the public. we'll have the opportunity for questions and answers at the end of the talk. please come to the microphone at the center aisle to ask your question. michelle solomon is with us today, courtesy of jim and christina and robert and eileen. she recently retired as director of corporate social innovation and president of the caterpillar foundation. the 46th manufacturing giant caterpillar inc. in addition to her 30 year career holding various leadership positions at the company, she recently transformed the foundation into one of the world's most influential corporate foundations, its collaborative

impact platform known as together stronger. a catalyst for shared prosperity that unites businesses, nonprofits, government and citizens to combine their strength to alleviate poverty for millions of people worldwide. please give a warm welcome to michelle sullivan. [applause] >> thank you so much. thank you to savanna book festival for the fabulous event. my first time here, i absolutely love it. i'll definitely return. i also love the weather. when i left home yesterday, it was minus eight in illinois. i deeply appreciate the 60 some degrees weather today. [laughter] i also thank you for your time today.

take it home and treated like it's everybody else. that's advice that my parents said five decades ago. the day i was born. this is after he discovered i had a type of dwarfism which a few years later, they found out was a very rare type of dwarfism. i like to think my parents would have done that anyway, take me home and treat me like everybody else but the affirmation is always nice. you may not think that was a big deal but back in the 60s, people who were born with a disability were not treated like everybody else. to some extent, that is true today, unfortunately. the things that have definitely improved. i didn't know i was any different. until i went to kindergarten. my "big brother" had gone to school and i was ready.

my mom got me dropped off, i walked on the health like i owned the place, i went in the classroom and my teacher told me to go in a circle and play with the kids until class started. so i did that, i went over and plopped myself down and got right into it. it didn't take but a few minutes and the boy next to me, i remember like it was yesterday. he said in a very loud voice, hey, why are you so little? what is wrong with you? i didn't think he was talking to me so i kept on playing. it didn't take very long and the girl on the other side of me said, yeah, why are you so little? and i hooked up and i could see all of the other kids staring at me. i could feel the confidence go right out of me. i didn't understand why. have you ever had that feeling

of being overlooked or underestimated or not being included? most people have some time in their life. but my first time when i was five in kindergarten. i had no idea what just happened. as the day went on, i was outside the circle. both literally and figuratively. i wasn't included, i certainly wasn't fitting inside the circle so when i got into the car, my mom said how was it? i looked at her and eiko, is there something wrong with me? she's like, she paused. i've never had my mom pause hesitate so it kind of scared me. she goes well, we are all born different. so that's the way god made us and you will be smaller than most people but you are still going to be able to do whatever he want to do. maybe in a little different way,

no pun intended but you will be able to do whatever he want. of course, i had no idea what she was talking about. it didn't make me feel any better at the time. but as i went into first grade and then into the second grade, the kids, i was in the same class so they really kind of got over it. they got to know me and it didn't become an issue but when i go out in public, the stairs were always there. there came a time when i didn't want to go out at all. when i did, i hid behind my parents. i wanted to hide. i didn't understand what was happening. it was all because i was shorter and as we got older, the gap increased. so i came to second grade and the teacher introduced us and she used flash cards and somebody stood next to somebody's desk and whoever gave the answer first got to move to the next step. you can't, however one got to

keep moving. i come to realize i was good at math. i was great at math and i always won around the world. when you one, you got to take the bulletin board and put it outside the cage. of course i picked the draft, it's tall and had a neck, both of which i'm not. i put my little animal out on the outside because i won the game. it was the first time i started to realize what my parents were trying to tell me. there's really two kinds of growth. this is one of the first chapters in my book, looking up. we spent about the first 18 -- 20 years growing on the outside. for me, it was ten years. [laughter] then we spent three quarters of our life growing on the inside. because these kids started to

say, you know michelle, the one that's smart in math, on the other hand, you know michelle, that little girl. as the first time i noticed i was known for something other than my size. it was a great feeling. i never had that before. keep in mind, i only have that feeling as well. still, when i went on in public, it wasn't there. i started to realize i still am growing on the inside. you grow all your life. think about your emotional stability, emotions, relationship, psychology and all of these things that make who you are, continues to evolve the rest of your life. so then came third grade and it was a rainy day, so the teacher taught us chest. then we play a lot. guess what, i was great.

i would win tournaments. there it was again. i would go into the halls and i hated walking into the chest hall, a huge room, so many tables and when i would walk in, everybody was staring and i was like please god, just give me to my table and i climb up the table and i had to sit on my knees or i couldn't see. most of the time, mostly boys and they would stare at me and a lot of times i beat them in ten minutes because they were busy talking. but a win is a win. so then i get the trophy at the end and the first time it happened, a boy brought his mother over and eiko oh, what is he going to say.

i had my guard up. he goes mom, this is that girl i talk about. she one. she won the whole thing. a girl. this girl. [laughter] so once again, i was looked up to. so as life goes on, we learn the lessons and it didn't help a lot when i got in public, i still needed other tools and resources. my mom always told me i will start where you are, here's what you have, use what you have and do what you can. that's what we all do in life. we go at a different pace. then it came about time to deal with my orthopedic problems. my type of dwarfism has a lot of knee problems. i could say i was born with my check engine light on. that's how it is. so my parents took me around the country to find someone who could help with my dysplasia and

we learned why someone who happened to be the first little person i ever met. i never met another little person until i was 12. i thought i was the only one. keep in mind, this is before you had cable tv and 300 channels. so we went out to baltimore to meet the doctor who specialized in this dysplasia. along the way, he called us and in the first thing he started talking to me was about my personal self. all the other doctors i meant, because i do have a rare type of dwarfism and i'm sure they never saw another person like me who had that type of dwarfism and treated me more like a specimen. he asked about school and my personal life from all these things, i'm 12. i hadn't even thought of that myself yet. his point was, you're more than just your dysplasia.

i had a series of surgeries and the first time i went was in 1979, my first surgery was at 12, i remember very well. after the surgery, i had this nurse named kathy who was a student nurse. she is about seven years older than me. she was there the whole ten days that i was there and joyce came in and we really had a connection. i don't know what it was but she was so open and caring and she teased me a lot, which i loved. we had a lot of fun because it wasn't the most enjoyable environment but kathy made it enjoyable. i thought it was so cool that she was going to college and being a nurse. it was time to go home and she goes, give me a call when you come back in three months for physical therapy.

so it's time to come back and mom and i thought, should we call, shouldn't we call? my dad goes, call if you want. what have you got to lose? so we called and we didn't, cap because you are back in town and she came back. i stayed there for therapy and my parents had to go back home, it was kathy who took me out. she took me to her house and laid me on her kitchen counter, no kidding. she would do her homework and we would chat and i just thought she was the coolest person. she was my mentor. i looked up too her so much. there is also kathy who taught me that my parents had tried for years, you finally realize have to let your guard down for people to come in. i always have my guard up, even

today, you never know when someone is going to come up and say, you're always ready for anything. but she really taught me, you have to let your guard down and let people get to know you. so i do that, i did that through school and people really started to know who i am and what i was about more than my size. i had to be more than that. anytime you walk in the room, you understand the room and you think who can i talk to? right? who will be receptive to me? who looks more like something i would be interested in for whatever particular reason. would i want to talk to? people sometimes look right over me like i'm not even there. i understand that, it is a little awkward. so i've learned to make the first move. my parents joke with me that i was born with the gift of gab. i can't imagine pride they'd say that by was. i really use that to make the

first move and talk to people. then they get comfortable and you start chitchatting. goes along with that is a bit of humor. at the hotel for instance, if i needed to go to floor ten, i can only reach three. if somebody is in there, you go you know what, i really like to see all the views on ten, would you mind hitting the button and they are flapping and when that they came in handy, i travel quite a bit for my job so i was on an airplane and you know, make the calls once in a while so i get up and i go to the restroom and i asked the flight attendant, would you mind watching the door for me? sure, because i can't reach a lot. think about how i am, i'm for fetal. so i am doing my duty, waiting, the door flies open. it's a man.

what you say? i said hello. [laughter] i didn't know what to say. these are chapters in the book, things about the two types of growth, letting your guard down, making the first move in for me, 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. i needed help on the stage earlier and i am really restraint, is not a weakness. the other piece, but also important, whenever someone steps in, it's always important that you try to have them have faith. that man felt a lot worse than i

did. i sat in there a little longer than normal. [laughter] and i thought, what am i going to do? i've got to get out of here, right? 250 people on the plane, i probably won't even see him again. so i come out, i'm walking to my seat, i was on the isle 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 all red and so was mine. i walked up to him, i leaned in and i said, are you going to remember this as much as i am? [laughter] he goes, he laughs and he goes, probably. however, i'm sure he's not talking about it publicly like i am.

[laughter] but any time somebody does something like that or says something and i go into detail and one of the chapters about this because looking up is about elevating the viewpoints and value of others, we all have value and i look 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. we are all dealing with challenges every day, you can see one of mine but it's not my only one. when you see people and they may not be in the best of moods, or whatever, think about smiling or somehow making a gesture that gives them a positive feeling.

you don't 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 don't know. the book is about why you can't walk in my shoes, mine are size one by the way. [laughter] we can walk side-by-side each other which is really important. to get to know people, just like the gentleman on the plane, we talk the rest of the flight. he was a sports person, so and i. we really got to know each other and it started to break the ice. the most important thing for me from the plane ride, was to make sure that he would talk to someone who is different the next time. that he wouldn't shy away and never look at them or look right past them because nobody likes

to be overlooked for whatever reason. it was so important for me that day to leave him with a positive moment. so when the plane landed, he got up and said michelle, i notice when you sat down, somebody lifted your suitcase up. i said yeah, i have that effect on people. i'm not going to catapult that thing in there. [laughter] he said well, can i get it down for you? i said 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. so when you try to influence people, intimacy works better than influence. when you start to break that ice and you start to get to know people and that your guard down, you really come together with someone and move and you start to look up to them.

this is important because all my life, people said michelle, you need to write a book. unlike what about? i said we all have a life, we all have a story. i didn't think it was ready yet to write a book. so as my life went on particularly as i started at caterpillar, i started to notice a few things that you know, i may have something to contribute but i'm not ready yet. so when i graduated college, interviewed a caterpillar for instance and i got this job, this was 31 years ago. they hired the smallest employee. on top of that, a woman. i had a variety of jobs, i worked in marketing, product support, etc. when i first went into marketing, it was in the north american commercial division, which was the most important

division in terms of sales for the company at the time in the 80s, i remember walking around the aisle on each side, all glass windows, the managers, halfway up there was a wall and it was glass. when i walked by, first off, i'm here. they saw the top of my hip and that's it. like my kindergarten day, i remember this first day walking in there. all i saw all they saw was a top of my head. they would say what is that? i go right by the window. i happen to have that at every office. they didn't know me. like i said, getting to know people, and is was better than influence. i shouldn't have giggled but i thought it was funny. they had no idea and the more i

went, the more i giggled. 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 better. what information do they need? beat that into it to get that information to them. it was me who had to make the first move as i talked about in my book to go in to these white all-americans looking males, which they were back then and introduce myself and they got what you want? i said i'm here to help you. one of them said really? [laughter] and i said really. we started talking. i went to all the managers and started realizing they all needed the similar type of reporting. so i worked on that. not long after that, all the reporting came online they started using it.

i would go back and ask how it's going and as i got familiar with it, it was going really well. then i remember the day i started walking back down and instead of all of the hussle and bustle trying to figure who just walked by, it was michelle, come in. come in. then i come in info this is what i need now. this is great. i go okay. i can go down the aisle without getting called into the office because they saw value in what i was doing. but they had to get to know me and what my value was. in the book i talk about don't we all have that 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 choices to make every day.

one is, we all have challenges and differences, am i going to hide in the world and just let it be there? or my going to try and fit into the world as it is today? or embrace the differences or challenges, chasing the assets and realize they could be used to impact other people? we make that choice every day about whatever your challenge is. i have to do it, too. my parents kicked me in the butt when i needed it. we all have pity parties but they can't last long. nobody likes a pity party. you do get down once in a while and i completely understand that. to this day, kathy and i are best friends, she has impacted so many people's lives and it all started in 1979 in june when i met her.

when you think about someone like that in a friendship that long, there's something special there. kathy has looked up to so many people because she's now a hospice nurse. a job i could not do. god bless her. when you think about the type of impact we all have on each other and that we can make that's very important, and in the book, i go on to highlight people who i have looked up to in my life like kathy and we all need people to go around with and lean on when something really good happens and when something not so good happens and i call it my kitchen table. when something, and you are probably going to go with something really bad happens, don't you call a few people, it's like your kitchen table, used to have dinner every night

and mom and dad would go, how was your day? of course, when your kids, the most exciting thing is tony puked today. it went all over the floor. you go into detail, right? other than that, how was your day? [laughter] they were trying to get at, what did you learn today and so forth? so my kitchen table was very important in my life because there were days when i get teased, i got knocked down because i always wanted to be in the middle of everything. when i get knocked down flat, being in the emergency room, you don't always have to be right in the middle of the action and second, sometimes you have to go to the side and not walk straight through because people can't see you. i didn't understand that. i kept walking in the middle. it bounces back up and that

would be me. so when you think about it, who's your kitchen table? then once you get your head around whatever your opportunity or challenge is, they will expand out a little bit and i call that my village. i have a tremendous village. come here today, i had help me get here, fly here and help me get on the stage, help me around yesterday and your village changes and your kitchen table changes. comment go with friends and low and behold, something happens and you reach out and they reach out to you and it's like no time has passed. another piece we have to ask for

help. asking for help is a strength, not a weakness. so here's one for i had to talk to my village about a great opportunity. it involved non- for profits when i was a teenager and it's a passion of mine. ... >> and that the managers office out of the city, and my bosses send an e-mail and all he said was it happened. and i thought of crap, what happened. how often does your boss say, either happened or we have an opportunity for you. soy waited a while to call. that is in a leslie what's up. and she goes, michelle it happened. i said what happened.

the caterpillar foundation job came open. and i write in detail about this because one i couldn't believe it. once somebody got it, they kept it for a decade or two clearly. and it started in 1952, and you make investments all around the world with the partners we have a facility. it was my dream job. always find myself down there and talking those folks finding out what they are doing. i always wanted that job. as a highly visible job. so impactful which was the most important thing and she goes, do you want to put in for it. i knew i couldn't do it by myself. so i went home to talk to my kitchen table. my sister and my moment because

i knew would impact them. i got this job. i needed their help to make this work. and they said go for it. we've got you we've got your back. and my mom said, i want to see the work first. i get first dibs in all of your trips. [laughter]. and i said you got it. a bunch of people as you can imagine, my friend leslie on my behalf as i write on the book, write a note to the person hiring manager, and gave why she thought it would be great for the job. and so i was one of three people got interviewed. the hiring manager had to get it okay by the ceo. because they do represent caterpillar, the caterpillar foundation, the brand and everything. the hiring manager and the ceo,

given a choice. they knew my work. from the years before that, hanoi see my work because i work a lot of the areas that he did as he moved up. and he gave his blessing. i couldn't believe it. i could not believe it. so i called my mom and my sister and i said i can't believe it. and then it dawned on me. oh, when we going to do. i knew what i would do the job because i was prepared. people have always said, michelle we all have a way to make an impact in here is yours. so i got the job and is one of the best things that ever happened to me because it opened up my eyes to those living in poverty especially extreme poverty. and as i visited around the world, obviously for instance in

africa they normally don't see someone like me. not only little person but one here. for the scooter, so they would stand and pause. so what is interesting is when i would go visit schools, kids came running because they were thinking another person to play with. and we are seeing i die. and in the book i talk about how some people don't care what you look like. so many people know karen here these children who are as happy as could be in at the same aspirations that we all have here. i look up to them so much because they're going to go get it too. they know what they want. our investments are helping. they are growing on the inside as i talk about it. i miss betty was a farmer in

uganda and she wanted and needed money to help her farm a couple of factors in land. and, i mean, with a hope. it is all manual. she went to opportunity international, one of the profits we supported, got a small business loan. one or $200. and as i met with her and her little hunt, she said, i am doing this because i want my children to go to school, education is key. the exact same the my mom told us. my siblings and myself. education. they have the same aspirations as we have here. i look up to betty so much because there she is, day after day farming manually happy as can be, knowing that her children are going to be okay.

and it really struck me because it does not matter what you have, is how you think and what you perspective is. in the same thing when i met with the people who are living in poverty in the united states. a lot of them are mothers. and if you get the mothers and the girls educated in a way that they then support their families, the family gets out of poverty a lot of the times. and some girls and women became a key focus for us. our collaborative platform is to work with although not for profits. we all should work together to help each other and look up to each other. and it was altogether stronger and with a focus on girls and women, to break up the word together, it was together

stronger. some people said michelle, you work for caterpillar, your republican. i've been called a lot of things but. okay. and then other people are saying you work for the foundation. you're a democrat. all right. i said actually i am a collaborator. i think we should all collaborate together and i think we get a bigger bigger impact in that way. so it is funny how we have labels. i get put in a lot of them believe me. and yet at the end of the day i could do anything without other people helping me. i really look up to so many people. anything about making the first move and how the why make an impact on the world, how do i look up to other people. you have everything you need. it is on the heart and inside of you and take the time to really get to know people. a couple that i met, live in

chicago and they go into detail in the last chapter of the book is called the real measure of impact. and it talks about how they made the trip, they retired and they went on vacation and they ended up finding this piece of land in the school with the deacons lived a building where they lived and when they get this apartment because they wanted to start a school. for children with disabilities. they never had the money. they weren't asking me at the time and money. so they started thinking. they went back in the got the kitchen table together, their children, and it just kept gnawing at them. this might be something. and so they go on to raise enough money to open a school.

and it's called verizon school. enemies comfort and swahili. they have about a hundred students and i visited there. and at the time i can only usually spend a couple of hours at each partnership that we had but it's been a full day at the school. in six of the children were little people i noticed. and then others had cerebral policy another disability. so exciting to be there. the children, they live there full time and they get a great education phone, three meals a day computer labs and have everything they need. and we danced and had a great time and i talked to every single student what you think they wanted to be rid they wanted to be accountants and nurses and everything we wanted

area i looked up to them and i told them that i would revisit the school. they have named it xi. in that school is one of the highest performing schools in santa anita. now tell me that they don't look up to those children. children do not get the time of day their panel. there's so well performing that the government has taken notice. and now they make it so that businesses should hire people with disability because the school is highlighting how successful they are in the school. in the education. so think about them dropped a pebble with the school and how the ripples has gone out. and made a generational impact because they went on vacation

there. i wish i could've made such an impact that they have. and so when you think about your life and hope you've looked up to and whose looked up to you, rarely in life you do anything all by yourself. think about and reflect what you've done in life and have you been there alone. or has there been people behind you the hallway. and think about who you been behind and the successes you've made for other people. because it is quite exciting. and sometimes take a step back though. all of the signs my mom and dad tell me, michelle stoco right in the middle market in the middle of everything. think about what you're doing before you get into it. i remember i left because i think about all of these lessons might rent taught me.

i was in college one day and i will tell you all of the stories. i was late for class and i need to stop at the student center to grab a sandwich and go to the building behind there. there was a semi- when i got on my car it was right in front of the door. and to me some eyes really long. and i pondered for a moment, that is a long walk around. find the right idea, i was just going to cut under it. right down the middle. so i walked under it and then the engine started. i won't tell you what i thought. it was one of those omg moments. before we knew it was. i only have one speed. i walk. that is it. i did find another speed that

day. luckily, when you start a semi, it doesn't just take off like a car. the kind of lunges a little bit. and i hurried across, when i got through, the drivers hanging out the window. it is like, is looking at me. and i said thanks. and he's just looking. i can't imagine what he thought. so they go through life, i still remember those lessons that my parents taught me. i still ponder them because i want to make sure that i can be all i can be. but at the end of the day, the real impact is we all want to be seen for who we are and what we can be. the greatest gift i feel that you can give anybody is to not only see them for all they can

be but you also let them see in themselves but maybe they haven't seen there. and to me that is exciting. so many people done that for me. in a about that in the book and the people that i met with the foundation and the people i've met throughout my life but it helped. then i get to help them back now. what is interesting is in 2018, we saved the point of light reward. award. present hw bush started as about an award the first service of volunteering. no so well deserving because they totally change the attitude of the country. because of the school. not to mention impact they are having on those children and families. when i think about the main points of life, and also looking

up, to me it is like a lighthouse, overlooking the ocean. and it's like his moving. and it's not shining on itself, it is there to sign for others. it doesn't choose who is going to shine on. it sits and waits for whoever to cross its light or it's been right. it is there to protect, serve and to eliminate the path for others. and it sits and waits for something to pass through that beam of light. so for me, all of the people who have illuminated the path for me and how i've done my small part takes a lot of people, the foundation another people it partnered with, that we have a little bit of impact to illuminate the path for others.

so think about as you read the book, who has illuminated your path in his path can you eliminate and look up to them. keep looking up because of you is great. thank you. [applause]. you have any questions. thank you >> how did the book come about. did you start writing or did you are approached. thank you for that. especially after the foundation work, i started to figure out all of the people is a said left illuminated my path. how i see are so uplifting.

then i thought i had a story. i didn't want it to be just about me. it is important, the majority of the book is about others. and the impact that they have made and how they made that impact. and how you can make an impact in the world because the world is very divisive. or divided today. we need to come together. stop using labels for whatever the labels people give us. i truly believe that if we come together more, you have more of an impact on everybody. instead of being so divided. he used to be when i was a kid, we didn't always agree but we respected each other. today that is not the case if you don't approve me, utterly wrong in the subway to be. i think we need to be much more collaborative and compromising. the title looking up, obviously i look up but it also taught me

the greatest thing. to have an elevated view of others. i think we should all have that. we all have value. as you leave today, the new people around you. the view is great. keep looking up. thank you. [applause]. >> you don't know you're different until you took somebody tells you. [laughter]. experiences, she is in her 30s now, and she also experiences the time in public where the

stairs, and i experienced them with her. the stairs and they are just there in adults as well. it's just so intense. just one cringe for her as well. she is very vocal. she has worked up an outside of the home, she's the first of four through the school system and things like that. she has a huge group of friends. i have noticed when we are in public, i can see her kind of melt into the wheelchair. >> i feel the same sometimes. i will say it doesn't bother me near as much as it used to. but i will say that there are days where it gets to you a lot. and what you gonna do. you have a choice. he has tried to move past it.

i will someone is making it known that they are looking for making fun or something that i will go over and turn this myself. i will introduce myself. it is hard to think poorly of someone and they know a little bit about you. sign do tend to lean and more. but there are days where i will just walk away. during the days a few days i say words to myself. i don't reciprocate back to them because that will not do anything. my family feels the same way as you do for her. luckily, there's more people who are open to you, and remember you can see our differences. we all have challenges. the same people are challenged every day where we don't know exactly what it is or what is wrong, what is bothering them or

what they are dealing with. so we need to be patient and open. and help them if we can. maybe of knowledge them that they may be having a bad day but don't think poorly of them. and don't judge them. because we don't know what happened. yet to recognize that in other people as well. it is difficult. i agree. thank you for your time today.