something that many of us are doing
every day exactly this after 15 years of
intensive work in a corporate business
and shutting down my computer every
night it was the first time I was
shutting down my career for good i
bought the round-the-world ticket and
left to travel for a year it was a
two-fold journey for me inside within
myself and outside in the world I wanted
to discover when you make such an insane
move insane at least in the people
around you quit in a successful banking
job on its peak you’ve got to think well
and I mean it I’ve been thinking about
it for many years and I’m sure you’ve
heard about the midlife crisis it’s when
i get an expensive car allah variables
but the crisis of theories is different
it’s not about achieving enough but
rather it’s about this question of
self-actualization what I am to this
world am I realizing my potential am i
doing my best I got concerned about
changing career also because I couldn’t
find that the organization’s have been
working for truly correspond to my sense
of meaningful impact and of course I was
worried about how to do that but then I
thought wait a minute I may not and
could not be the only person in the
world who did this so I decided to
empirically test this idea that changing
your career after 30 years old in a
meaningful way finding your true calling
is possible and can be successful so I
decided to take this question to travel
to me with me to 30 countries around the
world to interview at least 30 people
who did that successfully or not and I
call this project turkey up in the next
15 minutes I might I might save a year
of your life the year which I spent
traveling because I’ll tell you what I
and other people think about let’s call
it the journey or thirties
and this is the journey that you might
actually might not want to miss even if
it require shifting some major
perception so let’s start with shifting
perceptions about traveling traveling
good intention brings another paradise
paradise and paradigm to your experience
it’s easy let’s say you’re a foodie make
a cooler in the trip you’re into birds
go Birds watching are you into people
like I was travel alone travel and alone
is liberating it’s actually changing
that pattern of neediness of that fear
of being alone and trust me when you
travel alone you meet a lot more people
not just somebody but really a lot more
also because you don’t need to stick to
a companion but rather explore the human
landscape you start falling in love with
that freedom of moving around going
places which you always wanted to see
the Easter islands the Patagonian the
glaciers the waterfalls in Brazil the
vineyards of Cape Cod and bustling
streets of Mumbai the inside journey for
me how I started in my home country in
Kazakhstan with the interview of my
close friend Sasha Lee in the first ten
years of his professional life Sasha
made a remarkable career in general
management and finance and everything
looked like a success a great job solid
pay status car but one day he actually
asked himself how much she was actually
enjoying and how much his work looked
like the work of his dreams as a true
financial he decided to literally
clogged down every task he was
performing during the day and rated on a
hundred percent happiness scale he was
in Seoul for a month the results
astonished him only five percent of his
work in time he was actually enjoying
what he was doing as a check he decided
to imagine himself at the point a where
he was saying okay maybe I understand
that I’m happy about it for yourself but
what about point B where I can’t happen
to be over a lifetime he said okay it
might be that I have an understanding
and happiness satisfaction about it for
twenty percent
so if you multiply twenty percent by
forty percent we did the math trustus
mathematically he would have only eight
percent of a life success rate haven’t
realized that he also realized that he
doesn’t want to spend the rest of his
life with such low chances he decided to
totally compass his career and now seven
years past he’s enjoying the new journey
to the point B with a career in business
consulting and life coaching even though
he’s back then she was already 30 years
old with a new baby born and a lot of
uncertainties and I was one of his first
clients he was the first person I could
openly talk about my questions and
concerns of live meaning without being
ridiculed yes actually really cool too
but now recently I was speaking at a big
corporate event about this journey
research big answers quitting corporate
job and suddenly I noticed a group of
people sitting somewhere at the back of
the conference room who were literally
pointing fingers at me and laughing out
loud honestly I was shocked it was the
first time in my life I was laughed at
publicly obviously what I did was
unimaginable for them so unimaginable
that I looked insane and you know what I
think I could understand them because
change in your life even a little bit
it’s very difficult especially if you
already have responsibilities a family
to support a mortgage to pay and you
struggled all your life just to make it
to look successful to have that house
does it sound familiar and if it does
like it did to me some time ago doesn’t
it also mean that the last century
definitions of success hold no longer
true that we struggle to be good
children by meeting expectations of our
parents but we the 30s actually might
reconsider the norm set over speaking of
expectations I would like to travel with
you own to New York Syria where I met in
young bassey very talented singer and
performer who until late twenties well
denying her career was denying her
talents by pursuing a medical degree she
said to be even a shame
her voice letting it out occasionally at
the shower times because her black
immigrant parents made it very clear you
cannot be serious about being a singer
it will not make you living so she was
studying and working part-time as an
administrative employee to Carnegie Hall
as close as she could get to the
performance world until one day she
learned thatmore be a famous European DJ
is making an audition looking for a lead
singer for his US tour after some
trepidation and nervousness she decided
to take a chance she passed it and she
ran away with the circus and the way she
describes her experience is this she
said it was baptism by fire everyone on
the tool was a pro and then there was me
who’s never been on tour I barely had
any performing experience but luckily to
me Moby was such a generous artist he
saw me something that I couldn’t see in
myself he gestured me over stage and
from that point on I was like an animal
unleashed writing squatting performing
with such wholeheartedness and you know
what if it hadn’t been for Moby I may
not be singing right now because I
didn’t know how strong that coin was I
did I know I could see but I didn’t know
that my voice could make people cry I
didn’t know that I had so much within me
to offer but when you start to owner
your desires your wishes your dreams
everything starts to flow these days
Indian dedicates full time to her
singing and performing works but after
interviewing her I actually wondered how
many of us have that issue when we
cannot recognize our own talent how many
of us do not see ourselves the way other
people see us well I believe that
everyone has a talent I think we just
have to look back into our childhood and
remember the things we enjoy doing most
without noticing time passing by like I
for example always been good with
organizing things around and as a kid I
would make a street library giving out
books most which never returned or at
the age of six I would make a culinary
class which resulted in the light poison
anyway I still like having people do fun
things together that’s why I’m a TEDx
organizers
but my point is that maybe you’re
already doing something that is your
talent but just for wrong cause to
illustrate that i would like to travel
you all to mexico in a tiny tiny city of
san cristobal de las casas I found
College ammonia’s Morales have an
abundant her flashy career in the
fashion business she moved to Chiapas
where started a social enterprise still
in fashion but glorifying the beauty and
work of indigenous people she says this
I go to the point when I was 33 years
old to the pic of my life but in a
mazing apartment had the best clothes
went to best places had the most
handsome boy friends jobs and I wasn’t
satisfied because everything was
something that the society tells you is
perfect and it’s a line today Claudia
works with a group of 16 women of chamo
one of the indigenous community of
Chiapas together they have combined
cloudiest knowledge for design and
fashion business with the heritage and
skills of traditional weaving turn it
into amazing pieces of clothes and
accessories Claudia says I don’t want
charity from compassionate bias I want
people to buy because it’s a beautiful
piece and because there is a connection
that has happened between a group of
women and you I’m not innovating design
with my brand but I’m shifting the
perspective from what people truly
shifting perceptions is the new trend
setting she says it was the idea Claudia
came up with how to build a brand
without victimizing but building a pride
and dignity and self esteem for those
women and they do is just a nut shell of
a huge work with the community but
actually when I was talking to Claudia I
was pondering myself with a question how
does it feel for a powerful urban woman
like her changed the lifestyle so
drastically but she put it very clearly
she says now I’m happy now I’m satisfied
with what I do and I definitely enjoy my
lifestyle more not just I I left Mexico
City not because I didn’t like it I even
tried coming back twice but I couldn’t I
became an uncomfortable friend who talks
about real world
and social injustice for many years she
says I was hitting my country for the
wrong choices my government makes but
with my previous job I was part of the
problem now I’m part of the solution and
this is my way of showing contribution
to the change I loved Claudia’s so much
in her story and I was publishing this
introduced online and a lot of people
who are following me and writing to me
personally sharing their own stories and
but mostly asking for advice and
encouragement which means they also felt
the vibe they were seeking the change
and simply both happiness but here’s the
thing happiness and meaningfulness are
not exactly the same options like
meaningfulness is more deeply tied to a
valued sense of self to a purpose in the
context of life in community in other
words meaningfulness is like a big
umbrella of your lifespan or a red line
going from point A to point B connecting
the dots of happy moments in other words
exactly these questions of meaning you
face in your meaningful age of 30 and
for us many TEDx organizers this life of
meaning we found in spreading great
ideas which are in turn connected to a
greater sense of humanity and during my
trip I couldn’t miss meeting some of the
fellows and such in Cape Town I
interviewed Justin Bestwick one amazing
personality having organised TEDx on the
marine biodiversity which is endangered
on the Eastern African coast he got so
concerned and inspired that he teamed up
with one of the speakers and they set up
a marine discovery expedition they
called it moving sushi for collecting
deep water ultrasound data of rare
species during the trip the ship was
hacked by pirates but even stopped them
the returned fund raised the game and
completed a tour the data received went
open source online for all man invited
by biologists around the world and this
is just one of the jetsons initiatives
like the other one help solving two very
acute problems of Cape Town litter and
homeless people employment such Justin
pace people on the street to collect
garbage I was inspired by just an
example his initiative saw said how do
you come around with a social business
ideas
and he says well since childhood again
it’s been always part of the family’s
agenda so I’m just doing what feels is
right stories like chests and cloud and
many others people I interviewed
inspired me but still I had that
question so how to take that leap of
faith how to move from an abstract idea
of changing life to actually making the
first step but I’d like to go to Tokyo
in in Tokyo I met Megumi hey dude a
beautiful soul who at the age of 29 quit
her job in a big former Pharma because
she during one of her volunteer trip to
Kenya she discovered a small community
cultivating unique roses she wanted to
help them so she set up a business
selling directly these flowers to Japan
and now this business helps sustain it
back that community I asked me goomy do
you actually remember that moment when
you realized that urge for change and
said yes I remember myself asking one
day if I die tomorrow would I be
satisfied with my life and then you I
could contribute more because if you are
not comfortable up here you don’t get
any chance you have to commit and there
is no sacrifice about it it’s just the
commitment to being true self Megumi
helped me to understand that the journey
I was taken just wondering was in fact
the opportunity to commit to see how
serious I was about the change and now I
truly believe that the third is is not
the new four days but it’s again the
opportunity to come back to your dreams
and aspirations which you had when you
were a teenager to start owning back
that inner freedom of doing things that
you always wanted to do even if it
requires starting over again to clearly
see what your life can be like for the
next years to come it’s time to shift
the perception of how success should
look like and let’s be brave by doing
that let’s be the new role models
especially for our children let’s be
brave by facing the challenge
our own communities the world the
humanity puts in front of us and my call
today is not for dropping out of school
or doing rash decision but rather given
yourself justice in realizing a true
potential by this given justice to this
world and a simple question a test could
be this every night when shutting down
your computer just ask yourself this
very question what I am to this world am
i doing my best and maybe your own
journey will begin thank you [Applause]