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