Translator: Translate TED Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
I want to start by telling you that I'm one of those people
who starts a lot of projects, who always has the initiative,
and ends up quitting everything.
After that, everybody criticizes you.
That you leave everybody behind, that you forget about your friends.
I'm one of those people.
So excuse me if I do it.
I want to explain two very short stories.
The first one takes place when I was 8.
When I was given my first pet.
What an issue!
Usually kids at that age get dogs,
cats, hamsters, Guinea pigs, dinosaurs, anything.
But all those things move.
The thing is I wasn't given an animal.
I got this.
I really had no idea about it.
Did it move?
Yes, it moved.
It was a carnivorous plant.
I got a flycatcher Venus.
But I didn't actually know anything about this plant.
That's why, in fact, it ended up dying.
It died... it died.
And as a little kid, I cried.
And well, it passed me by.
My second story takes place when I was 16.
My life got marked by that time.
That's why I think I'm here speaking to you because of this.
At 16 I had a pretty strong experience.
I still get nervous when I think about it.
The thing is I went through surgery.
I got a full reconstruction of the rib cage.
I asked my surgeon: "Hey, is there any problem?"
"Does this surgery have some risk?"
And he answered: "Look, it's like going out to the street these days,
you can get robbed, you can get killed."
He gave me a lot of reassurance.
Really, a lot.
I didn't think about it. I went through the surgery.
And so I realized that all the projects that I had,
all the things that I liked,
all I wanted to do in my life, was falling apart.
I mean, I could easily die.
That's when I decided "OK, that's it;
I do things and screw the rest, really."
And that's when I faced the fear I had since I was 8.
I bought another carnivorous plant.
That one was followed by two more.
Those were followed by three.
And I went on filling my bedroom with carnivorous plants.
After my bedroom, it was all my house.
In the beginning, my mother was very happy.
Now she wants to kick me out of the house.
But well, this is the way things are.
The important thing is that now, basically, I get in touch
with people around the globe.
I get in touch with banks of seeds.
I get in touch with people who live in Vietnam.
We can barely get in touch because he speaks very bad English
and I understand very badly what he wants to say.
I even had a lot of trouble for this.
I've sent money in an envelope
and mysteriously the next month I'd receive a call from customs
saying, look, we have a 10-kilo box to your name.
Come get it, we don't know what is inside.
And I had to go, do the paperwork and lots of things alike.
I didn't know what was in that box.
It could easily have a bomb or a lot of plants.
I've also received a lot of plants all tight inside an envelope.
In a letter envelope and they sent it like that.
And then I had to bring them back to life.
Basically, the plants.
But, well, I wanted to close this saying:
You don't know what can happen tomorrow in your lives.
You could suffer a surgery like I did or even... I don't know...
Anything.
So do the things that you have planned.
Do them now! Because I do them and I am happy.
I can have a bad day, but I get home and I see a plant that has blossom
and I realize that I am very happy. Thank you very much.
(Applause)