WEBVTT 00:00:17.586 --> 00:00:20.425 I've got a question for you. 00:00:20.425 --> 00:00:26.860 Which of you was always top of the class? 00:00:31.032 --> 00:00:35.112 All your life, top of the class? 00:00:35.112 --> 00:00:36.424 Right. 00:00:36.424 --> 00:00:38.946 --Liar (Laughter) 00:00:38.946 --> 00:00:46.231 Well, in precisely 9 minutes and 30 seconds, I'm going to make you proud 00:00:46.231 --> 00:00:49.393 that you weren't always top of the class. 00:00:49.393 --> 00:00:53.985 (Applause) 00:00:53.985 --> 00:00:59.824 You're going to go home tonight and tell your partner, your children, 00:00:59.824 --> 00:01:01.637 your friends and relatives: 00:01:01.637 --> 00:01:08.370 "Hallelujah, thank God, I wasn't always top of my class!" 00:01:08.980 --> 00:01:16.350 In 2007, when I started blogging, I began studying the lives of several people 00:01:16.350 --> 00:01:18.962 who were successful in their lives. 00:01:23.555 --> 00:01:28.481 And each of them was successful in their field, each one succeeded in a different way. 00:01:28.481 --> 00:01:32.987 But there was one thing all these people shared, just one thing 00:01:32.987 --> 00:01:38.140 which intrigued me, and this was the fact 00:01:38.140 --> 00:01:47.111 that these people, these characters -- none of them had been really successful at school. 00:01:47.111 --> 00:01:54.148 And some of them had even cut short their education 00:01:54.148 --> 00:01:57.068 and others didn't even make it to school 00:01:57.068 --> 00:01:59.681 for long periods of time. 00:01:59.681 --> 00:02:03.430 So this was a little worrying and frustrating for me when I remembered 00:02:03.430 --> 00:02:07.673 all those years in which parents and teachers 00:02:07.673 --> 00:02:11.312 told us, you must work hard, you must get the best marks, 00:02:11.312 --> 00:02:16.732 you must be one of the best to get into the best higher education establishments 00:02:17.744 --> 00:02:21.563 and in the end, I note that the reality is this: 00:02:21.563 --> 00:02:24.665 all those who have been successful at the school of life 00:02:24.665 --> 00:02:28.647 were not necessarily those who were top of the class. 00:02:29.066 --> 00:02:31.633 So this meant we needed an answer to the following question: 00:02:31.633 --> 00:02:39.812 Why isn't it necessary to succeed at school in order to be successful in life? 00:02:39.990 --> 00:02:47.105 Or even: why is there no direct link between success at school 00:02:47.105 --> 00:02:50.025 and success in life? 00:02:50.025 --> 00:02:53.981 Because, to mention people you know very well, such as Steve Jobs 00:02:53.981 --> 00:02:59.057 or Bill Gates who have businesses - they employ people who were top of the class. 00:02:59.057 --> 00:03:01.142 But when did they leave school? 00:03:01.142 --> 00:03:03.232 They both dropped out 00:03:03.232 --> 00:03:07.203 during their fresher year at university. 00:03:07.346 --> 00:03:11.189 So how come, then, that we, who try to be top of the class 00:03:11.189 --> 00:03:15.353 end up working in businesses for people who 00:03:15.353 --> 00:03:19.404 perhaps don't even know how to read and write? 00:03:20.187 --> 00:03:22.684 So that's when I started looking, and luckily 00:03:22.684 --> 00:03:28.990 I took the right approach right from the start, so I couldn't - or I didn't have to - look very hard. 00:03:28.990 --> 00:03:33.426 I started looking by identifying the qualities these people share 00:03:33.426 --> 00:03:36.742 which have allowed them to be successful in life. 00:03:36.742 --> 00:03:39.780 And I found 5 of these. 00:03:39.780 --> 00:03:44.430 Next, I tried to see these qualities in the education system 00:03:44.430 --> 00:03:47.977 all over the world, how are these qualities developed? 00:03:47.977 --> 00:03:53.348 Or at least appreciated or accommodated in the education system? 00:03:53.348 --> 00:03:58.228 And I was shocked to find I had discovered that these qualities -- 00:03:58.228 --> 00:04:02.869 not only are they not developed within the education system, 00:04:02.869 --> 00:04:06.587 but they are even punished in the education system. 00:04:06.587 --> 00:04:12.278 In other words, if you are unlucky enough to possess one or even several of these qualities 00:04:12.278 --> 00:04:16.986 you can be absolutely sure that you will be unable to succeed in the education system. 00:04:16.986 --> 00:04:23.062 And when you get to the workplace, you will be needing these qualities. 00:04:23.062 --> 00:04:28.732 So the first of these qualities is about being passionate. 00:04:28.732 --> 00:04:31.229 Just imagine this discussion with Einstein: 00:04:31.229 --> 00:04:33.102 you meet Einstein and you say to him: 00:04:33.102 --> 00:04:36.189 "Now, Einstein, it seems that you love physics, right?" 00:04:36.189 --> 00:04:41.194 And he says to you: "No, I hate physics. You know, I'm only doing physics 00:04:41.194 --> 00:04:43.590 because my parents made me do it. 00:04:43.590 --> 00:04:46.988 I hate it...but hey, Hamdullah, I've been lucky, 00:04:46.988 --> 00:04:51.904 I've discovered a few theories, got a Nobel prize, and all that...well, I've been lucky." 00:04:51.904 --> 00:04:55.906 Or it could be that you could talk to Bill Gates, and so you say to him: 00:04:55.906 --> 00:04:58.745 "So, Bill Gates, it seems that you're turned on by computers?" 00:04:58.745 --> 00:05:03.078 And he says: "Nah, it's just destiny that pushed me to get into computers. 00:05:03.078 --> 00:05:06.302 Well Hamdullah, it's really taken off!" 00:05:06.302 --> 00:05:08.425 Can you imagine this type of discussion? 00:05:08.425 --> 00:05:12.233 It's impossible because we know that these people are passionately enthusiastic. 00:05:12.233 --> 00:05:13.671 So, what is passion? 00:05:13.671 --> 00:05:17.672 Passion means having an emotional and sentimental approach 00:05:17.672 --> 00:05:19.988 to a job. 00:05:19.988 --> 00:05:24.401 And if you are unfortunate enough to have this quality as school, you are going to fall in love 00:05:24.401 --> 00:05:28.109 with certain subjects, and you will work hard on those. 00:05:28.109 --> 00:05:31.346 And you'll hate the other subjects, and you won't work as hard on them. 00:05:31.346 --> 00:05:37.025 And as soon as you get to secondary school, you'll discover what we call the subject weightings. 00:05:37.025 --> 00:05:40.455 The subject weightings - the head will never come to you at the beginning of the year and say: 00:05:40.455 --> 00:05:43.288 "So, what do you like? You like maths? Ah! Let's raise its weighting. 00:05:43.288 --> 00:05:46.948 You don't like physics? We'll bring it down." 00:05:46.948 --> 00:05:48.660 It will never ever happen like that. 00:05:48.660 --> 00:05:49.992 The weighting is already set. 00:05:49.992 --> 00:05:54.634 If you're good at maths, physics and languages, we take the highest weighting. 00:05:54.634 --> 00:05:59.221 If you like geography and history, and you work hard at those but you hate maths 00:05:59.221 --> 00:06:05.341 then you'll never get a good mark, or never the top mark, in the exam. 00:06:05.341 --> 00:06:08.386 Which means you'll be hearing this sort of thing all the time: 00:06:08.386 --> 00:06:12.548 "He's a hard worker, in certain subjects, he really is very, very good. 00:06:12.548 --> 00:06:16.287 But in other subjects, he really could do better." 00:06:16.287 --> 00:06:21.968 That's what they're passionate about at school: it's someone who could always do better. 00:06:21.968 --> 00:06:25.981 And that's why those at the top of the class have no feelings. 00:06:25.981 --> 00:06:30.064 They have no passion. They work at everything! 00:06:30.064 --> 00:06:31.741 They work hard in every subject! 00:06:31.741 --> 00:06:35.516 And they are good at all the subjects. 00:06:35.516 --> 00:06:37.869 And this creates a big problem for those at the top of the class. 00:06:37.869 --> 00:06:41.582 Because later on, they can apply to study medicine, law, and accountancy. 00:06:41.582 --> 00:06:45.791 They can do it all. 00:06:45.791 --> 00:06:47.987 At the outset, they are impressed by their abilities. 00:06:47.987 --> 00:06:50.555 But later, when you get to work, they'll say to you: 00:06:50.555 --> 00:06:52.038 "No, no, no: Stop!" 00:06:52.038 --> 00:06:55.788 If you want to succeed, there are two things that are very important, primordial in life. 00:06:55.788 --> 00:07:05.060 If you want to achieve happiness and excellence, you must be passionate about what you do. 00:07:05.060 --> 00:07:10.741 But without passion, you can't succeed at work, nor even in your personal life. 00:07:10.741 --> 00:07:15.472 Yet at school, we've always been forced to take compulsory subjects, rather than follow our passion. 00:07:15.472 --> 00:07:19.314 Second quality: curiosity.