so this is me with my dad in summer 2010
four days after we’d both been sliced
open in side-by-side operating theaters
and one of his kidneys had been
transplanted into my body in an
operation that saved my life when this
photo was taken I just had tubes removed
from places I’d never imagined tubes
going including here in my neck and even
though I was coming down from an intense
two opiate I and had a 25 centimeter
incision in my side held together with
about 25 thick metal staples I’d never
felt so energized alive or grateful
everybody has their own stresses worries
and struggles in life and developed
their own coping mechanisms the
challenge that I had with my health
developed over many years what impacted
my life significantly I eventually found
a better way to deal with the challenges
that I faced in life and it’s my hope
that by sharing my story with you today
it’ll give you a fresh perspective on
how you can deal with your biggest
challenges head-on
I knew I’d need a transplant for about
10 years before I received one after I
was diagnosed with a rare condition
renal hyperplasia or shrinking kidneys
the main effect of this was that every
single day my kidney function was
deteriorating and by the time I got my
transplant my kidneys were filtering
toxins from my blood about 10 percent as
well as they would if I had been healthy
so the main impact of kidney failure for
me other than eventual death is chronic
tiredness so it was like being really
badly jet-lagged all the time almost
everything I put my mind to was secretly
silently sabotaged by my failing kidneys
but I decided to ignore this for as long
as possible
I was always hard working and I refuse
to accept that this challenge would slow
me down in the ten years between leaving
school and receiving my transplant
at six businesses in Ireland the UK the
US and Malaysia one of which failed one
of which I sold and four of which are
running profitably today I did this by
pretending the problem wasn’t real by
filling my days so that I never really
had time to think about the seriousness
of my condition and by masking my
constant exhaustion in the more socially
acceptable guise of being a typical
overworked technology entrepreneur but
it was unsustainable and eventually and
inevitably my strategy of long-term
escapism failed and I had to accept that
I’d need to deal with this challenge so
looking back us how I focused for so
many years on achieving career
objectives over almost anything else it
made me want to find a healthier and
more effective way to deal with whatever
challenges I faced so what if I could
accept the challenges that I faced
rather than hiding from them and what if
I could go further and actually embrace
those challenges and reframe them so
that they could help me improve whatever
it is that I’m doing
I’d be like pac-man eating a pair of
pellet and then turning and chasing down
my ghosts or problems rather than
constantly running away from them so I
started by looking at what I was doing
when I was performing at my absolute
best and it came down to three things
being optimistic being persistent and
consciously working to develop my
resilience so I remain optimistic by
focusing on gratitude so when you focus
on gratitude like I did after building
it into my daily routine it helps to
make everything else in your life more
positive and optimistic so for me it’s
coming home and my daughter running down
the hall and grabbing onto my leg and
giving me a big hug or the simplicity of
going for a walk on the beach with the
family and the dogs on a nice summer’s
day and of course for the amazing gift
of my kidney
but I’m not talking about developing
some kind of madcap spiritual optimism
I’m talking about developing a deep
genuine confidence in my ability to
solve whatever challenge it is that I
face then I develop my persistence by
having a larger mission that I’m working
towards so I’m no astronauts yes but I
wrote down a plan for my mission what
mission
am I on so I wrote it down for one three
and ten years what do I want to achieve
professionally and personally
then if I’m not working on something
that is contributing to that plan I know
that I should be so it helps me to to
make sure that I’m working on something
that is relevant and that I can connect
to what I want to achieve then how do I
build my resilience I game fi the
challenges that I come across so we all
game apply things every day so standing
in the supermarket checkout I’m the only
one who knows they’re playing a game to
see who can unload their items and pay
for them faster me or the guy over here
right but either way it’s gamifying
the challenges that I face and it makes
me want to solve the challenges by
making it fun and engaging to win
something or to beat this challenge and
over time as I do that more often it
conditions me to be able to bounce back
faster and handle the different setbacks
and challenges that I have more easily
so this this approach is something that
anybody can take not everybody has a
challenge like kidney failure but you
all have your own challenges and you
deal with them and they impact your life
in different ways so ask yourself what
is your greatest challenge how are you
letting an impact on your attitude
towards your ability to achieve your
ambition what are you hiding from like I
hid from my failing kidneys for so many
years
so do something counterintuitive embrace
that biggest fear harness that challenge
to be something that
empowers you rather than limit you thank
you
[Applause]
four days after we’d both been sliced
open in side-by-side operating theaters
and one of his kidneys had been
transplanted into my body in an
operation that saved my life when this
photo was taken I just had tubes removed
from places I’d never imagined tubes
going including here in my neck and even
though I was coming down from an intense
two opiate I and had a 25 centimeter
incision in my side held together with
about 25 thick metal staples I’d never
felt so energized alive or grateful
everybody has their own stresses worries
and struggles in life and developed
their own coping mechanisms the
challenge that I had with my health
developed over many years what impacted
my life significantly I eventually found
a better way to deal with the challenges
that I faced in life and it’s my hope
that by sharing my story with you today
it’ll give you a fresh perspective on
how you can deal with your biggest
challenges head-on
I knew I’d need a transplant for about
10 years before I received one after I
was diagnosed with a rare condition
renal hyperplasia or shrinking kidneys
the main effect of this was that every
single day my kidney function was
deteriorating and by the time I got my
transplant my kidneys were filtering
toxins from my blood about 10 percent as
well as they would if I had been healthy
so the main impact of kidney failure for
me other than eventual death is chronic
tiredness so it was like being really
badly jet-lagged all the time almost
everything I put my mind to was secretly
silently sabotaged by my failing kidneys
but I decided to ignore this for as long
as possible
I was always hard working and I refuse
to accept that this challenge would slow
me down in the ten years between leaving
school and receiving my transplant
at six businesses in Ireland the UK the
US and Malaysia one of which failed one
of which I sold and four of which are
running profitably today I did this by
pretending the problem wasn’t real by
filling my days so that I never really
had time to think about the seriousness
of my condition and by masking my
constant exhaustion in the more socially
acceptable guise of being a typical
overworked technology entrepreneur but
it was unsustainable and eventually and
inevitably my strategy of long-term
escapism failed and I had to accept that
I’d need to deal with this challenge so
looking back us how I focused for so
many years on achieving career
objectives over almost anything else it
made me want to find a healthier and
more effective way to deal with whatever
challenges I faced so what if I could
accept the challenges that I faced
rather than hiding from them and what if
I could go further and actually embrace
those challenges and reframe them so
that they could help me improve whatever
it is that I’m doing
I’d be like pac-man eating a pair of
pellet and then turning and chasing down
my ghosts or problems rather than
constantly running away from them so I
started by looking at what I was doing
when I was performing at my absolute
best and it came down to three things
being optimistic being persistent and
consciously working to develop my
resilience so I remain optimistic by
focusing on gratitude so when you focus
on gratitude like I did after building
it into my daily routine it helps to
make everything else in your life more
positive and optimistic so for me it’s
coming home and my daughter running down
the hall and grabbing onto my leg and
giving me a big hug or the simplicity of
going for a walk on the beach with the
family and the dogs on a nice summer’s
day and of course for the amazing gift
of my kidney
but I’m not talking about developing
some kind of madcap spiritual optimism
I’m talking about developing a deep
genuine confidence in my ability to
solve whatever challenge it is that I
face then I develop my persistence by
having a larger mission that I’m working
towards so I’m no astronauts yes but I
wrote down a plan for my mission what
mission
am I on so I wrote it down for one three
and ten years what do I want to achieve
professionally and personally
then if I’m not working on something
that is contributing to that plan I know
that I should be so it helps me to to
make sure that I’m working on something
that is relevant and that I can connect
to what I want to achieve then how do I
build my resilience I game fi the
challenges that I come across so we all
game apply things every day so standing
in the supermarket checkout I’m the only
one who knows they’re playing a game to
see who can unload their items and pay
for them faster me or the guy over here
right but either way it’s gamifying
the challenges that I face and it makes
me want to solve the challenges by
making it fun and engaging to win
something or to beat this challenge and
over time as I do that more often it
conditions me to be able to bounce back
faster and handle the different setbacks
and challenges that I have more easily
so this this approach is something that
anybody can take not everybody has a
challenge like kidney failure but you
all have your own challenges and you
deal with them and they impact your life
in different ways so ask yourself what
is your greatest challenge how are you
letting an impact on your attitude
towards your ability to achieve your
ambition what are you hiding from like I
hid from my failing kidneys for so many
years
so do something counterintuitive embrace
that biggest fear harness that challenge
to be something that
empowers you rather than limit you thank
you
[Applause]
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