Life a journey of building bridges

wow

what an amazing audience you guys look

really special wearing those masks

isn’t it crazy though we survived the

whole pandemic

we are alive we are existing now

stronger than ever before

but during this pandemic was there ever

a point where

you went through an existential crisis

where you ask your quest yourself

questions like

what is my purpose in life what meaning

do i have

what does my future hold for me what’s

going to happen after i die

i personally go through this all the

time

and after deep thought and reflection i

think i might have some answers for you

now you’re probably like is this kid

gonna tell me what my future holds for

me

you’re right this is exactly what i’m

here to do so starting there how about

you raise your palms

raise your palms i’ll read what your

future holds for you i’m joking keep it

down

but jokes aside a few years ago

i was kind of scared to go back home

after my first year in residential

school

this is because i had recently got

suspended for self-plagiarizing

my final grades had dropped and this is

exactly how i felt

yeah i didn’t want to face my parents

but fortunately on the last day of

school the universe saved

me i got dengue fever as soon as i got

back home in tanzania

i was rushed into numerous hospitals and

i was admitted for one week

eventually i was finally discharged and

the last thing i remember was falling

asleep into this

uncontrollable long blurry dream

this dream brought out an unfiltered

version of me

in which i was hypersexual and

hyperactive

during this dream i was probably drunk

high and crazy at the same time

and you’re like isn’t that a good

feeling to have no

during this dream i went to a mosque and

while people were praying i was singing

and dancing

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the shy version of me was nowhere to be

seen

because i would go to every girl that i

knew and just started hugging them

i even texted my ex-girlfriend in my

crush at that time telling them i was

madly in love with both of them

so my parents took me to the doctor and

we went to the doctor

i told the doctor i wanted to grow up to

be a porn star

yeah i even took to my social media

i went to my snapchat and i was seeing

videos of myself hyping my fans up as if

i was a reality tv star

but next morning i finally woke up

with ease please to know that that dream

was not reality

so as usual i checked my phone and i see

the calendar

and bang it says it’s been three weeks

since i was last discharged from the

hospital

i see messages from my friends all of

them asking me what is wrong with me

and that is the moment i realized that

that dream that i went through was

actually reality

now i was as confused as you guys are

right now

i asked myself how did that happen where

did those three weeks go

um what’s going to happen next how did i

do all these things

i was full of confusion i had all these

different questions

but for some reason these questions

didn’t really matter to me

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i realized that whatever i went through

was actually a wake-up call

i knew there was a reason why it all

happened i realized i had taken my

life for granted and i knew from that

point onwards i wanted to change

i wanted to take control of everything

in my life that

was wasn’t future for me

but to do that i realized there was a

gap

a gap between myself and my purpose for

being

and that is why i share with you the

story today

this is because a lot of people live

their whole lives not knowing what their

purpose for being is

keeping that in mind i’d love to share

with you a japanese concept called

ekigai

ikegai is your reason for being icky in

japanese means

life whereas gai means value or worth

simply ikigai is what gets you up every

morning and keeps you going

i personally use that experience and use

the pain that i went through

to turn it into purpose but don’t worry

you don’t have to go through a similar

experience to find your purpose

ikigai is usually represented on a venn

diagram

with various different elements

first one being what you love your

passion

to think about this element i like you

guys to think about

what is something that you do in which

you forget to eat and poop sometimes

i know that’s a random question to ask

ourselves

but a lot of people have we all go

through experiences in which we’re doing

something

we’re so engulfed in it and our minutes

turn into hours

hours turn into entire days and entire

days turn into oh crap i forgot to have

dinner

isaac newton during his prime used to be

so engulfed in his work

that his mom actually used to remind him

to have food

so think about what is that thing that

you love doing in which you will

actually forget to eat and poop

the second element as part of your

ikigai is your mission

what does the world need now i don’t

know if you’ve been watching the news

lately but

our world has quite a few problems what

i really mean by this is guys we’re in

2020 and we’re in deep [ __ ]

so think about what are some of these

problems that resonate with you

what change do you want to bring no

matter how big or small it is

and always when you’re doing this think

about what is your purpose because your

purpose has to be greater than yourself

the third element is what you’re good at

your vocation

a lot of us have different skills that

we have either we’ve developed over time

or we’ve been gifted with so think about

what are some of the skills i personally

think i have good communication skills

and that is why i’m speaking here today

lastly think about what you can get paid

for your profession

there’s usually this misconception that

if you have money you will have

fulfillment if you have money you’ll be

able to make an impact

but in reality that’s not true it’s

actually the opposite

let us take the so-called titan of

technology steve jobs as an example

steve jobs actually used to have a

passion for fine craftsmanship

he used to collect japanese tea cups and

he was obsessed with details of products

and the apple and pixar that we know

today were all his modes of expression

he went on to make billions of dollars

by doing that

so think about what your purpose is and

trust me the money will come on its own

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after doing all of this and thinking

about all these elements

what i’d like you guys to do is think is

write up a

purpose statement to do this simply

think about what your perfect world

looks like

so let us say your perfect world is one

in which everybody is living to their

fullest potential

where they are doing being and having

everything that they need

so just keeping that in mind write up a

purpose statement

and and in this case your purpose

statement should be inspiring and

empowering people to live to their

fullest potential

in the context of love peace and

kindness so think about what your

purpose statement is

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so up to this point i’ve talked about

ikigai i’ve talked about purpose

but you’re probably wondering why ikigai

why should i think about my purpose

ik guy is say to bring a sense of

fulfillment in you it’s safe to bring

happiness to you

it’s also said to have a long it gives

you a long life with the sense of

direction

it gives you a sense of clarity and

gives you passion and drive for your

goals

it develops a sense of resilience and

makes you live a life with integrity

later on in my talk today you’ll also

see the infinite rewards that come with

finding your purpose

so up to this point i’m sure all of us

acknowledge that each one of us has a

purpose right

so let us look at the screen let us say

this is our hypothetical world

and each one of these dots represent

living things

the first thing that happens when you

find your purpose

is it tells you where you belong on the

screen it gives you your it gives you

your orientation

i’m a strong believer that our journey

in life

is all about building a bridge so what

your purpose

does it actually gives you a very strong

foundation of that bridge you’re making

in life

so if you don’t have your purpose you’re

probably going to have a very weak

bridge

whereas if you have a purpose you’re

going to have a strong bridge you’re

going to have a strong foundation

but what about bridges let us define

what a bridge is

a bridge is basically a time place or

means of connection over

obstacles let us go back to this diagram

that i was talking about

as you have probably noticed there are

quite a few gaps in between of these

living things

these gaps represent obstacles they

represent differences

they represent our needs and wants as

living things

so when you find your purpose and you’re

building a bridge

what you actually have to do is overcome

these obstacles to actually fulfill some

of this

needs and wants to explain that

let me give you a personal example

when i found my purpose i realized that

my purpose was to make social impact it

was

to make an impact in the lives of others

during that time i found out that over

500 million menstruators didn’t have

access to menstrual hygiene

they didn’t have access to menstrual

products i realized that there was a gap

between volunteers

people that actually used to make this

menstrual products donors who had the

money

and the menstruators that didn’t have

access so instead of trying to save the

world what i actually did

was simply build a bridge the first one

being a bridge between the volunteers

and the

people that actually used to make their

menstrual products identified a group of

women with disabilities that used to do

that

and then we went there we redesigned the

packages

but then to actually make the packages

we needed some money

so i built another bridge between donors

and the people that used to make these

products

i took that money i made the products

and with our team

with this bridge that i made i went out

to the menstruators that didn’t have

access

and provided them with these sanitary

pads to date we have given access to

over three thousand menstruators in

seven different countries

by simply building a bridge

similarly this idea of building a bridge

applies to different contexts

let’s see a climate activist we all know

greta thundberg

what she does is by protesting and

fighting for the climate crisis

she simply builds a bridge between

humans and our environment

an animal caretaker would simply build a

bridge between animals and humans

but this concept of building bridges

also applies in the business context

let’s take the example of amazon one of

the biggest companies in the world

according to their mission statement

amazon’s purpose is to continuously

raise the bar of the customer experience

by using the internet and technology to

help consumers

find discover and buy anything they also

aim to empower businesses and content

creators

to maximize their success amazon wants

to be the earth’s most cons

customer centric company so what amazon

does is

they simply build bridges between

producers consumers

content creators and other consumers by

providing services like delivering and

using the internet and technology

efficiently

so now we have talked about all these

bridges but for some reason

it’s they sort of look incomplete

and if that’s what you’re thinking then

you’re right

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so what next you have built a foundation

you start fulfilling your purpose by

building this bridge

what’s what’s after that as we all know

our time on this earth is limited and

with that time also our time to fulfill

our purpose to

build that bridge is also limited but

something that doesn’t die

is our legacy when i talk about our

legacy

i’m not talking about being part of the

cool squad with the likes of nelson

mandela and mana gandhi

where you’re written about in history

books or statues are made out of you

what i’m really referring to is how you

are able to

inspire others and empower others to

fulfill their own purpose

let’s go back to my example after

distributing these reusable sanitary

packages i didn’t stop there

i started building my legacy and the way

i did that was i actually taught these

menstruators

how to stitch their own reusable

sanitary pads

in this way they could not only give

themselves access

but they could be change agents in their

communities and give other menstruators

access

another way i built a legacy was i

mentored other young people

i inspire them and empower them to

fulfill their own purpose

an example of this is how i started a

team in in in hyderabad india

i gave them the resources started a

chapter and last week

they decided to become an independent

organization they decided to do the work

that i was doing in their own country

without me even being there that is the

legacy that i’m talking about

in which you can inspire and empower

others to do the same

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but still the bridge feels incomplete i

don’t know if you can see but there’s

some sort of pattern that’s developing

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and you’re right but this final bridge

is not one that you make

when you work towards your purpose and

give yourself out there

the universe acknowledges that so what

it does it

it builds a final bridge in which it

actually rewards you

now don’t mind my poor artistic skills i

know my bridge looks a bit crooked

but you know why if a natural disaster

comes that bridge won’t fall

it’s because i had a strong foundation i

have my purpose see what i did there

yeah so the universe acknowledges that

and what it does it rewards you in

different forms in the form of money in

the form of recognition

in the form of awards fame

self-improvement and most importantly

what it does

it gives you inner peace and

satisfaction

all that you have done circle circles

back and comes back to you without even

you actually doing that the universe

does that for you

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so as i end my talk today

i’d like to certify you all as

professional

bridge makers and professional civil

engineers

i’d like you all to think about where in

this journey of building bridges are you

are you at the foundation are you at the

first part

are you building a legacy or are you

paying the are you receiving the rewards

of doing all of that

i’d like you all to simply remember

that we’re not too young or too old to

start this journey

let us all start now and build bridges

together

thank you