two

find out the roi

the return on investment what am i

getting from the time that i’m spending

on these

activities what am i profiting am i

losing what’s going on if i’m exercising

all day am i getting fit whatever it is

get your get your profit or loss margin

step three

figure out which of these things don’t

work for you and put them on the can’t

do list

can’t do these things no more with those

three steps you could take

time into your hand you could turn it

into a now you could commodify it

commoditize it you can knead it like

flour or or shape it like clay

you could do whatever you want with it

it’s your time you can spend it like

money and get something in exchange you

can do whatever you want with it the

only thing you can’t do

is stop time speaking of which that’s my

time

i’m jermaine archer thank you