Trusting Your Gut Is A LongTerm Game
Transcriber: Petra Molnárová
Reviewer: Emma Dovlatyan
So, six years ago, I started a company
in sustainability in Shanghai
and everyone thought I was crazy.
Everyone said, ″you’re going to use
waste in people’s office?
People will be paying for this?
Are you insane?″
And now, six years later,
people applaud us, like,
″we need more companies
like you, more people like you!″
So it’s a whole different scenario,
it’s a whole different world.
So what got me, six years ago,
to despise everyone, including my family,
telling me, like, ‘don’t do it’,
to actually continue and pursue this idea,
because for me,
it came like a small idea,
which transformed into a calling,
which transformed into a business,
which is today, like,
the government’s main focus
for the next 50 years.
So, today, I want to talk about this
so, this is me, hi!
And…
so I thought, because of my background,
I was asked today
to speak about local issues
and truth be told,
today, I don’t want to talk
about why recycling is important,
I don’t want to talk about ways
we can all ‘save’ the planet -
because I don’t think the planet
needs to be saved,
and honestly, I think we
need to save ourselves.
I’m also not going to tell you
to go back to nature and connect with it,
because what does that even mean?
Connecting with nature?
Instead, I would love to take
these following minutes
to just explain, and maybe it’ll allow
you to connect with yourself first.
Because for me and my job,
if you’re not connected to yourself,
you’re likely not connected
to the environment around you.
So,
let’s go on a trip
down the memory lane.
I’ll take you back to when I was six,
and my favourite thing to do was going
to the back of the yard through the sheds
and next to the sheds, there was a tree
which made it really easy to climb onto
the little roof of the sheds.
And I’d spend hours dreaming about
the adventures I would go on,
like different lands I’d discover.
And when I was not on the roof,
I was actually outside looking
for hidden places
or connecting with people
that I’d never met before.
And…
I grew up and, of course,
like everyone tells you,
well, this isn’t gonna be a job.
You have to think about how you
make money and make a living.
So I forgot about that little dream
of discovering the world
and meeting people.
But sometimes, it would come back
and I don’t know why, I had this urge
to write it down, and I just put it
in a box in my room
and then I forgot about it again.
So I went through
middle school, high school,
then right before,
I was about your age,
when I was about to start studying,
it was actually right
before my postgraduate,
the idea came to me one last time.
And so, of course, I wrote it down
and wrote it down here.
I’ll read it out for you.
I must have been…
21? Around that age.
When I’m 28, I’ll go on
an adventure, I’ll learn how to surf,
how to dance, and how to skate.
By then, I’ll have my motorcycle license.
I could live in a car
if I had to.
I won’t forget what
life really is all about for me.
Adventure, good food,
discovering new people, places, love.
I won’t care about having
the latest fashion must-haves,
the best car,
the previous house,
I’d live by myself.
But for now, I’ll go and I’ll learn
stuff that interests me,
have a good job,
save a lot of money
and be ready
for when I’m 28.
I’m 28 now.
(Laughter)
So, I went to do my postgraduate,
and the last class was called
Sustainable Luxury.
It was basically a week of watching
depressing documentaries,
but it was not a small voice anymore
that I had inside my head.
It was a full-body experience.
I had eight hours of per day high energy,
my hair was up.
I was so excited.
I saw so many problems, so many
solutions, and I could not wait!
I knew this was something I was
going to do for the rest of my life.
And then I forgot, again,
for two months.
I wrote it down in my phone
to find it there later,
to have the same experience
all over again.
And this time, I just did not ignore it.
I thought, no, no, no! I could not
see myself doing anything else.
So I came to Shanghai
and I was looking for
a job in sustainability.
And again, people were like, what?
Sustainability?
No, I don’t think so, not here.
It’s not important.
But I spoke about it
and then people said,
‘Oh, well, actually,
this is interesting’.
Then within three months,
I was talking to people about it
and then within six months,
people asked to do workshops
around this topic.
And then within one year,
I had my first corporate clients.
Then I thought, I’m onto something.
So I continued and I started my company.
I was 24 and it was so hard.
It was so difficult.
But I had so much energy,
and I learned so much,
I made so many mistakes.
I got rejected so many times.
People still thought I was crazy
but I persevered,
I pushed and pushed.
Sometimes, the client would be like
‘yes, I need your help,
we’ll do a workshop here’
and somehow I survived, I made
money just enough to survive.
And then we got way more help.
I was able to hire people
to help me do the things
and everything was great.
2019 was the best year. Yes.
In my head, I was like, this is it.
I achieved what I wanted
to achieve at 24.
And then at the end of 2019,
this little voice came back.
Saying, ’Hi, cool!
so, we achieved it?
How about this little adventure we’ve been
dreaming of for the last twenty years?′
And I was like, no.
I don’t know.
I’m on a roll!
I’m doing so good!
Like, no, we’re gonna push and do more
of what I’m doing right now!
I don’t have time for this.
And then 2020 came and it was brutal.
It was really brutal.
We survived, but…
I tried everything in 2020
to stay on this track.
I tried everything, I created
the best products ever!
It’s a digital product.
It’s my best thing
I’ve created in the last five-six years,
barely anyone bought it.
I called every single person I got
in contact with in the last five years.
No one bought one of my services -
and they’re not that expensive.
So then,
2020 really broke me down to my knees.
Nothing, nothing worked.
And then, in 2021,
this voice came back saying,
’So…
adventure?′
And… I’m 28 and I found this note.
I found this note again
two months ago in January.
And I thought, well, maybe I’ll try.
So I started a project.
The company is still here.
It’s running by itself.
I thought, well,
if I can create the impact
I want to have on people
it can happen if I start
this new adventure,
because I’ll be able to have more
impact and talk to more people
and actually show way more
and faster than if I was just in Shanghai.
So now I’m embarking on a new adventure.
I’m going to create a documentary
about Chinese innovators
and change-makers who already exist.
They’re just not in my city.
So, I’m going to go on this adventure.
And again, this will be something new.
But what I found is that when you
do choose to listen to that little voice
and you actually persevere,
life kind of helps you in a way,
like it did when I started in Shanghai.
It helped me and it’s helping me again.
I think the biggest message, for me,
today, especially as an environmentalist,
is that the planet
doesn’t need to be saved.
But we need, truly, to save ourselves.
I don’t deny that we’re looking
at environmental disasters
in the near future,
but I don’t think that
things like - recycling
is helpful for sure,
But I think, again, what we need,
is for you to connect to yourself.
Because if you’re connected to yourself,
you’ll be connected to the
environment around you.
And this in itself will just help
the environment forward.
Are we creating too much waste? Yes.
Way too much.
Are species dying every day?
Yes. Thousands.
Is the planet becoming unlivable
every day a little bit more?
It is.
I think it’s crazy that we spend
so much money on
filters for clean air and water,
when you actually think that
those things are actually free.
But we spend no money on clothes
and that’s actually something that we
should be paying more money
for good quality.
So if your little voice
inside your head tells you
all you wanna do all day
is rock climb, do music,
invest in stocks - that’s great, too,
save people’s lives,
then please do it.
Will it be easy?
No.
It will be very difficult,
but it will be amazing.
You will feel so alive.
Will it be scary?
Yes, so scary because you’re
going against everything
and what you think
people will tell you.
So, I think my message today is,
the little voice inside your head,
It’s not going to have short-term results.
I think there is one country
that really understands the benefits
of the long term. It’s China.
So, trusting your gut,
listening to that little voice
is a long-term game.
I really invite you to start today
and trust it
and I can tell you,
you won’t regret it.
Thank you so much.
(Applause)