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Now, most of us dream
of the perfect paradise.

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I'm going to start
by taking you to my paradise.

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This is what the weather looks like
when you wake up in the morning.

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(Laughter)

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This is how you get to work.

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(Laughter)

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And once you're done working ...


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this is how much you pay in income tax.

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(Laughter)

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Well, then again, you're thinking,

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"Paradise? It can't all be about work!"

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So let me take you to a day
at the beach - in paradise.

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(Laughter)

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Something is missing?

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Friends? Right?

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This is probably what your neighbors
are going to look like.

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Because in this place,
there are more pigs than people.

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(Laughter)

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Now, if you're thinking,

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"My God, if this is paradise,
I don't want to go,"

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let me tell you something about this place

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that might make you change your mind.

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The paradise is called

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Denmark.

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It is the country I was born in

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and where I lived
for the first 18 years of my life.

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It also happens that the Danish people

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are amongst the happiest
people in the world.

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Yes.

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Despite the bad weather,

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the high taxes

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and the many pigs,

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the Danish people express
being very content in life.

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They have what we call 
a good base of well-being.

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The economists started measuring happiness
more than 40 years ago,

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and ever since, Denmark has come
on the top of the list

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of the happiest places
to live in the world.

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When United Nations came out 
with the first World Happiness Report

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in 2012,

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Denmark was again number one.

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So what makes the Danes so happy?

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Well, there are many reasons,

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but I'm going to talk to you 
primarily about three things.

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I am going to try and give you 
actionable things that you can do

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and ways to plant seeds

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that can actually grow into the happiness
as the Danes know it today.

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I insist on planting seeds
because as we all know,

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change takes time.

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And it is actually planting seed
that will start that process.

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Now, sometimes when I talk
about the Danish happiness,

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I get the reaction from people saying,

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"That's great, but I'm not Danish,
and I do not live in Denmark."

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Even Hilary Clinton said it
recently in a debate:

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"I love Denmark, but we are not Denmark."

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So, let me tell you something.

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I am Danish, but I have actually
been living in Paris

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for the past 20 years.

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But more importantly, 
I've received letters from people

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who read my book,
from all over the world -

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Japan, Korea, Taiwan, France -

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telling me that they also
live by these values

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and they live good lives.

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These are not Danish values.

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They are human values.

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They are owned by each one of us.

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So I am going to talk to you
today about trust.

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I'm going to talk to you 
about the freedom to be you

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and about finding purpose.

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Now, trust in Denmark
is a full grown oak tree

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at around 80%.

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Eighty percent of Danish citizens
trust each other.

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In most countries in the world,
it's not even a sprout,

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at around 5% in the worst cases,

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and on average in Europe at 25.

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In Denmark, it gets
summed up in one image:

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babies sleeping outside a restaurant.

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Now, you would say,
"Well, nobody is watching the babies!"

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Well, I would say, "Everyone is."

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In Denmark trust is so high

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that you can actually leave
your baby sleeping outside

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while you're having lunch.

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A Danish lady tried
to do this in New York.

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She got arrested.

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(Laughter)

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Now ...

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Trust ...

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really comes down to something
quite elementary.

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If we want to live in a world
of more trust in a community,

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have a group of friends we trust,

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it is going to have to start with you.

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The first seed that you can plant
is to be a trustworthy person.

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And as much as you can
to show trust in others.

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This actually starts
at a very elementary place.

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It starts by simply doing what you say

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and saying what you do.

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So what do I mean by that?

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Well, I mean that when I say
I'm going to so something,

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I do it.

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And if I don't,

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I say it.

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The root of trust is as simple as this.

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Now, I have travelled
to some of the counties in the world

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with the lowest trust.

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And I always say, if you want
to live in a community

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or a world of more trust:

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be a trustworthy person;

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show trust in others.

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And this applies in tons of ways
in our everyday lives -

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from telling your friend

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that you're going to help him
with something

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and actually showing up.

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Or agreeing with a colleague
that you are going to do something

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and actually doing what you agreed on.

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And if you change your mind,

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say it!

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I can take this to an even bigger scale

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and talk to you about
the Noble Prize winner Muhammad Yunus,

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who created Grameens Bank in Bangladesh,

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a country with 5% trust.

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He gave loans to thousands
of people, without guarantee.

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Ninety-five percent
of them were paid back.

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If he can do it under these circumstances,

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it should be an inspiration to all of us.

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Trust is actually a choice 
made by each one of us every day.

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Saying that this
and that person is not doing it

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is in my world not a reason
not to apply it to yourself.

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We can actually choose 
to be part of the team

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fostering a world of more trust.

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Now the second seed
is the freedom to be you.

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This is actually also about trust.

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It's about trusting yourself to be you.

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In Denmark,

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the main purpose of education is
to develop the personality of the child.

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We teach or children
that no matter what they are good at,

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it's important to society.

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You are not rated a better human being
because you are good at math

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or foreign languages.

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You can actually be top of the class
in creativity or cooking.

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No matter what your talent is,

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it's important; we value it.

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Now this gives the young Danish people
an extraordinary base

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of actually choosing a life 
that corresponds to who they are.

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Because they are taught at an early age

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that no matter what that role is,
it's important to society.

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Now, let me tell you a little story.

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A few months ago, I had dinner
with some friends in Denmark,

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and a lady looked
particularly happy that night,

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and she explained to me 
that she was so happy

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because her son finally figured out
what he wanted to do in life.

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And I said, "Well, so ... really?"

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"He's jumping out of bed,
going to school every morning.

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It's wonderful."

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I said, "What's your son studying?"

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She said, "He's studying
Techniques and Logistics."

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I said, "Well, that's great. 
What will he do after?"

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And she looked at me,
and she said - and she smiled -

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she said, "He'll be a garbage man."

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(Laughter)

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Now, admit that some of you
might be thinking,

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"What parent would really be happy
that her son wants to be a garbage man?"

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But guess what?

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This is actually where a part of the key
to this whole big question lies:

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When you're free to choose
what you want to do in life

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without other people judging you.

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And this includes,
by the way, parents,

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who very often project
their own ambitions on their children.

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What could possible bring more value
to your own person

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than to have your child being
a mirror effect of yourself:

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the Mini Me.

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Now, some people might argue,

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"Hm, well, the educational system 
doesn't work that way

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in my part of the world."

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Maybe not.

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But you are still free
to choose how you react

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to other people's choices 
of being themselves.

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It is still your choice not to judge
but to encourage

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and support other people's choices
of being themselves.

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When it comes to your choice
and your freedom to choose your life,

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I'm going to go back
to my seeds of happiness.

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Because sometimes,

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and I would say
actually most of the time,

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we are not free.

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We have tons of responsibilities:
paying rent, school fees,

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having committed to a big project
that we need to finish.

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Now, I know this

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because most of the choices
that I've made in my life

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have started with me
actually planting a seed

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that has gradually grown into something
that I could choose.

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The only reason why I am here
in front of you today

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is that I planted a seed
two and a half years ago

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when I started writing my book.

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After 18 years in the corporate world,


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I only left my job three months ago.

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And to be honest, 
while this seed was growing,


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I didn't know where
it was going to take me.

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But knowing, thinking
about that I planted it

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made me feel happy.

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The point is that
if you don't plant any seeds,

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you're sure that nothing will happen.

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It doesn't actually matter
how long it takes for your seed to grow.

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What matters is that you have come
closer to becoming you.

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This alone will actually add
significant well-being to your lives.

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So, what can we do?

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Well, we can spend time figuring out
when we stop being ourselves.

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Find that dream and plant that seed,

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and we can make sure that next time

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we see somebody fighting the battle
of being free to choose their life,

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we do not judge.

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We support and we encourage them.

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The last seed I am going to talk
to you about is purpose.

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So what do I mean by purpose?

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I mean this.

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So, you wonder, maybe, who is behind that?

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Let me introduce you to Ali.

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Now you might see a dishwasher,

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but if you ask any of Ali's colleagues,

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they would say
that he is part of the team

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running the best restaurant in the world.

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When Noma won the prize
of the best restaurant in the world,

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René Redzepi, the chef, decided
to take the whole team to London

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to receive the prize on stage.

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Ali, due to some paper
problems, couldn't go,

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so the whole team ended up on stage
wearing a T-shirt with the photo of Ali.

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For the people working at Noma,
it's about living a dream;

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it's about living their passion.

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It's about being part of a common project.

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So what can we learn from them?

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Well, this is of course closely linked
to the second seed

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of actually doing something 
that you feel passionate about.

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Planting the seeds of your dreams
gives you a feeling of purpose.

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Doing something that you love
gives you a feeling of purpose.

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So, if you project this
on a country level,

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what does that look like?

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Well, in Denmark, seven
out of ten Danes like paying taxes

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because they feel individually 
responsible and committed

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to the common project
of the welfare state.

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It gives them purpose,

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and it is part of what makes them
feel content in life.

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They're not victims of the system.

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They're part of it.

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00:14:11,910 --> 00:14:14,670
Lack of purpose can come from two things.

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It can come from not doing
what you like in life,

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00:14:19,162 --> 00:14:22,722
but it can also come from
not feeling part of anything -

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just basically executing
what you are told to do,

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00:14:30,437 --> 00:14:32,827
being a sort of victim
of your own existence.

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00:14:34,539 --> 00:14:36,099
So what can we do about it?

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Well, we can find
that passion inside of us.

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Find that dream and plant that seed

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00:14:44,227 --> 00:14:47,747
and make it our individual
responsibility to take care of it

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00:14:47,861 --> 00:14:51,211
so that it grows into something
that we can actually choose.

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Planting the seeds of our dreams
gives us purpose,

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it gives us hope,

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and it makes us feel happy.

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Now, I've talked to you about trust, 
the freedom to be you,

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and finding purpose.

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But it's actually not
what is given to us in life

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that really matters,

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it's what we do with it.

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Who cares if you are born in a country
with high trust, the freedom to be you,

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with greater purpose

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if you take this for granted,
if you don't use it the right way?

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It is for us to choose
to live by these values,

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little by little, as well as we can.

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It is our individual responsibility

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to make sure that if we want to live
in a world with more trust,

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that we are a trustworthy person,

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that we show trust in others.

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Don't be sitting around


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waiting for someone else
to come with that solution.

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Be that solution.

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Don't be part of the problem.

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Be part of the solution.

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These values are owned by all of us.

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They are for us to choose,

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and I hope I have illustrated
that you do not need to be Danish

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nor to immigrate to Denmark
to find happiness.

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It is within each one of us
and the choices we make

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to plant these seeds of happiness

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and to be and to choose

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to incarnate the change
that we would like to see in the world.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)