Tails of Devotion | Emily Scott Pottruck | Talks at Google

Good afternoon, I'm Karen Wickrey and I'm here to happily introduce Emily Scott Patrick, who perhaps is an inspiration to us all because she has followed her passion to this point of this book and her work around pet and pets and pet rescue. And this is after a career in Wall street and an MBA and a few other things. So may it serve to inspire us in everything we do. The book is obviously available and at the end of the talk and Q and A, we'll migrate back to the corner so she can sign books and complete the sales transaction. Since 100% of the sales, not the profits of this book, goes to the Humane Society, Silicon Valley, Santa Clara. So please welcome Emily.

Thank you. So everyone can hear me. So since it's after lunch and you're a little sleepy, we're going to do a quick pop quiz. Since we were just talking about how I'm going to, you know, I would gain the freshman 15 if I worked here. So now I'm thinking in college mode. So who here has a pet? Okay, very good. This is what I like about talking about this book. I meet like minded people. So I want you to close your eyes just for a quick second. I promise I'm not going to make you do a chicken or anything like that. Close your eyes and I want you to think about your pet. Experience, memory, whatever.

Think.

Okay. Open your eye. Eyes. So I want you to know that I've now done this about 40 times. I've asked people, you know, close your eyes and make your pet. Here's what happens. The immediate reaction, people smile. So think about that from a standpoint of other relationships that you have and if you always think about those relationships and if your immediate conclusion is smile. My husband hates when I bring that up because I said, well, I don't always smile when I think about you. But so one of the things that I really like about talking about this book is that I generally find that, that we already start on some common ground. We all have pets and we're all happy that we have pets. In particular, being here with Google, what I like is that in a little bit this book is bucking convention. Well, Google is all about bucking convention. So it's really nice to be able to start out with an organization that again has like minded ability. Now can you all see this? Okay, I don't know from the lighting standpoint if it'll work because, because you'll see a bunch of photos from the book. You know, it's interesting because one of the things on the Google website is you talk about you're uniting the world with information. Well, one of the things that I have found with this book is that our pets are uniting us. I say that our pets are uniters, not dividers. And in fact, I've opened up the business proposition of this book and we'll talk about it in a little bit of to Any legitimate animal welfare nonprofit can take advantage of using this book for their fundraising and receive 100% of whatever books that they sell. So especially now that we're talking about elections, I have to tell you, I'm in 13 states now. Obviously there are red and blue states in that 13 number. And we don't talk about it. We don't talk about our ideological differences or what sets us apart. We talk about our compassion. We talk about our collaboration. We talk about our connection. It's a very interesting thing. And you heard it here. This is going to be a huge Trend. There are 360 million pets in the U.S. 63% of American households have a pet. So once we start doing more collaboration, you are going to start seeing the trend of no longer will you hear crazy cat lady or crazy dog lady. This is going to become a far more accepted, an important factor of our society. Or at least that's what I believe. Okay, so you're going to listen to an unusual story about what can happen when you combine your skills with your passion. And hopefully after hearing this story, you're going to walk away reinvigorated about what is possible and what you can do in your own lives. Because some of what I'm doing with my book, Tales of Devotion, a look at the bond between people and their pets, isn't much different than what you're doing here in your job at Google. You're trying to change the world through hard work and smarts. But the difference is that I'm not destroying old and then creating new paradigms in the tech business. In fact, I am the old paradigm. I am officially a dinosaur in this arena. But I have been creating some carnage in the publishing field and was not my intention. For those of you who want to write a book, come see me because my next book will be so why on earth would you possibly want to self publish? It has been quite entertaining and we can always have that conversation. So I have a corporate marketing background. I have an MBA from Cornell. You heard I worked on Wall Street. Nothing in my background prepared me for what I was getting myself into because I really thought that creating a unique book and then wanting to donate all proceeds to charity would be a non event. Which leads me to, of course, my next book. You'd think it would be easier to give money away. But I do have a journey of discovery. And my hope is that you'll find, like I found, that you can make a difference in the world without creating the next best thing and without winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Because my story is about passion and personal choice. And it's about the importance of giving yourself the opportunity, the opportunity to pursue opportunities that you might not have thought about. And it's about the sort of inspiration that comes from the heart, and it returns more than you can ever expect to give. And it's about being inspired to go way beyond your comfort zone, to do something for a world you care deeply about. And we were talking earlier, why would anybody care about this? Because inspiration, following your passion, hard work, are universal principles that produce greatness, like you've done here at Google. And it will give you the satisfaction of leading a life well lived. I'm sorry, I must be allergic to my dogs. And if you haven't met Angie and Boomer yet, stay after and you will meet them. And if you have doggy treats, they'll love you forever. My hope is that my journey, which truly has brought out the best in humans through their bond with their animals, might bring out the best in you in unexpected ways. Perhaps it will generate an idea or an action that you might not have thought about. And I really appreciate the fact that right now you're immersed in a great job, you have family, you have a gazillion other commitments. But there will come a time in your life that you're going to be ready for something and you're going to find that inspiration and you're going to make that choice. And the ripple effect of that is going to be incredible and far more reaching than you could ever have thought. That's been my experience. We were talking about again earlier with Debbie about Google's list of 10 things Google has found to be true. So first on that list, as you know, and you could probably say it with me, focus on the user, and all else will follow. Well, this project taught me that first on my personal list is focus on your passion, and all else will follow. So that's what I did. That's how I ended up writing and publishing Tales of devotion. So 100% of the proceeds are donated to nonprofit animal welfare nonprofits. And I actually go on to say animal and human welfare nonprofits. And I'll explain that later on. And it's important to know, because that was really the biggest part of this mission. And to date, we've given $140,000 away in books and in dollars. But Tales of Devotion is the middle of the story. I don't know what the end is. So let me just give you a little bit of the first chapters and then we can move on. So I was taught early to give back. I was five years old. I had a Barbie doll. I didn't play with her, I'd rather played in the dirt. And my mother said, well, you need to give her to somebody, some little girl that would want to play with her. And that really became the mantra for my life as a young adult. I occasionally volunteered and I wrote some small checks, but honestly, I never really stuck with anything. And then I turned 41 and I decided I needed to go completely out of my comfort zone. So I got on a bike and did the San Francisco LA AIDS ride. Anybody here do that ride? Okay, 587 miles on a bike seat. My last real bike was a pink Lady Schwinn with a bell in a basket. We had a kickstand and if you wanted to stop, you did the wheels backwards. But I trained. I covered about 3,000 training miles because I was terrified of being in the middle of California and not able to move. I completed the ride and at the time I raised more money than anybody had in the history of the AIDS ride. And this was far tougher than writing a check. And I think it set the foundation for what was to happen. Seven years later, in 1997, I adopted Andy. My first born Yorkshire terrier. He's the one reading why Dogs Think. My other baby boomer who's on the pillow doesn't play a big role in the story, but he is very well loved and as I said, you will see him later. To prove that point, in the winter of 2000, Andy was brutally attacked by a hundred pound husky. You see Andy in this photo, you'll see him later. He's five and a half pounds. And our vet told us he thought Andy's injuries were fatal. But he made the choice. He made the personal choice to leave the door open to the possibility that he was wrong. And so rather than fill the needle with the drug that would put Andy down, he made a phone call to a specialist. That specialist, who had never met us, made the personal choice to delay his family vacation for a day so he could operate on Andy. From there, these random acts of kindness mushroomed by these generous acts of kindness. I posted an account of Andy's accident on a Yorkie chapboard. Dogster wasn't around at that point I was completely floored by the emails I received from around the world. As I say in the book, virtual strangers in a virtual community sharing their comfort, their sympathy and support. The choices made by these people to reach out truly amazed me and I started paying attention to the unique capacity that relationships with pets can inspire and not just person to animal, but person to person. It turns out that our pets connect us in a way that nothing else seemed to. And it was the first time in my jaded east coast life that when somebody said I know how you feel, rather than say no, you can't in a typical sarcastic tone of voice with the face to match, I did respond with a you really do understand. And it was an eye opening, take your breath away experience. These random acts of kindness were beginning of an awakening in me to take this love I have for animals and make it mean something. My husband and I began returning the kindness shown to us by the various vets. Truly life saving actions for Andy and for me by donating to the three medical facilities that saved Andy. The funds we gave were used to provide care for pets whose guardians couldn't afford it because I never ever want anybody to have to decide what to do with their animal because of a financial question. But I didn't feel like writing checks was enough. And checks don't tell stories. I didn't want to just donate to pets and their guardians. I wanted to communicate. I wanted to honor and I wanted to share. I wanted to celebrate the importance of the relationship people have with their pets and how we relate to one another through our pets. And so the idea of this book began to emerge. Now why are you thinking, is it so particular to talk about this relationship? We have boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, parents, co workers, bosses, the list goes on. But one distinction is that when you think of your relationship with your pet, it is truly without conflict or angst. As I say often, my dogs have never complained about my tone or my attitude. The relationship is pure fidelity and it's unconditional love that is worth considering. It is this devotion of animals to their guardians and guardians to their pets that my book is about. It transcends time, culture, family structure and status. And interestingly, the project may not have happened if I did not follow a truth that I hold near and dear. Come to the conversation. Curious. You know, number seven on your list. There's always more information out there follows that same logical thought. There just is always more to know. So it helped create the premise of this book. Come to the conversation curious because I asked each family the following question. If you and your pet could communicate by paper, what would you say to each other? And what I learned is that no matter what the pet dog, lizard, cat, bird or bunny, the passion of the connection is all the same. This was an aha moment for me. I didn't think that somebody could enjoy their lizard the way I enjoyed a fuzzy little six pound dog. Was I wrong? Pets provide a certain unique solace. And in this sometimes not so very nice world, that is absolutely something to pay attention to. So you've seen some of the photos already from Tales of Devotion. I'm going to take you on a tour of some additional pages to give you a flavor of the devotion for pets and their guardians. And remember, the letters answer the question. If you and your pet could communicate by paper, what would you say to each other? So some people in the book wrote letters, poems, songs to their pets and some created cartoons. So dog, dog guardian, dog guardians. Who? Dog guardians. So can you all see this? So you know, typical, you go to sleep, you're all sharing and the dogs start controlling the world. And by the morning the people are on the floor. Anybody can relate to that. Yeah, some pets wrote to their families and some wrote back and forth to each other. Mayor Jerry Brown, hopefully soon to be Attorney General, chose to submit a letter from his black lab, Dharma, AKA Fido, first dog of Oakland, who accompanies the Oakland mayor to his office. It in part reads and do remember, this is Dharma speaking. I understand there have been complaints about my snoring and barking during meetings. While I feel there is some justification for my actions, those meetings are boring and wouldn't we have far more fun playing fetch? I will try to curb this behavior in the future. Robin Williams also graciously agreed to be in the book. He was home for one day in between shoots. But Lacey Atkins was able to capture the essence of this very non pretentious family. And I've been asked why include celebrities? And in our celebrity driven world, I have a very easy marketing answer. Celebrities draw attention and boost awareness. And in this case, I wanted to do both for the world of animal welfare. The day after Robin's shoot, we went to the outskirts of Bayview Hunters Point in San Francisco. This is Elizabeth Drury, a homeless woman who at the time was living in an abandoned trailer in a junkyard. She arrived for the photo shoot with a huge gouge in her leg because she had broken up a dog fight. The Night before hero Her German shepherd was, to say the least, not enamored with us. He is very protective of Elizabeth for obvious reasons and in fact I have to say that Lacey and I were somewhat frightened as Elizabeth held back this dog by only his collar, 90 pound, all muscle. But you don't see his fierceness and protectiveness of Elizabeth. What does come through is the connection. Connection between these two souls who are otherwise disconnected from the rest of the world. And I have to tell you that most of the families agonized over what to write in this note. You would have thought that I had asked them to come up with a great American novel. I mean, I can't tell you 2:00 clock AM emails. I mean it was. I had no idea. But Elizabeth, in the moment in the backseat of my car wrote the are my heartbeat, you are my blessing daily. The essence of devotion. You keep hope alive within me while all about me is rust and crumble. Trusting, strong and true. You are my hero gets me every time. Elizabeth may live a life that few of us can imagine, but we are right there with her in her devotion to her pet. That love, that constancy is the common ground we as pet lovers share regardless of our circumstances. And some of us could truly not function independently without our pets. And in fact this interdependence is something that comes through each page of the book. And I really forgot this important point until I received a negative review on Amazon by someone who said enough about pets. People need our help. Several people responded and I might add people I don't know was not my friends responding to tell him how wrong he was to think that this is just about animals. And in fact this book is all about human and animal welfare nonprofit and I now make that case so I'm thankful for that review. So you've all heard of guide dogs for the blind. There are also dogs trained to help people with hearing impairments. This is Arnold. Arnold is a toy poodle who was rescued from a Fresno shelter and in fact about 50% of the animals and Tales of Devotion are rescued from a shelter. Arnold was trained by the San Francisco Hearing Dog Program and his guardians write, you will be our ears. What a difference Arnold has made in their lives. And I am sure that their response to the Amazonian reviewer would be this is not just about animals. But this is not this book. Tales of Devotion is not limited to the relationship people have with only dogs. We have a variety of animals in the book. Oscar the Bunny. This is Mark Bittner, Wild parrot of Telegraph Hill an incredible man. Absolutely. If you've not read the book or seen the dvd, it is spectacular. And I will tell you to be on the porch and have this swooping of wild animals come right down on his head, on his arm. It was absolutely watching Mother Nature at its best. And for the cat lovers in the room, we have lots of cats. And of course we had to include the menagerie. So you do know the old Hollywood expression, never work with dogs or children, right? Well, this book is full of both. And I will tell you, it does have its challenges, no question, sometimes for the dog as well as for me. But it does also have benefits. It reminded me of the openness of children and what the early teaching of compassion can create and how silly adult fear can sometimes be. I want you to know this was a really big thing for me. I'm so terrified of snakes and I vowed that I would touch every single animal in my book. And I wasn't going to have a snake in the book, so I wouldn't have to touch one. But going outside your comfort zone was important. It's all of these pets that have made a difference in the lives of all of the people who care for them. And I'm really gratified that the book has made a difference as well. One reader told me it is like reading a page from a diary. People I don't know have sent in reviews to Amazon and posted on blogs. One in particular struck me. It was from a mother who said that she reads one page from the book every night to her daughter to teach her daughter compassion. And we've now said this word a couple of times. Compassion. It's a word that has many meanings to those involved with animals. There are amazingly compassionate people who devote themselves to the non profit animal organizations. And honestly, I don't have the emotional fortitude to do what they do on a daily basis. That's why I chose to give every penny from every book to these people, because their time and this money will become an effective collaboration. So in addition to believing and coming to the conversation curious, I do also firmly believe in Jim Collins, who is the author of Good to Great and Built to Last when he writes the Brilliance of the and A N D versus the Tyranny of the or. So it was really important to me to get others to feel any animal family to be part of the book. But how do you do this without creating a tome and a book that nobody could carry? I told you, there's 64 million households out there. That is a very big book and it would take a very long time to create. So I created which is very hard to see on here, I know, but I created a two page spread for the 59th family. So now any family with a pet can include their note and photos to be part of Tales of Devotion. Because here's what's nice about the animal community. It is inclusive and it encourages more to participate. The brilliance of the and after the book was printed, I had another aha and moment. So why limit the funding from this book to only five organizations? So I changed the business proposition to include other worthy nonprofits. Any of them can apply to receive Tales of Devotion for their own fundraising. I don't take anything from them. As Googlers, you have chose the Humane Society of Silicon Valley to receive every penny from your purchase of books. Congratulations to you for doing this and may other organizations follow your path. So those are the reasons why I wrote the book. To thank those who came to Andy's aid and mine as well. To fund human and animal welfare nonprofits to help them continue their needed work. To honor the remarkable relationship between humans and animals and to show through pictures and letters the very special connection between pets and their people. What I really learned from this experience is that I had much more power in my life than I ever imagined. Oh, I have to pause and just tell you that that's Guido who is looking at you with those doe eyes. He is an Italian greyhound. He was rescued. He was going to be used as bait for pit bull. You know, to teach pit bulls how to fight. And I'm madly in love with Guido and I can't let Andy and Boomer know that, but I actually have visitation rights. Going back to prepared remarks, I've learned about the power of choice and how my deliberate choice and the deliberate choices of others profoundly affect the future course of a life in ways we can barely imagine. I learned about the power of random acts of kindness. We hear about it all the time, but were literally small acts of kindness by people who probably don't even remember what they did. Literally changed my life. And I learned I had the power to embrace inspiration and to make my life bigger. And let me tell you, you have the same opportunity. You've all heard the phrase, individuals can change the world. I don't know how many of us truly believe that. And I'll bet everyone in this room believes the world should be a better place. And given the fact that you're Googlers, you have, I'm sure, some idea of how to do that. For me, I somehow found inspiration in my experience with Andy and I have learned that sharing this story has made a difference and it's made my life bigger. No, it's not Nobel Prize winning and no, it's not the next big thing, but I have interacted and found common ground with people I would never in a million years have discovered. I've learned more. I've helped network people. This book is all about the greater good because after all, I, like you, seek worthiness in my life. I want to be inspired. And it doesn't come from just being in love and it doesn't come from just making a lot of money. It comes from truly the most unexpected sources. Andy was my unexpected source. Had he not come into my life, had he not been injured, had I not found a vet willing to take a chance on a horribly maimed dog, had all those and other things not happened, I would not have had the inspiration to pursue more and I wouldn't have the pleasure of being here with you and thanking you for having me and discussing tales of devotion. Thank you so much.