[Music]
while you’re here today what do those
people staring at your way think of you
do you even deserve to be on this stage
all these are questions that going
through my head right now today I’m not
going to talk about my passion for
environment and obsession with green
buildings today I’m going to talk about
a personal journey the conflict between
me and I let me ask you first how many
of you got an idea that you thought it
was amazing and you were very excited
about but you didn’t act right away that
deep voice came from inside telling you
why this is an awful idea or why you are
not good enough for it just raise your
hand so I can get an idea of how many of
you had it here exactly many of us did I
had this inner conflict for years a
continuous tension between me and I what
does that mean I’m only one person right
why I’m slitting myself into two simply
because we all have this critical voice
inside us that can be either
constructive destructive sometimes both
this voice is is is not coming from our
parents our bosses our rivals it’s
coming from inside I’m not talking here
about schizophrenia or ghosts I’m
referring to the voices within once I
realize these voices are controlling my
thoughts decisions and are holding me
back I decided to understand them so I
did what any millennial would usually do
I googled it yeah
it turns out that our brains are
designed to protect us to prevent us
from doing anything risky its protect me
protecting us even from ourselves the
self defense mechanism gets activated
when we hesitate hesitation is a habit
by the way when you hesitate your brain
gets an alert because you didn’t
hesitate when you were riding your car
in the morning preparing your coffee or
eating lunch so there must be something
wrong that you hesitated now to protect
you your brain magnifies his risk to
pull it away from something that
perceived to be a problem we human being
have developed this mechanism to protect
us from predators and danger
it is super helpful when we’re in the
wood and we suddenly face a tiger or in
every system and muscles will respond to
that threat immediately except in our
modern life it has not really beneficial
because we have to make risky decisions
sometimes but our brain will try to talk
us out of it thinking it is protecting
us from a life-threatening situation
simply because our brains cannot
distinguish between the fear of being
eaten by a tiger or the fear of being
humiliated in public so we have we have
developed this and in order to give you
an example I nine months ago I have
received an invitation to the World
Economic Forum meeting during the first
few seconds I was thrilled then I
realized I would have to work hard for
it
so I hesitated
alert signal went on in my head my brain
activated the defense mechanism and I
started making all the excuses why I
shouldn’t go so I started telling myself
oh you got this only because you are
lucky there are more qualified people
out there you don’t really deserve it
another thought was you wouldn’t be able
to talk in a panel if you were asked to
your English is not so good and you have
no knowledge to share and finally there
is no Swiss Embassy in Iraq you have to
travel to Jordan and don’t forget you
have to apply for Jordanian visa and
even if you manage to do all this your
visa application would probably get
rejected because you’re in Iraqi old me
would have probably pulled out then you
me didn’t lean back and I’ll tell you
how I learned to win this in our
arguments but first let me go back in
time and tell you the story from the
beginning upon finishing my master’s
degree three and a half years ago I
returned to Iraq I wanted to do
something innovative and impactful but
the field that I was looking to work in
the Green Building didn’t exist so I
knew I either had to leave the country
again which wasn’t a good option for me
or start this work myself except I
didn’t believe in myself enough to do it
I enforced this negative belief by
comparing myself to successful people
who are more privileged with good
education better financial social status
and more supportive environment so I put
all reasons in the world justifying why
I cannot do it myself my brain did this
job and talked me out of it
so I let it go
you see we all have great ideas but the
difference between successful people and
the ones who stayed behind is the amount
of belief and persistence they had you
might believe this is a great idea but
you might not believe in yourself and
this was the most difficult challenge
that I had to go through people come to
this world carrying distinct missions
and having different responsibilities
who I am today as a result of all the
things that I’ve encountered and
experienced throughout the past three
decades of my life I’m a perfect fit for
my mission but I wasn’t aware of that
two years fast-forward one day I was in
the car and I passed by a new local
restaurant so I said to myself the first
thing came into my mind why on earth
would anybody decides to open another
kebab joint in the city we already have
plenty of them then it hit me the
restaurant owner didn’t overthink it
bubbly never Maeda never done a study or
a market research he or she just did it
I kept that thought with me and I hold
it until shortly after when I was
reading Shirley sanborns book and I came
across a sentence quoting it if we go
back if we go to the sentence for
Shirley Sandburg the quote it says next
woman need to shift from thinking I’m
not ready to do that to thinking I want
to do that and I’ll learn by doing it
let’s remove the word women and put
people there next to be more inclusive
so I said to myself I don’t know how to
start a business I have zero experience
in this work I have no idea how can I
introduce the concept of green building
to Iraq but I’ll learn by doing it so I
know our goals might seem big and
impossible just break them down into
smaller goals and milestones and take it
one step at a time in order to start the
very first green company here I I had to
become accredited and acquire the
necessary knowledge for it so I chased
every single opportunity that would
enable me to develop personally and
professionally in this field
I knocked although all doors offering
free seminars and courses and workshops
just so that my work get recognized
I created my my own website with no
external help whatsoever I did all it
takes I call 2018 the year of success
and it was exactly one year ago I was
sitting there dreaming today I’m living
the dream I became the founder of the
very first green building company in the
featured ad real leaders magazine as one
of the hundred visionary leaders for
2018 talked what Economic Forum among
world leaders approached by a dozen of
people who wanted to join cask my
company and work even for free invited
to half a dozen of local and global
events to talk about my initiative and
work working now on building the very
first building green one here in the in
the region and here I am talking to you
from TEDx nessam on stage so my point is
nothing is impossible some of you might
be sitting there and thinking she must
be published with this and that I’ll
tell you a few things about myself I had
an average level of education no super
fancy schools whatsoever I’m from a
lower middle-class family both of my
parents don’t hold degrees I have nine
siblings where I’m number five which
made me barely not swell among them
interesting fact my mom wanted me to be
a boy she already had the three girls
and one boy and you know the culture
they love boys she didn’t actually tell
me that some mean relative she decided
to tell me that she decided to let me
know that my name didn’t actually mean
smile in Arabic rather than enough for
me or something like that and Kurdish
the worry my mom loves me and she’s
super proud I’m trying to say is I’m
just a regular person I’m my chances
were very low to be where I am today any
how I learned to defeat these
critical voices I’ll give you two
techniques the first is the outside-in
technique create the right environment
surround yourself with a strong circle
of like-minded people look around you’ll
find them the second technique which is
my most favorite is the inside-out you
work from inside talk to people family
and friends about your passion and
vision don’t hide yourself behind a mask
don’t be embarrassed and ashamed of
talking about the things you love doing
the most and question these negative
voices you get from inside from within
you and take them one by one go deep to
the roots you’ll be surprised with the
results all the imaginary obstacles will
fall off and finally when you start
believing in yourself nothing on earth
can stand between you and your goals so
start believing and great things will
come your way thank you for listening
[Applause] [Music]
while you’re here today what do those
people staring at your way think of you
do you even deserve to be on this stage
all these are questions that going
through my head right now today I’m not
going to talk about my passion for
environment and obsession with green
buildings today I’m going to talk about
a personal journey the conflict between
me and I let me ask you first how many
of you got an idea that you thought it
was amazing and you were very excited
about but you didn’t act right away that
deep voice came from inside telling you
why this is an awful idea or why you are
not good enough for it just raise your
hand so I can get an idea of how many of
you had it here exactly many of us did I
had this inner conflict for years a
continuous tension between me and I what
does that mean I’m only one person right
why I’m slitting myself into two simply
because we all have this critical voice
inside us that can be either
constructive destructive sometimes both
this voice is is is not coming from our
parents our bosses our rivals it’s
coming from inside I’m not talking here
about schizophrenia or ghosts I’m
referring to the voices within once I
realize these voices are controlling my
thoughts decisions and are holding me
back I decided to understand them so I
did what any millennial would usually do
I googled it yeah
it turns out that our brains are
designed to protect us to prevent us
from doing anything risky its protect me
protecting us even from ourselves the
self defense mechanism gets activated
when we hesitate hesitation is a habit
by the way when you hesitate your brain
gets an alert because you didn’t
hesitate when you were riding your car
in the morning preparing your coffee or
eating lunch so there must be something
wrong that you hesitated now to protect
you your brain magnifies his risk to
pull it away from something that
perceived to be a problem we human being
have developed this mechanism to protect
us from predators and danger
it is super helpful when we’re in the
wood and we suddenly face a tiger or in
every system and muscles will respond to
that threat immediately except in our
modern life it has not really beneficial
because we have to make risky decisions
sometimes but our brain will try to talk
us out of it thinking it is protecting
us from a life-threatening situation
simply because our brains cannot
distinguish between the fear of being
eaten by a tiger or the fear of being
humiliated in public so we have we have
developed this and in order to give you
an example I nine months ago I have
received an invitation to the World
Economic Forum meeting during the first
few seconds I was thrilled then I
realized I would have to work hard for
it
so I hesitated
alert signal went on in my head my brain
activated the defense mechanism and I
started making all the excuses why I
shouldn’t go so I started telling myself
oh you got this only because you are
lucky there are more qualified people
out there you don’t really deserve it
another thought was you wouldn’t be able
to talk in a panel if you were asked to
your English is not so good and you have
no knowledge to share and finally there
is no Swiss Embassy in Iraq you have to
travel to Jordan and don’t forget you
have to apply for Jordanian visa and
even if you manage to do all this your
visa application would probably get
rejected because you’re in Iraqi old me
would have probably pulled out then you
me didn’t lean back and I’ll tell you
how I learned to win this in our
arguments but first let me go back in
time and tell you the story from the
beginning upon finishing my master’s
degree three and a half years ago I
returned to Iraq I wanted to do
something innovative and impactful but
the field that I was looking to work in
the Green Building didn’t exist so I
knew I either had to leave the country
again which wasn’t a good option for me
or start this work myself except I
didn’t believe in myself enough to do it
I enforced this negative belief by
comparing myself to successful people
who are more privileged with good
education better financial social status
and more supportive environment so I put
all reasons in the world justifying why
I cannot do it myself my brain did this
job and talked me out of it
so I let it go
you see we all have great ideas but the
difference between successful people and
the ones who stayed behind is the amount
of belief and persistence they had you
might believe this is a great idea but
you might not believe in yourself and
this was the most difficult challenge
that I had to go through people come to
this world carrying distinct missions
and having different responsibilities
who I am today as a result of all the
things that I’ve encountered and
experienced throughout the past three
decades of my life I’m a perfect fit for
my mission but I wasn’t aware of that
two years fast-forward one day I was in
the car and I passed by a new local
restaurant so I said to myself the first
thing came into my mind why on earth
would anybody decides to open another
kebab joint in the city we already have
plenty of them then it hit me the
restaurant owner didn’t overthink it
bubbly never Maeda never done a study or
a market research he or she just did it
I kept that thought with me and I hold
it until shortly after when I was
reading Shirley sanborns book and I came
across a sentence quoting it if we go
back if we go to the sentence for
Shirley Sandburg the quote it says next
woman need to shift from thinking I’m
not ready to do that to thinking I want
to do that and I’ll learn by doing it
let’s remove the word women and put
people there next to be more inclusive
so I said to myself I don’t know how to
start a business I have zero experience
in this work I have no idea how can I
introduce the concept of green building
to Iraq but I’ll learn by doing it so I
know our goals might seem big and
impossible just break them down into
smaller goals and milestones and take it
one step at a time in order to start the
very first green company here I I had to
become accredited and acquire the
necessary knowledge for it so I chased
every single opportunity that would
enable me to develop personally and
professionally in this field
I knocked although all doors offering
free seminars and courses and workshops
just so that my work get recognized
I created my my own website with no
external help whatsoever I did all it
takes I call 2018 the year of success
and it was exactly one year ago I was
sitting there dreaming today I’m living
the dream I became the founder of the
very first green building company in the
featured ad real leaders magazine as one
of the hundred visionary leaders for
2018 talked what Economic Forum among
world leaders approached by a dozen of
people who wanted to join cask my
company and work even for free invited
to half a dozen of local and global
events to talk about my initiative and
work working now on building the very
first building green one here in the in
the region and here I am talking to you
from TEDx nessam on stage so my point is
nothing is impossible some of you might
be sitting there and thinking she must
be published with this and that I’ll
tell you a few things about myself I had
an average level of education no super
fancy schools whatsoever I’m from a
lower middle-class family both of my
parents don’t hold degrees I have nine
siblings where I’m number five which
made me barely not swell among them
interesting fact my mom wanted me to be
a boy she already had the three girls
and one boy and you know the culture
they love boys she didn’t actually tell
me that some mean relative she decided
to tell me that she decided to let me
know that my name didn’t actually mean
smile in Arabic rather than enough for
me or something like that and Kurdish
the worry my mom loves me and she’s
super proud I’m trying to say is I’m
just a regular person I’m my chances
were very low to be where I am today any
how I learned to defeat these
critical voices I’ll give you two
techniques the first is the outside-in
technique create the right environment
surround yourself with a strong circle
of like-minded people look around you’ll
find them the second technique which is
my most favorite is the inside-out you
work from inside talk to people family
and friends about your passion and
vision don’t hide yourself behind a mask
don’t be embarrassed and ashamed of
talking about the things you love doing
the most and question these negative
voices you get from inside from within
you and take them one by one go deep to
the roots you’ll be surprised with the
results all the imaginary obstacles will
fall off and finally when you start
believing in yourself nothing on earth
can stand between you and your goals so
start believing and great things will
come your way thank you for listening
[Applause] [Music]
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