Transcriber: Melissa Csikszentmihályi Reviewer: Denise RQ
Hi. I have to say that there is one thing missing and that's I'm not Harry Potter.
(Laughter)
I'm so sorry if the glasses disrupt you but I'm not Harry Potter.
And I'm not British, also. My father is Indian, so that is kind of different.
(Applause)
Well, Indian or not, I am going to talk to you today about the worst catastrophe in life.
And you don't have to be scared.
I'm not going to talk about splitting up with my girlfriend,
It's not that bad.
I think the worst catastrophe in life is not whether your aunty dies
or whether you split up with your girlfriend or not.
I think it's whether you pursue the dream which is in your heart or not.
Because, as Chris said in his speech, if your aunty dies or if you slip up
with your girlfriend, that's just what life is, and you shouldn't be scared of it.
And those things [should] not let take away the happiness from your heart.
So what I really think is the worst catastrophe in life is whether you pursue your dream or not.
And now don't tell me that you don't have a dream,
because every human being has a dream inside of itself.
And when Martin Luther King [Jr.] says, "I have a dream",
I say, "So what?" I couldn't care less. Everybody has a dream.
The question is do you pursue it or not?
So the question is,
Why do still so many human beings fail in realizing their dreams?
It's something really essential.
Why do they fail in realizing their dream and making their lives fulfilled and happy?
And now you might think it's because they don't really believe in their dream.
Or because they are scared of failing
or because they don't want to be outsiders because they are scared to be outsiders.
But unfortunately all of this is wrong.
Because if you really believe in your dream you are not scared of failing.
And as soon as you start realizing your dream, you are also going to realize
that you are not an outsider when you try to realize your dream and change this world.
Just think of John Lennon singing, "I might be a dreamer but I'm not the only one".
That proves that it has to be wrong.
And so, I personally believe that a lot of people don't start realizing their dreams,
or are scared of realizing their dreams because they don't know the necessary steps.
And also, because they don't know that empowering dreams
is what is going to empower future and it's going to empower society.
And by empowering I also mean disrupting.
It lies in the power of everybody to make the future more disrupted
and to empower future.
It's not about the circumstances,
it's about what's in our hearts and whether we have to encourage to pursue that.
Let me tell you something about how I think future is going to be.
I personally like to call the i3 which are the last 3 Ages humanity went through.
And that's the Industrial Age, the Information Age,
and the Age that's just about to come, and that's the Ideas Age.
And in the Industrial Age, obviously, the person who had the biggest factories
and the lowest production costs, was the one who succeeded.
Then in the Information Age, the person who had the quickest access
to information and was able to use information the quickest way, was the person who succeeded.
The age we are now entering,
the person with the greatest idea, the greatest dream is the one who is going to succeed.
Also interesting is that every age, the Industrial Age, the Information Age and the Ideas Age
prepared kind of the next age.
So if the Industrial Age hadn't been, computers wouldn't've been affordable to everybody.
And if computers wouldn't have been affordable to everybody,
there wouldn't have been such thing as the Information Age.
And without everybody having a computer, there would be no point in having the Internet,
and the Internet turns out to be the most important tool of the Ideas Age.
So that's something really interesting to think about.
Anyway, how do we get to the Ideas Age?
How does everybody of ourselves get into this Modern Age of ideas?
That's what I like to call the H3.
The H3 is the path which every dreamer, every idea which you try to realize has to take.
This means from the head to the heart, from the heart to the hand.
A lot of people tried to realize their dreams by simply going from the head to the hand.
This is not gonna work out because if your heart isn't really behind the thing,
the dream, the vision, the modern art, the whatever you are trying to pursue,
it's not gonna succeed.
Just think about it like an airplane,
which is standing on the runway, but doesn't have any fuel,
it's never going to take off.
And even if it does take off, it will not have the necessary energy
to overcome turbulences which are really going to be there.
Don't question turbulences on your way when you are trying to realize your dream,
They are going to be there.
So, before you even think about realizing your dream,
think about yourself and think about your heart,
and if this dream is in your heart, and more important, if your heart carries
the correct general attitude.
Just three quick points about the general attitude,
which I think, every disrupting human being should carry.
This is, first of all realizing that the power to realize your dream
lies within you and nowhere else.
Second of all, seeing the glass always half-full and not half-empty,
because, whether you see the glass half-full or half-empty,
is going to decide whether your glass gets filled or emptied.
And third of all, believe in the power of your dream and not only in the dream itself.
That might sound awkward, but only if you can project
the power of your dream to others, that's what is gonna make them believe in your dream.
If others don't see, if you can't make the power of your dream obvious
to other people who surround you, they are not going to believe in your dream.
Even if your dream is the most beautiful dream ever, for example world peace.
And then if your heart gets the correct general attitude
but you still don't really have a dream, you should probably start asking the right questions.
Asking the right questions does include
what I call asking the creative questions.
So not 'Why?' but 'Why not?'
Ricardo said so much which I wanted to say in my speech!
It's amazing.
Weird, like he's a nice guy. Anyway --
You shouldn't be asking why, but why not.
A usual person would ask 'Why should we change education system?
Why should I think outsde the box?' Does it hurt?
And a dreamer should be asking 'Why not?'
What hinders us from changing education system and making it twenty-first centurieth?
Nothing does.
Also, a dreamer doesn't ask what is there but what could be there?
So, not 'What?' but 'What if?'
Think about when a usual person might ask 'Is there curing for cancer?',
the dreamer ask 'What if there was a curing for cancer?'
And then the third question, which is probably, the most important question,
is 'How'.
How are you going to realize the dream which you found out,
which you maybe found out through the first two questions which I brought to you.
This is the path, this is the beginning of planning the path
which you are going to take for realizing your dream.
So, for finding self-fulfillment.
When you've found your dream, you should start developing it
because, as Hassan said,
any dream, any idea is nice, but if the idea doesn't develop,
it's not going to exist for very long.
Especially in the Age of Ideas and Information, where everything changes so quickly,
and where the game is reset like every single second. At least in our minds.
Next thing would be planning, so start planning how to realize your dream.
Planning, in my opinion, is really important.
So, a lot of people say
if you have a dream, just start acting.
Act right away, there is nothing which can go wrong.
That's not correct, I think, because, as Randy Pausch once said,
luck is preparation plus opportunity.
So if you are not prepared, there won't be a lot of luck
for your dream to be realized.
And luck is one of the most important thing in order to realize anything.
And the next step would be to share your dream with others
and to let them give you input.
So of course you should be very careful with whom you share your idea,
because unfortunately ideas get stolen.
And I think everybody knows that ideas are something very valuable
and that they get gtolen very easily.
But if you share your idea with the correct people, it can really, really help you on developing your plan,
because, if you, for example, share your idea with people
who have realized their ideas and their dreams already,
they can really, really help you with realizing your own dream.
And they can also change something in your mind.
Namely that you're not an outsider, but that you're at the very inside
of what human beings would like to be.
Namely creative.
After that, there's not very much left before you can start to act.
In my opinion, it's only paying attention to the small things.
Because when you start acting, as I said, there's always going to be turbulences.
But if you take care of the details before you start acting,
then, as soon as you start acting, there is nothing to be scared of,
because you have the right back-up plan for the things which could go wrong.
So don't be scared anymore.
That's what paying attention to the small things is important for.
After that, there is really nothing more to say.
If the dream is in your heart, and you have planned it well,
and you really feel like realizing it, there's nothing more to say than act!
Just do it!
If you start acting, things are going to work for your way.
Especially if your heart is behind the whole thing.
Acting will bring much more to you and to the world than only self fulfillment.
Whether we act in today's world on our dreams and our visions,
how to disrupt the future,
it is going to decide what our future is going to look like,
and whether our future is going to be empowered and disrupted or not.
Thanks.
(Applause)