I've got a question for you.
Which of you was always top of the class?
All your life, top of the class?
Right.
--Liar (Laughter)
Well, in precisely 9 minutes and 30 seconds, I'm going to make you proud
that you weren't always top of the class.
(Applause)
You're going to go home tonight and tell your partner, your children,
your friends and relatives:
"Hallelujah, thank God, I wasn't always top of my class!"
In 2007, when I started blogging, I began studying the lives of several people
who were successful in their lives.
And each of them was successful in their field, each one succeeded in a different way.
But there was one thing all these people shared, just one thing
which intrigued me, and this was the fact
that these people, these characters -- none of them had been really successful at school.
And some of them had even cut short their education
and others didn't even make it to school
for long periods of time.
So this was a little worrying and frustrating for me when I remembered
all those years in which parents and teachers
told us, you must work hard, you must get the best marks,
you must be one of the best to get into the best higher education establishments
and in the end, I note that the reality is this:
all those who have been successful at the school of life
were not necessarily those who were top of the class.
So this meant we needed an answer to the following question:
Why isn't it necessary to succeed at school in order to be successful in life?
Or even: why is there no direct link between success at school
and success in life?