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