[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
shock admit this is the first time that
I’ve done a TEDx talk and I really can’t
see interview without the lights but hi
everyone I’m James Cisneros and it
really is great to be here today now I
have to admit that I do have some
self-doubt about my talk and whether or
not my experience will resonate with you
I’m not here to talk about my business
you know what I’m up to today I’m
talking about the experience of being
engulfed engaged fully engaged in
pursuing my passion and being engaged
and pursuing my passion and having a
purpose is the only reason that I was
invited here today and it’s probably
true for many of the speakers in fact
pursuing my passion my purpose is why
I’m in Dubai and why is invited to the
Dubai futures accelerator and it’s
amazing what pops up from that when
you’re fully engaged recently I was
invited to the United Nations and a for
the New York Stock Exchange all within
the last month you know my life is
expanding I’m growing as a person
opportunities pop up almost every day
and I’m working on a business that will
likely impact millions of people but
this wasn’t my future even though I
or I should say passion was my passion
was to be the boss honestly some of my
earliest memories was bossing brothers
sisters cousins aunts uncles around
seriously not much has obtained to be
with and I would explain that I’m just
practicing I’m going to own businesses
and be the boss honestly that’s one of
my first memories working on my uncle’s
construction site or actually it’s too
small to work but I had no problem
bossing people around and again I just
explained to them I’m just practicing
I’m going to be the phone companies and
be the boss I always knew that I wanted
to be an entrepreneur I didn’t know the
word but I always wanted to be an
entrepreneur
because I enrolled in the party planner
you know I was gifted and unfortunate to
grow up in the environment I did you
know my parents sacrificed everything to
see nine kids to 12 years of private
school a hundred eight years of private
school education and I goofed around I
was number eight of nine and they wanted
more for me they wanted to advance me
grades they wanted to send me away to
boarding school and in fact they sent me
away to Thomas More prep for a week and
what that got them is I hated it I hated
wearing the blue blazer I hated going to
church every morning and I hated having
breakfast in a very structured format at
seven o’clock every morning i 0 for a
week I hated Hays Kansas and the way I
pay them back is they completely
withdrew I stopped getting good grades
because I did not want to go to there
then in high school the same thing
happened I went to a great high school
and instead of being involved and
engaged and pursuing my passion I just
checked out I don’t want to be a geek
said it’s always the youngest and the
smallest and I didn’t want to be smart I
don’t want to be a geek and I wasn’t
involved and you couldn’t make me
continued and I almost became pretty
self-destructive in college I attended
the University of New Mexico not Harvard
or Yale like my parents had hoped and
right away I will enrolled in the five
year party planners or what I describe
it because I so young I have no
intention of starting or graduating
within four years I joined a fraternity
I had a good time I was just super
irresponsible and then I had a
conversation with my mom you know I
started happening when you get older I
had a conversation with my mom and it
was after she suffered a series of
strokes and I was transferring her from
her bed her wheelchair and when we did
that she liked to stand up and have a
conversation you know short term she was
confused her long term man
sure you remembered everything and she
wanted no Jimmy what happened and even
though they call me Jimmy New Mexico no
one calls me Jimmy in Dubai okay Jimmy
would happen why did you quit IBM we
were so proud of you
why he struggled it’s amazing that you
can’t hide things from your parents now
is 44 years old and my life was about
having a good time I wasn’t in any way
pursuing my passion so that hit me hard
and it wasn’t at the moment but it
caused a lot of self-reflection and at
that moment or at that period I decided
that I’m going to live up to my
potential as a way of honoring my
parents and I started working and
started pursuing entrepreneurship now
why is it important for people to find
what they’re passionate about and their
purpose in my opinion is critically
important you know key HDA is my sponsor
in the accelerator and they want us to
tackle how do we prepare youth for jobs
that don’t exist it’s critically
important because when people find their
passion they do better you know in the
United States is an organization called
the Alliance for Student Activities
they’re one of many organizations that
offer ample research about the
importance of connecting with youth and
youth being involved in activities
outside the classroom the Alliance is
supported by the National principals
Association and it was a conversation
with them after the conversation with my
mom that really gave me my purpose they
shared that a student regardless of
their socioeconomic background or ethnic
background will do better when they’re
involved in activities go figure
they have higher self-esteem hard grades
and our graduation rates and when I have
that meeting with your lives and it was
just a random meeting with the Alliance
you know really hit me how for
and I was and what my life would have
been like if I had applied myself about
four weeks ago I was fortunate to attend
International Finance Corporation which
was part of the World Bank their global
education conference and Gary Bowles was
a keynote speaker Gary’s a futurists
singularity University which is a
think-tank in Silicon Valley
he argued that purpose based product and
he’s a futurist by the way in learning
of work gary argued that it you know
purpose is a foundation to learning the
skills necessary for jobs in the 21st
century and jobs that don’t exist of all
the things that his research came up
with having a purpose and he said in
many examples were teenagers curiosity
led to breakthroughs a scientist hadn’t
thought of and he shared many examples
but the one that really stood out to me
which honestly there were so many great
ones I don’t know why but it was a young
teenager in Maryland and she was
impacted by her friends and family back
in the Philippines not having lights to
read at night so if you’re 16 you don’t
have a background in science how do you
begin to solve that problem and what she
challenged herself to do was to create a
source of light that cost no money so if
she is a founder of the hollow
flashlight and the flashlight is powered
by the heat from your hand amazing
scientists mention well we overlooked
that as a possibility but there’s so
many great breakthroughs that happen
when teens are curious about a problem
and fill it shouldn’t be that way
so what is it MIT for me you know that I
have a life of passion and purpose
really the passion comes first and then
to me you get purpose should I now have
life filled with purpose I am motivated
every moment of every day and when I
share what I’m up to
I’ve given
skills to the person I’m sharing with my
purpose is bigger than myself and my
team and they know that and it drives me
every day I’m more authentic you know to
be fully committed to pursuing your
passion
it can’t be faked if you try to fake
your passion your purpose you come
across as a fraud so I’m a better person
a more authentic and I have a higher
level of integrity and to me integrity
is everything integrity is not it’s more
than doing what you will say you will do
to me integrity is more than doing what
a reasonable person will expect you to
do integrity is having the life you say
you want in some ways I’m out of
integrity I want to be more fit I am out
of integrity I accept that I own it but
if someone says they want to be a doctor
they should be a doctor or in my world
they’re out of integrity I say I want to
impact millions that’s what I’m working
on
sorry with an integrity you know if a
couple men and women want to you know
protect and serve their community their
integrity when they pursue a career has
a placement or firefighter or find
another way to fulfill that commitment
so being true to my passion having a
purpose being authentic and be integrity
has brought me peace and happiness
almost in every area of my life
it’s completely changed Who I am in the
past year year and a half it’s opened up
opportunities now imagine you know a
world where everyone had passion right
where they were living with purpose
authenticity and integrity you know what
their life would be like and what our
world would be like and how can we help
everyone find their passion and purpose
and that’s actually what I’m up to with
my business thank you very much you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
shock admit this is the first time that
I’ve done a TEDx talk and I really can’t
see interview without the lights but hi
everyone I’m James Cisneros and it
really is great to be here today now I
have to admit that I do have some
self-doubt about my talk and whether or
not my experience will resonate with you
I’m not here to talk about my business
you know what I’m up to today I’m
talking about the experience of being
engulfed engaged fully engaged in
pursuing my passion and being engaged
and pursuing my passion and having a
purpose is the only reason that I was
invited here today and it’s probably
true for many of the speakers in fact
pursuing my passion my purpose is why
I’m in Dubai and why is invited to the
Dubai futures accelerator and it’s
amazing what pops up from that when
you’re fully engaged recently I was
invited to the United Nations and a for
the New York Stock Exchange all within
the last month you know my life is
expanding I’m growing as a person
opportunities pop up almost every day
and I’m working on a business that will
likely impact millions of people but
this wasn’t my future even though I
or I should say passion was my passion
was to be the boss honestly some of my
earliest memories was bossing brothers
sisters cousins aunts uncles around
seriously not much has obtained to be
with and I would explain that I’m just
practicing I’m going to own businesses
and be the boss honestly that’s one of
my first memories working on my uncle’s
construction site or actually it’s too
small to work but I had no problem
bossing people around and again I just
explained to them I’m just practicing
I’m going to be the phone companies and
be the boss I always knew that I wanted
to be an entrepreneur I didn’t know the
word but I always wanted to be an
entrepreneur
because I enrolled in the party planner
you know I was gifted and unfortunate to
grow up in the environment I did you
know my parents sacrificed everything to
see nine kids to 12 years of private
school a hundred eight years of private
school education and I goofed around I
was number eight of nine and they wanted
more for me they wanted to advance me
grades they wanted to send me away to
boarding school and in fact they sent me
away to Thomas More prep for a week and
what that got them is I hated it I hated
wearing the blue blazer I hated going to
church every morning and I hated having
breakfast in a very structured format at
seven o’clock every morning i 0 for a
week I hated Hays Kansas and the way I
pay them back is they completely
withdrew I stopped getting good grades
because I did not want to go to there
then in high school the same thing
happened I went to a great high school
and instead of being involved and
engaged and pursuing my passion I just
checked out I don’t want to be a geek
said it’s always the youngest and the
smallest and I didn’t want to be smart I
don’t want to be a geek and I wasn’t
involved and you couldn’t make me
continued and I almost became pretty
self-destructive in college I attended
the University of New Mexico not Harvard
or Yale like my parents had hoped and
right away I will enrolled in the five
year party planners or what I describe
it because I so young I have no
intention of starting or graduating
within four years I joined a fraternity
I had a good time I was just super
irresponsible and then I had a
conversation with my mom you know I
started happening when you get older I
had a conversation with my mom and it
was after she suffered a series of
strokes and I was transferring her from
her bed her wheelchair and when we did
that she liked to stand up and have a
conversation you know short term she was
confused her long term man
sure you remembered everything and she
wanted no Jimmy what happened and even
though they call me Jimmy New Mexico no
one calls me Jimmy in Dubai okay Jimmy
would happen why did you quit IBM we
were so proud of you
why he struggled it’s amazing that you
can’t hide things from your parents now
is 44 years old and my life was about
having a good time I wasn’t in any way
pursuing my passion so that hit me hard
and it wasn’t at the moment but it
caused a lot of self-reflection and at
that moment or at that period I decided
that I’m going to live up to my
potential as a way of honoring my
parents and I started working and
started pursuing entrepreneurship now
why is it important for people to find
what they’re passionate about and their
purpose in my opinion is critically
important you know key HDA is my sponsor
in the accelerator and they want us to
tackle how do we prepare youth for jobs
that don’t exist it’s critically
important because when people find their
passion they do better you know in the
United States is an organization called
the Alliance for Student Activities
they’re one of many organizations that
offer ample research about the
importance of connecting with youth and
youth being involved in activities
outside the classroom the Alliance is
supported by the National principals
Association and it was a conversation
with them after the conversation with my
mom that really gave me my purpose they
shared that a student regardless of
their socioeconomic background or ethnic
background will do better when they’re
involved in activities go figure
they have higher self-esteem hard grades
and our graduation rates and when I have
that meeting with your lives and it was
just a random meeting with the Alliance
you know really hit me how for
and I was and what my life would have
been like if I had applied myself about
four weeks ago I was fortunate to attend
International Finance Corporation which
was part of the World Bank their global
education conference and Gary Bowles was
a keynote speaker Gary’s a futurists
singularity University which is a
think-tank in Silicon Valley
he argued that purpose based product and
he’s a futurist by the way in learning
of work gary argued that it you know
purpose is a foundation to learning the
skills necessary for jobs in the 21st
century and jobs that don’t exist of all
the things that his research came up
with having a purpose and he said in
many examples were teenagers curiosity
led to breakthroughs a scientist hadn’t
thought of and he shared many examples
but the one that really stood out to me
which honestly there were so many great
ones I don’t know why but it was a young
teenager in Maryland and she was
impacted by her friends and family back
in the Philippines not having lights to
read at night so if you’re 16 you don’t
have a background in science how do you
begin to solve that problem and what she
challenged herself to do was to create a
source of light that cost no money so if
she is a founder of the hollow
flashlight and the flashlight is powered
by the heat from your hand amazing
scientists mention well we overlooked
that as a possibility but there’s so
many great breakthroughs that happen
when teens are curious about a problem
and fill it shouldn’t be that way
so what is it MIT for me you know that I
have a life of passion and purpose
really the passion comes first and then
to me you get purpose should I now have
life filled with purpose I am motivated
every moment of every day and when I
share what I’m up to
I’ve given
skills to the person I’m sharing with my
purpose is bigger than myself and my
team and they know that and it drives me
every day I’m more authentic you know to
be fully committed to pursuing your
passion
it can’t be faked if you try to fake
your passion your purpose you come
across as a fraud so I’m a better person
a more authentic and I have a higher
level of integrity and to me integrity
is everything integrity is not it’s more
than doing what you will say you will do
to me integrity is more than doing what
a reasonable person will expect you to
do integrity is having the life you say
you want in some ways I’m out of
integrity I want to be more fit I am out
of integrity I accept that I own it but
if someone says they want to be a doctor
they should be a doctor or in my world
they’re out of integrity I say I want to
impact millions that’s what I’m working
on
sorry with an integrity you know if a
couple men and women want to you know
protect and serve their community their
integrity when they pursue a career has
a placement or firefighter or find
another way to fulfill that commitment
so being true to my passion having a
purpose being authentic and be integrity
has brought me peace and happiness
almost in every area of my life
it’s completely changed Who I am in the
past year year and a half it’s opened up
opportunities now imagine you know a
world where everyone had passion right
where they were living with purpose
authenticity and integrity you know what
their life would be like and what our
world would be like and how can we help
everyone find their passion and purpose
and that’s actually what I’m up to with
my business thank you very much you
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