0:00:21.509,0:00:23.939
Ten years ago, I quit my job as a bookseller

0:00:23.939,0:00:25.319
I packed my luggage

0:00:25.319,0:00:27.769
and I left Paris to live in Los Angeles.

0:00:29.888,0:00:31.508
I didn’t know anyone there

0:00:31.508,0:00:32.618
but I knew that I wanted

0:00:32.618,0:00:33.658
to make movies

0:00:33.658,0:00:37.658
so it made sense to go to Hollywood.

0:00:38.674,0:00:40.174
I came back to France

0:00:40.174,0:00:41.864
after a few years

0:00:41.864,0:00:44.464
and when people would ask me:

0:00:44.464,0:00:46.184
: “What do you do in life?”

0:00:46.184,0:00:47.034
I would reply:

0:00:47.034,0:00:49.214
: “I’m a filmmaker. I make movies.

0:00:49.214,0:00:53.214
Actually, I’m just back from a few years in Los Angeles.”

0:00:53.214,0:00:56.994
I would oftentimes see a little sparkle

0:00:56.994,0:00:57.764
in their eyes as they'd say:

0:00:57.764,0:00:58.694
“That’s amazing!

0:00:58.694,0:00:59.864
What type of films do you direct?

0:00:59.864,0:01:01.264
Can we see them at the movie theatre?

0:01:01.264,0:01:03.704
Have you worked with famous people?”

0:01:04.595,0:01:05.545
And I would reply:

0:01:05.545,0:01:06.745
: “I direct mostly fiction.

0:01:06.745,0:01:09.075
You can’t watch my films at the movie theatre

0:01:09.075,0:01:09.735
- not yet.

0:01:09.735,0:01:13.735
And no...no, I haven’t worked with anyone famous.”[br][br]

0:01:14.861,0:01:15.861
At that moment

0:01:15.861,0:01:16.761
there would be a silence

0:01:16.761,0:01:18.621
long enough for their enthusiasm

0:01:18.621,0:01:20.141
to go down a few inches

0:01:20.141,0:01:20.871
And then,

0:01:20.871,0:01:23.621
we would keep on talking about Los Angeles.

0:01:25.788,0:01:26.628
Little by little,

0:01:26.628,0:01:29.448
tired of seeing people’s reaction

0:01:29.448,0:01:33.174
going from curious to disappointed

0:01:33.174,0:01:34.774
when they would realize

0:01:34.774,0:01:36.004
that I was a “wannabe”,

0:01:36.004,0:01:40.804
I started lying about what I was doing.

0:01:41.040,0:01:41.930
I stopped saying [br]

0:01:41.930,0:01:42.970
“I’m a filmmaker”

0:01:42.970,0:01:46.160
to say “I work as a freelance.”

0:01:47.220,0:01:48.740
I stopped saying

0:01:48.740,0:01:52.740
to say “I make videos for clients.”

0:01:52.740,0:01:54.810
It sounded less dreamy

0:01:54.810,0:01:56.520
but it was useful and practical.

0:01:56.520,0:01:58.440
We would talk about how to find clients,

0:01:58.440,0:02:00.440
how to bill them, about gear.

0:02:00.440,0:02:02.930
And more importantly,

0:02:02.948,0:02:04.148
I stopped feeling like

0:02:04.148,0:02:08.148
like I had to apologize for my lack of success.

0:02:08.148,0:02:10.188
I began to feel a bit weird about it though

0:02:10.253,0:02:11.073
, so I asked myself

0:02:11.073,0:02:13.593
“Why do you lie about what you do?

0:02:13.593,0:02:15.253
And why do you feel

0:02:15.253,0:02:17.963
feel compelled to diminish people's expectations

0:02:17.963,0:02:21.963
so they won’t think you’ve failed?”

0:02:23.113,0:02:25.093
It’s at that point that I really started

0:02:25.093,0:02:26.213
to become interested

0:02:26.213,0:02:28.343
about the concept of “success”

0:02:28.343,0:02:30.283
and how it has evolved

0:02:30.283,0:02:31.673
in the last few years,

0:02:31.673,0:02:34.803
especially with the social medias’ arrival in our lives

0:02:34.803,0:02:36.093
that remind us daily

0:02:36.093,0:02:38.303
how we rank on the graph of success

0:02:38.303,0:02:41.203
compared to the other 8 billion.

0:02:43.247,0:02:44.657
This ranking on the “success graph”

0:02:44.657,0:02:45.717
explains why sometimes,

0:02:45.717,0:02:48.067
when we talk with people,

0:02:48.067,0:02:50.257
a contest starts

0:02:50.257,0:02:52.977
to find out who has the most impact.

0:02:52.977,0:02:54.597
It’s conveyed through innocent words:

0:02:54.597,0:02:55.657
“I know X person”

0:02:55.657,0:02:57.937
“X number of people follow me”

0:02:57.937,0:02:59.917
“I travelled through X number of countries”,

0:02:59.917,0:03:01.727
“I was a speaker at X event”.

0:03:02.778,0:03:03.818
Giving a TED Talk is great

0:03:03.818,0:03:05.348
to win an impact contest.

0:03:05.719,0:03:08.839
Thank you TED.

0:03:08.984,0:03:11.854
Power and Success have always existed.

0:03:13.041,0:03:14.841
And they’ve always been a fuel

0:03:14.841,0:03:15.651
for some people

0:03:15.651,0:03:17.141
and obstacles for others.

0:03:18.301,0:03:19.401
But in the last few years,

0:03:19.401,0:03:20.941
things have become so intense

0:03:20.941,0:03:25.231
that I’ve found myself listening to 24-year-olds

0:03:25.231,0:03:27.741
explaining that they had abandoned a dream

0:03:27.741,0:03:31.421
or an idea before they had even started.

0:03:31.421,0:03:32.871
And the reason why

0:03:32.871,0:03:34.621
they had given up before trying

0:03:34.621,0:03:37.241
is that they were paralysed by the success

0:03:37.241,0:03:38.461
of people younger than them

0:03:38.461,0:03:41.471
that they were witnessing daily on social media.

0:03:42.720,0:03:44.780
I’ve listened to 24-year-olds explaining

0:03:44.780,0:03:47.370
to me that if they really had something

0:03:47.370,0:03:48.600
to achieve on this planet

0:03:48.600,0:03:52.600
they should have had their breakthrough by now.

0:03:52.600,0:03:59.360
At 24 they didn’t feel old, they felt expired. [br]

0:04:01.460,0:04:03.480
We have developed a surprising relationship

0:04:03.480,0:04:06.080
with what we could call our “expiration date”.

0:04:06.860,0:04:08.640
We used to have one expiration date:

0:04:08.640,0:04:09.930
: our death.

0:04:09.930,0:04:13.990
Today we have a second expiration date in our lives,

0:04:14.352,0:04:17.542
and it’s our social expiration date.

0:04:17.863,0:04:20.033
The idea that what we do must

0:04:20.033,0:04:24.853
be recognised and measurable to have value

0:04:25.583,0:04:27.653
And if we don’t receive immediately

0:04:27.653,0:04:30.383
a positive feedback about what we do,

0:04:30.383,0:04:37.503
or worse, if what we do is deemed useless,

0:04:37.503,0:04:41.503
ridicule, or a failure

0:04:41.503,0:04:44.783
, then we feel socially expired.

0:04:45.213,0:04:47.963
And that’s how some 24-year-olds

0:04:47.963,0:04:49.693
prefer to go sit on the bench

0:04:49.693,0:04:53.043
to watch History create itself without them

0:04:53.043,0:04:55.063
rather than risking to do something

0:04:55.063,0:04:59.063
and not receive immediately a positive feedback.

0:05:01.228,0:05:02.258
While I was looking into

0:05:02.258,0:05:02.898
what “success” means today

0:05:02.898,0:05:04.978
and into our date of social expiration,

0:05:04.978,0:05:07.818
I’ve realised that my job

0:05:07.818,0:05:11.818
is not to write screenplays or direct films,

0:05:11.818,0:05:15.818
, my job is to fabricate stories.

0:05:16.146,0:05:17.756
It’s a job that might

0:05:17.756,0:05:20.336
seem useless but actually,

0:05:20.336,0:05:24.466
, storytelling is the best way that we,

0:05:24.466,0:05:28.736
humans, have found to survive. [br][br]

0:05:29.086,0:05:29.806
Tonight,

0:05:29.806,0:05:31.216
if we’ve all come onto this stage

0:05:31.216,0:05:34.276
to talk to you for 15 minutes one after the other

0:05:34.276,0:05:35.646
it’s because the best way

0:05:35.646,0:05:39.856
to convey an idea is to do it with a story.

0:05:39.856,0:05:43.376
In 2018 we could have made

0:05:43.376,0:05:46.336
a pdf with each TED Talk’s main idea

0:05:46.336,0:05:47.826
summed up in one sentence

0:05:47.826,0:05:49.446
and we could have emailed it to you.

0:05:49.446,0:05:50.726
Really, we could have done it.

0:05:50.726,0:05:52.926
It would have cost you less money,

0:05:52.926,0:05:55.466
and it would have taken us less time. [br][br]

0:05:55.966,0:05:57.186
But the power of messages

0:05:57.186,0:05:58.616
we are trying to share

0:05:58.616,0:06:00.366
would have evaporated.

0:06:00.366,0:06:03.666
We know it and you know it.

0:06:03.666,0:06:05.126
And that’s why you are here tonight

0:06:05.126,0:06:07.536
, to listen to stories that might open

0:06:07.536,0:06:10.366
a world of possibilities.

0:06:10.448,0:06:11.508
In 1944,

0:06:11.508,0:06:15.018
Professors Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel

0:06:15.018,0:06:16.138
conducted a test.

0:06:16.138,0:06:18.898
They showed a video

0:06:18.898,0:06:20.138
to a group of students

0:06:20.138,0:06:22.028
and asked them to answer

0:06:22.028,0:06:23.158
a series of questions

0:06:23.158,0:06:25.768
to describe what they had seen. [br][br]

0:06:25.768,0:06:27.538
I’m going to show you 15 seconds of the video,

0:06:27.538,0:06:29.498
it’s going to be quick

0:06:29.498,0:06:31.058
but I invite you to try

0:06:31.058,0:06:32.218
to answer this question:

0:06:32.218,0:06:34.688
“What am I seeing on the screen?”

0:06:48.859,0:06:51.389
That was 15 seconds.

0:06:51.523,0:06:53.823
When they reviewed the questionnaires,

0:06:53.823,0:06:55.403
Heidel and Simmel discovered

0:06:55.403,0:06:58.143
that 33 out of the 34 students

0:06:58.166,0:06:59.846
had fabricated a story.

0:07:00.737,0:07:02.527
They had imputed motives,

0:07:02.527,0:07:04.957
emotions, and behaviours

0:07:04.957,0:07:06.597
to the geometrical figures

0:07:06.597,0:07:07.737
that were randomly moving

0:07:07.737,0:07:09.727
through space that you just saw. [br][br]

0:07:10.791,0:07:11.871
This study was

0:07:11.871,0:07:13.341
one of the first scientific study

0:07:13.341,0:07:15.381
study that confirmed that our brain [br]

0:07:15.381,0:07:19.561
understands the world through stories

0:07:20.841,0:07:23.511
We cannot help but give meaning

0:07:23.511,0:07:25.361
to the world that surrounds us

0:07:25.361,0:07:28.091
And to give meaning to the world that

0:07:28.091,0:07:29.001
that surrounds us,

0:07:29.001,0:07:31.681
we fabricate stories.

0:07:31.681,0:07:32.711
Knowing that,

0:07:32.711,0:07:34.201
that stories are essential

0:07:34.201,0:07:36.521
to our survival and to our life

0:07:36.521,0:07:38.721
I want to tell you

0:07:38.721,0:07:40.811
another story about success.

0:07:40.811,0:07:43.311
An alternative to the current notion

0:07:43.311,0:07:45.691
that paralyses so many people today.

0:07:46.475,0:07:47.985
Earlier I said that

0:07:47.985,0:07:49.785
that we had two expiration dates:

0:07:49.849,0:07:53.769
the date of our death and the date of our social expiration

0:07:53.769,0:07:55.559
that we give to ourselves sooner and sooner.

0:07:56.337,0:07:57.977
What I did not tell you…

0:07:58.770,0:08:02.000
is that a phone is ringing right now.

0:08:02.484,0:08:03.684
What I didn’t tell you is

0:08:03.684,0:08:04.844
that we all have a joker.

0:08:05.818,0:08:10.098
We all have the possibility to become a good story.

0:08:11.532,0:08:13.982
We all have the possibility to become

0:08:13.982,0:08:16.172
a good story that is going to inspire

0:08:16.191,0:08:19.591
other human beings and help them move forward.

0:08:19.612,0:08:21.692
And there’s one group of people

0:08:21.699,0:08:25.279
whose job is to distribute jokers:

0:08:25.315,0:08:27.915
the story fabricators.

0:08:28.175,0:08:30.275
Lucky me: it’s my job.

0:08:30.337,0:08:33.547
My job is to hunt, to imagine,

0:08:33.641,0:08:35.621
and to share the stories

0:08:35.621,0:08:38.131
of people with a surprising,

0:08:38.131,0:08:40.321
innovating and impactful destiny

0:08:40.321,0:08:42.731
who are representing strong ideas.

0:08:42.846,0:08:44.986
And currently we are living through

0:08:44.986,0:08:46.296
interesting period.

0:08:46.296,0:08:47.966
Just like archeologists,

0:08:47.966,0:08:50.566
we are digging out new stories,

0:08:50.566,0:08:52.396
different stories.

0:08:52.396,0:08:56.536
Stories of people who often didn’t receive

0:08:56.536,0:08:59.816
immediate and positive feedback

0:08:59.816,0:09:01.496
about what they were doing

0:09:01.496,0:09:02.266
and who,

0:09:02.266,0:09:06.266
5, 50, 100, 200, 500 years later

0:09:06.266,0:09:09.966
end up at the center of the stage to help us,

0:09:09.966,0:09:11.326
the new generations,

0:09:11.326,0:09:13.976
to better understand the world and to move forward.

0:09:14.806,0:09:15.856
For example,

0:09:15.856,0:09:17.746
some of you might recognize

0:09:17.746,0:09:19.886
the name of Georgina Reid.

0:09:19.886,0:09:25.996
A textile designer who decided, in 1971, when she was 63

0:09:25.996,0:09:29.996
, that what she really wanted to do

0:09:29.996,0:09:32.616
was to save her little town’s lighthouse

0:09:32.616,0:09:34.515
that was at risk of falling down

0:09:34.515,0:09:35.885
due to the cliffs’ erosion.

0:09:35.945,0:09:38.185
Georgina created a whole system

0:09:38.185,0:09:39.215
that she patented.

0:09:39.215,0:09:42.805
She presented her project to the coast guards,

0:09:42.835,0:09:44.835
they listened and told her

0:09:44.835,0:09:46.815
“We won’t prevent you from doing it

0:09:46.815,0:09:48.045
but we won’t help you out either.”

0:09:48.045,0:09:49.645
Okay, no problem.

0:09:49.645,0:09:53.095
For 15 years, helped by her husband and volunteers,

0:09:53.095,0:09:55.595
Georgina used her knowledge

0:09:55.595,0:09:58.075
and her time for free

0:09:58.075,0:10:00.625
to prevent the lighthouse from falling down.

0:10:00.625,0:10:02.545
And she succeeded.

0:10:02.545,0:10:04.845
Georgina died in 2001

0:10:04.845,0:10:07.000
but the lighthouse is still here.

0:10:08.770,0:10:09.877
And then 3 years ago

0:10:10.741,0:10:12.307
a French story fabricator,

0:10:12.307,0:10:15.933
Pénélope Bagieu, gave a joker to Georgina. [br]

0:10:15.933,0:10:17.973
She shared Georgina’s story

0:10:18.071,0:10:21.787
in a graphic novel dedicated to several women

0:10:21.787,0:10:23.627
who’ve changed their story

0:10:23.627,0:10:27.227
and sometimes History in unexpected ways.

0:10:27.227,0:10:31.227
It’s thanks to a story fabricator

0:10:31.227,0:10:33.307
that 200,000 French people

0:10:33.307,0:10:36.107
and myself have been inspired

0:10:36.107,0:10:38.617
by Georgina and her determination

0:10:38.617,0:10:41.837
to fight for something that mattered to her

0:10:41.837,0:10:45.837
even though officially she was told it didn’t.

0:10:46.227,0:10:48.827
Georgina was able to become a good story

0:10:48.827,0:10:53.747
because she was an active actress of her story.

0:10:53.747,0:10:57.636
She didn’t settle for wishing that the lighthouse

0:10:57.636,0:10:59.194
wouldn’t fall down

0:10:59.607,0:11:01.097
No, she did what she had to do

0:11:01.097,0:11:03.019
to make sure the lighthouse wouldn’t fall down.

0:11:04.550,0:11:06.150
And this word, “doing”,

0:11:06.150,0:11:10.590
is one of the three steps to become a good story.

0:11:11.211,0:11:11.851
In reality,

0:11:11.851,0:11:13.630
the recipe to become a good story is simple.

0:11:14.146,0:11:16.316
Well, it fits into three steps.

0:11:17.906,0:11:18.326
First,

0:11:18.326,0:11:19.876
you have to listen to your intuition

0:11:19.876,0:11:23.247
to hear what you really want to do.

0:11:23.620,0:11:25.449
And once you’ve listened to it,

0:11:25.449,0:11:28.969
you need to muster the courage to go for it,

0:11:28.969,0:11:30.031
and do it.

0:11:30.031,0:11:32.581
And once you’ve had the courage to do it,

0:11:32.581,0:11:34.721
you need to repeat.

0:11:34.721,0:11:37.401
Every day, you need to do it again. [br][br]

0:11:39.141,0:11:40.541
Today we are under a lot of pressure

0:11:40.541,0:11:42.195
when it comes to picking the projects

0:11:42.195,0:11:43.384
we decide to pursue.

0:11:44.210,0:11:45.796
We need to have a goal.

0:11:45.796,0:11:49.226
there’s no goal, then it’s not serious.

0:11:49.226,0:11:51.504
And if it’s not serious

0:11:51.504,0:11:52.949
then our projects don’t have any value.

0:11:53.436,0:11:57.016
I completely disagree with this way of thinking.

0:11:57.326,0:11:58.406
If there’s one thing

0:11:58.406,0:11:59.986
I’ve learned this past decade

0:11:59.986,0:12:02.836
hunting and fabricating stories,

0:12:03.096,0:12:07.153
it is that the value of what we do is not fixed in time.

0:12:07.415,0:12:09.845
The value of what we do

0:12:09.845,0:12:12.865
can have a surprising impact in five years,

0:12:12.865,0:12:15.505
fifty years, after our death

0:12:15.505,0:12:18.025
or our great-grand-children’s death.

0:12:18.025,0:12:21.065
So there’s no point to try

0:12:21.065,0:12:25.190
doing something that will have an impact instantaneously.

0:12:25.190,0:12:27.360
We can’t know if it will happen.

0:12:27.360,0:12:29.495
We should just keep on doing.