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