so far I have had a change makers
journey a lot of doubts were involved in
that journey as well as a lot of fear
but also full of excitement especially
when I see the results of this work to
individual people to their communities
their families their countries life
happens to us every day every single
moment of the day we’re confronted with
a choice
should we keep things as they are or
should we change them for the better if
we choose to keep things as they are
then we assume to live in the ordinary
we assume to have a passive life we
become passive observance of the events
of the circumstances of our lives we sit
around and complain we have no control
even broken systems we cannot fix
because we feel that we have no ability
to do that the best thing we can do is
duck and hide and wait for everything to
go over us until we go back to the
status quo we even think sometimes that
whatever happens to us or to our
countries is a result of external forces
that are orchestrating it what a life no
present and definitely very limited
future it’s a life of scarcity on the
other hand if we choose to change our
lives for the better we assume to live
in the extraordinary full of an
inspiration of improvement often a
disruption definitely not a comfortable
place to be because we are now the
leaders of our lives we are the creators
of our lives we dream we
and we move and leave what we have
decided to so it can no longer be
victims of the circumstances because we
are the ones who shape the circumstances
and we create such an abundance so that
the competences of ourselves as well as
of our community flourish and that’s
what a leader does how well leaders you
know are not really feeling comfortable
in the status quo they ask a lot of
questions they are feeling uncomfortable
with problems so they try to resolve
problems but they don’t resolve specific
problems and problems and problems but
they create a whole new system so if you
for example are hungry they will
definitely not give you fish but they
will also not teach you how to fish they
will change the whole fishing system so
you will be fed sustainably yourself and
your family they create changes Drive
changers so that their momentum of
change can remain are they afraid of
course they’re afraid they’re humans but
they learn how to get free of fear now
what are the elements that allow us to
combat fear of course the fact that we
should be operating out of possibility
and not out of reason and the reason is
that reason bounds us to what we already
know and not to what we don’t know today
but we may learn tomorrow so abundance
comes out of the space of possibility
scarcity comes out of space of fear and
reason but in addition to that a leader
has the extraordinary ability to create
an attractive story and why we need to
in my case in the 90s there was an
extremely young professional economist I
it was a huge and respect that I had for
that organization it was the key
international development organization
and I was part of it together with
extraordinary professionals academics
people that had worked all their lives
in countries with crisis the best and
the brightest those people had written
books and articles and I had studied
them when I was at university so I was
in my dream job can you imagine a young
economist right there and then I felt a
little bit worried that maybe I may not
measure up so I had to really
concentrate and work hard and I did two
things
I listened really hard and I tried to
understand how did these people create
policies for countries why did they
choose specific policies versus
alternative policies why some countries
are better implementing some policies
more smoothly than other countries do
but there was one additional persistent
question I had why some countries are
poor than others and I i just sat back
and thought actually it’s not poverty we
should be talking about its informality
because the world of informality is a
world where we live with very little
means it’s a world of doubt it’s a world
of insecurity it’s a world where we
cannot prove easily what we have we
cannot prove our home easily we cannot
prove our job we can sometimes not even
prove our own existence because maybe
our ID cards are misspelled
their names misspelled and that
generates vulnerability and of course
exploitation so you have very expensive
lending happening if there is some bank
lending it’s expensive usually we have
usury that thrives child labor is
thriving as well trafficking all sorts
of trafficking and even terror the
ecosystem of informality incubates
have-nots and we traditional economists
and regular people call all this
ecosystem the poor but the poor call
themselves the in for most because it’s
not that they are not willing to have a
better paying job or they are not
willing to declare their homes and their
ownership of their homes but it’s this
super bureaucracy the procedures the
steps the unpredictability that makes
them feel that it is impossible for them
to have formal property rights and this
world that I am describing to you is
seventy percent of the globe seventy
percent of the globe is informal which
means that 30 percent of the globe is
formal which means that the minority is
formal not the majority and for that
majority the traditional economies I
found out when I was at the bank we
didn’t have tools to deal with it we
called it the informal market or the
gray market or whatever you want to call
it the poor if you like but we had no
tools so I plunged in and decided to get
into that challenge and understand fully
what does informality mean create tools
and methodologies to transform it and I
commit
that myself that I’m gonna have at least
the world bank to accept that
informality is a problem and the
transformation of that informality can
only happen with the key ingredient of
property rights and I was 23 and I had a
new idea and I had zero track record and
I had the audacity to believe and to
suggest that we should change the system
of property rights in countries that had
it for better or worse for several
centuries this was not a suggestion that
was feeding the status quo of economic
development which the World Bank was
part of my immediate boss thought that
every time he would listen to me I was
coming out of left field
I started feeling that I may be risking
that dream job of mine and of course
there was no budget for it do you think
that the World Bank would have given a
budget for this idea whatever it was of
course not so I had to raise money on my
own which I did and if I wanted to push
this further I realized really early on
I cannot do this alone so talking with
the Japanese government representatives
of the World Bank they accepted to fund
the first implementation of this reform
in one country that we started working
with Peru in Latin America talking with
senior professional singer economists at
the World Bank they were also extremely
excited not those only from the World
Bank but also from the academia and
other universities they were very
excited to participate actively in
shaping this work and that became their
project their team as well it was what
embarked into an extraordinary change
with monumental results
and all of that because of the why the
why was that we are changing that
property right system for us to have
unbound prosperity for countries that
are stuck with no expectations the
results in Peru we had about sixty
percent poverty that this work helped
reduce it to twenty percent in less than
ten years we started with a hundred
thousand formal and then we now talk
about seventeen million in less than ten
years
child labor was reduced over thirty
percent investment savings inflation and
investments all of this was part of a
change before our eyes were we moved
from the ecosystem of informality and
the poor to an ecosystem of middle class
how magical that was why are we happy
about it yes but was I afraid about it
my gosh was I not only afraid I was
terrified and I was always trying to
figure out ways sometimes to quit was I
pressured and sometimes even bullied to
stop this of course
three major opposition powers one was
those who didn’t really believe that
change happens so these were the
benevolent opposition the second one was
from the special interest you can
imagine they would do everything
possible to stop me from continuing and
the third one was the terror groups
because the terror groups were losing
their clientele from this insecure kind
of informal sector but what kept
everything going was of course my fresh
energy I was young younger fresher
energy but also in the enthusiasm but
also the fact that these story was
bigger than me the why was big
than me there was no egoism there it was
bigger than even the team that was
working for it transforming the poor in
the informal into middle class how big
is that that’s a universal change
and it is that momentum and that energy
that would not allow me to quit and
anybody else so every time I wanted to
get out of that circle they would pull
me back in and any time somebody else
wanted to go out of that circle I would
pull him back in today I continue
disrupting through intrapreneurship
along other changemakers we created
thought for action transformation
machine for countries that needed and
required and want it we have a safe
space that produces the attractive why
and those countries we’ve worked with
more than 30 countries those countries
that thrive are the countries that have
leaders that are conscious of the change
and the way those countries that fail
are the countries that have leaders that
are completely slipped into that
cynicism and they don’t want to change
anything they just want to hold their
positions now I’m gonna ask you two
nations and you people from sphax which
camp do you want to participate and
belong in the cynical full of scar City
camp or do you want to be in the
abundance and possibility camp I’m going
to ask you to look at the power inside
you create an attractive why find the
leader create a leader become the leader
or the follower of a leader and create a
winning team and stick with it stick
with it do not stop at any impasse or
any moment of fear I promise you you’ll
have plenty and when you will start
winning and when you will start having
results these fears are going to be
bigger and the impasse is even bigger
I will only remind you that Thomas
Edison who created the lightbulb we have
plenty of them right now he only tried
it 1,000 times until he actually got to
the lightbulb he didn’t finish he didn’t
stop trying
not even in the 999 time in the words of
Alexander the Great man man’s
immortality is not when a man is
winning moments of fear is what makes
men immortal and it is therefore in our
hands in your hands to decide and choose
if you want to have a life a community
in the country of abundance thank you
very much [Applause]
journey a lot of doubts were involved in
that journey as well as a lot of fear
but also full of excitement especially
when I see the results of this work to
individual people to their communities
their families their countries life
happens to us every day every single
moment of the day we’re confronted with
a choice
should we keep things as they are or
should we change them for the better if
we choose to keep things as they are
then we assume to live in the ordinary
we assume to have a passive life we
become passive observance of the events
of the circumstances of our lives we sit
around and complain we have no control
even broken systems we cannot fix
because we feel that we have no ability
to do that the best thing we can do is
duck and hide and wait for everything to
go over us until we go back to the
status quo we even think sometimes that
whatever happens to us or to our
countries is a result of external forces
that are orchestrating it what a life no
present and definitely very limited
future it’s a life of scarcity on the
other hand if we choose to change our
lives for the better we assume to live
in the extraordinary full of an
inspiration of improvement often a
disruption definitely not a comfortable
place to be because we are now the
leaders of our lives we are the creators
of our lives we dream we
and we move and leave what we have
decided to so it can no longer be
victims of the circumstances because we
are the ones who shape the circumstances
and we create such an abundance so that
the competences of ourselves as well as
of our community flourish and that’s
what a leader does how well leaders you
know are not really feeling comfortable
in the status quo they ask a lot of
questions they are feeling uncomfortable
with problems so they try to resolve
problems but they don’t resolve specific
problems and problems and problems but
they create a whole new system so if you
for example are hungry they will
definitely not give you fish but they
will also not teach you how to fish they
will change the whole fishing system so
you will be fed sustainably yourself and
your family they create changes Drive
changers so that their momentum of
change can remain are they afraid of
course they’re afraid they’re humans but
they learn how to get free of fear now
what are the elements that allow us to
combat fear of course the fact that we
should be operating out of possibility
and not out of reason and the reason is
that reason bounds us to what we already
know and not to what we don’t know today
but we may learn tomorrow so abundance
comes out of the space of possibility
scarcity comes out of space of fear and
reason but in addition to that a leader
has the extraordinary ability to create
an attractive story and why we need to
in my case in the 90s there was an
extremely young professional economist I
it was a huge and respect that I had for
that organization it was the key
international development organization
and I was part of it together with
extraordinary professionals academics
people that had worked all their lives
in countries with crisis the best and
the brightest those people had written
books and articles and I had studied
them when I was at university so I was
in my dream job can you imagine a young
economist right there and then I felt a
little bit worried that maybe I may not
measure up so I had to really
concentrate and work hard and I did two
things
I listened really hard and I tried to
understand how did these people create
policies for countries why did they
choose specific policies versus
alternative policies why some countries
are better implementing some policies
more smoothly than other countries do
but there was one additional persistent
question I had why some countries are
poor than others and I i just sat back
and thought actually it’s not poverty we
should be talking about its informality
because the world of informality is a
world where we live with very little
means it’s a world of doubt it’s a world
of insecurity it’s a world where we
cannot prove easily what we have we
cannot prove our home easily we cannot
prove our job we can sometimes not even
prove our own existence because maybe
our ID cards are misspelled
their names misspelled and that
generates vulnerability and of course
exploitation so you have very expensive
lending happening if there is some bank
lending it’s expensive usually we have
usury that thrives child labor is
thriving as well trafficking all sorts
of trafficking and even terror the
ecosystem of informality incubates
have-nots and we traditional economists
and regular people call all this
ecosystem the poor but the poor call
themselves the in for most because it’s
not that they are not willing to have a
better paying job or they are not
willing to declare their homes and their
ownership of their homes but it’s this
super bureaucracy the procedures the
steps the unpredictability that makes
them feel that it is impossible for them
to have formal property rights and this
world that I am describing to you is
seventy percent of the globe seventy
percent of the globe is informal which
means that 30 percent of the globe is
formal which means that the minority is
formal not the majority and for that
majority the traditional economies I
found out when I was at the bank we
didn’t have tools to deal with it we
called it the informal market or the
gray market or whatever you want to call
it the poor if you like but we had no
tools so I plunged in and decided to get
into that challenge and understand fully
what does informality mean create tools
and methodologies to transform it and I
commit
that myself that I’m gonna have at least
the world bank to accept that
informality is a problem and the
transformation of that informality can
only happen with the key ingredient of
property rights and I was 23 and I had a
new idea and I had zero track record and
I had the audacity to believe and to
suggest that we should change the system
of property rights in countries that had
it for better or worse for several
centuries this was not a suggestion that
was feeding the status quo of economic
development which the World Bank was
part of my immediate boss thought that
every time he would listen to me I was
coming out of left field
I started feeling that I may be risking
that dream job of mine and of course
there was no budget for it do you think
that the World Bank would have given a
budget for this idea whatever it was of
course not so I had to raise money on my
own which I did and if I wanted to push
this further I realized really early on
I cannot do this alone so talking with
the Japanese government representatives
of the World Bank they accepted to fund
the first implementation of this reform
in one country that we started working
with Peru in Latin America talking with
senior professional singer economists at
the World Bank they were also extremely
excited not those only from the World
Bank but also from the academia and
other universities they were very
excited to participate actively in
shaping this work and that became their
project their team as well it was what
embarked into an extraordinary change
with monumental results
and all of that because of the why the
why was that we are changing that
property right system for us to have
unbound prosperity for countries that
are stuck with no expectations the
results in Peru we had about sixty
percent poverty that this work helped
reduce it to twenty percent in less than
ten years we started with a hundred
thousand formal and then we now talk
about seventeen million in less than ten
years
child labor was reduced over thirty
percent investment savings inflation and
investments all of this was part of a
change before our eyes were we moved
from the ecosystem of informality and
the poor to an ecosystem of middle class
how magical that was why are we happy
about it yes but was I afraid about it
my gosh was I not only afraid I was
terrified and I was always trying to
figure out ways sometimes to quit was I
pressured and sometimes even bullied to
stop this of course
three major opposition powers one was
those who didn’t really believe that
change happens so these were the
benevolent opposition the second one was
from the special interest you can
imagine they would do everything
possible to stop me from continuing and
the third one was the terror groups
because the terror groups were losing
their clientele from this insecure kind
of informal sector but what kept
everything going was of course my fresh
energy I was young younger fresher
energy but also in the enthusiasm but
also the fact that these story was
bigger than me the why was big
than me there was no egoism there it was
bigger than even the team that was
working for it transforming the poor in
the informal into middle class how big
is that that’s a universal change
and it is that momentum and that energy
that would not allow me to quit and
anybody else so every time I wanted to
get out of that circle they would pull
me back in and any time somebody else
wanted to go out of that circle I would
pull him back in today I continue
disrupting through intrapreneurship
along other changemakers we created
thought for action transformation
machine for countries that needed and
required and want it we have a safe
space that produces the attractive why
and those countries we’ve worked with
more than 30 countries those countries
that thrive are the countries that have
leaders that are conscious of the change
and the way those countries that fail
are the countries that have leaders that
are completely slipped into that
cynicism and they don’t want to change
anything they just want to hold their
positions now I’m gonna ask you two
nations and you people from sphax which
camp do you want to participate and
belong in the cynical full of scar City
camp or do you want to be in the
abundance and possibility camp I’m going
to ask you to look at the power inside
you create an attractive why find the
leader create a leader become the leader
or the follower of a leader and create a
winning team and stick with it stick
with it do not stop at any impasse or
any moment of fear I promise you you’ll
have plenty and when you will start
winning and when you will start having
results these fears are going to be
bigger and the impasse is even bigger
I will only remind you that Thomas
Edison who created the lightbulb we have
plenty of them right now he only tried
it 1,000 times until he actually got to
the lightbulb he didn’t finish he didn’t
stop trying
not even in the 999 time in the words of
Alexander the Great man man’s
immortality is not when a man is
winning moments of fear is what makes
men immortal and it is therefore in our
hands in your hands to decide and choose
if you want to have a life a community
in the country of abundance thank you
very much [Applause]
Please follow and like us: