For anyone who doesn’t take advantage of the University of Arkansas distinguished lecture series, you’re missing out. In the past, they’ve brought in Abby Wambach, Daymond John, Bill Nye, Condoleezza Rice, Apollo 13 Astronauts, and the list of incredible people goes on and on. Last Monday night I got the pleasure of listening to Brandon Stanton tell the story of his life and of how Humans of New York (HONY) came to be. For those who have only heard of HONY and not gone on the website and read a few, you’re missing out.
Stanton gets the gritty details of random people’s lives while only knowing them for a few hours. He explained that when he interviews, he asks tough questions from the very beginning. That was something I didn’t expect. I don’t know how I thought he got to know people so quickly, but I didn’t think it was by starting off with questions like “What is your greatest struggle right now?” or “What do you feel the most guilty about?” He explained that he usually spends an hour to an hour and a half with most people, sometimes more and sometimes less, but he follows these tough questions up with things even harder. Things like “Tell me exactly how you felt in that moment.” It is no wonder that he gets such detailed stories out of people when he asks things like that, but what amazes me is how he gets people to open up so quickly. He seems like a genuinely nice guy, and he credits a lot of people opening up to him to the positive and accepting atmosphere of the HONY Facebook community. He pointed out that there is nowhere else online where the first twenty comments on the post are all lifting that person up.
The page itself is fascinating, but his story is too. He explained that he had been working as a bond trader in Chicago and was obsessed with the thought that he could lose his job. He felt that the job was a great accomplishment in his life and something to be proud of. His worst fear was being fired, and it happened. That is when he moved to New York with nothing and finally started chasing his dreams. He described how he had always viewed himself as artistic, but he wanted to make money first, and how that is an idea a lot of us probably have, but it’s wrong. His new plan was to make just enough money to be able to control his time and do what he wanted with it, which I think is an interesting view. He decided to view time as a resource and value it more than money, so he went out and started photographing strangers to create his blog. His idea evolved into the Humans of New York page that we love today. A page that tells stories of people we will likely never meet, but we see the faces in his photos and it becomes real and we find connections in our own lives.
Brandon Stanton was an incredible speaker to come talk to us, because he taught that although you might feel like you have something you never want to lose, losing it could be the turning point into the best part of your life. If he had never lost his job in Chicago, he may never have been able to pursue his dreams, and Humans of New York may never have become what it is today.
