Transcriber: Fatima Zahra El Hafa Reviewer: Annika Bidner
My name is Karl Lillrud.
And I've been an entrepreneur for 22 years,
which put me in this position.
Outside the norm, but not impossible.
Right? Because, I'm there.
Do you know that the word impossible was actually used here in France,
for the first time in history?
Back in the 14th century.
And for you who don't know, this is the French flag, the 14th century.
So, what is impossible?
Let's take this for example, is this impossible?
It's a wooden cube that somehow both stretches outwards and inwards.
It shows us things that we have learnt are not possible.
From our parents and everything we learn throughout our lives,
simply because of our limitations.
But, this cube is right here, in front of us.
Because I didn't say let's build this. I just asked if it's possible.
And obviously it is.
So, I've been --
As an entrepreneur, I've been looking for different angles,
and different solutions to problems that are put in front of me.
And I love that!
That's how I live my life.
And I'm going to share some of the tools that I use with you guys today.
To make sure that you can do the impossible as well.
But by pushing myself all the time,
obviously I get into stressful situations
and from time to time, it's overwhelming.
So, I had to find a way to force myself to relax
and to flush my mind.
And I've been trying multiple different methods over the years,
but this time, I chose swimming.
And this is what you normally wear when you go swimming, right?
I'm from Sweden and I decided to swim all year around.
Everybody was saying that swimming outdoor all year around is not possible.
Because in Sweden, this is what you would like to wear half of the year.
(Laughter)
And this is what I'm doing.
I'm --
jumping into the water to flush my mind
from the thoughts and the stress that I carry around.
Obviously, I'm put into a number of different difficult situations
doing this.
And as time goes on,
the ice freezes and we can't really get into the water.
So, obviously we have to solve that as well.
So we jump on the ice to open it, so that we can swim.
But, that's not the real problem here.
The real problems that we experience are: The fingers and the toes
freeze rather fast in the cold water,
especially as we go swimming for around 20 minutes.
And the back of your head gets an intense brain freeze
like you've never experienced before.
And you cut yourself a lot on the ice.
And then, of course, we have the zero Celsius water,
which is, I think, to spice things up.
Many people say that if you do that, you'll die.
And that's actually not the reality,
the reality is that
when people die in cold water,
they have not died because of the water temperature.
They die because they start hyperventilating,
which leads to passing out, which leads to drowning.
So, why would anyone ever want to do this?
Because, after going for a cold water swim
it feels like you've been sleeping non stop for two weeks.
And that's a nice feeling.
But, the result is --
And that is because all the muscles
in your body tense up in shock
as you jump into the cold water.
Because all your senses identify the imminent danger and risk of dying.
And it's up to you to make sure that those muscles relax,
and after that --
And it's up to you to make sure that the muscles relax,
so that you don't die.
And the feeling from relaxing all the muscles in your body
is something that I'm sure none of you actually have experienced
because, we walk around with all this tension in our body
all these tiny muscles that we are not even aware of.
And it's a relaxed feeling like no other.
But, to add to that, you'll also need to control your breathing.
And as you jump into the water, the movement itself is actually
connected to your breathing.
So, diving into the water helps you find the right control of breathing
which helps you to calm your system down.
And then we have all those thoughts, all those million tiny ideas
that we walk around with.
Oh, I have to pick up dry cleaning tomorrow,
and the day after that is pick up from tennis and so on.
We have all these things that we have alive in our minds all the time.
And as we jump into the water, all those thoughts are flushed away.
There's just one thing, and one thing only to focus on.
And that is to swim that distance,
to focus on the task to stay alive.
So, I'm going to share --
I'm going to share some tools with you.
But, that tool box I showed you is actually an endless amount
of blank puzzle pieces.
And those pieces are up to us to color
with our experiences and our findings.
The first puzzle piece is to believe in yourself and have fun doing it.
Because, whatever you do, you will be questioned.
There will be people asking or pushing you about your thoughts,
about your beliefs.
So, make sure you do the right thing from the beginning,
and do what you think is fun.
Then we have --
Then we have the belief.
And belief is something that comes from inside, it's not something
that you get from the people around you.
So you have to identify what you believe in and focus on that.
The second puzzle piece
is to never focus on the impossible part.
Because, doing the impossible actually starts by doing what's possible.
For example, as we were jumping into the cold water,
we had solved all of that; or we did solve it as we did it.
But, as we climbed up the ladder
with water on our hands
and a freezing cold ladder,
our hands actually got stuck to the ladder,
and we had to break our hands loose, which we solved rather easily
with just putting on a pair of gloves.
And there will be blockers, and the blockers are actually something
that is put in your path to make sure that you push yourselves
to identify the alternative solutions.
Because there will always be alternative solutions
to any given problem.
So, don't see the blocker as something that prevents you from moving forward.
One day, the ice had turned, the water --
One day, the water has frozen to ice solid for us not --
One day,
(Laughter)
the water had turned to ice too thick for us to break.
But, where there is a problem identified,
you're always half through the solution.
So obviously, we knew we couldn't break it,
because it was like a meter thick.
But, we just kept on running to focus on a solution;
which was to run out on the ice
to where the cargo ships break the ice for us.
so that, again, we can jump into the water and do some swimming.
(Water splashing)
I'm a person that really enjoys stepping outside my comfort zone.
Or as other people might call it, thinking outside the box.
I actually made it my thing, because I've been training myself
to instead of being scared,
or in other ways, frightened by this feeling,
to tell myself that the feeling itself is a good one.
It enables me to evolve.
I will be put into --
I will be put in front of a number of challenges,
which I will learn from and it helps me move forward.
Because, do you honestly believe that teaching our kids only the rules
is how we raise the leaders of tomorrow?
We need to enable them to challenge things
and to overcome problems.
And by knowing the rules, you're halfway there.
Because, as you know the rules, you also learn about the possiblities
to break rules, or to write new rules.
Or how your competition is being held back by the rules.
Because, there will be multiple solutions to any given problem.
So, think outside the box.
Or, actually, there is no box.
There are no limits, it's only in our minds,
where we set the rules.
Going on to the fourth puzzle piece;
Failure is never failure.
Failure is just one step closer to your goal.
You need to embrace failure for what it is.
And when you fail, you learn the most.
Because when you fail, you get to look at the issue
from another point of view.
You have the experience from the failure,
which opens up new possibilities, new angles to attack from,
and to think about what you did
and how you can turn things around.
Because now you have the experience, now you know what didn't work.
And you know that there is always a way to make it work.
Because the process is simple;
You try, and fail, and then you try, until it leads to success.
So when are you done?
You're done when you have reached the solution to the problem.
You're done when the receiving end
has accepted whatever you have done.
It's not for you to start fine-tuning or modifying whatever you have solved,
until you're done with everything.
Because when you're done with one problem,
you go on to the next one.
My goal is to share my experience and knowledge
with the people around me.
And as an entrepreneur, challenge the impossible
and make it possible.
And the most important project, or challege for me, is to share
all of this with my daughter.
But also with the people here.
To make sure that you are prepared for doing these things
that you are afraid of today.
And to give you the tools to make sure that you can build the new paths,
or bridges, to overcome these problems.
And that's because I meet people all the time, who start telling me
about their dreams.
And I see that spark in their eyes
as they start explaining whatever they're dreaming of.
And then I see the spark go away, just as fast as it appeared,
as they start focusing on the issues, rather than the possibilities.
And I'm just here to plant the seed and to make sure
that you go that extra mile to make it happen.
And it's about time that you start dreaming big.
I have forced myself into dreaming big, by using a method
that I'd like to share today.
As I go to sleep everyday, I speak out loud and say to myself
what achievements I have had today,
and what findings I bring with me to tomorrow.
That makes me fall asleep with a positive mindset.
And I wake up in the morning with a winner's attitude,
making anything possible.
Today, I just opened the door for you
to show you that there is another type of light,
and it's up to you to choose how you would like to live your life.
And I have given you
the four corner pieces in this endless puzzle.
But it's actually now also up to you to start putting color
on your blank puzzle pieces.
Because, the future now is different
from what it was 20 minutes ago.
You now have the tools to get started doing the things you actually believe in.
Because, find --
Find new horizons.
Find out that there are no horizons,
only endless possibilities.
Thank you.
(Applause)