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Adversity in Perspectives Beyond Limits | Dr George Lee | TEDxMonashUniversityMalaysia


first of all I have an apology to make
right okay because after all that really
kind introduction I am standing before
you I have no idea what I’m here to say
well that kind of reminded me of the
very first TEDx that I was asked to do
right about four years ago I was
approached by TEDx KL and then
essentially in a very very busy urology
clinic I receive a phone call the phone
call goes like this and it someone
called me up and said professor Lee is
it possible will you be interested in
doing a TED talk it was so busy the only
thing I heard was professor Lee is it
possible if you can do a sex talk
something that is supposed to be a TED
talk that will change your life and
suddenly I misheard it as a sex talk
right okay I’m a urologist and therefore
you know I deal with sexual issues all
the time and therefore I assume this was
a sexed walk so throughout the few
months I receive phone calls like you
know saying would you like to do a voice
coaching body you know you know posture
monitoring look I do sex talk every
single day so I really don’t need any
coaching for this so the night before
the actual TED talks TEDx care in all ug
I suddenly receive a phone call when I
was having dinner with my kids so my
daughter was in front of me and then I
received this phone cause it excuse me
professor Lee you have to come here for
a rehearsal then I said look I don’t
know who you are but I do sex talk every
single day I know how to deal with that
and then so I put out the phone my
daughter asked me Dad who’s that I said
someone called Ted
my daughter said that hang on a minute
te d Ted like this is like an idea worth
spreading and then we is we is
broadcasted to 500 million people in the
world you are a penis doctor why would
they ask you I was like te d stands for
technology and education and design I
say which part of penis doctor are you
now I say young lady you’d be careful
those penises pay for your school fees
okay anyway I said look dad can be quite
techno savvy as well I said dad come on
there was once we were in a restaurant
someone came to you and said professor
Lee can I do a selfie with you and I
said what selfie now here in front of my
children
right I said I named my daughter sit dad
want you to see what are you thinking
she just wants to take a picture with
you Oh selfie sir she really didn’t know
what I was thinking at that time when I
was being asked what selfie was anyway
several years founder line yeah that’s
quite funny right
yeah several years down the line I
become quite techno savvy now right okay
this is a picture of me going back to
Cambridge right okay
I am quite techno-savvy so you know that
you can see like you know Instagram dr.
Josh Lee so because I got a bit hurt my
daughter told me that I actually not was
to techno-savvy so I went for a job with
my son and this is outside Senate house
in Cambridge 27 years after I graduated
and then my son asked me dad stop I
didn’t take a picture erection
specialist and my dad sit at my son sit
that’s you dad he was being right okay
and then from my Monash University you
know students actually say nice shot
trough and your name as well is there
you can see Josh is written there well
looking anyway coming back to my TED
talk so when I appear in front of 3,000
people in TEDx KL suddenly I prepare a
sex talk so I suddenly got really
worried because I suddenly thought look
what exactly do they want to hear from
me is it because of my pharmacological
career in Cambridge or is it because of
my transplant career in Oxford or is it
because of Imperial College or is it
because of my clinical associate
professor role at Monash insolently I
thought you know what they might just be
interested in what I do because one of
the things that I do as a urologist is
actually learning from patients to find
out why there is a differences between
male and female treatment seeking
behavior because in many ways many of
you will know that life expectancy
between men and women is markedly
different because across the world from
Swaziland to Japan you will see that men
actually the short change by women by at
least five years in their life
expectancy some of you but the reality
is men seeking help they always seek
help a little bit this TEDx talk
told them how I learn from my Asian
experience in order to change because I
feel that that is a very important part
of my career in order to find out why is
there a treatment seeking behavior
between men and women because I think
mankind is not too kind to men that’s
pretty good right come on right okay
anyway that TEDx went really well apart
from I was being told off for mentioning
penises about two years later I receive
another phone calls this time is TEDx
Petaling Street and I was going yeah
yeah yeah I know what to do now I know
what to do and then until I turn up I
said I even want to give you the title
of my talk it’s called the gift of fear
that sounds really good when I turn up
there were about 2,000 people on this
location I suddenly realized that it’s
not the title or the topic I got wrong
suddenly I realized that this is a TEDx
in Mandarin remember I prepare the TEDx
in English however facing with adversity
with the title on my top the gif of fear
I needed to face and confront my fear
and deal with that adversity and so I
did it
well I guess some people quite
with style but I did it the right okay
oh that’s pretty good I speak well I’m
from Kota Bharu I went to a really small
Chinese school you know my Chinese is
still not too bad
so I delivered the talk in Mandarin and
the crunch of the tall essentially it’s
about my fear it’s about a fear that
actually has been haunting me for years
and years I have this fear of death a
lot of us have fear of death but I have
this really probably disproportionate
fear of death because when I was a kid
my dad is a very superstitious man
worked out all these kind of like as
fortune teller things and all of us had
got all our little problems that we may
face according to my dad you know
fortune teller and for mine I was told I
was going to die on my birthday and then
so the interesting things that every
birthday you wonder whether this is your
last birthday so interestingly the talk
that I was giving was not about my
birthday it’s about an experience I had
when I I’ve been back to Malaysia for
about ten years now on my seventh year
in Malaysia I had burglary at home in
the middle of the night about four
thirty eight I remember it well because
my face was pinned to the floor I had
three people came to my house they
basically tied me up beat the crap out
of me
can I see crap they said yeah I said it
anyway so okay and then basically tie me
up and then was demanding money I had
200 ringgit at home and at that time I
scream and asked what my wife was
sleeping with my daughter to say run the
first thing my wife did was I open the
balcony and jump off and then well it’s
not very tall building so she jumped off
and asked for help so it was Brad down
all the way to the kitchen had a big
paring and my neck and then the only
thing they decided to do was to say who
no laughs so that’s a moment that I
don’t think any one of you would have
experienced in your life to say in that
final moment
what are you thinking so that was what I
was writing down and delivering in my
TED talk when my daughter asked me dead
what exactly were you thinking of course
I told her I was thinking about you
darling
right okay but the reality was that the
only thing I was thinking was that the
week before that I had the burglary I
went to Petra and then the only thing
that flashed across my mind was I
haven’t been to it the pyramid
maybe next time laughs right and then
strangely enough there’s a strange thing
that came across because at that time
you knew it was going to be the last
moment of your life and then suddenly
think of something else
so that was an interesting TED talk that
a year but the crutch of the story was
at the end of that burglary the police
started taking statement and the police
asked me is it painful bleeding down my
skull it asked me whether it’s painful
okay and then the next thing he asked me
was that did you lose a lot I said look
you know I I lost watch my ya know my
dad gave me and then they said don’t
worry lie in the other place they killed
the other guy you know come on you only
lost a watch if the if you treat this as
taxation then you feel better the last
thing he said to me was that don’t worry
LA if you don’t really like living in
Malaysia you always have a choice to go
to Singapore at that time was a hangry I
was really really angry for six months I
really was struggling because I was in
fear I kept thinking about wanting to go
back to Cambridge and I really was angry
until something changed my life one day
my son saw how depressed I was because
was six months I lived in hell
constantly I heard things I live in a
bird bird cage that the shutter was
shutting down every single night and one
day my son said to me dad I used to in
pain I said well no not really but I’m
in fear my son said dad but the thing is
it’s not that bad right what we’re still
together so it could be a lot worse in
reality I was here
different things when the police said it
the police said that look they killed
the other guy they didn’t kill you but
when you hear it from your son they
actually say it’s not that bad right
because they kill the other guy or you
know they didn’t kill you and you’re
still with us and my son my son asked me
a second question
did we lose many things I say a lot of
watch that your dad gave me it’s a
sentimental value and my son said maybe
granddad thinks that this will actually
buy you your life maybe he knows
therefore you have to give this watch a
way to buy your life so it’s just like
taxation laughs right okay the last
thing is said that if you truly are
unhappy then we can always move back to
England and that moment really changed
my life because suddenly I realized that
when you’re faced with adversity or fear
or the fear of death suddenly you can
look at how unlucky you are or how lucky
you are
and therefore subsequently we have been
living in the same house living normally
I’m actually quite happy something like
that happened to me because from that
day onwards I live like very differently
because suddenly I realized that I live
like if this was ever going to be the
very last day today I might not see
tomorrow again therefore I make the full
use of it and make it as rewarding as
possible
oh come on that deserve round the pores
then TEDx Monash University called me
and said can you do another today’s then
I was just thinking at that time I was
actually in Cambridge and then I was
actually attending a play and then I
said what is your topic is gonna be they
asked me and then I heard this is it let
me embrace the sava adversity for wise
men say it does wisest cause Sonny I
said okay I’m going to do stat or I’m
gonna call the power of adversity I’m
gonna tell you a last story that going
to highlight what I mean by that okay so
the power adversity for the talk today
I’m gonna give you is in other problems
I faced in my life you might think I’m
absolutely accident-prone right always
end up in trouble I will show you a
picture of me right okay this is if you
if you if anyone of you actually look at
my wet sir this is a picture I put up
this is a bike my mom bought for you
have a fifty-year-old I still get gifts
on my mom right okay that’s quite
interesting it’s safety on 99-88 my mum
bought this best part for me I’m really
loved by King but this is something that
I feel like I really enjoy so one day I
actually took this bike I live in Mount
Kyra I work at Gleneagles and I wrote
all this bike all the way to mount er to
blend Eagles and after seeing the
patients me load my ward round this was
only 18 months ago I drove back and then
I said goodbye to patients I drove back
and I hit a pothole and I fell into the
pothole the bike landed on my chest and
I was lying in the street thinking this
is it it’s not my birthday
and I was lying there the cars kept
passing me I was thinking if I’m not
going to die because of accident
someone’s gonna trust me to death here I
better come up so I woke up I tried to
kick-start the bite again it didn’t work
so suddenly I thought I was going to
over to the hospital right okay I pick
up my phone my phone was smashed
so I did what I did was that I actually
just walked home walk back to the
hospital is 20 minutes walk I kept
walking back because at that time the
only thing he said I don’t want this to
be today and I walk back when I was in
accident emergency I got a phone from my
colleague and said I need to call my
wife when I call my wife my wife said
okay do I have time to head hair wash
Birds or are you really that serious
I couldn’t breathe I really couldn’t
breathe so I said to my colleague guys
put me into the CT scanner then they
said no no no you probably have a
pneumothorax which is punctured your
lung let me put a chest drain in and
everything I said guys no seriously then
eventually they’re convinced they say
actually put me through the CT scanner
they said to me do you want a good news
or do you want a bad news I said both
please they said the good news if you
don’t have a punctured lung the bad news
is you just ruptured your spleen and you
just torn your liver and you have about
1 and 1/2 liters of blood in your
abdomen so I said ok they’re all hit ok
they said we need to push you to ICU sir
because we might need to take you to
operating theatre so they pushed me to
ICU the patient I’ve just seen I wave hi
to her and the only thing she said was
it so who’s gonna see me tomorrow oh
come on that’s good right so I was lying
there and then I suddenly realized that
I might die because my colleague came in
and said you have 30% chance of dying at
that moment I picked up a notebook I
wrote down all my account number and
passwords I give to my wife and said
enjoy your life and she said thank you
oh not bad right ok so at this moment I
really was ready Isis no it felt like
look sometimes life is just like that it
might be your last day already so you
just have to accept it so for some
whatever run-run reasons you can just
read any medical textbook there’s no
splenic injury that nuts does not need
an operation and suddenly within 24
hours my bleeding stopped
and then suddenly I could wake up and
then I was pushed to the wall and I was
ok don’t knows what happened right
only thing that I found out was that I
really was struggling because I was in
pain I was in so much pain
because my lung was stuck to my spleen
and I couldn’t breathe and when I was in
the hospital ward I fell off the bed
because I suddenly realized that I have
no use of my hand I still have scars on
my hands
I suddenly realized that I was in so
much pain but I’m alive
what should I do should I feel sorry for
myself or should I move on and that was
a moment I suddenly remember a patient
said something to me a testicular
patient said something to me to say
sometimes adversity in your life
actually make you a stronger person and
it changed the course of your life and
that is something called the power of
adversity so I suddenly realized that
the bleeding stopped I was given a
second chance I stood up I actually
caught my driver went home and told my
wife that I’m okay now of course she was
a bit disappointed and then the
following day I went back to work I
started operating two days after
house-painting injury and since then I
actually have not looked back so ladies
and gentlemen I started telling you a
story about how adversity can change
your life this is a picture that was
taken two weeks before my accident I was
108 kilo at that time suddenly this is a
picture that was taken last week in my
new Instagram that’s not my new wife
that’s my splice I co-instructor right
okay I have lost I have now ha I’m now
82 kilo and I’m counting I suddenly
realized that I love my life
I begin to enjoy everything I begin to
change everything I don’t to leave you
with something that I learned from my
patient in life we faced with adversity
and is the strongest people
actually rise from all that adversity
and make good use of your life and don’t
waste it just like what Victor Hugo said
adversity makes men and Prosperity makes
monster on that note thank you very much
[Applause]
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