[Applause]
we are all going to die I thought I
start something very cheerful to
brighten it up a bit we’re all going to
die and 12 years ago this thought went
through my mind I was skidding down a
mountain load in Malawi in Africa the
veyts of my car didn’t work I’d run out
of fuel a lawyer was coming towards me
and it wasn’t going to slow down I
swerved out the way pulled on the
handbrake and a suddenly found myself on
a cliff edge my name is Damien and the
title of my talk is finding your inner
creativity through gratitude and hunger
as you probably realized I didn’t die 12
years ago and nor did the passengers in
my car I’m alive today but the thought
of dying actually made me leap out of my
comfort zone and made me have a great
gratitude and a hunger for life I’m not
here today to suggest to you you need to
become creative I believe that every
single person here is creative deep down
and we need to find our own inner
creativity and I think as other people
said before their different ways of
being creative I used to think of
creative people as being entertainers so
people like comedians or dancers I
actually did stand-up comedy once I
didn’t give up my day job I also had
dancing career once it lasted about 15
minutes I was in a club in Shanghai and
I danced so badly I received a round of
applause as people thought of as a
comedy act what was even better someone
bought me a round of drinks to thank me
for entertaining them so my own
creativity has nothing to do with
dancing or entertaining and my modeling
career hasn’t even started but in terms
of creativity what I’ve done I’ve create
to business so business aimed at
creating value for companies and
creating opportunities for people but in
addition to that I think that um more
importantly we can all be creative in
creating a new life for ourselves
and I’d like to speak to you about both
of these things so why gratitude and
hunger
I believe the gratitude and hunger
combined can help us find that inner
creativity gratitude first of all what
does it mean to be grateful I think
there are three levels of gratitude
number one is like responding in
gratitude responsive gratitude someone
gives you something and you say thank
you secondly daily gratitude daily
gratitude is to take time every single
day and think about what you appreciate
in life I do it myself so first thing I
do in the morning is sit down spend some
time and Thanksgiving to appreciate all
the good things in my life I appreciate
first of all the fact I’m alive if my
parents are in a different mood 47 years
ago I wouldn’t be alive today so the
fact I’m alive I can appreciate that I
can be great for the fact I’ve woken up
and still breathing
I appreciate my wife and my four amazing
children I appreciate the fact I have a
business do what I love connecting
people and I appreciate the fact I live
in the best city in Asia and I love Hong
Kong I also appreciate the fact I work
with amazing people and I get to work
with people like Michelle I get to work
people are Sybil Den I get to work Kate
and I get to work with my wife may as
well sometimes although fortunately for
her she’s not in the office most of the
time and I find that working that he’s
amazing people and daily basis it’s
something I’m really appreciate but
somebody said to me I say said to me
beforehand what’s your talk going to be
about and I had to look at the slide and
it said gratitude and they said what’s
gratitude got to do have creativity I
believe it has a massive impact and I
did some research and found out that a
professor the United States that univer
of california-davis did some research
approved that people who are grateful
become happy so it’s not the case that
we’re happy therefore we’re grateful it
can work the other way around do you
appreciate your life because your
gratitude can actually make you happy
and secondly other researchers in
Toronto University did some research and
found that people are happy are more
creative and I think that’s really
important too I think that to combine
gratitude and hunger gives us both
creativity and a focus to turn our
creative thoughts into creative action
but I believe there’s another level of
gratitude to something I like to call
radical gratitude Gary Vaynerchuk is a
businessman entrepreneur internet
personality I could go on and on but
Gary Vaynerchuk has so many influences
me a lot and somebody said to him where
did you get your energy from and he said
gratitude he said he believes in being
grateful 24/7 365 so for me I don’t let
anything get me down I try and be
positive in every situation two days ago
I was going to email my naked these
slides for today
and I thought he turned on my laptop and
realized my laptop and died so there
aren’t any slides to show you but I
decided okay my computer’s died but I
haven’t so I’m still happy
so gratitude is really important it’s
really powerful and we can be grateful
every moment of every day and I believe
we give thanks in all circumstances good
or bad if we can see not only what’s
good in life but also in times of
tragedy in times of bereavement in times
of apparent failure if we could be
grateful and see something we can give
thanks for then our lives can be
transformed
I believe that gratitude can give us a
creativity it yes that positive mindset
and make us a lot more cheerful it’s
quite funny a friend of mine once said
Damian why you so cheerful all the time
and I said why shouldn’t I be
and she said Damien if I’d been through
what you all been through in life I
messed up as much as you have I wouldn’t
be cheerful at all but actually through
messing up and making mistakes I’ve
often learned from that so I found it to
be quite positive and I think gratitude
has to be combined with hunger a hunger
a burning desire to do something
different
a great focus on something the same
research that says that a positive
mindset can make us creative also says
that positive mindset can make us lose
focus so we need to be hungry are you
hungry
do you have a burning desire for
something so so what makes you hungry so
so for me something I find Percy makes
me hungry it’s literally to be hungry
and not eat food I mentioned Gary
Vaynerchuk earlier he will literally go
without eating all day because he wants
to be focused on what he does he’s so
focused on his work he doesn’t eat
people like Chris Martin from Coldplay
he fasts on a regular basis and finds a
lack of food makes him more grateful for
food and grateful for life and that
hunger he gains from that combines to
give him more creativity some of the
most innovative entrepreneurs in Silicon
Valley love fasting so much they even
created an app for it and so I thinks
Kevin Rose invented alcohol zero that I
personally use every day to give myself
that hunger and to allow myself to be
more focused in what I do so in terms of
hunger I’m not saying you all have to
fast there are many of you here who
unlike me don’t need to lose weight and
you shouldn’t fast and I think that
fasting is not what I’m here to talk
about but I’m talking about hunger what
is it you truly desire what do you want
more than anything else in this world it
could be to pass your exams it could be
to invent something it could be the best
personal sports or it could even be a
new relationship
I’d like to talk to you about something
very personal for most of my adult life
I had a hunger which I want to share
with you today I have four children and
my oldest child for most of her life
until she was eight years old he didn’t
see me I was an absent father I wanted
nothing more than to be involved in her
life and it pained me so much I couldn’t
be more involved so my greatest hunger
was to be involved in her life
I had tried on many occasions and failed
to move to Hong Kong it simply didn’t
happen and then one day a friend of mine
said to me he said Damien why do you
want to move to Hong Kong and I said to
my daughter and he said to you are you
telling me that you’re going to leave
behind your parents your brothers your
sisters all your friends in the UK and
every single business connection we’ve
ever had just to one day have a
possibility of telling a daughter you
love her and I said yes the next year I
moved to Hong Kong over the last nine
years I’ve lived in the same city as her
and it’s given me great joy that my
hunger for her my gratitude for the fact
she exists and is alive has led to me
coming over here and some of the
creative actions I had to take to do to
be able to move to Hong Kong and start a
new life over here so people told me
I’ll be lonely they told me I’d have no
ferns they told me I’d have no business
over here and a fantastic thing about it
is I not only have elation my daughter I
have four times as many children now I
have 10 times as many ferns and about a
hundred times as many business
connections so I think that my gratitude
and hunger that enabled me to create a
new life in Hong Kong is something that
I’m really grateful for so I’d invite
all of you to find your hunger what is
it that drives you what is it that you
can combine the gratitude to take you to
the next level what is it you really
want to do I want to give you a
practical example actually about how
hunger and gratitude can make a
difference creatively so it was quite
funny a couple of weeks ago I was trying
to work on something or business
proposal it was about 2:00 a.m. I mean
I’m always hustling I’m always working
night was 2:00 a.m. and I couldn’t think
of anything to say or anything to write
so I decided to go to bed because I was
absolutely exhausted and I had a really
good sleep for about five minutes one of
my children who’s 18 months old decided
that be a really good time to jump up
and down on our bed and so she woke me
up and I knew I wasn’t going to get back
to sleep so for the next hour I was
marching up and down singing lullabies
trying to get her to sleep again and
some people might have been slightly
annoyed by this but I was simply filled
with gratitude there’s so many men who
want nothing more than to be involved in
their children’s life and Here I am
hugging my daughter so I was so happy
and grateful for this an amazing my
gratitude for being a dad and my
gratitude for having a chance to hold
her actually gave me a more creative
mindset and it’s business I do I
couldn’t think of a 2 o’clock in the
morning at 3 o’clock in the morning I
suddenly knew all the answers so I put
the proposal together and we ended up
winning the business so I’d certainly
recommend gratitude and hunger to all of
you so how about you I said to you
before what do you hunger for are you
grateful of what life has to give you
gratitude comes easy for me because I
know what I deserve I know what time in
title T I’m entitled to nothing I
deserve nothing everything I have is a
gift to be appreciated with wonder and
humility
so I invite you all today to take a
decision decide what is it you hunger
for decide to enjoy every moment of life
in good times and in bad
and I believe if you do this two things
will come true we will all find our
inner creativity and we will all become
fully alive thank you
[Applause]
we are all going to die I thought I
start something very cheerful to
brighten it up a bit we’re all going to
die and 12 years ago this thought went
through my mind I was skidding down a
mountain load in Malawi in Africa the
veyts of my car didn’t work I’d run out
of fuel a lawyer was coming towards me
and it wasn’t going to slow down I
swerved out the way pulled on the
handbrake and a suddenly found myself on
a cliff edge my name is Damien and the
title of my talk is finding your inner
creativity through gratitude and hunger
as you probably realized I didn’t die 12
years ago and nor did the passengers in
my car I’m alive today but the thought
of dying actually made me leap out of my
comfort zone and made me have a great
gratitude and a hunger for life I’m not
here today to suggest to you you need to
become creative I believe that every
single person here is creative deep down
and we need to find our own inner
creativity and I think as other people
said before their different ways of
being creative I used to think of
creative people as being entertainers so
people like comedians or dancers I
actually did stand-up comedy once I
didn’t give up my day job I also had
dancing career once it lasted about 15
minutes I was in a club in Shanghai and
I danced so badly I received a round of
applause as people thought of as a
comedy act what was even better someone
bought me a round of drinks to thank me
for entertaining them so my own
creativity has nothing to do with
dancing or entertaining and my modeling
career hasn’t even started but in terms
of creativity what I’ve done I’ve create
to business so business aimed at
creating value for companies and
creating opportunities for people but in
addition to that I think that um more
importantly we can all be creative in
creating a new life for ourselves
and I’d like to speak to you about both
of these things so why gratitude and
hunger
I believe the gratitude and hunger
combined can help us find that inner
creativity gratitude first of all what
does it mean to be grateful I think
there are three levels of gratitude
number one is like responding in
gratitude responsive gratitude someone
gives you something and you say thank
you secondly daily gratitude daily
gratitude is to take time every single
day and think about what you appreciate
in life I do it myself so first thing I
do in the morning is sit down spend some
time and Thanksgiving to appreciate all
the good things in my life I appreciate
first of all the fact I’m alive if my
parents are in a different mood 47 years
ago I wouldn’t be alive today so the
fact I’m alive I can appreciate that I
can be great for the fact I’ve woken up
and still breathing
I appreciate my wife and my four amazing
children I appreciate the fact I have a
business do what I love connecting
people and I appreciate the fact I live
in the best city in Asia and I love Hong
Kong I also appreciate the fact I work
with amazing people and I get to work
with people like Michelle I get to work
people are Sybil Den I get to work Kate
and I get to work with my wife may as
well sometimes although fortunately for
her she’s not in the office most of the
time and I find that working that he’s
amazing people and daily basis it’s
something I’m really appreciate but
somebody said to me I say said to me
beforehand what’s your talk going to be
about and I had to look at the slide and
it said gratitude and they said what’s
gratitude got to do have creativity I
believe it has a massive impact and I
did some research and found out that a
professor the United States that univer
of california-davis did some research
approved that people who are grateful
become happy so it’s not the case that
we’re happy therefore we’re grateful it
can work the other way around do you
appreciate your life because your
gratitude can actually make you happy
and secondly other researchers in
Toronto University did some research and
found that people are happy are more
creative and I think that’s really
important too I think that to combine
gratitude and hunger gives us both
creativity and a focus to turn our
creative thoughts into creative action
but I believe there’s another level of
gratitude to something I like to call
radical gratitude Gary Vaynerchuk is a
businessman entrepreneur internet
personality I could go on and on but
Gary Vaynerchuk has so many influences
me a lot and somebody said to him where
did you get your energy from and he said
gratitude he said he believes in being
grateful 24/7 365 so for me I don’t let
anything get me down I try and be
positive in every situation two days ago
I was going to email my naked these
slides for today
and I thought he turned on my laptop and
realized my laptop and died so there
aren’t any slides to show you but I
decided okay my computer’s died but I
haven’t so I’m still happy
so gratitude is really important it’s
really powerful and we can be grateful
every moment of every day and I believe
we give thanks in all circumstances good
or bad if we can see not only what’s
good in life but also in times of
tragedy in times of bereavement in times
of apparent failure if we could be
grateful and see something we can give
thanks for then our lives can be
transformed
I believe that gratitude can give us a
creativity it yes that positive mindset
and make us a lot more cheerful it’s
quite funny a friend of mine once said
Damian why you so cheerful all the time
and I said why shouldn’t I be
and she said Damien if I’d been through
what you all been through in life I
messed up as much as you have I wouldn’t
be cheerful at all but actually through
messing up and making mistakes I’ve
often learned from that so I found it to
be quite positive and I think gratitude
has to be combined with hunger a hunger
a burning desire to do something
different
a great focus on something the same
research that says that a positive
mindset can make us creative also says
that positive mindset can make us lose
focus so we need to be hungry are you
hungry
do you have a burning desire for
something so so what makes you hungry so
so for me something I find Percy makes
me hungry it’s literally to be hungry
and not eat food I mentioned Gary
Vaynerchuk earlier he will literally go
without eating all day because he wants
to be focused on what he does he’s so
focused on his work he doesn’t eat
people like Chris Martin from Coldplay
he fasts on a regular basis and finds a
lack of food makes him more grateful for
food and grateful for life and that
hunger he gains from that combines to
give him more creativity some of the
most innovative entrepreneurs in Silicon
Valley love fasting so much they even
created an app for it and so I thinks
Kevin Rose invented alcohol zero that I
personally use every day to give myself
that hunger and to allow myself to be
more focused in what I do so in terms of
hunger I’m not saying you all have to
fast there are many of you here who
unlike me don’t need to lose weight and
you shouldn’t fast and I think that
fasting is not what I’m here to talk
about but I’m talking about hunger what
is it you truly desire what do you want
more than anything else in this world it
could be to pass your exams it could be
to invent something it could be the best
personal sports or it could even be a
new relationship
I’d like to talk to you about something
very personal for most of my adult life
I had a hunger which I want to share
with you today I have four children and
my oldest child for most of her life
until she was eight years old he didn’t
see me I was an absent father I wanted
nothing more than to be involved in her
life and it pained me so much I couldn’t
be more involved so my greatest hunger
was to be involved in her life
I had tried on many occasions and failed
to move to Hong Kong it simply didn’t
happen and then one day a friend of mine
said to me he said Damien why do you
want to move to Hong Kong and I said to
my daughter and he said to you are you
telling me that you’re going to leave
behind your parents your brothers your
sisters all your friends in the UK and
every single business connection we’ve
ever had just to one day have a
possibility of telling a daughter you
love her and I said yes the next year I
moved to Hong Kong over the last nine
years I’ve lived in the same city as her
and it’s given me great joy that my
hunger for her my gratitude for the fact
she exists and is alive has led to me
coming over here and some of the
creative actions I had to take to do to
be able to move to Hong Kong and start a
new life over here so people told me
I’ll be lonely they told me I’d have no
ferns they told me I’d have no business
over here and a fantastic thing about it
is I not only have elation my daughter I
have four times as many children now I
have 10 times as many ferns and about a
hundred times as many business
connections so I think that my gratitude
and hunger that enabled me to create a
new life in Hong Kong is something that
I’m really grateful for so I’d invite
all of you to find your hunger what is
it that drives you what is it that you
can combine the gratitude to take you to
the next level what is it you really
want to do I want to give you a
practical example actually about how
hunger and gratitude can make a
difference creatively so it was quite
funny a couple of weeks ago I was trying
to work on something or business
proposal it was about 2:00 a.m. I mean
I’m always hustling I’m always working
night was 2:00 a.m. and I couldn’t think
of anything to say or anything to write
so I decided to go to bed because I was
absolutely exhausted and I had a really
good sleep for about five minutes one of
my children who’s 18 months old decided
that be a really good time to jump up
and down on our bed and so she woke me
up and I knew I wasn’t going to get back
to sleep so for the next hour I was
marching up and down singing lullabies
trying to get her to sleep again and
some people might have been slightly
annoyed by this but I was simply filled
with gratitude there’s so many men who
want nothing more than to be involved in
their children’s life and Here I am
hugging my daughter so I was so happy
and grateful for this an amazing my
gratitude for being a dad and my
gratitude for having a chance to hold
her actually gave me a more creative
mindset and it’s business I do I
couldn’t think of a 2 o’clock in the
morning at 3 o’clock in the morning I
suddenly knew all the answers so I put
the proposal together and we ended up
winning the business so I’d certainly
recommend gratitude and hunger to all of
you so how about you I said to you
before what do you hunger for are you
grateful of what life has to give you
gratitude comes easy for me because I
know what I deserve I know what time in
title T I’m entitled to nothing I
deserve nothing everything I have is a
gift to be appreciated with wonder and
humility
so I invite you all today to take a
decision decide what is it you hunger
for decide to enjoy every moment of life
in good times and in bad
and I believe if you do this two things
will come true we will all find our
inner creativity and we will all become
fully alive thank you
[Applause]
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