[Music]
imagine imagine being the prodigy of a
middle-class hard-working family like
most women of my age being the first
girl to go to college or to get a job
and yet being told every single day that
you’re just over ambitious that’s a bad
thing imagine imagine being fascinated
by the universe wanted to explore the
world and being told that you’re just
being a rebellious person I was 21 years
old and despite my ambition I was
frustrated and I was angry because no
matter what I did I was just never good
enough and then I had one of the most
terrible days of my life
that changed everything it started off
as just a regular hot summer day in
Lahore we know I’ll know how those are
right as I walked into work my manager
walked me to the designated smoking
corner and over long exhales of smoke
expressed his disappointment in an
article I had published about my
experience with sexual harassment during
Hajj his problem was that I was actually
bad-mouthing a spiritual journey and as
a young educated woman I shouldn’t do
that shouldn’t share my experiences well
from there I went to work so work was
done I went to college and I had
single-handedly worked on a team
assignment as I submitted that
assignment I was told that I’m a
ridiculously difficult person to work
with because I wanted my name on top of
that cover I wanted to be recognized for
the work I had done fast forward into
the evening I go home and I find out
that I have another family coming to
check me out for their very eligible son
and my
aren’t as veiling and crying because oh
my god you couldn’t be any fighter or
any slimmer and then the family rejected
me because their son did not want a
working woman well quite a day right I
thought so too and I find solace in
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the galaxy my de
facto book for bad days as I was
laughing into my book my very frustrated
grandmother asked me what do you want to
do in life we all have those
grandmother’s right so she said what do
you want to do in life this was the best
question I had heard all day and I said
I want to go to Mars and she said Mars
you’re already so fat how much more Mars
will you eat you know it’s funny now
wasn’t then I felt like somebody had
just pushed me off a cliff and I had hit
rock bottom and then something just
clicked in my mind and I had an aha
moment I realized that every minute
spent worrying about other people’s
opinions was a minute I was taking away
from my ambitions every sleepless night
of stopping and turning over somebody
sound somebody’s son rejecting me was a
night I was taking away from my dreams
so I locked myself in my room and I
asked myself what are some of the best
things that happened to humanity that
have the most impact in humanity in the
last 200 years and I came up with
electric power transmission integrated
circuits and the internet and then I
spent the rest of the night taking notes
figuring out parallels between these
three things and I realize that they all
had
a purpose they were all ahead of their
time and they failed a lot in the
beginning the worst day of my life had
all of a sudden turned around and I had
an amazing night
because I knew what I was going to do I
was going to be what electric power
transmission integrated circuits and
internet was to the world I was going to
be the best thing that ever happened to
me and sounds great
so as the Sun hit my window everything
was perfect and then I asked myself what
is my purpose and you know what I heard
crickets nothing I had failed even
before I had started but you know what
I couldn’t just give up on day one so I
decided to do what I know how to do best
I took out my notebook and I got down to
working my journey led me to really
analyze lives of people that I admired
people like Nikola Tesla other Lovelace
Isaac Asimov Galileo day one turned into
a couple of years as I drew maps of the
world that I wanted to build and
parallels of their life things had not
changed at home I was still being
rejected by Suns I still was get baby
was still taking credit for my work and
I was still just an overachiever but you
know what I wasn’t frustrated
I wasn’t frustrated because I was
working on something that was important
for me and I found the answer that I was
looking for what if purpose was only
defined by what you think is possible
Tesla was convinced that he could make
electricity free by transmitting it fire
Leslie Asimov was convinced that
machines will fundamentally advance the
human civilization it was this
fiction that became the foundation of
their life of their work and of their
failures so when you think something is
possible your mind will make it possible
that’s called the law of attraction so
now I had a purpose impossible was
attainable and I was going to go get it
and then I had another bigger problem
well my family had no money I had no
disposable income I lived in a country
that had no resources for research labs
but I did have a friend who’s a fashion
designer so I looked great but that’s it
I was still troubled about how would I
build this world that I want to build
and this is where economics mathematics
and philosophy came to my rescue I
realized that the only thing I needed in
life to get started was my mind and my
time
that sounds really simple right it could
be the right answer but think about it
your mind and your time are so precious
that your governments want to control it
your mind and your time are so valuable
that media wants to own it your mind and
your time are so powerful that evil
wants to corrupt it and yet you are the
only person who gets to decide what
happens to it but you can’t just wake up
one right sunny day and rewire your mind
and just change your existence what do
you do that think of your mind as a
really big awesome machine where the
input determines the output I could not
put hours of gossip and games of Thrones
in my mind and expect it to return
rockets I could not spend my time
keeping up with the kardashians and then
wonder why my life was so unfulfilled so
I started with
small step I stopped watching TV and I
stopped following pop-culture all of a
sudden I had three hours in my day that
I could spend on things that I thought
were important and the flip side of this
is that I often had nothing to talk to
with my friends I was bored very very
often but things were working I was 28
and I thought my life’s on the best path
possible and then something happened
that I had predicted but I was not
prepared for drum roll I failed
failure is one of the hardest things in
the world it never gets easy
two of my companies have failed so far
every time I fail I tell myself Electric
Power Transmission integrated circuits
and the internet all failed in the
beginning every time I fail I pat myself
on the back I learned from my failures
and I get back right to it but now when
I look at my twenty one one year old
self I also realized how naive I was
because I had figured this out right I
knew that
integrated circuits electricity internet
they all had a purpose they all were way
ahead of their time
and they all failed a lot but I had
missed one key component they did not
succeed in isolation they needed other
people who believed in the same version
of humanity they needed other people who
believed in the same version of the
world of what we were capable of doing
to make them successful so in my next
step towards this exhilarating journey
of
creating a future that I want I’ve
raised a venture fund to invest in
people who are going to build companies
that will fundamentally change the human
civilization and while I know that most
of these investments will fail I am very
excited for what the future holds so
today when you go home tell yourself are
you the best thing that ever happened to
you are you what electricity internet
and circuits are to humanity and if the
answer is yes then start your day with
finding your purpose and somewhere along
the line as you and I are failing I will
be there cheering you on thank you
[Applause] [Music]
imagine imagine being the prodigy of a
middle-class hard-working family like
most women of my age being the first
girl to go to college or to get a job
and yet being told every single day that
you’re just over ambitious that’s a bad
thing imagine imagine being fascinated
by the universe wanted to explore the
world and being told that you’re just
being a rebellious person I was 21 years
old and despite my ambition I was
frustrated and I was angry because no
matter what I did I was just never good
enough and then I had one of the most
terrible days of my life
that changed everything it started off
as just a regular hot summer day in
Lahore we know I’ll know how those are
right as I walked into work my manager
walked me to the designated smoking
corner and over long exhales of smoke
expressed his disappointment in an
article I had published about my
experience with sexual harassment during
Hajj his problem was that I was actually
bad-mouthing a spiritual journey and as
a young educated woman I shouldn’t do
that shouldn’t share my experiences well
from there I went to work so work was
done I went to college and I had
single-handedly worked on a team
assignment as I submitted that
assignment I was told that I’m a
ridiculously difficult person to work
with because I wanted my name on top of
that cover I wanted to be recognized for
the work I had done fast forward into
the evening I go home and I find out
that I have another family coming to
check me out for their very eligible son
and my
aren’t as veiling and crying because oh
my god you couldn’t be any fighter or
any slimmer and then the family rejected
me because their son did not want a
working woman well quite a day right I
thought so too and I find solace in
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the galaxy my de
facto book for bad days as I was
laughing into my book my very frustrated
grandmother asked me what do you want to
do in life we all have those
grandmother’s right so she said what do
you want to do in life this was the best
question I had heard all day and I said
I want to go to Mars and she said Mars
you’re already so fat how much more Mars
will you eat you know it’s funny now
wasn’t then I felt like somebody had
just pushed me off a cliff and I had hit
rock bottom and then something just
clicked in my mind and I had an aha
moment I realized that every minute
spent worrying about other people’s
opinions was a minute I was taking away
from my ambitions every sleepless night
of stopping and turning over somebody
sound somebody’s son rejecting me was a
night I was taking away from my dreams
so I locked myself in my room and I
asked myself what are some of the best
things that happened to humanity that
have the most impact in humanity in the
last 200 years and I came up with
electric power transmission integrated
circuits and the internet and then I
spent the rest of the night taking notes
figuring out parallels between these
three things and I realize that they all
had
a purpose they were all ahead of their
time and they failed a lot in the
beginning the worst day of my life had
all of a sudden turned around and I had
an amazing night
because I knew what I was going to do I
was going to be what electric power
transmission integrated circuits and
internet was to the world I was going to
be the best thing that ever happened to
me and sounds great
so as the Sun hit my window everything
was perfect and then I asked myself what
is my purpose and you know what I heard
crickets nothing I had failed even
before I had started but you know what
I couldn’t just give up on day one so I
decided to do what I know how to do best
I took out my notebook and I got down to
working my journey led me to really
analyze lives of people that I admired
people like Nikola Tesla other Lovelace
Isaac Asimov Galileo day one turned into
a couple of years as I drew maps of the
world that I wanted to build and
parallels of their life things had not
changed at home I was still being
rejected by Suns I still was get baby
was still taking credit for my work and
I was still just an overachiever but you
know what I wasn’t frustrated
I wasn’t frustrated because I was
working on something that was important
for me and I found the answer that I was
looking for what if purpose was only
defined by what you think is possible
Tesla was convinced that he could make
electricity free by transmitting it fire
Leslie Asimov was convinced that
machines will fundamentally advance the
human civilization it was this
fiction that became the foundation of
their life of their work and of their
failures so when you think something is
possible your mind will make it possible
that’s called the law of attraction so
now I had a purpose impossible was
attainable and I was going to go get it
and then I had another bigger problem
well my family had no money I had no
disposable income I lived in a country
that had no resources for research labs
but I did have a friend who’s a fashion
designer so I looked great but that’s it
I was still troubled about how would I
build this world that I want to build
and this is where economics mathematics
and philosophy came to my rescue I
realized that the only thing I needed in
life to get started was my mind and my
time
that sounds really simple right it could
be the right answer but think about it
your mind and your time are so precious
that your governments want to control it
your mind and your time are so valuable
that media wants to own it your mind and
your time are so powerful that evil
wants to corrupt it and yet you are the
only person who gets to decide what
happens to it but you can’t just wake up
one right sunny day and rewire your mind
and just change your existence what do
you do that think of your mind as a
really big awesome machine where the
input determines the output I could not
put hours of gossip and games of Thrones
in my mind and expect it to return
rockets I could not spend my time
keeping up with the kardashians and then
wonder why my life was so unfulfilled so
I started with
small step I stopped watching TV and I
stopped following pop-culture all of a
sudden I had three hours in my day that
I could spend on things that I thought
were important and the flip side of this
is that I often had nothing to talk to
with my friends I was bored very very
often but things were working I was 28
and I thought my life’s on the best path
possible and then something happened
that I had predicted but I was not
prepared for drum roll I failed
failure is one of the hardest things in
the world it never gets easy
two of my companies have failed so far
every time I fail I tell myself Electric
Power Transmission integrated circuits
and the internet all failed in the
beginning every time I fail I pat myself
on the back I learned from my failures
and I get back right to it but now when
I look at my twenty one one year old
self I also realized how naive I was
because I had figured this out right I
knew that
integrated circuits electricity internet
they all had a purpose they all were way
ahead of their time
and they all failed a lot but I had
missed one key component they did not
succeed in isolation they needed other
people who believed in the same version
of humanity they needed other people who
believed in the same version of the
world of what we were capable of doing
to make them successful so in my next
step towards this exhilarating journey
of
creating a future that I want I’ve
raised a venture fund to invest in
people who are going to build companies
that will fundamentally change the human
civilization and while I know that most
of these investments will fail I am very
excited for what the future holds so
today when you go home tell yourself are
you the best thing that ever happened to
you are you what electricity internet
and circuits are to humanity and if the
answer is yes then start your day with
finding your purpose and somewhere along
the line as you and I are failing I will
be there cheering you on thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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