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You may know this feeling --

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you wake up to multiple unread
notifications on your mobile phone.

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Your calendar is already
packed with meetings,

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sometimes double or tripple-booked.

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You feel engaged, you feel busy.

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In fact, you feel productive.

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But at the end of it all,
something still feels missing.

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You try to figure out what it is
but before you do,

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the next day starts all over again.

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That was how I felt two years ago.

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I felt stressed, I felt anxious,
I felt a bit trapped.

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The world around me
was moving very quickly.

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And I didn't know what to do.

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I started wondering,
how do I keep up with all this?

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How do we find fulfillment

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in a world that's literally changing
as fast as we can think?

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Or maybe even faster.

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I started looking for answers.

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I spoke to many people,
I spoke to my friends,

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I spoke to my family.

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I even read many self-help books.

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But I couldn't find anything satisfactory.

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In fact, the more self-help books I read,

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the more stressed and anxious I became.

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(Laughter)

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It was like I was feeding
my mind with junk food

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and I was becoming mentally obese.

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(Laughter)

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I was about to give up.

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Until one day I found this.

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Thetao Te Ching, the book
of the way and its virtues.

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This is an ancient Chinese
philosophy classic

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that was written
more than 2,600 years ago.

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And it was by far the thinnest
and the smallest book on the bookshelf.

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It only had 81 pages.

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And each page had a short poem.

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I remember I flicked through
one particular poem.

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Here it is.

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It's beautiful, isn't it?

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(Laughter)

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Let me read it out to you.

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"The supreme goodness is like water.

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It benefits all things without contention.

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In dwelling, it stays grounded.

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In being, if lows to depths.

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In expression, it is honest.

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In confrontation, it stays gentle.

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In governance, it does not control.

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In action, it aligns to timing.

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It is content with its nature,

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and therefore cannot be faulted."

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Wow! I remember
when I first read this passage.

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I felt the biggest chills down my spine.

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I still feel that today,
reading it to you guys.

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My anxiety and stress
just suddenly disappeared.

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Ever since that day,

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I've been trying to apply the concepts
in this passage to my day-to-day life.

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And today I'd like to share with you
three lessons I learned so far

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from this philosophy of water.

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Three lessons that I believe
have helped me

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find greater fulfillment
in almost everything that I do.

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The first lesson is about humility.

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If we think about water
flowing in a river,

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it is always staying low.

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It helps other plants grow
and keeps all the animals alive.

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It doesn't actually draw
any attention to itself.

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Nor does it need
any reward or recognition.

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It is humble.

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But without water's humble contribution,

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life as we know it may not exist.

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Water's humility taught me
a few important things.

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It taught me that instead of acting
like I know what I'm doing,

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or I have all the answers,

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it's perfectly OK to say,

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"I don't know,"

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"I want to learn more"

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and "I need your help."

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It also taught me that, instead
of promoting my glory and success,

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it is so much more satisfying to promote
the success and glory of others.

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It taught me that, instead of doing things
where I can get ahead,

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it so much more fulfilling and meaningful

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to help other people overcome
their challenges, so they can succeed.

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With a humble mindset,

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I was able to form a lot richer
connections with the people around me.

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I became genuinely interested
in the stories and experiences

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that make them unique and magical.

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Life became a lot more fun,

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because every day I'd discover
new quirks, new ideas,

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and new solutions to problems
I didn't know before.

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All thanks to the ideas
and help from others.

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All streams eventually flow to the ocean.

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Because it is lower than them.

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Humility gives water its power.

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But I think it gives us the capacity
to remain grounded,

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to be present, to learn from
and be transformed

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by the stories of the people around us.

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The second lesson I learned
is about harmony.

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If we think about
water flowing towards a rock,

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it will just flow around it.

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It doesn't get upset,
it doesn't get angry,

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it doesn't get agitated.

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In fact, it doesn't feel much, at all.

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But faced with an obstacle,
somehow water finds a solution.

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Without force, without conflict.

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When I was thinking through this,

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I began to understand why I was feeling
stressed out in the first place.

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Instead of working in harmony
with my environment,

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I was working against it.

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I was forcing things to change
because I was consumed

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by the need to succeed or to prove myself.

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In the end, nothing did.

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And I got more frustrated.

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By simply shifting my focus
from trying to achieve more success,

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to trying to achieve more harmony,

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I was immediately able
to feel calm and focused again.

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I started asking questions like,

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"Will this action bring me greater harmony

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and bring more harmony to my environment?"

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"Does this align with my nature?"

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I became more comfortable
simply being who I am,

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rather than who I'm supposed to be
or expected to be.

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Work actually became easier

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because I stopped focusing
on things that I cannot control

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and only on the things that I can.

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I stopped fighting with myself.

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And I learned to work

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with my environment to solve its problems.

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Nature does not hurry.

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Yet, everything is accomplished.

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That's Tao Te Ching's way
of describing the power of harmony.

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Just as water is able to find a solution
without force or conflict,

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I believe we can find a greater
sense of fulfillment in our endeavors

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by shifting focus
from achieving more success

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to achieving more harmony.

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The third lesson I learned
from the philosophy of water

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is about openness.

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Water is open to change.

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Depending on the temperature,
it can be liquid, solid or gas.

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Depending on the medium it's in

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it can be a teapot, a cup
or a flower vase.

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In fact, it's water's ability to adapt
and change and remain flexible

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that made it so enduring through the ages

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despite all the changes
in the environment.

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We also live in a world today
of constant change.

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We can no longer expect to work
to a static job description

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or follow a single career path.

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We too are expected to constantly
reinvent and refresh our skills

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to stay relevant.

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In our organization,
we host a lot of hackathons,

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where small groups or individuals
come together to solve a business problem

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in a compressed time frame.

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And what's interesting to me

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is that the team that usually wins

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is not the one with the most
experienced team members,

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but the one with members
who are open to learn,

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who are open to unlearn.

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And who are open to helping each other

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navigate through
the changing circumstances.

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Life is like a hackathon in some way.

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It's calling to each and every one of us

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to step up, to open up
and cause a ripple effect.

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Now, we can stay behind closed doors
and continue to be paralyzed

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by our self-limiting belief such as,

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"I will never be able to talk
about Chinese philosophy

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in front of a huge audience."

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(Laughter)

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Or we can just open up and enjoy the ride.

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It can only be an amazing experience.

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So humility, harmony and openness.

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Those are the three lessons I learned
from the philosophy of water so far.

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They nicely abbreviate to H H O,

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or H2O.

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(Laughter)

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And they have become
my guiding principles in life.

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So nowadays, whenever I feel stressed,

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unfulfilled, anxious
or just not sure what to do,

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I simply ask the question,

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"What would water do?"

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(Laughter)

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This simple and powerful question
inspired by a book

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written long before the days
of bitcoin, FinTex and digital technology

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has changed my life for the better.

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Try it and let me know
how it works for you.

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I would love to hear from you.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)