I would like to start today by asking a very personal and sincere question.
I don't want you to answer out loud or to put up your hands,
but I do want you to take your time and reflect.
Do you spend some time
thinking about the life that you're trying to build,
the life that you're building?
Where do you want to go in the short term, in the long term?
Do you think about this,
or are you mostly reactive to whatever life brings you?
If you're not quite there yet, where you want to be,
do you feel it's because you were not given the right opportunities,
or maybe you did not really take advantage of the opportunities given?
How come some people with equal or even less opportunities than us
manage to build extraordinary lives, while others struggle?
Today I'd like to challenge the way you think about uncertainty
and how you can use it as a tool to get to know yourself better
and build the life you consider worth living.
I'm originally from southern Argentina,
in South America,
and like many people in this room and many people in my generation,
I've always been a big-time dreamer.
I've always wanted to travel the world,
meet people from every corner, live in different continents.
Yet I thought I was just unlucky.
I just didn't land that type of life.
That's okay.
I was going through a very dreadful routine.
I was studying in university, economics, and I had to keep grades above average
in order to keep my scholarship to keep on studying,
and at the same time, I was working two jobs -
not one, but two - while studying.
So just to say that I was very stressed is a complete understatement.
I was completely burnt out.
And I remember particularly one evening walking back from work.
Work was about two hours away from where I live.
So, it was around 11:00 at night.
And I remember thinking, "Man, can't wait to be 40.
Can't wait to be 40 years old and just have a stable job.
I don't care how dull it is, I just clock in, clock out.
It allows me to pay rent. That's all I need."
And then it hit me, and I stopped.
What kind of twenty-year-old wishes to be 40?
Is this the life that I'm building for myself:
all the dreams of traveling the world I'm going to give up before even trying?
It was then and there that I decided I had to leave.
So I quit my jobs, dropped my scholarship, dropped out of university.
I moved to Denmark to look for a better present and future.
And I found it. Denmark is amazing.
I remember upon arriving to this completely new experience
thinking in myself,
"I'm going take every single opportunity to do something new.
I'm going to build the life that I want to live."
And I did.
After three years, I graduated
from one of the most prestigious degrees in the country.
I built startups that allowed me to travel around Europe
to workshops and conferences.
I started playing rugby, became a Danish rugby champion.
Above all, I managed to surround myself with people that I loved deeply.
I finally found the growth, enjoyment and stability I was so much longing for.
I was finally living my dream.
Yet I decided to leave everything behind again
and this time moved to China.
Now, why China?
Well, I really don't know.
I never been to China before. I never been to Asia, actually.
The closest I got at the time was Athens, in Greece.
Also, to be honest, I didn't have a fascination with China,
I just didn't know anything,
and that was a motivator good enough to come and try it out.
And if switching continents was not adventurous enough,
I decided to go all-in.
So I moved from Copenhagen to Beijing all the way by train.
Now, of course,
there's no direct train ride from Copenhagen to Beijing,
so it took me across several cities in several countries,
from Denmark to Sweden, Finland, all Russia, Mongolia, northern China,
until arriving in Beijing.
A journey that took me from small, sleepy, little Russian towns
to running of a bear in a Siberian forest, to living with nomads in Mongolia.
Life-changing experiences that took me roughly a bit over a month to complete.
Now, I guess many of you are asking yourself a very fair question:
"Why?"
Why would I leave such an amazing lifestyle
that had took me so much work to build from scratch?
I was finally living my dream, and I was very aware of it.
I thought of myself as the happiest person in the world.
Why want to leave that behind and try to start again?
In a place I have no idea about,
in the completely opposite end of the world,
where I have no clue how my well-being is going to be.
Also, why do it by train?
Why just not take a plane like a normal human being?
Why add an extra layer of risk to this pretty uncertain scenario?
And the answer for me has been very clear.
Uncertainty is always an opportunity.
Think about this.
In every decision that we make
lies the opportunity of pushing beyond our perceived limitations,
and getting one step closer to the person we wish to become.
It is only by reaching out of our comfort zone
that were able to build extraordinary lives,
a life we consider worth living.
I realize that how much I learn about myself
is proportionate to the risk I take.
For me, a strong person is that one who can thrive in the unknown.
And I wanted that for myself.
It became a craving, a pursuit in itself.
To understand me better, what I'm capable of,
and where I want to go.
Now, learning to enjoy and thrive in the unknown,
it doesn't happen overnight.
It's not an aha moment or something you do once.
It's a process
where each time you do something you previously considered impossible -
no matter how small, just something that you haven't done before -
it increases your confidence.
Now, you did it.
And it becomes your new standard,
from where you judge yourself and your decisions.
It's a dynamic search
where we're constantly learning and rediscovering ourselves -
what we like, what we don't like.
Because who we were yesterday
doesn't have to define who we are today
and who we will be tomorrow.
Life is in constant flux, it's a never-ending movement,
and that's the beauty of it,
but you have to go out there and find it.
The most life-changing experiences you're ever going to live in your life
are most definitely not going to come knocking down your door.
You have to expose yourself.
Little by little, but consistently.
It's a lifelong searching process.
Now, I understand if many of you agree with what I'm saying,
but I know that this is easier said than done.
So, how can I start?
Many of you probably asking yourself, "How do I start?"
And that's the trick.
It doesn't really matter.
You just have to start.
Action inspires motivation.
If you're caught in between your dream and you don't know how to get there,
just do something, the very first easy next step.
Let's say, you want to study abroad and you don't have the means,
there's plenty of scholarships pages online.
Just create a free account in one of those pages.
Just do the very first thing.
In that you will find the motivation to do the next thing
and then the next thing and then the next thing,
until you find your way.
Every decision is the right decision.
If you're caught in between hard decisions,
the issue is not choosing the wrong option.
You see, that's the thing with hard decisions.
They're hard because there's no clear best option.
Otherwise it wouldn't be hard.
The issue is not choosing at all and being paralyzed by fear of change.
Once, I remember, I had a conversation with a good old friend of mine,
and it's a conversation we had repeatedly over the years
with people who have loads of opportunities,
yet they decide to be stuck behind the fear of change -
they decide to be.
So my friend is very happy to see me,
goes like, "Patrick, you're living my dream,
when I open Instagram, you're in a different place in the world.
I always think, I'm going to join you next time you do it."
And I go, "Yeah, it's pretty great, so why don't you do it?"
I know he can.
And then he enumerates a list of reasons -
very fair claims: university, job, family, friends -
to justify himself why he's not out there chasing his dream.
And I always think -
it's very fair, I'm nobody to judge,
and this might sound to be a bit rough -
but we are responsible for our own happiness.
Grabbing the bull by the horns,
I'm building the life you consider worth living,
it is also a sacrifice.
It's not always an easy ride,
but it's the only way you can push fear aside
and get closer to the person you wish to become.
To wrap things up,
I'd like to challenge your perception of uncertainty,
from a mentality of risk and scarcity
to one of abundance and opportunity.
Uncertainty is a precious opportunity.
Embrace it.
Be friends with it.
And you will see how a whole new world of incredible options
open before your eyes -
just because you dare to change.
Use it as a tool to get to know yourself better,
to build self-love
and to get one step closer to building the life you want to build.
Because in the end, we are responsible for the lives we build for ourselves.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)