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Change lives, change organizations, change the world.
The slogan of this school and a testament to how much this university loves change.
So much so they have to tell those, say the word change three times in the same
slogan as you're going to forget it's an important things.
And in many ways we're all here because we want to be those change agents.
I know I do because I'm a product of that change.
Twenty years ago I was living in broken homes, broken home.
I couldn't eat everyday.
I had terrible grades.
An adult would tell me things like college,
a career, standing on stage delivering a speech are not for people like you.
And to them I say look at me now.
[APPLAUSE] It
is amazing to be here, to talk in front of all of you.
I would never have dreamed it.
To be someone who couldn't change himself to someone who now change lives,
change organizations and change the world.
And that's what I set out to do in my first year.
I wanted to bring what I thought was the secret sauce to my success, my change, and
bring it places in the world that didn't have it.
And so what I did was, I said it was education.
I did my research, I looked all around the world and
I found a place in northeast India called West Bengal.
Where the average income of families is $600 a year,
where nobody gets past the eighth grade, and the average life expectancy is 32.
32.
And I said the biggest problem they have is education.
So I think I did what anyone would do.
I bought a 50 seater bus.
I tore it apart.
I put a classroom inside of it and I drove it into the jungles of west Bengal and
started to teach out of it.
>> [LAUGH] >> What they teach you in strategy, right?
And so, I want to first though,
before I start teaching, get the permission of the village leadership.
And so the pilot village I worked in, Terpintar, there's a man named Collis.
I explained to him what I was doing and he said wait.
Let me show you something.
He took me outside of his house to the center of the village.
There was this bronze statue.
And he said a villager made this because this is what we are told education is.
And it's that image that I think is familiar to a lot of us,
it's the evolution of man.
You know that image that we all start out as primates.
And we slowly evolved to upright man.
Makes sense, right?
It's progress.
Of course it's education.
But the funny thing about what this sculptor did in this village was he
added a step.
To say where human kind was going.
Where superior human beings were gonna be.
And beyond upright man, it's hunched over, typing away at a computer at a IT job.
Right? So why are you laughing.
Like when was the last time you were in a library looking at a guy making an Excel
sheet and was like yep, evolved guy, right?
That's superior right there.
And as much as it's funny, the thing about this village is they're dead serious.
And so Collis starts to explain to me, this is what we're told.
IT is our salvation.
And you're not the first person to come and try and provide us education.
In fact, so many have before, but they always get it wrong because they never
answer the question, what happens after the kids get educated?
Where do they go?
Everyone is telling us IT is the solution, but in a 50 kilometer radius around
this village, there's not a single IT resource available.
And so I asked him is there any cases, has anybody made it before, and he said one.
And I looked at that and I know it's out of desperation and
sadness but I heard that as inspirational.
One well let's figure out what this kid did, everything and
make sure everyone knows that and then this problem will be solved.
And so luckily his parents were in this village of Tepantar and
I went to interview them.
I said, what did your son do?
I want to know everything.
What did he study?
How did he study?
And his father looked at me, he said, I don't know.
And not only that but he said, I'm not supposed to know.
Because my son is now in a better place.
And I'm a craftsman and I'm proud of it and that's what supported my family and
generations before me.
But it doesn't make any money today and people are telling us it doesn't.
So anything I want to keep my son here, to teach him my ways,
to teach him the heritage of my family.
It's only going to hold him back.
And so the best thing I can do for him is let him go.
When I heard that it hurt a lot and
I didn't understand why because I didn't even know this kid.
But what I do know is he's a role model, he's what everyone should be.
He is smart, he is talented, he's driven.
He made it.
Everyone should be like him, I couldn't figure it out,
until I realized that kid's me.
Because, 30 years ago, I didn't grow up in rural India, but my village was China.
And at that time my parents wanted desperately to get out
because they went through a history of terrible things happening.
And they were lucky enough to be one of the ones to set foot in America and
start a new.
In the land of prosperity.
And the first thing they wanted was they wanted to give birth to a child so
he could live up in this prosperity.
And that was me.
But shortly after I was born they had to go back to China for a variety of reasons.
And so they were left with the tough decision of either keeping the family
together but take me back to a country that will forever limit my potential, or
to keep me with unlimited potential but to rip away the family and
just like that family in Tepantar, my parents chose prosperity.
As much as it hurts to not be around them, to never know if you're gonna see them
again in some ways they were right in that decision.
Right, I'm standing here.
When I said look at me now everyone applauded.
That I can be this person who changes lives, changes organizations and
changes the world.
But to get there I had to change my friends, change my family, and
change my home over and over again.
And be proud of it because that's change.
Now imagine if that were the slogan of this school.
Stanford University change your friends, change your family, change your home.
>> [LAUGH] >> Great.
I mean I didn't get the best grades in marketing but
I can tell you not inspirational right?
>> [LAUGH] >> But that's what happened.
And I don't say that because I want to change the slogan of the school.
It's done wonders, it's an amazing slogan.
But, what I do propose is a slogan for our lives.
Especially as we leave the school and get out there to pursue our careers.
To not always be so obsessed with change, to be disruptive, but
to take on the challenge of simply to keep,
to keep your friends, to keep your family, to keep your home.
Thank you. [APPLAUSE]
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