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When you have a job that pays you enough
to cover your basic needs,

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your bills, and even some more to spend,

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the assumption is that you'd be happy,

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or, even better, fulfilled.

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And it seems unthinkable
when you wake up and say

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you're going to leave a job like that
to pursue a passion.

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And that was my dilemma six years ago.

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I had a comfortable job,
I lived a comfortable life,

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and people expected me to be fulfilled,

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but I wasn't.

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There was something
in me that wanted more.

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There was a misalignment between
the things I did on a daily basis

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and the things that I deeply cared about.

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And so I decided to quit

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and explore the possibility of bringing
this passion into my daily routine.

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And the think about finding your passion

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is that it's not straightforward.

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Even for people and money and degrees,

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they still struggle
to identify their passion.

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And here I was as a 30-year old
talking about finding my passion

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and turning it into a career.

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Literally, people told me,

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"You don't talk about passion
until you've made enough money."

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(Laughter)

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"Or at least until
you're ready to retire."

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Because, there's a notion
that looking inward

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and finding the things that give us
pleasure and fulfillment

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is a luxury that only the rich can enjoy,

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or a pleasure that only
the retired can indulge in.

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Which made me wonder:

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is passion only for the rich

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or an experience only
the retired can enjoy?

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For many of us, we've been led to believe

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that life is a race for survival.

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We've been conditioned to see ourselves
as survivors that must do everything

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in our power to survive.

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In Africa, we had to go
through school, cram and pass,

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in the hope that you get a job after,

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and if you do, stick at it
no matter how much it sucks.

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(Laughter)

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Until you get a better offer
or you're asked to retire.

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And as a dropout,

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I knew that I was not
entitled to anything.

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Every opportunity was a privilege.

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And so when I thought about quitting,

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it was a huge risk.

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I was given two alternatives,

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which are the most popular in Africa.

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The first one is sign up for any course
at a vocational institution and do it.

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My second option, settle
for any job offer you can get,

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no matter the working conditions,

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and do it.

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That probably explains why we have
so many of our young people

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being trafficked in search
of greener pastures.

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I opted for the first option.

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I did look at a couple
vocational institutions

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in the hope that I would find a course
that resonated with my persona,

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my dream, and my aspiration.

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I was disappointed to learn that there
was no room for misfits like me

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in these institutions.

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The education system
in many parts of the world

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has been designed
around pre-selected options

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that young people are expected
to fit in or risk becoming misfits.

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And so going through school
I was nurtured and conditioned

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to think in the straight line
and stay within the straight line.

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But when I dropped out, I discovered
a world of possibilities.

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I knew I could be anything,
I could study anything,

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so I leveraged free online courses.

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That's how I built my CV,
got into employment,

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and worked for eight years.

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And after eight years,

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I told myself there must be more to life

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than just going through
the routines of life.

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So in 2014 I started
an organization called Kyusa

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where we are working
with other school youth

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and empowering them to turn their passions

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into profitable, scalable
and sustainable businesses.

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Now, when we talk about passion,

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one of the most common questions
that people ask is, "What is passion?

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How do I even find it?"

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And in the simplest definition,

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passion is a collection
of your life experiences

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that give you the deepest
sense of fulfillment.

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And to identify your passion,
you need to look inward.

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So we used two reflective questions.

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The first question is,

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if you had all the time
and the money in the world,

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what would you spend your time doing?

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It sounds like a very simple question,

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but many people struggle
to answer this question

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because they've just
never thought about it.

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The second question we ask

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is, what makes you happy

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or gives you the deepest
sense of fulfillment?

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Now, you would assume that we all
know what makes us happy,

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but it's also interesting to note
that so many people have no idea

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what makes them happy,

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because they are so busy
going through the routines of life,

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they've never stopped to look inward.

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And so identifying the things that give us
a deep sense of fulfillment

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and the things that give us deep joy

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are thoughts that begin to direct us
in the direction of our passion.

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And just in case you're wondering

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what your answers are
to those two questions,

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I invite you to sit with those questions
later and just reflect about it.

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However, I am also aware
that passion alone

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cannot guarantee success in life.

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And I should note

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that not every passion
can become a career.

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For passion to become a career,

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it must be coupled with the right set
of skills, conditioning, and positioning.

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So when we get our young
people to look inward,

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we also ask them what skills do you have,

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what talents do you have,
what experience do you have

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that you can use to build
a niche in the marketplace.

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But more than that, we also
look at the market trends,

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because it doesn't matter
how much you love and enjoy it.

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If nobody wants it
or is willing to pay for it,

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it can't be a career. It's just a hobby.

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And the third thing we look at
is how do you position yourself?

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Who are you targeting?
Who do you want to sell to?

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Why would they want to buy from you?

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And so the combination of the three
is what enables you to move

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from just a passion to a business.

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And many of our young people
have been able to turn their ideas

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and burning desires
into profitable businesses

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or social enterprises,

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and they're not just creating jobs,

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but they are solving societal challenges.

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I'll share with you two examples.

NOTE Paragraph

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One of them is Esther.

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I met Esther two years ago.

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She had been out of school for two years

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and she had been deeply affected
by her dropping out.

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As a result, she had experienced
severe depression

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to a point where she attempted
to take her own life several times.

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Her friends and family
didn't know what to do for her.

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They simply prayed for her.

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When I met Esther and I started
to converse with her,

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I asked her a simple question.

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I said, "If you had all the time
and the money in the world,

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what would you do?"

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Without thinking or hesitation,

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her eyes lit up and she began to tell me

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how she wanted to change
the lives of young people.

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She wanted to restore
hope and dignity to other teenagers

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by helping them make
informed decisions about life.

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I was certain of the fact
that this burning desire in her

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was unquenchable,

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so we worked with Esther
to put a framework around this desire.

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Today, she runs a social
enterprise in her village

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raising awareness about substance abuse,
mental health, sexual reproductive health,

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and is helping other school dropouts
acquire vocational skills

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so they can make a living for themselves.

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Esther turned 20 this year,

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and for the last two years,
she has organized and annual teen fest

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that brings together over 500 teenagers.

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(Applause)

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Young people that are able
to network and collaborate

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on different projects,

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but more importantly to meet professionals
they would otherwise never have met.

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This is all engineered by a girl that
believed the world had no room for her,

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that without education
she would never amount to anything.

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But by looking inward
and tapping into a burning desire,

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putting structure around it,

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it has become a model

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that not only changed her life

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but it's transforming the lives
of hundreds of young people every year.

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My other example is Moussa.

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Moussa is a natural artistic guy.

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He's the kind that would look
at any design and replicate it with ease.

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And so he seeks to recognize
that ability in him.

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When I met Moussa,
he was doing all kinds of crafts --

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bags, belts, wallets --

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but it was more of a part-time thing,

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or sometimes, if he was really broke
and needed to make quick money,

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then he would come up
with a design and sell it.

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But he had never thought
of it as a business.

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We started working with Moussa,

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helping him shift his mindset
from a hobby to a business,

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and beginning to rethink, how can he
make products that he could sell

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and even be able to scale?

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Moussa makes some of
the most amazing bags I've ever seen,

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and over the last one year
Moussa's business has grown.

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He has been recognized
in different places.

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Currently, he's talking about
exporting to developed countries.

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Moussa, like any other dropout,

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believed that without
academic credentials,

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he wouldn't amount to anything.

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He thought the talent he had was nothing

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simply because it did not have
an academic paper to define it.

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But by looking inward and finding
that what he had was the greatest asset

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and supporting him
to turn it into a business,

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he's not just living, he's thriving.

NOTE Paragraph

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The thing about looking inward
is that it can be scary,

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especially if you're doing it
for the first time,

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but the truth is you never
truly start living

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until you learn to live
from the inside out.

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And in unlocking potential,
we need to look inward to identify

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the things that give us
a deep sense of fulfillment,

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the things that give us the deepest joy,

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and then weave them into
the patterns of our daily routines.

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In so doing, we cease to work
and we start to live,

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and the thing about living is that
you never have to retire or to resign.

NOTE Paragraph

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(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

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(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

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And so as you think about
unlocking potential for ourselves,

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for our young people, for our children,

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let's not condition them to look outward

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but condition them to look inward

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to tap into who they are and bring
that self into what they do every day.

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When you cease to work and you live,

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when passion becomes a career,

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you don't just excel,

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you become unstoppable.

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Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

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(Applause)