Courtesy of robert and irene mcnamara. She recently retired as director of corporate social innovation and president of the caterpillar foundation. The philanthropic arm of the 46 billion manufacturing giant caterpillar inc. In addition to her 30 year career in various leadership positions at the company she recently helped transform the foundation into one of the worlds most influential corporate foundations, the launch of a collaborative impact platform known as together stronger, a catalyst for shared posterity, businesses, nonprofits, government and citizens to combine their strengths to alleviate poverty for millions of people worldwide. Please give a warm savanna welcome to michele sullivan. [applause] thank you so much and thank you to the savanna book festival for putting on a fabulous event. My first time here, i love it and i will definitely return and i love the weather. When i left home in illinois it was minus 8. I greatly appreciate the 60 degrees weather today. I also thank you for your time today. Take her home and treat her like everybody else, the advice my parents gave over five decades ago on the day i was born. This is after he took an xray because i had a bit of a club foot and he discovered i had a type of work is him which a few years later they found out was another type of forces him. I like to think my parents would have done that anyway, take me home and treat me like anybody else, affirmation is always nice. You may not think that was a big deal but back in the 60s people born with a disability were not treated like everybody else. To some extent that is true today unfortunately but things have definitely improved and i didnt know i was any different until i went to kindergarten. My big brother had gone to school when i was ready. My mom walked down the hall like i owned the place, stuck my chest out, wins in the classroom, the teacher told me to go in a circle and play with the kids until class started so i did that. I went over 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 loud voice hey, why are you so little . What is wrong with you. I didnt think he was talking to me so i kept playing, i had other things to do. It didnt take very long then another side of me a girl said yeah, why are you so little. I looked up and i could see all the other kids staring at me. I could feel the confidence go right out of me. I didnt understand why. Ever had that feeling of being overlooked or underestimated or not being included . Most people have sometime in their life. My first time was when i was 5 in kindergarten. I had no idea what just happened. As the day went on, i was outside the circle literally and figuratively. I wasnt included, i certainly wasnt sitting inside the circle so when i got into the car my mom said how was it . Is there something wrong with me . Shes like she paused. Never had my mom part or hesitate so it scared me. She goes we are all born different. It is the way god made us and you will be smaller than most people but youre still going to be able to do whatever you want to do. Maybe in a different way, no pun intended but you will be able to do whatever you want. I had no idea what she was talking about it didnt make me feel better at the time but as i went into first grade and into second grade the kids i was in the same classroom they 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 and there came a point i didnt want to go out at all and i would get behind my parents. I wanted to hide. I didnt understand what was happening. The gap increased. In second grade, the teacher introduced this math game calls all around the world and used flashcards, somebody stood next to the desk and whoever gave the answer first moving, they got to keep moving. I realized i was good at math. I was great at math and i always won around the world. When you won you got to take your animal out of the cage on the bulletin board, put it outside the cage. It is tall, which i am not. So i put my little animal on the outside. It was the first time i started to realize what my parents were trying to tell me. There are two kinds of girls and this is one of the first chapters in my book looking up how a different perspective turns obstacles into advantages. We spent the first 1820 years growing on the outside. For me it was ten years and then you spend 3 quarters of our lives growing on the inside because these kids started to say you know, michelle, the one that is smart at math, it wasnt michelle, that little girl, it was the first time i noticed i was known for something other than my size. I never had that before. I only had that feeling in school. When i went out in public it wasnt there but i started to realize i still am growing on the inside and you grow all your life. Think about your emotional stability, relationships, psychology, all these things that make who you are continues to leave all the rest of your life. The teacher taught us chess and we would play a lot. Guess what . I was great at chest to the point i would win tournaments and there i was again. I would go into these halls and hated walking to the chess hall, a huge room, so many tables. When i walk in everybody was staring and i was like please just get me to my table. I would climb up the table and have to sit on my knees or i couldnt see and most of the time, mostly boys, staring at me and a lot of times they were busy a win is a win. And so i then get the trophy at the end, first time it happened this boy brought his mother over when the parents came to pick us all up and i go what is he going to say . I have my guard up and he goes this is the girl i told you about, she won, she won the whole thing. This girl, once again i was looked up to and as life goes on we learn the lessons and it still didnt help a lot when i go out in public, still needed other tools and resources and my mom always told me start where you are, use what you have and do what you can and that is what we all do in life. We go at a different pace and so forth and then it came about trying to deal with my orthopedic problems. My type of dwarfism has a lot of hip and knee problems. I like to say i was born with my check engine light on lose that is how it is. My parents took me around the country to find someone that could help with my dysplasia and we were introduced by someone who happened to be the first person i ever met. I never met another little person until i was 12. I thought i was the only one. This is before you had cable tv and 300 channels. We went to baltimore to Johns Hopkins, along the way he called us in and the first thing he started talking about was my personal self. I do have a rare type of dwarfism. Im sure they never saw a person like me who had that type of divorce submitted and they treated me more like a specimen. Asks about school and my personal life. Was i going to college. I was 12, hadnt thought of that yet. His point you are more than your skeletal dysplasia. So i had a series of surgeries at Johns Hopkins and first time i went was 1979, i remember it very well. After the surgery i had this nurse named kathy who was a student nurse, 7 years older than me and was there the whole 10 days i was there and she always came in and we had a connection. I dont know what it was but she was so open and had a lot of fun because it wasnt the most enjoyable environment but kathy made it enjoyable. It was so cool that she was going to college and being a nurse and it was time to go home. And she goes give me a call when you come back in 3 months for physical therapy. So time to come back and mom and i, should we call, should recall, what have you got to lose . We called and didnt get a word in edge wise, youre back in town and when i stayed for therapy and it was kathy that took me out, took me to her house, put me on her kitchen counter, no kidding and would do her homework and we would chat and i thought she was the coolest person. She was my mentor. I looked up to her so much. And my parents tried for years and other people too, you realize you have to let your guard down for people to come in and i always had my guard up. Even today you never know when someone will come up and say you have to be ready for everything. You have to let your guard down and let people know you. And i do that through school and people started to know who i am and what i was about. It had to be more than that. The only time you walk into a room you scan the room and think who can i talk to, who will be receptive to me and who i am interested in regarding a particular reason. Who do you want to talk to . People will look over me like im not even there. I understand that. It is a little awkward. My parents joke with me i was given the gift of gab. I use that to make the first move and talk to people and then they get comfortable and you start chitchatting. What goes along with that is a bit of humor. At the hotel if i needed to go to floor 10 i can only reach three. There is somebody in there, so you know what . I would really like to see how the view is on 10, with united in the button and they are laughing and when that really came in handy, i travel quite a bit for my job so i was on an airplane, nature calls once in a while. I get up and go to the restroom and asked the Flight Attendant would you mind watching the door for me . Sure, because i cant reach think how high it is. Im four feet tall by the way. Im in there doing my duty, just waiting, the door slides open and it is a man. What do you say . I said hello. I didnt know what to say. These points are important, things about the two types of growth, letting your guard down, making the first move, 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. If you were here earlier i needed help on the stage and that is a strength, not a weakness. The other piece of that story in one of the chapters, whenever someone steps in it, i will say, it is important to have them save face. That felt a lot worse than i did. I sat in there longer than normal and i thought what am i going to do. I got to get out of here. What are the odds that he is sitting by me . I probably wont even see him again. So i come out, walking to my seat come in the aisle 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 already, so was mine. I walked up to him, leaned in and i said are you going to remember this as much as i am . And he goes, he laughs, he goes probably. However, i am sure he is not talking about it publicly like i am. But any time somebody does Something Like that or says something and i go into detail in one of the chapters about this because looking up how a different perspective turns obstacles into advantages is about elevating the viewpoints and value of others. We all have value. I have looked 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 and we are all dealing with challenges every day. You can see one of mine but it is not my only one. And so when you see people and they are not in the best of moods or whatever think about smiling or somehow making a gesture that gives them a positive feeling because 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 minor size one by the way. We can walk sidebyside each other which is finally important. To get to know people like this gentleman on the plane, we talked the rest of the flight. He was a sports person. So am i. We got to know each other. It started to break the ice. The most important thing for me from that plane ride was to make sure that he would talk to someone was different the next time, that he wouldnt shy away and look right past them. Nobody likes to be overlooked for whatever reason. It was so important for me that day to leave him with a positive moment. When the plane landed he got up and set i noticed when you sat down somebody lifted your suitcase up. I said i have that effect on people. I can look up. I am not going to catapult that thing in there. He said can i get it down to you . 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 and so when you try to influence people intimacy always works better than influence. When you start to break the ice, and get to know people and let your guard down you really come together with someone and start to look up to them and this is important because all my life people said you need to write a book. What about . About your life. We all have a life. We all have a story. I didnt think i was ready yet to write a book. And so as my life went on particularly as i started in caterpillar i started to notice a few things. I may have something to contribute but i am not ready yet. When i graduated college i interviewed a caterpillar princess and i got the job. This was 31 years ago. Handicapped people, not very many, they hired their smallest employee and on top of that a woman. I had a variety of jobs, it. I worked in marketing, art, etc. When i first went into marketing it was in the north american commercial division, the most important division in terms of sales the company at the time in the 80s. I remember walking down the aisle on each side, glancing at the managers. Halfway up there was a wall of glass. When i walked by they saw from here up, they saw the top of my head. That was it. Like my kindergarten days, i remembered the first day walking in and all they saw was the top of my head and i could hear people, what is that . Going right by the window and it happened in every office. They didnt know me. Like i said, getting to know people, intimacy works better than influence. Here i went along the offices. I shouldnt have giggled but i felt it was funny. They had no idea, one office after another and the more i went the more i giggled and 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, what information did they need . And feed that into it and get that information to them. It was me who had to make the first move as i talk about in my book, to go in to the white allamerican looking males which they were back then and introduce myself, they are going what do you want . I said i am here to help you. Really . And we started talking. And i went to all the managers and started realizing they all needed a similar type of recording and so i worked on that and not long after that all the recording came online and they started using it and i went back and asked how it was going and as they got familiar with it was going really well and then i remember the day i started walking back down and instead of the hustle and bustle figuring out who just walked by, it was michelle, come in. I came in and this is what i need now, this is great, okay. I couldnt go down the aisle anymore without getting called into every office because they saw value in what i was doing but they had to get to know me and what my value was and in the book i talk about dont we all have a 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 3 choices to make every day. One is we all have challenges and differences. Am i going to live on the fringe and hide in the world and just let it be there or am i going to try to fit into the world as it is today or embrace your differences or your challenges, treat them as assets, and realized they could be used to impact other people and we make that choice every day about whatever your challenge is and i have to do it too. My parents kicked me in the butt, we all have dinner parties but they cant last long. Nobody likes a pity party but you do get down once in a while and i completely understand that. To this day kathy and i are best friends. He has impacted so many peoples lives and it all started in 1979 in june when i met her and when you think about someone like that and a friendship that long there is Something Special variant kathy has looked up to so many people because she is a hospice nurse, a job i could not do but god bless her. When you think about the types of impact we have on each other that we can make that is very important. In the book i go on to highlight people i have looked up to like kathy and we all need people to hang around with and lean on when something really good happens or something not so good happens. I call it my Kitchen Table. You will probably go to something really bad happens, we used to have dinner every night, how was your day . When you are a kid the most important thing is johnny puked today and went all over went into detail, right . Other than that, how was your day . They tried to get at what did you learn today and so forth. My Kitchen Table was very important in my life because there are days i would get teased, got knocked down. When i got knocked down flat in the emergency room, you know, you dont always have to be right in the middle of the action and sometimes you go to the side and through the cloud because people cant see you. I didnt understand that. I kept walking in the middle. You know those things you hit and they bounced back up, that would be me. When you think about it, your Kitchen Table, one that is once you get your head around your opportunity or challenge, you expand out a little bit and tell more people and i call that my village. I have a tremendous village, just come here today i have people who helped me get here, fly here, get on the stage, helped me around yesterday and it changes, your Kitchen Table changes as your life changes. Maybe you havent talked to them in a decade and low and behold something happened, they reach out to you and it is like no time has passed. That is another piece of you have to ask for help. Here is one where i talked to my village about a great opportunity. I have been involved since master class in since i was a teenager and it is a passion of mine. My dad worked my sister still works in cad, the headquarters was in illinois. I knew i would have a great career working there. I had the first 23 years in and met a Product Managers Office out of the city and my boss sends me an email. It happens, now what happens . How often does your boss say either it happened or you have an opportunity. I go hey, leslie, what is up. What happened . I write in detail about this. Once somebody got it, it started in 1952, and they have the facility. It was a dream job. Talking to those folks, i always wanted that job. It was a highly visible job, so impactful which was the most important thing, she goes do you want to put in for it. I knew i couldnt do it by myself so i went home to my Kitchen Table. My sister