Translator: Emma Gon Reviewer: Fran Ontanaya
Whenever I have the chance to share with
an audience as diverse as you are, it is a challenge.
It is an emotional challenge, first of all, because from my point of view
I am a "psiconut", I studied clinical psychology.
And learning should be lively experienced.
If learning is only rational, there when the body
has something I call, with respect and affection, "ass hour."
When the ass gets tired, the brain gets befuddled.
This is real. This is true.
This is studied by psychology.
Today I want to ask you for a favor.
I want to ask you...
This is the last talk of this first morning.
We have had extraordinary talks,
a brainstorming of magical ideas that I...
Blimey, I am inspired and don't know what to say!
But today I would truly love that you
help me do an exercise all together.
Take your right hand and do like this (shake the hand)
If someone helps me to turn the lights of the auditorium on
to see those who are not doing it
and point them out to show them how it feels.
Thank you.
The two hands, please. The two hands. Very well. The two hands.
I want you to look at the person next to you and
see how they do and how they lose the form, the status, right?
If it helps, we are going to honor a genius,
Albert Einstein, when he was receiving the Nobel Prize of Physics
the dude sticks his tongue out, ok?
Stick the tongue out to the person beside you.
Stick the tongue out! Nothing is gonna happen.
It can happen that by sticking the tongue out
your body releases endorphines
and my bro, who knows a bit about laughing,
knows that endorphins are good for our body.
True or false? I cannot hear you.
I have a challenge for this last talk.
I want to ask who wants to share this challenge with me.
The rest is fairly simple: we are all equal, true or false?
The TED concept is people coming and
sharing one idea with people like them, true or false?
Any of you could be here in this stage
sharing some idea if you had done your work.
I utterly believe in this.
And I believe in something -- since we are equal, I have a challenge.
I am going to be standing here 18 minutes.
I want to ask you to live this talk with me.
standing up and this is going to be a revolution.
Will you help me or not?
Everybody stand up, come on!
It is very easy. It is very simple.
Nothing is going to happen.
Your body is going to be charged with energy
and you are going to enjoy this talk much more.
I received this tiny control.
This talk is called "The impossible is possible".
Help me! How does it call?
Audience: The impossible is possible.
And we are going to use an element.
An unconscious element.
-- Hey Omar, what is the unconsciousness?
It is my turn to talk a little bit about it
because this is the substance from where we learn.
You are here sitting and the unconsciousness
is saying: "the chair is uncomfortable,
I feel itchy dude, what am I doing?
I have this and that,
I am hungry, my tummy is grumbling, prrruuff!"
And from all that happening, your unconsciousness generates information.
Only 10% of what you do is conscious.
And 90% is unconscious.
--- Hey Omar, I already know that.
That is from primary school!
I completely agree.
But, knowing that and not using it is the worst of ignorance!
To know it and not using it is the worst of ignorance.
The unconsciousness controls 90% of you. The 90%.
You are driving your car, dude and see the ad
and the brand gets into you without even realizing it.
It entered through your unconsciousness.
You go to a restaurant, you are hungry and the waiter says:
"Would you like today' special? We have eggs with beans..."
-- Right, I have today' special!
Your unconsciousness hooked with the information given by the waiter
when in fact you wanted a hamburger.
(Laughing) Am I getting the point to you or not?
The unconsciousness is a tool of our brain, a very powerful one.
Today we are going to learn how to access it.
Because if you reach the unconsciousness, I do not know your projects,
that is why a TED audience is difficult.
Because the audience is so diverse that I do not know which your projects are.
Do you want to increase your business? Do you have employees?
You need to know how to program your unconsciousness!
It is your turn to be in this talk and talk to the audience.
You have to know how to talk to the unconsciousness!
Do you have a girlfriend?
You need to know how to talk to the unconsciousness: "make me love."
You need to know how to talk to the unconsciousness.
Am I getting the point?
The unconsciousness is a part of the brain that few people study.
But look at the magic of the consciousness.
Breathe deeply. Exhale. It is conscious.
Unconsciously, put your attention in whatever
and your body keeps working, true or false?
How many of you were seated and said to the dude next to you...
hey, sorry that I say dude, that's how I talk with my friends.
And, somehow like Freud -- father of psychology --
he said that the only way to access the unconsciousness
is by using rude words...
Why I would like you to feel much more comfortable?
Because we are going to touch the topic of this talk.
I ask myself: what makes a genius to be genius?
What does a genius do to be genius?
Why do we build myths around them? Right?
"The flatulence of a genius does not smell". (Laughter)
We build myths, right?
"When Bill Gates was born, instead of spanking him with a hand,
he was spanked with a keyboard, there you go!
We build myths, And those myths dissociate us from those people
and make me believe I am a mere mortal and not a genius.
But, you know what? I believe we are all genius,
from the psychological point of view, we are exactly the same.
I believe that we all human beings are exactly the same.
And geniuses, too.
Chemichally speaking we are made from the same CHON:
Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxigen and Nitrogen, true or false?
or from the "chon" (undies) our mom and dad took off to start the creation process.
But it is exactly the same.
-- Omar, if we are all chemically made of the same stuff,
why are we all so different?
Good or bad question?
Because if we are all chemically made of the same stuff,
everybody's brain functions equally,
everybody's unconsciousness functions equally,
everybody's emotions functions equally,
why are we so different?
Good or bad question?
So, I saw a movie Who wants to be a millionaire?
Who wants to be a millionaire?
And the movie shows an extraordinary argument.
Four parts: Luck, Intelligence, Talent and Destiny.
And I said to myself, I am going to copy these arguments for my TED talk.
Why a genius is genius? Is it luck?
Let me tell you something: the chance you have
to win the lottery is one in 30 million.
If you do not buy the ticket, dude, you will never win it.
If you buy it, you have the same chance as anybody, right?
I cannot hear you, right?
Ok. Listen to me.
The probability that you were alive is one in 300 million.
Because you messed with 300 millions of spermatozoa
which were guarded in the seminal vesicle of your father
when your mom and dad were doing their business,
you were in the seminal vesicle saying:
I am going to win, I am going to win, I am going to win"
And you know what happened?
You messed with, medically speaking, 300 millions spermatozoa
So, the probability of being alive is one of 300 millions.
Since you are alive, dude, we all have the same luck.
Am I getting to the point or not?
Because you will agree with me that someone
who wins the lottery, one in 30 million,
is a damn lucky dude, right?
Someone who is alive, dude, is damn lucky!
One in 300 miliions.
And if we add the chances that from all the times
when your father had some fling,
just imagine all the other chances
you had had of being born.
Did I get the point? It is a joke, but in this society
this is is also true, so said as a psychologist.
-- It is not luck Omar. People is not genius because of luck, but intelligence.
When Albert Einstein was seven years old, he was
diagnosed with slow learning ability, right?
Salvador Dalí did not show any talent at all till he was nine years old.
But one day, like the father of Gaby Vargas,
came Dalí's mother and said:
"Son, you paint as only gods can do!" (Laughter)
Imagine, dude, you bring a primary school
doodle to your mother, right?
You bring the doodle and you mother takes it...
Salvador Dalí's mother was half nuts, right?
She holds Dalí and said: "you paint as only gods can do!"
Hugs him and kisses him.
Salvador Dalí believed he was a god and created surrealism.
A very personal and single way of seeing the world.
He was interviewed in the US when he was going to expose
in the Modern Art Museum of New York.
The first painter to expose in the Modern Art Museum of New York.
He carried all his paintings in the plane, dude.
When Salvador Dalí arrived in US, the customs agent said:
"Master Dalí, something of value that you brought from Spain?
Dalí look at him saying:
"Ja, all you see!" (Pointing to himself)
(Applause)
--- Hey Omar, it is not luck. It is not intelligence.
Albert Einstein was diagnosed with slow learning ability
exactly like many other children, but what did he have?
He had a brilliant father who gave him a compass
that arouse his creative thinking.
Albert Einstein was asking, why the compass point to the North?
Why the compass points to the North?
Why the compass point to the North?
Someone said: "the compass points to the North because God wants it to".
The dude said: "who is God?"
-- "The creator of all the universe".
-- "And what is the universe?"
-- "Well, everything that exists".
Albert Einstein said: "What is groovy here? Who is groovy here?
-- "God, of course!"
Then his next question and the same with which he died and don't believe me.
Don't believe anything I said.
Get in YouTube and research everything I said.
(Laughter)
Search in YouTube: "last interviews of Albert Einstein".
And this Albert Einstein, dude,
he was being interviewed in Berkley when he was asked
if there was any question of which he still
have doubts and the dude asked,
he said, " Since I was seven years old,
I am still asking what God thoughts are."
A boy of seven years old diagnosed with slow learning ability
got into an idea --- to see the world as if he were God.
God sees the universe different from you and me, true or false?
The atoms are different from yours and mine, true or false?
He saw them from a different perspective and became
one of the most genius men in the history of mankind.
But you know what I like?
There are some accounts of students telling that
the dude gave lectures and suddenly when all the students,
suddenly he would hide behind the door and come out "Aaggrr!"
The most brilliant man in history of mankind
had the gaze of a child.
He sticked the tongue out when taken pictures
and in the lectures, he was extremely informal.
What does this say to me?
That developing this child we have inside
is also a way to develop
our creativity and our genius.
Talking about self-esteem -- "have self-esteem."
But, what can I do to have self-esteem?
The master of self-esteem is Salvador Dalí.
The most narcisist man in the world, the one who loves himself.
You know what he did? He talked with himself out loud.
If someone approached him, "Dalí, do you want to eat?"
-- "One second, master Dalí, do you want to eat?"
It is the bare truth. And Dali said,
"Mmmm, now not yet hungry."
-- "Master Dalí not yet hungry."
He developed a double personality.
He talked with his alter ego and only talked to Dalí,
but he talked to him out loud.
Synonym of madness, but what did I discover?
Albert Einstein gave lectures, dude, on his bike out loud.
He talked to himself, what did I discover?
Jesus talked out loud. Siddhartha Gautama talked out loud.
All the great geniuses I studied talked out loud.
And we were told that was of mad people.
Your brain works in the following way:
your brain follows guidelines.
First feature of unconsciosness.
Put attention. The human brain follows guidelines.
-- Hey Omar, guidelines from whom?
From everybody! That is the problem with the brain, dude.
That anybody who says anything, it believes it.
There is a woman walking.
She got up, wore stockings, she is pretty gorgeous.
She perfumed, she talked to herself in the mirror and
said, I am gorgeous! Look dude, mwah!"
She goes out, walks on the street and
a taxi driver shouts, "Get out of the way, fat lady! (Laughter)
This woman is fucked up for the day, the trousers are tight.
Why did i eat the hamburger?
I should not have eaten the "tamal" bread this morning
Yes or no? Yes or no?
And you know what is the most amazing thing, dude?
It was not to her.
It was to the fat lady ahead of her. (Laughter)
But because her brain does not discriminate, she follows guidelines,
entering her mind, "I am fat."
And this talks about her trauma because nobody taught her about the model of the genius.
If someone had taught her the method of the genius,
the moment she hears, "fat lady",
she says, "you should have seen me a month ago,
I was fatter, but you will never enjoy this flesh."
And she keeps walking... (Laughter)
What did the majority of the geniuses do to
spark the creativity in them?
Michael Jordan, a genius to score point.
The dude practiced 2000 shots daily, every single day.
2000 shots daily, every single day.
Was he a genius? No, he was an obsesive dude.
(Laughter) Did I get the point?
Tiger Woods. His income is 120 million US dollars a year playing golf.
Is the dude so good playing golf?
Yes, but once he wins, he comes back.
He waits till everybody is gone and go back a month later
to the course to perfect his play.
-- Hey, dude, but he already won!
But he wants to perfect his technique.
Genius is equal to repetition.
Besides, the brain can be programmed, dude.
If you say something to the brain, the brain is programmed.
Watch, the great secret of psychology: the brain do not follow orders.
Do not follow, what?
Orders. We reject orders.
We are fed up with mom and dad's orders.
We reject them!
But, what do we do when someone gives us an order?
For example: "You, come her immediately,
come and give me a kiss, bitch."
Nobody comes. Same phrase, same syntaxix:
"You, come here immediately, come and give me a kiss, bitch."
(Laughter)
There was some laughs of "Yes, will I go?"
(Laughter) Am I getting my point?
I only had to change the tone of my voice.
By changing the tone of the voice, the phrase goes straightforward to the brain.
Be most careful how you talk to your children.
Because if every day you say:
"you are a fool, you are good for nothing, you are useless",
the brain is programmed and develops habits.
That simple. Be most careful in what you tell.
Be most careful what you communicate to your woman.
--- Where are you going?
--- You'll be sorry if you come back drunk!
And you know how he will come back?
But let me tell you something, the human brain has one capability
The capability of interpretation.
When I was six years old, my mom took me to primary school.
We were late and a car got in her way,
she honked "ta-ta-ta-tata" and gave the finger.
She was angry with my dad the night before.
I was six years old when I asked her:
"Mommy, what is this mommy?" (Gesture)
My mother was shocked to see how shocking fast
the law of karma returns, right?
"What is this mummy?" (Gesture)
My mother kept looking.
And my mother was very creative, youthful and said,
"Well, son, this is an airplane. If the dude does not know how to drive...
... so he could fly, look." (Gesture) (Laughter)
So I came with this interpretation.
For me, what is this? (Gesture)
An airplane.
And my brain linked through mnemonic footprints,
because that is the way the brain works, the first information
it receives, it becomes like a reality.
That is why people think the sky is blue, that God is a man, etc., etc.
Because the first thing you are told is total reality for you.
My brain told me this is an airplane (gesture).
When I arrived in the classroom, teacher Panchito asked,
"Have you boys learned something new from your parents?"
I raised my hand and said,
"Teacher, what is this sir?" (Open hand)
The teacher kept looking and said: "A hand, Omar."
No, I said, it is an airplane. A Transformer.
Look! (Gesture) (Laughter)
The joke had consequences and was repeated
by the students of second, third and fourth grade.
I was expelled from school.
My mother was summoned.
And something interesting happened.
Since very little I discover something:
things have not the same meaning to me than to others.
And why am I saying this?
Third feature of the brain
First feature: it follows guidelines.
Second feature: the brain makes interpretations.
And interpretation is your gift, dude. It is yours.
You interpret what you want. It is your gift.
If someone offends you, you can interpret the opposite
and feel it is like a compliment.
And nothing happens. Genius used to do that
What do you think people said about Thomas Alva Edison
when he invented the light bulb?
I know it is a myth that he erred 5000 times.
But suppose, the dude had erred 500 times.
What do you think his friends think about him?
"Hey dude, enough! Leave that damn bulb, dude.
Enough! You are traumatized with this bulb.
This is the only thing you think about, enough! Forget the bulb.
You have erred 400 time, enough!
But the dude has something, a personal courage, right?
When his wife wanted to divorce him,
when his children said, "father you are crazy."
When the scientific community threw him away from the scientific community
because he wanted to invent the light bulb. He was expelled.
And you know what? He has the force and courage
and the guts to believe in him while nobody believes in him.
It seems to be the only condition among all the genius.
That sooner or later, all the world will be against you.
You will be dismissed as mad in your project.
And even more if you are noble projects.
And even more if you have projects, you will be dismissed as mad.
The only difference between genius and mediocre people
is that genius, dude, they believe in themselves when nobody does.
When asked, "something of value you have brought?" They say...
Audience: "All you can see."
First feature: it follows guidelines.
Second feature: the brain makes interpretations.
Third features, this is amazing.
To the count of three we're going to do a quick exercise.
Imagine you're in the supermarket.
Come, a supermarket, a supermarket, right?
With your right hand take a fruit.
A fruit, your favorite fruit.
Take it, look for it, look for it next to you.
Don't hold the melon, you dirty pig, but take a fruit.
Come, take a fruit, do you have the fruit? Ready?
To the count of three shout at me the name of your fruit.
One, two, three. Shout it out.
(Answers)
I want you to smell it
Smell your fruit, what is the smell?
Take your fruit, close your eyes,
imagine you have it there, bite it with desire.
Come, bite it wiht desire.
Om, nom! Bite it, come, nom!
Give it a bite, if you don't do it, you don't live it.
Give it a bite, om nom nom!
I'm sure you automatically... your mouth, what did it do?
What did your mouth do? What did your mouth do?
Third feature of the brain:
your brain doesn't distinguish between reality and fantasy
That is why miracle can exist, dude.
Not the miracles like he had cancer...
Not the miracles like he was in a wheelchair and walked.
No, no, no, no.
No, real miracles!
Miracles, the name of a lady whose husband hit her daily.
One day she said, "No more!"
She stood up, left him and earned her life to bring up her family.
These are miracles, but where is this power
to make miracles in human beings?
Geniuses understood this attribute.
The brain doesn't understand the difference between reality and fantasy.
It doesn't understand it.
You imagined a fruit and your brain releases saliva, dude.
When I asked you how it smells you said, "it smells my fruit."
and it smells your dirty hand.
(Laughter) Do I get my point?
Your brain changed the condition of smell and gave you the smell of your fruit.
Trick your brain to do what you want.
Trick it. Everybody is tricking it.
Television tricks it
Marketing tricks it.
History tricks it.
Your father and mother trick it.
Dude, trick it yourself!
(Laughter)
(Applause)