Help Yourself by Helping Others
[Music]
we all want to do something that matter
no one want to do something that makes
no sense
but for me there is a problem in this
sentence
because when we talk about purples or
doing something
that have a positive impact on the
society
wanting is not enough
we need doer we need people who can take
concrete
actions to bring a change
and if i take a simple example
when you want to work out to be in a
better shape
and talking about it will not bring any
result on your shape
the problem is that we find all the
possible
excuses for not doing it
i’m too tired i don’t have the time it’s
too complicated
and the terrible i will do it later
you will not do it later if you don’t do
it right now
fortunately i find something in my
company
to get rid of all these excuses
and make a difference in the society
let me explain you how it starts
back in 1992 this year
i was 12 obviously i was not in a
company
but this year i was diagnosed with
cancer
and the year after they have to cut my
leg
and it was
what what you think i i i see your face
a little bit
no one no one smile anymore but
you think that this is terrible
but in fact for me it’s the opposite
it’s maybe the best thing
that ever happened in my life because
i understand at this moment that
the chance that i have to be alive
thanks to this event
i remember when the doctor come to my
hospital bedroom
to tell me that i have cancer
and i was afraid
i was afraid by the word cancer
afraid to suffer afraid to
by the treatment afraid to lose my hairs
but quickly i stopped to focus on myself
and i start to look around to my parents
and more especially my mother and i
think at this moment
she was even more afraid than me
and i felt guilty
because i made my mother sad
and if it was my fault i have to change
it
and to do that i start to look at all
the positive things around me
in my hospital bedroom and tell it to my
mother to make her smile
and i learned two things in this process
the first thing is that whatever the
situation
you can always find something positive
in your life it’s really important this
thing and the second thing
is that by focusing on something bigger
than me
making my mother smile it relies me
completely from the stress of the
situation
and i can tell you that each time i saw
my mother smile
i was happy
one year after when i get out of the
hospital in the rehabilitation center
i was so happy and at the same time
it was terrible because i discover at
the age of 13
the impact of the norm
and what it is to be different
and when your confidence is not
completely built
and you have only people that
feel sorry for you
it’s terrible i was ashamed
and i didn’t know if i had to hide my
prosthesis at this moment
and i developed the fear of being
rejected
because of my prosthesis
it took me years to get out of this fear
and during these years i grew up faster
and i learned a lot of things and i
learned that the difference in fact
is a chance it’s a chance because
you can think differently and
i repeated this sentence
all the time what doesn’t kill me make
me stronger
what doesn’t kill me make me stronger
and it became true for me
and i learned that in fact
behind suffering there is a meaning
and behind all the things that we
consider as bad in our life
there is a lesson i done and i learned
my lesson and now i’m feel
absolutely great about my prosthesis
but three years ago i met a woman
who was suffering because of the way
people look at her prosthesis
and at this moment it was a signal
i felt like a call that i have to do
something to show that in fact
beyond disability there is not only
negative things
there are also positive one i wanted to
show
that we can transform adversity
into an opportunity
and to do that i know exactly what i
have to do
i have to change the way my prosthesis
look like
i don’t know if you already seen a
prosthesis
but it looked like that it’s cold it’s
impersonal
it’s far from being exciting to wear
that
and to tell you the truth
i discover the aesthetic for prosthesis
a way to
transform a prosthesis cold like that
into something personalized something
cool something fashionable something you
you will be proud to wear and i discover
in a tedx
this guy scott summit talk about
aesthetic for prosthesis and he
explained how we build
aesthetic thanks to a 3d printer i was
so excited
i want to i wanted to have one it’s
incredible what to do
and i was a little bit sad
when i saw that it’s not affordable
at all it’s really expensive and at this
moment i ask myself
why not making it by myself
and making it affordable for everyone
yes it sounds like a plan but the
problem is
i didn’t know anything about 3d printer
3d modeling
nothing and
i did the simplest thing
that you can ever imagine because i was
so motivated so enthusiastic
about this project something that we can
all do
something that sometimes we are afraid
to do it
or we forget to do it
i simply ask for help
and if you’re afraid to ask for help
remember one thing
you have nothing to lose because the
worst thing
that can happen when you ask for help is
that the person
refuse to help you
and if you don’t ask this person could
not help you
so remember that so i was so motivated
i wanted to succeed because i think it
was
meaningful that i started to ask to
everyone
for help about this project
and really quickly
i find one person and then another one
and i gain confidence and i say oh wow
why not asking to my company
to help me i work in airbus we can build
big aircraft and i was sure i could find
the competences to make an aesthetic for
prosthesis
it’s what i did and by searching for
help i discover
this place called protospace
it’s a we’re really lucky and nervous to
have this space
it’s a space dedicated to innovation
and prototyping it was exactly
what i needed for my project and i asked
for help
to the leader of the space and helped me
we built a team of volunteer
we work on a personal time
at the lunch time in the evening
sometime late at night
and in six months we did that
and clearly you can see
you can see that i don’t want to hide my
prosthesis
and i think i have the coolest leg in
the world
i’m so happy about that and now
imagine that this thing can be
affordable
for everyone today we are working on a
software
in order to shape to give some parameter
to
give the shape of the leg and you can
get the 3d model from this software
and by doing it if you do it if you do
that
it will cost only 10 euro to make a leg
like this
imagine the difference we can do in the
life
of children that lack of confidence with
their prosthesis
you know i didn’t expected
anything from this project
but i have to tell you that if i had
asked for something
i would have never asked for all the
thing that i got thanks to that
it completely changed my life but
despite the fact that i’m the coolest
man in the world
with the prosthesis i changed my
position in airbus and i become the
new leader of the protospace that you
see just before
it make a huge difference in my life i
met a lot of people
all around the world with the same
passion
for the purpose
and i also discover how powerful it is
to work on project without expecting
anything in return
and another thing i didn’t expect it at
all
is that there’s people
who helped me during the project in fact
they came to me
at the end to thank me because they were
proud
they were happy to contribute to
something meaningful
with a human aspect and by using
their competencies
and at this moment i understood
something
and i didn’t want to stop there if
people
want to work on this kind of project i
can find
a lot more
and that’s why one year ago
i started an initiative called humanity
lab
in airbus and now it is supported by the
top management of airbus
and the idea is to
it’s really simple is to connect the
people
who know what is the problem
and what impact we will have if we solve
this problem
but the problem they they don’t know how
to solve it
technically and on the other side
you have the people who solve problems
every day
in their work but they don’t know what
are the problem
the idea of the humanity lab is just to
connect
this to group and to find together
the best solution and we did that in the
way that is the easiest as possible
to become a volunteer so we get rid
of all the excuses we know exactly what
we have to do
we know the competence that we need and
it’s easy to become a volunteer right
now
and you know i work in the
in the protospace it’s an amazing place
we have
everything like the tools the method
and the skilled people to make almost
anything with the innovation of airbus
why not using it to make innovation
out of the business with the me
with the meaning and for me
it’s a question of responsibility if we
can do
something we have to do it
and we can do a lot
let me give you some numbers around the
humanity lab so we start last year
in september now there is four proto
space
all around the world that support the
initiative
we have more than 90 volunteer
it represents thousands of hours
of volunteering on personal time and
they work on 12 projects in areas such
as
disability health humanitarian education
and environment let me give you some
example of
project i love this one
because it was really simple we just
transform
a regular training into something
meaningful
for this young girl named lou
who was born without a forearm and it
took only nine sessions
to teach the trainees how to use a 3d
printer
and to make this arm for this little
girl
based on the 3d model given by the
charity enable
and i can tell you that no one
missed a single session of this training
because there were purples and i can
tell you
that when you see the smile of this
little girl
it’s a reward that you cannot imagine
this is the goal of the humanity lab
also is to develop the competencies
and at the same time to foster
engagement
in the company
we have a lot of other projects we work
with
adaptation for disabled people that
to in order that the access to sport we
did the
rolling leg rolling prosthetic leg
we did also a wheelchair for badminton
we build a telepresence robot
for children stuck in the hospital in
order that they
go outside through the robot we made
we are working on a exoskeleton to help
children with cerebral palsy
to to allow them to work
we build also babies
weight scale to fight malnutrition
and a lot of other projects like this
but more than the project i want to talk
about the volunteer
and jose is one of them
jose before to come to to the humanity
lab in airbus
he was volunteer for an ngo called
winded
for one month last year and the goal of
this ngo
is to give access to clean and
sustainable
energy from the wind to people who live
in isolated village in peru
and here in this case the humanity lab
was just an enabler
it just gave the permission to jose
to ask for help
and in this uh in this project
one of the things that we have to
improve was the manufacturing
of the the blade of the wind turbine
jose simply asked to the expert
in airbus for the manufacturing of the
helicopter blade
this is what we have to offer
a passion or competence or knowledge
and the means to realize concrete things
and in return we are
not paid with money we are paid with
emotion this is the new culture
that we need to develop in our companies
and the goal of the humanity lab
is just to empower all the rossi in the
company
to make a difference
you know my cancer
and my amputation haven’t visible me
they make me more alive and they prepare
me to see
challenges not as something negative
but as an opportunity and
you don’t have to wait to have a cancer
to change your life you just have to
change your priority
and make the purpose your top priority
it’s simple you take something that you
want to change
and you focus on it
it don’t have to be a big thing i start
by making my mother smile
you take this thing and you focus a
little bit of your time
every day or every week
to find a solution you ask for help you
inspire people around you
you stand for something bigger than you
and you make it
happen you will not regret it thank you
right
right get out here
come out here
this is your moment
right