Author Joshua Berry talked about his book, “Dare to Be Naive,” and life lessons with students to spark opportunities to consider making positive life changes.
Berry is a public speaker, entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of Econic, which is an innovation, transformation and strategy consulting group. Berry was the speaker for the online event: “Find Your True Self in a Noisy World,” which was organized by the Ferris State Alumni Association taking place on Wednesday, August 14.
The presentation involved live polls that allowed participation from the audience, visuals that demonstrated real-life situations, as well as questions and prompts that encouraged the audience to think about those scenarios. Berry also shared stories from his background, including his upbringing, how he was able to write his book and additional ways he expresses himself.
There were bolded words used throughout the webinar to express the importance and they were curiosity, trust, authenticity, optimism and naive. According to Berry, those words can be important for people to think about, especially for freshmen and new students because of how frightening life as a college student may seem.
“Those first days on campus, especially for first-year students, they can show up thinking they already know, everything closed and defensive, and it’s all about proving yourself to others,” Berry said. “And that’s a natural stance that your ego wants to do right, to be able to protect yourself, and to fit in. Understanding those words, new students could almost be taken back to a similar idea of a beginner’s mindset.”
In the example of students coming to campus for the first time, Berry said that curious is the word that best represents incoming students and freshmen because entering a new circumstance like college ultimately ends up establishing a new chapter of their life, leading to curiosity.
Ben Withey, the Assistant Director of Alumni Relations, saw that Berry broke the word down into multiple layers to prove his points.
“Berry leans a little more into the definition that reads, ‘natural and unaffected; innocent,” Withey said. “The most important lesson Ferris State students can learn from the presentation and Joshua Berry’s work is that we all sometimes make limiting assumptions based on our previous experiences. What we gain from ‘Dare to Be Naive’ is a reminder that not every encounter will be the same, and sometimes we have to question our own beliefs.”
During the webinar, Berry used prompts within the slides to further explain his points to bring more of a visual appeal to the audience. One of the visuals showcased was the action/belief cycle. The cycle shown on the webinar demonstrated that one person’s beliefs can impact their actions and that the beliefs of others impact their actions. Berry described the cycle as either being virtuous or vicious, meaning that it can show high moral standards or a situation or a condition that endlessly repeats itself.
Frederick Coleman, one of the organizers of the event, found the slides about the belief cycle to stand out to him the most because of how important the cycle is for freshmen and new students to take into consideration.
“One of the important pieces Joshua brought up was the action/belief cycle,” Coleman said. “Our actions influence others’ beliefs which influence their actions which influence our beliefs. That can be a positive and negative thing in so many ways, which makes it important to think about our own actions and beliefs, as well as consequences that may surround them.”
The webinar can be viewed on YouTube, while the Alumni Association will continue its series of webinars throughout the year.