there’s something magical going on in
the boxing world they just launched the
new us blockchain the main mix has came
alive about a few days ago finally a
couple the whale just did 13 percent
water it’s active night I said according
to exciting time to me so I was there
you know I’m hosting one of the events
and we had a professor moment unis the
Nobel laureate one of the things in my
an exciting time so I just got me late a
little bit but a really excited to be
here thank you so much point here
quality TEDx or give me this opportunity
they talk I’m going to be touching on
today’s rebuilding trust and and
it’s a what can we foster day right in
this in this world looking we trusted a
well some of us it so it’s also very
extreme you know when it comes to trust
is very basic it’s something from the
day we were born
we have our parents and trust we have
our society trust and everything we get
involved we have some kind of trust that
we have a constant feedback from the
environment for me the way I wanted to
look at first is something more deeper
as I was traveling from home today on
the train on the Evening Standard there
was a headline
you are losing trust in the context of
races but everywhere you look there’s a
massive erosion of trust and then you
know recently if you look at the
Facebook scandal Cambridge analytical
and in the meter movement and then you
were the black lives matter everything
bases common thread that underpins and
maze that erosion of trust for me I
wanted to talk about from my personal
life story and I wanted to somehow leave
a message here in a way there is there
is a trust that we can all fall into and
things seem so impossible so this is my
father and my sister in October 1991
so I’m from Sri Lanka that’s me in the
right next to my father and that was me
but 11 years
as you know in sri lanka there was a 30
year civil war there’s a lot happening
there were about hundred thousand or
killed in 2009 that will came to end so
as I was a child even though there was
this chaos of warfare going around me
you don’t notice it you know it’s
something that your environment still
feels very normal
your day-to-day life is very normal you
go to school you come back you go to the
paddy field you’re playing around you
know you go to Temple in the morning you
come back it’s just very normal and you
know yeah how will you find and you play
and you probably see a couple of shells
broken by you just pretend okay it’s
fine it wasn’t your turn and to die
right oh you know in the middle of the
night you’ll get she’ll just keep on
dropping literally hundred meters away
and you just need to need to wake up
blindly run so that you can save
yourself and then an hour later they
stop bombing you come back and sleep and
you go to school next day so that’s what
light falls but anyone with in this
chaos you kind of trust within the
environment it’s okay you know there is
a bigger force that’s kind of protecting
you and your environment and then you
carry with your life as normal so what
happens is that one day I was studying
in the Union school and my brother he
was 17 years old he was studying in the
senior school guerrilla warfare randomly
this shooting them gunfire breaks up at
one of those instances gunfire broke out
and we were told from our parents our
passive sources whenever you hear
gunfire this run to a church or a temple
or a mosque stay there until everything
just stops and then we come and find me
right one of those moments the gunfire
breaks are my brother ones and I run and
he dies in my arm that was so yes if you
think about the environments like that
it’s very tough right but you have to
trust in world and my father finds out
that there was somebody something
happened across the school then he makes
the way there and the military because
deeply man in the environment is very
chaos then what happens they take the
body and they put it into a truck and
they take
the camp well my father comes in asks me
where’s your brother
they take him back to the camp then he
turns up the camp and they say can you
release the body and they say no we
can’t release the body and just because
the environment how it goes at that time
you know when you’re surrounded by wall
they kind of lock them up for three
months and after three months you can
imagine you know as a family waiting for
your father to come back being up you
don’t know what’s going on you’re
waiting you’re trusting the community
you trust in the environment to kind of
take care of him so that was the image
that after four months there was a Red
Cross went into the camp and they saw my
father in a very bad state and they kind
of did some negotiations and went back
and forth and randomly one night we saw
one evening we saw a Red Cross man came
towards our house and the whole
community just running towards to see
what it is we didn’t know what was
happening
so that was my sister and my father I
was the image that it appeared and one
of the magazines and that’s the kind of
the overall image that’s me on the right
and my brother on the left and that’s
it’s kind of like the neighborhood just
to give you a little sense of what it is
right so from that moment as you can see
like my father so far that you can’t see
one of the hands probably but one of the
images you can see all the abuses you
know or the kind of tight they’re
straining hang marks and you can see the
kind of nature you know how long he’s
been inside right so that’s what
environment was ours alone years old
still I haven’t so the way to think
about it when something like that happen
you had something like that happen very
close to you your brother being dying
place there’s two ways to think about it
like either you go very extreme you go
towards hate well why don’t you just
somehow you just put the hope in love
right somehow you try to find some honey
inspiration but then having say that but
I’m only lonely is all it’s very
difficult to see both extreme because
those even when we are mature of having
through 30 years of my life now still I
find it very difficult in certain
situation to either look through love
you know hope so I beloved and three
months later my father’s decided that
you know what you guys need to get out
of
so he decided that I’m gonna send you
first I was the last in the family I
didn’t have a mother so you can imagine
it’s just my father and we had like
three brother and sister so he decided
that I must go first at that time I was
about 11 or 12 years old there was two
choices right you would expect you know
when someone who father decides there’s
a lot of parents in that environment
they don’t even have a choice they don’t
even know the financial means or kind of
opportunity to even have that thought
you know what can I get my son out of
the country like my father even though
we would that financially wealthy but he
decided that I must get mine to take my
children so he decided that I was he
must send me first and those days going
from us from north of Toronto
so going from north of Sri Lanka to
south of Sri Lanka you can imagine this
is a this the high high height of the
war military everywhere landmines
everywhere bunkers everywhere you can’t
cross from north to south the other one
is we were close to be something there
so the other way is to get a boat and
leave so the time that we were deciding
which route to take
whether to go through India and then get
a passport from India and it’s in London
also in New York
oh yes somehow take a risk go through
all the jungle land mine and the camp
somehow managed to make it to Colombo
and then get a fake passport and then
get out of country so basic to alternate
so that night I remember we went to bed
thinking okay you know I’m very young
I’m hearing all the older spoken around
me and next morning I saw the whole
community both those people there
they’re running towards the ocean showed
and then as a child you know you’re
always curious or white people are
waiting
crying and running through the show and
I ran and then as a child in imagine I
was this height I’m holding onto someone
looking into the ocean I hope there
something is maybe it’s magical
something something just we’re looking
to might be saw a couple of babies
floating around right then we come back
you absorb that and come back and you
kind of listen you’re young they’re
listening to them as talking and you
find out it on the previous night there
were people who were travelling to India
trying to cross but the military for the
Navy must have patrol and the smugglers
must have asked the kids to get them
into the ocean because if they make any
noise either you have to decide whether
or die
or just bigger than the children so they
were the choice that they made at that
point my father decided we want to take
we want to take you into the flight hood
so then we decided there’s a lot of art
to people through we managed to get to
Colombo we found a smuggler we paid some
money managed to do survive a few days
without military kind of coming in to
your hotel and take me away we kind of
hid away color go for a while and then
we managed to get to the airport right
Airport wasn’t in this was in 1990
f-word wasn’t like a normally that you
walk in posse of us partake in it still
there’s not a military and there’s a lot
of chaos paranoia because the wall right
so I was sitting there but this you know
ready to go and my father just told me
story he told me you know what I don’t
know I’m going to see you for a long
period of time but whatever you do from
here make sure that you go and become
something so he told me a story in
common which I won’t translate he said
you know whatever you do from here try
to become like a tree madam told me your
own city you’ll see military everywhere
the tongue and the smugglers saying hey
just mentally get a few days ago just
said I’m gonna fake passports a child
and that guy is my product and I got my
real father behind me please telling me
a story whatever you do from here go out
and try to become like a tree and I’m
thinking what is the tree I’ve got so
many things about my and he said imagine
in the Asian countries you know when
you’re when you’re in a tree maybe used
to do this you know they used to come
and they look for a little food and they
try to urinate you know just imagine
that you’re a big tree and someone do
that and you get very upset by it and
you say you know what I’m not gonna grow
into a beautiful tree I’m not going to
grow no one I’m just gonna be stubborn
and I’m going to it’s beautiful you know
leaves and the fruit that I’m blessed in
so I’m gonna stay like this fear instead
if you forgive that same person and grow
into this beautiful leaves and trees the
same person when it rains or stone you
come under the same tree and say what a
beautiful tree it’s giving me shadow
when I need it
that’s what life is well then make
something and you make something of
yourself
that’s why don’t you can become useful
for something or someone in the
environment that’s not my journey
started and then I was I was in my mind
for I would be ending up in
but they started me to Nairobi so I’m
told years old under Nairobi I was there
for one year one year later again did
they were looking for another figure for
me on a mother figure and another
passport and managed to get to London
this agent dropped me in the airport
London Heathrow and say find your way
say born hide in the toilet for three
hours so that they don’t know where he
came from and then walk towards
immigration so that’s how my life
started so I worked towards the
immigration they took me they gave me a
little blanket and they saw some places
to live at this time I was 13 about 14
years old so that’s how my life started
in London what are the things I remember
when I was little I was very smart kid I
mean me I put up a smart kid when you’re
young you just feel this you know this
this thing you know you aren’t
unshakable you know that feeling because
you know your environment is you trust
everything around you know you have this
kind of environment your parents you can
trust when you’re struggling you know
you can reach out to assist or your
brother you know you feel this you have
this force surrounding I don’t want to
teach him he told me these things you
know dreams a universal opportunity is
not whether you are a kid or you’re born
in Sri Lanka in this village LeBron is
not poverty or on this wall or whether
you are a kid you’re born in Kensington
or in Chelsea the dreams of the kid is
the same it’s just the opportunity of
that kid is different and I don’t want
to my another teacher and say Karen I
can see that you’re very smart
you know you’ve worked really hard but
you can see there’s a lot of things
going on in your life but don’t get
distracted by you see literally none of
your friends and lot of the people that
you hang out with their disappearing and
they love the night and next day you see
that it turns even though they’re very
young but don’t get you know delude
advice so what I think it told me is
turn make sure you always faces your
face boss’s son let the shadows fall
behind you that’s one of the form one of
my favorite teachers in London and the
teacher I recently be working very
closely with is Professor moment Eunice
I mean I’ve been working with him for
the last five years very close
but I’m running for a very very long
time one of the thing that he says is
all of us here or all of us in the world
every child is the seed of the tallest
tree what lacks is the soy-based so what
the society does is that just imagine
yourself as we are all the seed of the
tallest tree and somebody give you a
small pot of soil and you put that seed
into the small pot but it will grow into
the secure little tree and everyone will
just name it
what a cute little tree oh here is a
smart kid but if you even at the biggest
oil but just bigger so it basically go
into this beauty and again you’ll say
well that pit is even bigger virus is
smarter there’s nothing wrong gonna save
you all the seed of the tourist trade
it’s just a soil base that be provides
many for me those three things talked
with me throughout my journey in my life
from a day my brother was shot to
landing in London alone at the age of 14
this is Finnish stores I like the small
money in my pocket walking towards
immigration normally so sweetie is
covering me and so fully that’s how my
life started like so somehow I could
trust in people when I was in Sri Lanka
and I reached London and that’s how my
lifestyle then they put me in a place in
the water so those nice 70 you know
imagine has been 14 years old not being
able to speak the language you know you
don’t want you to pass like 12 GCSE if
you fail those forget going to good
university getting a degree and forget
you know even someone forget even just
waking up in the morning and someone
telling you look at out of bed for
school study that you don’t you don’t
have all that privilege right some idea
to motivate yourself some why you won’t
enter school and say you know what I
want to start study and that’s how you
start school so I went to school like my
GCSE it okay if my a-level did okay then
ended up in here like my PhD then I
decided that I want to go into banking
so that’s how I so I started at Barclays
Capital Evans Singapore I was in Hong
Kong then I moved to New York Morgan
Stanley I was running a global micro
structuring that I want a c7 example eh
from the sale business so that’s my
banking since 2002 that’s my 16 years of
banking
but all this time I have this emotional
attachment in poo so I’ve been coming
back team-building lecturing is now part
of the business school on the advisory
board and also we’re trying to launch a
few things so that’s my association with
mine
academia world so somehow all of these
things while you’re going through from
you know from Srilanka the age of eleven
to get into London and the age of
fourteen years old it was a lot of trust
that was entrusted from my environment
you know my childhood first right my
teachers my friends my family then he
come to London then he put trust in the
system he tossed in the system of the
country the immigration system the
education system or the mentor that
comes in your life in a hope that they
will you know somehow that you clear
this trust and you hope that somehow
your dream is the same as a treadle the
kid in Chelsea or wherever it is and
somehow you get there
so that’s how I felt you know until
recently about five years ago I started
this organization called er you inspire
so you inspires a global social
enterprise from I work with all these
people and not know the mission of that
you inspire is these five of the people
around the world so one of the things
that I learned in my journey in my life
it’s all about having like I said view
all the seed of the tour is free but you
have to believe in yourself right that’s
very important but how do we create that
soy base right you know we can all say
this in a way that you know what okay
fine we all this soulless tree in the
world but how do you clear that
soy-based so through you a nice poem
about 18 months ago I was sitting in
this hotel I thought you know what I
want to do something and I want to be
able to think of a way that I can create
the soy-based I said okay why don’t I
where’s a better place then it’s not
extra like them so I was sitting there
thinking I’m going to build a school
where I can create an environment where
we can take children and kids from
underprivileged or orphans or videos and
put them into the center and somehow
create this kind of light by the Sun
that they can walk towards or kind of
like the soil is that they can feel that
they can expanding upon some basis so we
created this organization for you
inspired it’s like I mean where we are
teaching rock
they are the cutting-edge merging
technology on top of that we are
teaching all the soft skills that I
learned that’s also necessary in order
to succeed in this area in this world so
we have that organization and I come
across professor Yunus and he’s a big
ambassador in this space is a big social
enterprise and also you got Malala your
lay like Germans he’s quite huge in this
space the social impact investing and in
my age is a very good friend of mine
Jesus Erlang didn’t sing and again you
know she’s managed to get out of her
environment and managed to make
something out of her life so this is the
media like in Sri Lanka so when I
decided that I want to do I wanted to
build a you inspire did you like live in
Sri Lanka I haven’t been too sure I’ve
been 27 years I don’t even know how it
looks I said you know what I need to do
this so I hold up some dinners from the
building and I said I need it I need a
building so they said okay fine you have
this building which you’re working on
why do we have it so took that over and
then start putting things and I had this
kind of mind you know how I would create
I want to create this oil-based right
kind of various environment that people
can come in that I used in solid how can
I find someone you know I don’t even
know how I feel until it’s at 20 I mean
I know how Sherlock will expect this
particular policy like that the note I
don’t know how he did so I I just wanted
to find someone who can run this someone
who has the same vision and and one day
I was sitting in a cafe and I was
talking to the cleaner this is cool here
and there’s an email popped up and
that’s because someone was talking to
someone and they mentioned my name and
interrupt me an email and saying it here
I’m doing this amazing thing in Sri
Lanka I see you doing some amazing stuff
on them I’d like to work on quickly hung
on the phone I call this guy and I said
hey dude I think you’re doing amazing
job I think you’d be right for something
that I’m working on at the moment and
that’s that’s how it all started I
trusted that guy and then he found me a
person that was running is running the
video like maybe she’s a fighter too you
know after 36 in a day-to-day basis and
from time went on the whole you know not
filtered students it is amazing so it’s
just that without their trust of that
email with that trust that guy with his
mind managed
turn something now we are taking people
from MIT Stanford yeah so it’s an
amazing initiative so this is some of
the students so take a look so among
these people some of them could be the
orphans and you know videos children for
the people that were working with very
few suddenly you have an environment
where you know before they can come in
and write so these are some of the
students that’s working on that at the
moment so what do i what am i doing this
and whatever learn and what I mean by
trust right so the trust is is so Trust
is I trust you you trust me I think
Trust is something far more deeper than
that trust is that when that guy pull up
me having that connection with him
because you can feel that they say so
you don’t need to say whether I trust
you you trust me it’s just that the
controlling the voice and the kind of
the way he embraces you the way being
engaged the trust is already formed
right so when I walked into the
immigration you know when they place me
in a place you know you can trust is
already formed you know you can tell
there’s already that trust when you and
I will be alone for one year
you’re surrounded by a very young age 13
years old you just see lot of people
coming and going and you’re locked up
all your mind is half and I’m going to
get out it’s already some kind of trust
is there you trust the people around you
you press in the environment to hope
where you get it so what I’m doing now
in my life is that so even though I’ve
been in banking you know been in the
financial industry I seen a lot of
crises you know financial crises
everything’s around this erosion of
trust right so now I’m in a place where
I’m doing things that so I can build an
environment where the trust can be
rebuilt so I see as I mentioned in the
beginning you know we’re working this
technology is called blockchain option
is a great place to be decentralized
network again I’m trusting in that
technology to be able to deploy
something that I have passion for that
is education whether it’s kind of wealth
if you can distribute in a way that
people have trust they’re building
companies for example clarified which is
again built on blockchain we’re going to
be disrupting the microfinance again I’m
putting trust on a technology to be able
to scale it to people it’s also the idea
what we’re trying to do is we trying to
build
we’re wearables where we can distribute
to African kid that tied to my first
quarter leave the universal
opportunities not if a kid in Nairobi in
a slum
can every day switch on our watch and
being able to get the data ronaldo from
the previous day what he did in terms of
exercise 448 and the kind of movements
he done then the kids you’re giving a
tool for him to have later he doesn’t
need to be real madrid to be Ranallo so
this dream is the same you want to be
renowned or but you’re providing the
tool so through sports lately that’s
what we are doing we’re going to provide
wearables across all the hokkaido
whatever anyone in the world but we want
to make that green universal and we want
to make the opportunities universal as
well that’s the sports late and the you
inspire did you like i mean again like i
said you want to create this kind of
education movement where people can come
in so they can increase the soy-based
right again so one of the things that
when i started my organization you
inspire them it’s the kind of timeline
we had is your dreams make them happen
right but the underpinning behind that
is all to do the trust in my life i
trusted in my system i trusted in my
environment to be where I am
it wasn’t easy you know being a kid
seeing that and will somehow you know
trusting in the system and trusting the
people around me to leave and take the
leap to get out of the country and ended
up in London and somehow managed to be
where I am today I haven’t achieved a
lot but I think from Barranca to achieve
or I’m going I know I can see it’s a
beautiful place because everything that
I’m building is built around the trust I
want to give the people the biggest oil
base I want to make the dreams everyone
dreams a universal so that you know they
can have the opportunities I want I want
to see they are the seed of the tallest
tree and I want to provide the soil base
so what I suggest to you guys is trust
in yourself there will be a moment that
there will be a moment in your life
you’ll be shaken there’ll be a moment
you’ll see learn bad things happen
around you but don’t give hope but
trusting environment trust in the
universal energy and somehow trust me
the universe is bigger than us and if
you do the right thing you’ll end up the
first trust in yourself
thank you you
the boxing world they just launched the
new us blockchain the main mix has came
alive about a few days ago finally a
couple the whale just did 13 percent
water it’s active night I said according
to exciting time to me so I was there
you know I’m hosting one of the events
and we had a professor moment unis the
Nobel laureate one of the things in my
an exciting time so I just got me late a
little bit but a really excited to be
here thank you so much point here
quality TEDx or give me this opportunity
they talk I’m going to be touching on
today’s rebuilding trust and and
it’s a what can we foster day right in
this in this world looking we trusted a
well some of us it so it’s also very
extreme you know when it comes to trust
is very basic it’s something from the
day we were born
we have our parents and trust we have
our society trust and everything we get
involved we have some kind of trust that
we have a constant feedback from the
environment for me the way I wanted to
look at first is something more deeper
as I was traveling from home today on
the train on the Evening Standard there
was a headline
you are losing trust in the context of
races but everywhere you look there’s a
massive erosion of trust and then you
know recently if you look at the
Facebook scandal Cambridge analytical
and in the meter movement and then you
were the black lives matter everything
bases common thread that underpins and
maze that erosion of trust for me I
wanted to talk about from my personal
life story and I wanted to somehow leave
a message here in a way there is there
is a trust that we can all fall into and
things seem so impossible so this is my
father and my sister in October 1991
so I’m from Sri Lanka that’s me in the
right next to my father and that was me
but 11 years
as you know in sri lanka there was a 30
year civil war there’s a lot happening
there were about hundred thousand or
killed in 2009 that will came to end so
as I was a child even though there was
this chaos of warfare going around me
you don’t notice it you know it’s
something that your environment still
feels very normal
your day-to-day life is very normal you
go to school you come back you go to the
paddy field you’re playing around you
know you go to Temple in the morning you
come back it’s just very normal and you
know yeah how will you find and you play
and you probably see a couple of shells
broken by you just pretend okay it’s
fine it wasn’t your turn and to die
right oh you know in the middle of the
night you’ll get she’ll just keep on
dropping literally hundred meters away
and you just need to need to wake up
blindly run so that you can save
yourself and then an hour later they
stop bombing you come back and sleep and
you go to school next day so that’s what
light falls but anyone with in this
chaos you kind of trust within the
environment it’s okay you know there is
a bigger force that’s kind of protecting
you and your environment and then you
carry with your life as normal so what
happens is that one day I was studying
in the Union school and my brother he
was 17 years old he was studying in the
senior school guerrilla warfare randomly
this shooting them gunfire breaks up at
one of those instances gunfire broke out
and we were told from our parents our
passive sources whenever you hear
gunfire this run to a church or a temple
or a mosque stay there until everything
just stops and then we come and find me
right one of those moments the gunfire
breaks are my brother ones and I run and
he dies in my arm that was so yes if you
think about the environments like that
it’s very tough right but you have to
trust in world and my father finds out
that there was somebody something
happened across the school then he makes
the way there and the military because
deeply man in the environment is very
chaos then what happens they take the
body and they put it into a truck and
they take
the camp well my father comes in asks me
where’s your brother
they take him back to the camp then he
turns up the camp and they say can you
release the body and they say no we
can’t release the body and just because
the environment how it goes at that time
you know when you’re surrounded by wall
they kind of lock them up for three
months and after three months you can
imagine you know as a family waiting for
your father to come back being up you
don’t know what’s going on you’re
waiting you’re trusting the community
you trust in the environment to kind of
take care of him so that was the image
that after four months there was a Red
Cross went into the camp and they saw my
father in a very bad state and they kind
of did some negotiations and went back
and forth and randomly one night we saw
one evening we saw a Red Cross man came
towards our house and the whole
community just running towards to see
what it is we didn’t know what was
happening
so that was my sister and my father I
was the image that it appeared and one
of the magazines and that’s the kind of
the overall image that’s me on the right
and my brother on the left and that’s
it’s kind of like the neighborhood just
to give you a little sense of what it is
right so from that moment as you can see
like my father so far that you can’t see
one of the hands probably but one of the
images you can see all the abuses you
know or the kind of tight they’re
straining hang marks and you can see the
kind of nature you know how long he’s
been inside right so that’s what
environment was ours alone years old
still I haven’t so the way to think
about it when something like that happen
you had something like that happen very
close to you your brother being dying
place there’s two ways to think about it
like either you go very extreme you go
towards hate well why don’t you just
somehow you just put the hope in love
right somehow you try to find some honey
inspiration but then having say that but
I’m only lonely is all it’s very
difficult to see both extreme because
those even when we are mature of having
through 30 years of my life now still I
find it very difficult in certain
situation to either look through love
you know hope so I beloved and three
months later my father’s decided that
you know what you guys need to get out
of
so he decided that I’m gonna send you
first I was the last in the family I
didn’t have a mother so you can imagine
it’s just my father and we had like
three brother and sister so he decided
that I must go first at that time I was
about 11 or 12 years old there was two
choices right you would expect you know
when someone who father decides there’s
a lot of parents in that environment
they don’t even have a choice they don’t
even know the financial means or kind of
opportunity to even have that thought
you know what can I get my son out of
the country like my father even though
we would that financially wealthy but he
decided that I must get mine to take my
children so he decided that I was he
must send me first and those days going
from us from north of Toronto
so going from north of Sri Lanka to
south of Sri Lanka you can imagine this
is a this the high high height of the
war military everywhere landmines
everywhere bunkers everywhere you can’t
cross from north to south the other one
is we were close to be something there
so the other way is to get a boat and
leave so the time that we were deciding
which route to take
whether to go through India and then get
a passport from India and it’s in London
also in New York
oh yes somehow take a risk go through
all the jungle land mine and the camp
somehow managed to make it to Colombo
and then get a fake passport and then
get out of country so basic to alternate
so that night I remember we went to bed
thinking okay you know I’m very young
I’m hearing all the older spoken around
me and next morning I saw the whole
community both those people there
they’re running towards the ocean showed
and then as a child you know you’re
always curious or white people are
waiting
crying and running through the show and
I ran and then as a child in imagine I
was this height I’m holding onto someone
looking into the ocean I hope there
something is maybe it’s magical
something something just we’re looking
to might be saw a couple of babies
floating around right then we come back
you absorb that and come back and you
kind of listen you’re young they’re
listening to them as talking and you
find out it on the previous night there
were people who were travelling to India
trying to cross but the military for the
Navy must have patrol and the smugglers
must have asked the kids to get them
into the ocean because if they make any
noise either you have to decide whether
or die
or just bigger than the children so they
were the choice that they made at that
point my father decided we want to take
we want to take you into the flight hood
so then we decided there’s a lot of art
to people through we managed to get to
Colombo we found a smuggler we paid some
money managed to do survive a few days
without military kind of coming in to
your hotel and take me away we kind of
hid away color go for a while and then
we managed to get to the airport right
Airport wasn’t in this was in 1990
f-word wasn’t like a normally that you
walk in posse of us partake in it still
there’s not a military and there’s a lot
of chaos paranoia because the wall right
so I was sitting there but this you know
ready to go and my father just told me
story he told me you know what I don’t
know I’m going to see you for a long
period of time but whatever you do from
here make sure that you go and become
something so he told me a story in
common which I won’t translate he said
you know whatever you do from here try
to become like a tree madam told me your
own city you’ll see military everywhere
the tongue and the smugglers saying hey
just mentally get a few days ago just
said I’m gonna fake passports a child
and that guy is my product and I got my
real father behind me please telling me
a story whatever you do from here go out
and try to become like a tree and I’m
thinking what is the tree I’ve got so
many things about my and he said imagine
in the Asian countries you know when
you’re when you’re in a tree maybe used
to do this you know they used to come
and they look for a little food and they
try to urinate you know just imagine
that you’re a big tree and someone do
that and you get very upset by it and
you say you know what I’m not gonna grow
into a beautiful tree I’m not going to
grow no one I’m just gonna be stubborn
and I’m going to it’s beautiful you know
leaves and the fruit that I’m blessed in
so I’m gonna stay like this fear instead
if you forgive that same person and grow
into this beautiful leaves and trees the
same person when it rains or stone you
come under the same tree and say what a
beautiful tree it’s giving me shadow
when I need it
that’s what life is well then make
something and you make something of
yourself
that’s why don’t you can become useful
for something or someone in the
environment that’s not my journey
started and then I was I was in my mind
for I would be ending up in
but they started me to Nairobi so I’m
told years old under Nairobi I was there
for one year one year later again did
they were looking for another figure for
me on a mother figure and another
passport and managed to get to London
this agent dropped me in the airport
London Heathrow and say find your way
say born hide in the toilet for three
hours so that they don’t know where he
came from and then walk towards
immigration so that’s how my life
started so I worked towards the
immigration they took me they gave me a
little blanket and they saw some places
to live at this time I was 13 about 14
years old so that’s how my life started
in London what are the things I remember
when I was little I was very smart kid I
mean me I put up a smart kid when you’re
young you just feel this you know this
this thing you know you aren’t
unshakable you know that feeling because
you know your environment is you trust
everything around you know you have this
kind of environment your parents you can
trust when you’re struggling you know
you can reach out to assist or your
brother you know you feel this you have
this force surrounding I don’t want to
teach him he told me these things you
know dreams a universal opportunity is
not whether you are a kid or you’re born
in Sri Lanka in this village LeBron is
not poverty or on this wall or whether
you are a kid you’re born in Kensington
or in Chelsea the dreams of the kid is
the same it’s just the opportunity of
that kid is different and I don’t want
to my another teacher and say Karen I
can see that you’re very smart
you know you’ve worked really hard but
you can see there’s a lot of things
going on in your life but don’t get
distracted by you see literally none of
your friends and lot of the people that
you hang out with their disappearing and
they love the night and next day you see
that it turns even though they’re very
young but don’t get you know delude
advice so what I think it told me is
turn make sure you always faces your
face boss’s son let the shadows fall
behind you that’s one of the form one of
my favorite teachers in London and the
teacher I recently be working very
closely with is Professor moment Eunice
I mean I’ve been working with him for
the last five years very close
but I’m running for a very very long
time one of the thing that he says is
all of us here or all of us in the world
every child is the seed of the tallest
tree what lacks is the soy-based so what
the society does is that just imagine
yourself as we are all the seed of the
tallest tree and somebody give you a
small pot of soil and you put that seed
into the small pot but it will grow into
the secure little tree and everyone will
just name it
what a cute little tree oh here is a
smart kid but if you even at the biggest
oil but just bigger so it basically go
into this beauty and again you’ll say
well that pit is even bigger virus is
smarter there’s nothing wrong gonna save
you all the seed of the tourist trade
it’s just a soil base that be provides
many for me those three things talked
with me throughout my journey in my life
from a day my brother was shot to
landing in London alone at the age of 14
this is Finnish stores I like the small
money in my pocket walking towards
immigration normally so sweetie is
covering me and so fully that’s how my
life started like so somehow I could
trust in people when I was in Sri Lanka
and I reached London and that’s how my
lifestyle then they put me in a place in
the water so those nice 70 you know
imagine has been 14 years old not being
able to speak the language you know you
don’t want you to pass like 12 GCSE if
you fail those forget going to good
university getting a degree and forget
you know even someone forget even just
waking up in the morning and someone
telling you look at out of bed for
school study that you don’t you don’t
have all that privilege right some idea
to motivate yourself some why you won’t
enter school and say you know what I
want to start study and that’s how you
start school so I went to school like my
GCSE it okay if my a-level did okay then
ended up in here like my PhD then I
decided that I want to go into banking
so that’s how I so I started at Barclays
Capital Evans Singapore I was in Hong
Kong then I moved to New York Morgan
Stanley I was running a global micro
structuring that I want a c7 example eh
from the sale business so that’s my
banking since 2002 that’s my 16 years of
banking
but all this time I have this emotional
attachment in poo so I’ve been coming
back team-building lecturing is now part
of the business school on the advisory
board and also we’re trying to launch a
few things so that’s my association with
mine
academia world so somehow all of these
things while you’re going through from
you know from Srilanka the age of eleven
to get into London and the age of
fourteen years old it was a lot of trust
that was entrusted from my environment
you know my childhood first right my
teachers my friends my family then he
come to London then he put trust in the
system he tossed in the system of the
country the immigration system the
education system or the mentor that
comes in your life in a hope that they
will you know somehow that you clear
this trust and you hope that somehow
your dream is the same as a treadle the
kid in Chelsea or wherever it is and
somehow you get there
so that’s how I felt you know until
recently about five years ago I started
this organization called er you inspire
so you inspires a global social
enterprise from I work with all these
people and not know the mission of that
you inspire is these five of the people
around the world so one of the things
that I learned in my journey in my life
it’s all about having like I said view
all the seed of the tour is free but you
have to believe in yourself right that’s
very important but how do we create that
soy base right you know we can all say
this in a way that you know what okay
fine we all this soulless tree in the
world but how do you clear that
soy-based so through you a nice poem
about 18 months ago I was sitting in
this hotel I thought you know what I
want to do something and I want to be
able to think of a way that I can create
the soy-based I said okay why don’t I
where’s a better place then it’s not
extra like them so I was sitting there
thinking I’m going to build a school
where I can create an environment where
we can take children and kids from
underprivileged or orphans or videos and
put them into the center and somehow
create this kind of light by the Sun
that they can walk towards or kind of
like the soil is that they can feel that
they can expanding upon some basis so we
created this organization for you
inspired it’s like I mean where we are
teaching rock
they are the cutting-edge merging
technology on top of that we are
teaching all the soft skills that I
learned that’s also necessary in order
to succeed in this area in this world so
we have that organization and I come
across professor Yunus and he’s a big
ambassador in this space is a big social
enterprise and also you got Malala your
lay like Germans he’s quite huge in this
space the social impact investing and in
my age is a very good friend of mine
Jesus Erlang didn’t sing and again you
know she’s managed to get out of her
environment and managed to make
something out of her life so this is the
media like in Sri Lanka so when I
decided that I want to do I wanted to
build a you inspire did you like live in
Sri Lanka I haven’t been too sure I’ve
been 27 years I don’t even know how it
looks I said you know what I need to do
this so I hold up some dinners from the
building and I said I need it I need a
building so they said okay fine you have
this building which you’re working on
why do we have it so took that over and
then start putting things and I had this
kind of mind you know how I would create
I want to create this oil-based right
kind of various environment that people
can come in that I used in solid how can
I find someone you know I don’t even
know how I feel until it’s at 20 I mean
I know how Sherlock will expect this
particular policy like that the note I
don’t know how he did so I I just wanted
to find someone who can run this someone
who has the same vision and and one day
I was sitting in a cafe and I was
talking to the cleaner this is cool here
and there’s an email popped up and
that’s because someone was talking to
someone and they mentioned my name and
interrupt me an email and saying it here
I’m doing this amazing thing in Sri
Lanka I see you doing some amazing stuff
on them I’d like to work on quickly hung
on the phone I call this guy and I said
hey dude I think you’re doing amazing
job I think you’d be right for something
that I’m working on at the moment and
that’s that’s how it all started I
trusted that guy and then he found me a
person that was running is running the
video like maybe she’s a fighter too you
know after 36 in a day-to-day basis and
from time went on the whole you know not
filtered students it is amazing so it’s
just that without their trust of that
email with that trust that guy with his
mind managed
turn something now we are taking people
from MIT Stanford yeah so it’s an
amazing initiative so this is some of
the students so take a look so among
these people some of them could be the
orphans and you know videos children for
the people that were working with very
few suddenly you have an environment
where you know before they can come in
and write so these are some of the
students that’s working on that at the
moment so what do i what am i doing this
and whatever learn and what I mean by
trust right so the trust is is so Trust
is I trust you you trust me I think
Trust is something far more deeper than
that trust is that when that guy pull up
me having that connection with him
because you can feel that they say so
you don’t need to say whether I trust
you you trust me it’s just that the
controlling the voice and the kind of
the way he embraces you the way being
engaged the trust is already formed
right so when I walked into the
immigration you know when they place me
in a place you know you can trust is
already formed you know you can tell
there’s already that trust when you and
I will be alone for one year
you’re surrounded by a very young age 13
years old you just see lot of people
coming and going and you’re locked up
all your mind is half and I’m going to
get out it’s already some kind of trust
is there you trust the people around you
you press in the environment to hope
where you get it so what I’m doing now
in my life is that so even though I’ve
been in banking you know been in the
financial industry I seen a lot of
crises you know financial crises
everything’s around this erosion of
trust right so now I’m in a place where
I’m doing things that so I can build an
environment where the trust can be
rebuilt so I see as I mentioned in the
beginning you know we’re working this
technology is called blockchain option
is a great place to be decentralized
network again I’m trusting in that
technology to be able to deploy
something that I have passion for that
is education whether it’s kind of wealth
if you can distribute in a way that
people have trust they’re building
companies for example clarified which is
again built on blockchain we’re going to
be disrupting the microfinance again I’m
putting trust on a technology to be able
to scale it to people it’s also the idea
what we’re trying to do is we trying to
build
we’re wearables where we can distribute
to African kid that tied to my first
quarter leave the universal
opportunities not if a kid in Nairobi in
a slum
can every day switch on our watch and
being able to get the data ronaldo from
the previous day what he did in terms of
exercise 448 and the kind of movements
he done then the kids you’re giving a
tool for him to have later he doesn’t
need to be real madrid to be Ranallo so
this dream is the same you want to be
renowned or but you’re providing the
tool so through sports lately that’s
what we are doing we’re going to provide
wearables across all the hokkaido
whatever anyone in the world but we want
to make that green universal and we want
to make the opportunities universal as
well that’s the sports late and the you
inspire did you like i mean again like i
said you want to create this kind of
education movement where people can come
in so they can increase the soy-based
right again so one of the things that
when i started my organization you
inspire them it’s the kind of timeline
we had is your dreams make them happen
right but the underpinning behind that
is all to do the trust in my life i
trusted in my system i trusted in my
environment to be where I am
it wasn’t easy you know being a kid
seeing that and will somehow you know
trusting in the system and trusting the
people around me to leave and take the
leap to get out of the country and ended
up in London and somehow managed to be
where I am today I haven’t achieved a
lot but I think from Barranca to achieve
or I’m going I know I can see it’s a
beautiful place because everything that
I’m building is built around the trust I
want to give the people the biggest oil
base I want to make the dreams everyone
dreams a universal so that you know they
can have the opportunities I want I want
to see they are the seed of the tallest
tree and I want to provide the soil base
so what I suggest to you guys is trust
in yourself there will be a moment that
there will be a moment in your life
you’ll be shaken there’ll be a moment
you’ll see learn bad things happen
around you but don’t give hope but
trusting environment trust in the
universal energy and somehow trust me
the universe is bigger than us and if
you do the right thing you’ll end up the
first trust in yourself
thank you you
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