The Milton “Mickey” Kramer Scholar-in-Residence Fund takes Tidewater Together to new heights
Wednesday, January 8, 7:30 pm, Sandler Family Campus
Charlie Harary thinks you’re great. Harary wrote Unlocking Greatness as a tool to help you reveal the gift to yourself and the people who matter most. When Harary speaks around the world, he brings an electrifying combination of science, personal growth, spirituality, and relatablity to fuel each person’s greatness.
Harary doesn’t believe that MIT grads working in Silicon Valley are the only people destined to innovate and prosper. ‘Everyday innovator’ reflects his belief that anyone can change the world. All one needs is the desire of a three-year-old who lets nothing get in the way of what they want—and the courage of a wounded adult willing to ‘face the filter’ and practice daily self-checking.
GREATNESS UNINTERRUPTED
Kevin Lefcoe met Harary in 2015 when he attended the men’s counterpart mission to the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project. Harary was the mission leader.
“My whole purpose has to do with Jewish values and sharing the experiences and people that connect us all together in a unified way,” says Lefcoe. “When we unify, we’re unstoppable. I want people to get the full Charlie Harary experience.”
“They (the audience) will walk away with two or three things to help them break through barriers, but more than that, people won’t forget how he made them feel,” says Lefcoe.
Though Harary’s resume reads like a Who’s Who of business executives and thought leaders, and he receives endorsements by experts from across multiple industries, Harary isn’t immune to self-doubt. “Humility in the face of stardom is his greatest gift,” says Lefcoe.
FACE THE FILTER
In an online video interview with Susan Baroncini-Moe of 2 Questions.TV, Harary shares a humbling story about his daily struggle with self-doubt, illustrating the internal work necessary to access personal greatness.
“We put an inordinate amount of effort into trying to fix the world around us, and not enough effort into fixing us, and how we see the world around us,” says Harary. “At the very least, just the recognition that what I’m seeing and what I’m feeling may not be what’s happening, and may be what I perceive through my filter. Just in the knowledge there is a filter is critical and allows us to work on our minds.
“For example, so many times in my day, I’ll go through something and I’ll just feel disempowered. I’ll either be talking to someone, or think of something, or see an e-mail and I’ll just feel that…you know…that feeling like you’re frustrated or anxious or nervous and then I would keep on going. Now, what I do is stop. And I pause. ‘Why did I just feel disempowered? What was I doing? Wait. It was this e-mail or this person threatens me. Oh, it’s because…just that analysis alone starts to enable us before anything changes. There’s such a critical amount of work we don’t do enough of, and maybe that work is even more important than trying to fix the world around us.”
“Charlie is a star because he is relatable and humble,” says Lefcoe. “There are universal challenges we all face: parenting, health, self-doubt, finances. Whether you’re soliciting support for a campaign, trying to maintain a synagogue, or having personal financial trouble and trying to get a return call from someone important. Charlie in one hour is going to discuss the blocks we all face and help break them down while you’re laughing so hard, because it’s so real and relevant. He has a way of peeling away the mindset of ‘I can’t.’”
Presented by the Milton “Mickey” Kramer Scholar-in-Residence Fund’s Tidewater Together series in partnership with the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Society of Professionals, the Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival and the Jewish Book Council.
To RSVP and to learn more about Tidewater Together, visit JewishVA.org/TidewaterTogether, or contact Sierra Lautman, director of Jewish Innovation, at 757-965-6107 or SLautman@ujft.org.