Industry Magazine Get JACK'D Magazine Spring 2017 | Page 16

About TED: A Tale Of Empowerment Teachings from David Emerald, Author of The Power Of TED “In his own example of despair, Emerald was able to realize that he had been living his life through the eyes of a victim, wondering why everything bad had happened to him.“ SPRING SPRING 2017 2017 IT WAS time to make the call this writer had been dreading. Not because my friend wasn’t knowledgeable about the topic at hand—the preferred destination of a daughter’s college trip abroad— but because she was so good at playing the victim. And after so many years of playing the rescuer, I knew the friendship had become difficult to sustain. Let’s call my friend Vicki, as in Vicki-the-Victim. “Hi Vicki,” I started. “How are things going?” I asked innocently enough. “Just trying to survive,” she responded wearily. It was the same old story about the same old difficulties. Vicki had immigrated to the United States in her early twenties, leaving behind the country soon to be the destination of my daughter’s trip. For years—decades really—Vicki had claimed to be unable to get a job because of her foreign accent and inability to speak English fluently, and as a result, was living in near poverty and struggling. Vicki began her tale of woe once again, and I listened patiently and volunteered my well-worn advice—take an English class, move to a less expensive home, accept a position she thought was beneath her—before finally asking Vicki which city she’d recommend for my daughter’s stay in her home country. 16