let’s rewind to the early 1800s the
airplane was invented by the Wright
brothers and JN Lewis started working on
the world’s first lithium batteries none
of us are obviously alive but there were
leaders out there innovators with
visions that stretched years ahead
geniuses with perceptions that foresaw
the future with crystal-like clarity our
whole foundation today is built
complements men and women who sought to
enrich our minds and strive to make our
lives better men and women who dedicated
their days and nights to come up with
creations and inventions that would
define who we are today and now we are
building upon them following their
footsteps and replicating the way of
thinking creating new technologies and
endless solutions to solve immense
problems in the world or are we has the
world really changed since the last
Industrial Revolution well of course it
has but change is the tricky part I was
born in 1998 and I grew up knowing the
world with technology and Internet my
older siblings cousins and millions of
people born before me had to wait longer
for this world to arrive and when it
arrived it made them curious excited and
maybe a bit cautious about how their
world would be different and since I
grew up with all these things already
established myself and this entire
millennial generation missed that boat
of curiosity that passed by so you see
when the things we have at our disposal
come easy like Netflix the GPS the
Internet or cars it becomes easy for us
to lose curiosity about how they’re
built in the first place there’s a great
quote by science fiction author called
Arthur Clark he says any sufficiently
advanced technology
G is indistinguishable from magic
you can take this bow to mean a lot of
things but basically if you don’t know
how something is built or the mechanisms
behind it that make it work it might be
as well science fiction and don’t get me
wrong there is nothing necessarily bad
about that an average consumer isn’t
expected to know how suits are breaking
bad’s apt its way across the internet to
get to his laptop screens but there is a
slippery slope when conveniences are
given to us it can be easy to lose this
entire sense of curiosity that we once
had and owned take the most basic
example the mystery of the forest loses
its appeal when a map is given to us I
personally love Google Maps but I think
it kind of spoils this experience and
fun of getting lost and when I say
getting lost there is always someone in
the car that will say dude just turn on
the GPS you haven’t in your car we don’t
know where we’re going this is bad and
to that I’m gonna tell this dude and I’m
gonna tell all of you know be curious be
bold enough to fail and be bold enough
to make these mistakes my name is
Stefano allaha I’m a 19 year old student
entrepreneur based in Beirut Lebanon and
I founded a startup called foreland a
platform which ultimately strives to
spark curiosity and unconsciously expand
mindsets for the better
I used to be a kid who dreamt a lot I
got this room in the house with the
ocean view and the Boulevard along with
it and with my desk planted firmly in
front of it I’m in front of this view I
would spend my days looking out the
window and contemplating anything that
passed by from birds to cars ships to
planes I used to think and envision how
things would be this way or that way or
the other way around and when my mom
passed by I’d immediately looked down to
the same page I’ve been studying on for
the past hour and then one day I had
this idea of building a voice based
social network
a network that would keep people
occupied and interested when they have
absolutely no access to visuals whether
they’re running or working out on this
Boulevard or driving in their cars for
the daily commute and so I started
fought on as a Twitter for audio you
follow topics and channels and you would
share audio recordings in regards to
these specific topics and channels and
so my journey of translating this idea
into reality began and let me tell you
the failures were spectacular first of
all I tried to tell how to code I spent
months locked up in my bedroom and
banging my head against a laptop I tried
to code the app from scratch no look I
downloaded some templates of the
Internet but I couldn’t edit them
properly I then tried to reverse
engineer some of my competitors
technologies but again crashed and
burned when everything was becoming too
difficult to do and to handle by myself
I admitted my shortcomings and partnered
with the developer whose skills
complemented mine things were moving
forward and initial versions were being
released and tested by users but as time
passed things began to fall apart
we then see eye to eye on the direction
of the startup and even though we plan
to launch the app to the public we
ultimately parted ways and I had to put
things on hold and this is when I
decided to outsource and freelance the
work to a development house in India
communication was stuff but the product
they built was pretty decent but there
was one problem
one single problem that made all the
difference no one was using it and
what’s a product with absolutely no
customers so you see I failed
spectacularly on all measures I spent
over a year trying to build the product
that proved to be useless
I I lost a substantial amount of money
and I lost
some of my motivation but I picked
myself back up and Here I am standing
before you now but it’s important to
pause and acknowledge that failures can
be frustrating after a lot of reflection
and thinking I realized that rather than
shift gears and refine my curiosity I
was doing the exact same thing I didn’t
want to do
I was zooming in too closely on a
problem that I wanted to solve this
tunnel vision set in and so I completely
lost sight of the big I had in mind at
the time I had two choices one give up
and consider the venture failure or to
back up and get some perspective and
approach to startup in a totally
different way and so I went with option
two despite my failures and pitfalls I
had throughout my journey so far this
idea of recreating the startup was
extremely appealing to me made things a
bit more mysterious and all of a sudden
it became fun again I started pitching
my new concept to random people getting
some feedback attending conferences
networking events and I was really bent
on building and improving my
communication and business skills as for
the startup itself I went back to the
drawing boards and tossed this whole
social network idea in the trap as much
as it excited me I really had to fall
out of love of what wasn’t working to
get closer to something that was it was
daunting I confess but these blank
canvases can be extremely refreshing
trust me
long story short I pivoted from the
failing social network to a podcast
aggregator that will serve the FIFA
World Cups audience of billions in 2022
and beyond the software for cars an app
safely compiles and summarizes audio
content based on your interests so that
you can enjoy seemly for your commute
so notice this end goal of education
on-the-go stayed the same
but the approach was different now the
point of all of this isn’t to talk to
you about my startup yes I’m proud of it
I’m confident in it I even believe it
will invite you to become curious again
by potentially introducing you to
content you’ve never known existed
before but most importantly my journey
of failure has led me to you today
this journey has taught me that even
though I made what some might call wrong
turns along the way it was these
failures that help you rediscover my
curiosity and it’s that very lesson that
I strive to infuse into the core vision
of my startup helping me learn and think
more expansively
I’m sure all of you are familiar with
the word familiarity a lot of us tend to
like what’s familiar it’s cute it’s nice
it’s cozy but this specific familiarity
the downside of a fixed mindset assumes
that your intelligence your character
your your creative ability are static
they’re fixed they don’t move it can
lead us to this tunnel vision one that
leads us to focus on what nail we can
hammer as opposed to asking the question
what if we didn’t have nails or a hammer
now on the other hand a growth mindset
thrives on feedback creativity curiosity
mystery these failures not as evidence
of errors or mistakes but as a platform
for improvement and growth it isn’t
important to have an amazing idea from
the start it is important to remember
that no idea comes out fully formed
another writer and LaMotte once talked
about the importance of the shitty first
draft my interpretation of this is that
people can be their own worst enemies
questioning themselves and getting too
wrapped up in this
and forgetting to just throw themselves
into the blank canvas I know it’s easy
for me to tell you never lose your drive
and ambition to reach your goal and
today I don’t want you to think that on
this 19 year old kid from Lebanon was
God it all figured out it’s Santa king
that someday in five 10 20 25 years from
now I’ll have reached the point of
expertise to where I feel like I have
all the answers you know I think society
sets us up this way go to school earn
your degrees become a pro and reach the
top and once you reach this proverbial
top that doesn’t even exist this is when
you can relax on the beach and call
yourself an expert but I invite you all
today to consider that no matter how
much we grow from the experiences we
gained along the years this parameter of
ignorance also expands and grows with us
so no matter how much think you know the
world around you think about how it
might be a little different
think about how you might make it that
way and if an idea fails embrace the
fruits of failure remember the power of
the pivot and always always remain curious thank you
airplane was invented by the Wright
brothers and JN Lewis started working on
the world’s first lithium batteries none
of us are obviously alive but there were
leaders out there innovators with
visions that stretched years ahead
geniuses with perceptions that foresaw
the future with crystal-like clarity our
whole foundation today is built
complements men and women who sought to
enrich our minds and strive to make our
lives better men and women who dedicated
their days and nights to come up with
creations and inventions that would
define who we are today and now we are
building upon them following their
footsteps and replicating the way of
thinking creating new technologies and
endless solutions to solve immense
problems in the world or are we has the
world really changed since the last
Industrial Revolution well of course it
has but change is the tricky part I was
born in 1998 and I grew up knowing the
world with technology and Internet my
older siblings cousins and millions of
people born before me had to wait longer
for this world to arrive and when it
arrived it made them curious excited and
maybe a bit cautious about how their
world would be different and since I
grew up with all these things already
established myself and this entire
millennial generation missed that boat
of curiosity that passed by so you see
when the things we have at our disposal
come easy like Netflix the GPS the
Internet or cars it becomes easy for us
to lose curiosity about how they’re
built in the first place there’s a great
quote by science fiction author called
Arthur Clark he says any sufficiently
advanced technology
G is indistinguishable from magic
you can take this bow to mean a lot of
things but basically if you don’t know
how something is built or the mechanisms
behind it that make it work it might be
as well science fiction and don’t get me
wrong there is nothing necessarily bad
about that an average consumer isn’t
expected to know how suits are breaking
bad’s apt its way across the internet to
get to his laptop screens but there is a
slippery slope when conveniences are
given to us it can be easy to lose this
entire sense of curiosity that we once
had and owned take the most basic
example the mystery of the forest loses
its appeal when a map is given to us I
personally love Google Maps but I think
it kind of spoils this experience and
fun of getting lost and when I say
getting lost there is always someone in
the car that will say dude just turn on
the GPS you haven’t in your car we don’t
know where we’re going this is bad and
to that I’m gonna tell this dude and I’m
gonna tell all of you know be curious be
bold enough to fail and be bold enough
to make these mistakes my name is
Stefano allaha I’m a 19 year old student
entrepreneur based in Beirut Lebanon and
I founded a startup called foreland a
platform which ultimately strives to
spark curiosity and unconsciously expand
mindsets for the better
I used to be a kid who dreamt a lot I
got this room in the house with the
ocean view and the Boulevard along with
it and with my desk planted firmly in
front of it I’m in front of this view I
would spend my days looking out the
window and contemplating anything that
passed by from birds to cars ships to
planes I used to think and envision how
things would be this way or that way or
the other way around and when my mom
passed by I’d immediately looked down to
the same page I’ve been studying on for
the past hour and then one day I had
this idea of building a voice based
social network
a network that would keep people
occupied and interested when they have
absolutely no access to visuals whether
they’re running or working out on this
Boulevard or driving in their cars for
the daily commute and so I started
fought on as a Twitter for audio you
follow topics and channels and you would
share audio recordings in regards to
these specific topics and channels and
so my journey of translating this idea
into reality began and let me tell you
the failures were spectacular first of
all I tried to tell how to code I spent
months locked up in my bedroom and
banging my head against a laptop I tried
to code the app from scratch no look I
downloaded some templates of the
Internet but I couldn’t edit them
properly I then tried to reverse
engineer some of my competitors
technologies but again crashed and
burned when everything was becoming too
difficult to do and to handle by myself
I admitted my shortcomings and partnered
with the developer whose skills
complemented mine things were moving
forward and initial versions were being
released and tested by users but as time
passed things began to fall apart
we then see eye to eye on the direction
of the startup and even though we plan
to launch the app to the public we
ultimately parted ways and I had to put
things on hold and this is when I
decided to outsource and freelance the
work to a development house in India
communication was stuff but the product
they built was pretty decent but there
was one problem
one single problem that made all the
difference no one was using it and
what’s a product with absolutely no
customers so you see I failed
spectacularly on all measures I spent
over a year trying to build the product
that proved to be useless
I I lost a substantial amount of money
and I lost
some of my motivation but I picked
myself back up and Here I am standing
before you now but it’s important to
pause and acknowledge that failures can
be frustrating after a lot of reflection
and thinking I realized that rather than
shift gears and refine my curiosity I
was doing the exact same thing I didn’t
want to do
I was zooming in too closely on a
problem that I wanted to solve this
tunnel vision set in and so I completely
lost sight of the big I had in mind at
the time I had two choices one give up
and consider the venture failure or to
back up and get some perspective and
approach to startup in a totally
different way and so I went with option
two despite my failures and pitfalls I
had throughout my journey so far this
idea of recreating the startup was
extremely appealing to me made things a
bit more mysterious and all of a sudden
it became fun again I started pitching
my new concept to random people getting
some feedback attending conferences
networking events and I was really bent
on building and improving my
communication and business skills as for
the startup itself I went back to the
drawing boards and tossed this whole
social network idea in the trap as much
as it excited me I really had to fall
out of love of what wasn’t working to
get closer to something that was it was
daunting I confess but these blank
canvases can be extremely refreshing
trust me
long story short I pivoted from the
failing social network to a podcast
aggregator that will serve the FIFA
World Cups audience of billions in 2022
and beyond the software for cars an app
safely compiles and summarizes audio
content based on your interests so that
you can enjoy seemly for your commute
so notice this end goal of education
on-the-go stayed the same
but the approach was different now the
point of all of this isn’t to talk to
you about my startup yes I’m proud of it
I’m confident in it I even believe it
will invite you to become curious again
by potentially introducing you to
content you’ve never known existed
before but most importantly my journey
of failure has led me to you today
this journey has taught me that even
though I made what some might call wrong
turns along the way it was these
failures that help you rediscover my
curiosity and it’s that very lesson that
I strive to infuse into the core vision
of my startup helping me learn and think
more expansively
I’m sure all of you are familiar with
the word familiarity a lot of us tend to
like what’s familiar it’s cute it’s nice
it’s cozy but this specific familiarity
the downside of a fixed mindset assumes
that your intelligence your character
your your creative ability are static
they’re fixed they don’t move it can
lead us to this tunnel vision one that
leads us to focus on what nail we can
hammer as opposed to asking the question
what if we didn’t have nails or a hammer
now on the other hand a growth mindset
thrives on feedback creativity curiosity
mystery these failures not as evidence
of errors or mistakes but as a platform
for improvement and growth it isn’t
important to have an amazing idea from
the start it is important to remember
that no idea comes out fully formed
another writer and LaMotte once talked
about the importance of the shitty first
draft my interpretation of this is that
people can be their own worst enemies
questioning themselves and getting too
wrapped up in this
and forgetting to just throw themselves
into the blank canvas I know it’s easy
for me to tell you never lose your drive
and ambition to reach your goal and
today I don’t want you to think that on
this 19 year old kid from Lebanon was
God it all figured out it’s Santa king
that someday in five 10 20 25 years from
now I’ll have reached the point of
expertise to where I feel like I have
all the answers you know I think society
sets us up this way go to school earn
your degrees become a pro and reach the
top and once you reach this proverbial
top that doesn’t even exist this is when
you can relax on the beach and call
yourself an expert but I invite you all
today to consider that no matter how
much we grow from the experiences we
gained along the years this parameter of
ignorance also expands and grows with us
so no matter how much think you know the
world around you think about how it
might be a little different
think about how you might make it that
way and if an idea fails embrace the
fruits of failure remember the power of
the pivot and always always remain curious thank you
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