5 qualities which make you fail at school but succeed in life - Faysal Hafidi - TEDxCasablanca
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0:18 - 0:20I've got a question for you.
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0:20 - 0:27Which of you was always top of the class?
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0:31 - 0:35All your life, top of the class?
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0:35 - 0:36Right.
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0:36 - 0:39--Liar (Laughter)
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0:39 - 0:46Well, in precisely 9 minutes and 30 seconds,
I'm going to make you proud -
0:46 - 0:49that you weren't always top of the class.
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0:49 - 0:54(Applause)
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0:54 - 1:00You're going to go home tonight
and tell your partner, your children, -
1:00 - 1:02your friends and relatives:
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1:02 - 1:08"Hallelujah, thank God, I wasn't always top of my class!"
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1:09 - 1:16In 2007, when I started blogging, I began studying
the lives of several people -
1:16 - 1:19who were successful in their lives.
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1:24 - 1:28And each of them was successful in their field,
each one succeeded in a different way. -
1:28 - 1:33But there was one thing all these people shared,
just one thing -
1:33 - 1:38which intrigued me, and this was the fact
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1:38 - 1:47that these people, these characters --
none of them had been really successful at school. -
1:47 - 1:54And some of them had even cut short their education
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1:54 - 1:57and others didn't even make it to school
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1:57 - 2:00for long periods of time.
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2:00 - 2:03So this was a little worrying and frustrating for me
when I remembered -
2:03 - 2:08all those years in which parents and teachers
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2:08 - 2:11told us, you must work hard, you must get the best marks,
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2:11 - 2:17you must be one of the best
to get into the best higher education establishments -
2:18 - 2:22and in the end, I note that the reality is this:
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2:22 - 2:25all those who have been successful at the school of life
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2:25 - 2:29were not necessarily those who were top of the class.
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2:29 - 2:32So this meant we needed an answer to the following question:
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2:32 - 2:40Why isn't it necessary to succeed at school in order to be successful in life?
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2:40 - 2:47Or even: why is there no direct link between success at school
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2:47 - 2:50and success in life?
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2:50 - 2:54Because, to mention people you know very well,
such as Steve Jobs -
2:54 - 2:59or Bill Gates who have businesses -
they employ people who were top of the class. -
2:59 - 3:01But when did they leave school?
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3:01 - 3:03They both dropped out
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3:03 - 3:07during their fresher year at university.
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3:07 - 3:11So how come, then, that we, who try to be top of the class
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3:11 - 3:15end up working in businesses for people who
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3:15 - 3:19perhaps don't even know how to read and write?
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3:20 - 3:23So that's when I started looking, and luckily
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3:23 - 3:29I took the right approach right from the start, so I couldn't - or I didn't have to - look very hard.
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3:29 - 3:33I started looking by identifying the qualities these people share
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3:33 - 3:37which have allowed them to be successful in life.
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3:37 - 3:40And I found 5 of these.
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3:40 - 3:44Next, I tried to see these qualities in the education system
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3:44 - 3:48all over the world, how are these qualities developed?
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3:48 - 3:53Or at least appreciated or accommodated in the education system?
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3:53 - 3:58And I was shocked to find I had discovered that these qualities --
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3:58 - 4:03not only are they not developed within the education system,
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4:03 - 4:07but they are even punished in the education system.
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4:07 - 4:12In other words, if you are unlucky enough to possess one or even several of these qualities
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4:12 - 4:17you can be absolutely sure that you will be unable to succeed in the education system.
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4:17 - 4:23And when you get to the workplace, you will be needing these qualities.
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4:23 - 4:29So the first of these qualities is about being passionate.
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4:29 - 4:31Just imagine this discussion with Einstein:
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4:31 - 4:33you meet Einstein and you say to him:
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4:33 - 4:36"Now, Einstein, it seems that you love physics, right?"
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4:36 - 4:41And he says to you: "No, I hate physics.
You know, I'm only doing physics -
4:41 - 4:44because my parents made me do it.
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4:44 - 4:47I hate it...but hey, Hamdullah, I've been lucky,
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4:47 - 4:52I've discovered a few theories, got a Nobel prize, and all that...well, I've been lucky."
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4:52 - 4:56Or it could be that you could talk to Bill Gates, and so you say to him:
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4:56 - 4:59"So, Bill Gates, it seems that you're turned on by computers?"
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4:59 - 5:03And he says: "Nah, it's just destiny that pushed me to get into computers.
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5:03 - 5:06Well Hamdullah, it's really taken off!"
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5:06 - 5:08Can you imagine this type of discussion?
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5:08 - 5:12It's impossible because we know that these people are passionately enthusiastic.
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5:12 - 5:14So, what is passion?
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5:14 - 5:18Passion means having an emotional and sentimental approach
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5:18 - 5:20to a job.
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5:20 - 5:24And if you are unfortunate enough to have this quality as school, you are going to fall in love
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5:24 - 5:28with certain subjects, and you will work hard on those.
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5:28 - 5:31And you'll hate the other subjects, and you won't work as hard on them.
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5:31 - 5:37And as soon as you get to secondary school, you'll discover what we call the subject weightings.
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5:37 - 5:40The subject weightings - the head will never come to you at the beginning of the year and say:
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5:40 - 5:43"So, what do you like? You like maths? Ah! Let's raise its weighting.
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5:43 - 5:47You don't like physics? We'll bring it down."
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5:47 - 5:49It will never ever happen like that.
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5:49 - 5:50The weighting is already set.
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5:50 - 5:55If you're good at maths, physics and languages, we take the highest weighting.
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5:55 - 5:59If you like geography and history, and you work hard at those but you hate maths
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5:59 - 6:05then you'll never get a good mark, or never the top mark, in the exam.
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6:05 - 6:08Which means you'll be hearing this sort of thing all the time:
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6:08 - 6:13"He's a hard worker, in certain subjects, he really is very, very good.
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6:13 - 6:16But in other subjects, he really could do better."
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6:16 - 6:22That's what they're passionate about at school: it's someone who could always do better.
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6:22 - 6:26And that's why those at the top of the class have no feelings.
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6:26 - 6:30They have no passion. They work at everything!
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6:30 - 6:32They work hard in every subject!
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6:32 - 6:36And they are good at all the subjects.
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6:36 - 6:38And this creates a big problem for those at the top of the class.
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6:38 - 6:42Because later on, they can apply to study medicine, law, and accountancy.
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6:42 - 6:46They can do it all.
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6:46 - 6:48At the outset, they are impressed by their abilities.
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6:48 - 6:51But later, when you get to work, they'll say to you:
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6:51 - 6:52"No, no, no: Stop!"
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6:52 - 6:56If you want to succeed, there are two things that are very important, primordial in life.
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6:56 - 7:05If you want to achieve happiness and excellence, you must be passionate about what you do.
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7:05 - 7:11But without passion, you can't succeed at work, nor even in your personal life.
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7:11 - 7:15Yet at school, we've always been forced to take compulsory subjects, rather than follow our passion.
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7:15 - 7:19Second quality: curiosity.
- Title:
- 5 qualities which make you fail at school but succeed in life - Faysal Hafidi - TEDxCasablanca
- Description:
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Comment se fait-il que les leaders et les personnes qui nous inspirent ne sont pas forcément celles et ceux qui ont réussi à l'école ?
Dans un talk plein d'énergie, Faysal Hafidi nous présente les 5 qualités qui font échouer à l'école mais réussir dans la vie.
- Video Language:
- French
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 19:02