Translator: Mirjana Čutura Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
Hi.
(Superman theme song)
I'm here to talk to you for 15 fun-packed minutes
about what is enough to live a happy and fruitful life,
and I'm going to tell you all how you can become Superman.
And I'm going to weave this seamlessly into a story
and hope to get through the whole thing in one piece.
This is Charles Handy.
In no particular order,
he's one of the world's leading management gurus,
he's an unbelievably nice man,
he's very wise, he's written lots of books.
And on one January 1st, one New Year's Day,
about five years ago,
he came to see me in my house with his wife, Elizabeth.
And welcoming one of the world's leading management gurus
into your home on New Year's Day
can put an entirely new light on New Year's Eve celebrations.
(Laughter)
I was home and tucked up by 12.
Charles was one of the people who created portfolio existence:
the very thought that we might have to do several different jobs
in the course of our lives.
And he was also writing a book about philanthropy,
and I was writing a book about giving - how to give effectively.
And we got on really well.
But it was one of the things that we talked about
that left an ever-lasting impression on my brain and my mind
and indeed my life,
and that is, What is enough?
And Charles and his wife, Elizabeth,
had decided that they were going to lead the life that they wanted to lead.
So, every year, they sit down, and they work out
how much money they need to fund their simple lifestyle for the year.
Charles adds 20 percent because he worries.
(Laughter)
And then they divide their year into three.
One-third of the year, Charles works.
He gives management advice, makes speeches, and he charges for it.
One-third of his life, he writes books,
and he's written several best-selling management books.
And one-third of his life, he helps people for nothing.
He does pro bono work.
And as he explained to me,
he did this because he wanted to find
the other parts of his life and his character that he could develop.
In his own wonderful words, he wanted to maximize his life,
not his income.
And, of course, not all of us can live like Charles has rearranged his life,
but we can all decide what enough is for us.
We can all sit down and decide how much we need to live a happy and fruitful life.
And you'd be interested to know that - What is enough? -
there is no definition of what is enough.
There is no right answer.
So, for example, a family living in a village in rural Kenya
would need completely different needs
from a family living in a city like Exeter or London.
But nevertheless,
having a conversation with yourself about what is enough
can have a profound and transforming effect on your life.
To begin with,
you won't have to spend enormous quantities of money,
buying things that you don't really need.
You can take some time out.
You won't have to work so hard.
You probably won't have to work such long hours.
You can do what Charles did.
You can set out to maximize your own lives, not your income.
You can perhaps volunteer to help a charity.
Let's just take three ideas for what is enough.
The average lifetime of a driver is 60 years.
If you buy a new car every two years,
you'll be the proud owner of 30 brand-new cars.
If you change your car every six years, you'd be the proud owner of just 10 cars.
And we all know that a six-year-old car goes happily from A to B.
But we'll see, it's 20 less cars.
It's less resources needed from our much battered planet.
Take the subject to presents.
Okay, this is engagement time.
Hands up those who every year get presents that they don't really want.
(Laughter)
Unbelievable, isn't it?
It's almost the entire audience.
And I'm afraid it follows, sadly,
that you give presents to people every year that they don't want either.
(Laughter)
Present-buying done well is a wonderful, wonderful thing to do.
Done badly, it's just simply a colossal waste of money.
I think eBay, about two Christmases ago,
had something like one million presents up on eBay on Christmas Day -
(Laughter)
many of them by 10 o'clock in the morning -
it defies description.
Move on to the slightly more serious subject of food.
There are one billion people in the world hungry
who don't know today -
who don't know how they're going to make it through to the end of the week
or, indeed, the end of the month.
And at the same time, there are one billion people in the world,
according to the World Health Organization,
who are obese or overweight
and probably on diets
or running around in gyms like hamsters.
And in the wonderful Make Poverty History video several years ago,
they quite rightly pointed out
that somebody dies with hunger and starvation every three seconds.
(Snaps fingers three times)
And at the same time as all this is going on,
in North America and Europe,
we throw away three times the food
that would be needed to feed the bottom billion.
In the UK alone,
we throw away one-third of all the food we buy.
You couldn't really make it up.
There's enough food to go around the world.
It just simply doesn't go around.
So, I think that we need to live more simply
so that others may simply live.
We need to set out to create a world, not acquire it,
to build a world of you and me,
not you or me.
Back to Superman.
Superman's role in life was to right wrongs
and fight for social justice.
"And what on earth does this got to do with me?" you ask.
Well, the bottom line is
that every single person in this theater today,
this week can be Superman to one of the bottom billion in the world.
You can provide an education for a girl in a village in Bihar
who otherwise would not finish school
but would go to work in the fields
and even worse, be trafficked into child prostitution.
You can provide medical help and food for a family living in a village in Kenya.
You can provide a microloan, 50 to 100 pounds,
to help lift a group of women start a business
and help lift them and their families out of poverty.
A group of you could get together at lunchtime,
and you could decide that you're going to raise enough money
to buy a well for a village in Ethiopia
that would provide fresh water for about 500 people, 500 villagers.
If you do the maths,
1,500 pounds, 500 villagers -
that's giving fresh water to one person or a child in a village
for the price of a latte.
It's quite extraordinary.
Over the last two or three years, I've been very fortunate;
I've been able to start a couple of charities,
and I've met thousands, literally thousands of simply remarkable people
doing wonderful things to change the world
in many different ways from the simplest, simplest things
to people of great courage who're doing remarkable work,
some of whom, actually,
you're going to meet, and you've heard from today.
And I think I've discovered the purpose of life.
And that's good, isn't it?
Always.
(Laughter)
It's a very rich TED Talk.
(Laughter)
And the purpose of life is to help other people,
to help your family, to help your friends,
to help people who you would normally ignore,
and to help people you don't even know at all.
And Martin Luther King agrees.
He got there before me.
"Life's persistent and most urging question is,
What are you doing for the lives of others?"
So, your mission in the next couple of weeks, your homework
is to go home and work out what enough is for you,
to stop buying stuff you really don't want or need or will use,
to get a grip,
(Laughter)
and to turn yourselves into Superman or Superwoman
and go out and help one of the poorest people in the world,
to help others.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)