for giving up your time to be here on
this Saturday I just want to start off
with a question really i wanna i think i
want you to think about this I’ve got a
very careful i’ve been told not to move
away from this redspot and i want these
people like this roof usually when i
give lectures of talk back to sort of
walk along with use the energy here so
i’m going to try and be very very
disciplined here so the question for all
of you i want you to put your hand up if
you’ve ever had a dream or an ambition
or an aspiration that’s good that’s
that’s most of you and let me ask you
question how many of you have actually
achieved that ambition or that dream how
many of you have actually got something
that’s stopping you from achieving that
dream something that someone has told
you or something that you yourself have
told you maybe you say actually they’re
things like that don’t happen to me yes
I’ve got this dream but people like me
don’t achieve that dream maybe you’ve
told yourself well actually knows maybe
it’s my religion it’s my color it’s my
is amiss my background maybe you could
say it’s my gender or is my sexual
orientation it may be you ask yourself
those questions maybe people tell you
your friends your family your own loved
ones tell you don’t be so stupid don’t
be ridiculous people I castle people
like you don’t go on and achieve those
things no anyway I’m thought you’re far
too busy go get the shopping or pay the
bill you know actually you know get on
with your life stop stop dreaming I know
because I’ve been there and what I want
to tell you today if this marker works
is actually when when someone says to
you you can’t or I want you to knock the
teal and say I can I want to start by
telling you a bit about myself and my
background I grew up in a very ordinary
North London family my parents came to
Britain in the 1950s and 1960s my mother
worked in many clerical jobs then when
she had children she gave up work for
about 12 years until we were able to let
ourselves in from school and then she
went to work as a bookkeeper for a small
advertising agency my father as you’ve
probably heard came to Britain worked on
the railways and then worked on the
buses was a bus driver I’m sure you’ve
hit you occurred a story now
Sajid Javid the son of an immigrant bus
driver Teddy Colin the Mayor of London
the son of an immigrant bus driver sigh
come on the son of immigrant bus driver
you wait ages for the son of an
immigrant bus driver and then three
couple of the 1i 10 and act no and when
I was younger people used to tell me
they used to say to me but actually we
can’t achieve anything no my own friends
might note on my own family used to say
to me we can’t do anything yes people
who are achieved things actually maybe
it’s because no we’re working class you
know actually you look at all those
people achieve something they won’t know
that people work at the BBC or people
out to where they’ve all been to good
schools or they all know their chops or
their knobs people like us don’t achieve
that sort of stuff or maybe sometimes
people say it’s our color pink said to
me know how many blacks and asians do
you see on TV you know it when I was
grow up in the seventies maybe Trevor
McDonald or maybe you saw comedies where
people with us or object of fun maybe
programs like love thy neighbor or Jim
Davidson doing an impression machen der
that was the impression Ott’s may be
pitting that fusion 80 years people said
about your religion now friends of mine
used to say to me where Muslims actually
know what happened we don’t know what we
can’t get on in society you know it’s
you know if you want to get anywhere all
the people at the top there either from
a Christian background or a Jewish
background we hair it in school about
there’s been a judeo-christian society
people like us don’t get on well my
parents is to tell me my mother and
father say to me there’s no limit to
what you can achieve if you believe in
yourself and you work hard when someone
says to you that you can’t achieve
anything they’re showing their own
limitations not yours my father actually
first of all taught me this phrase when
someone tells you you can’t knock the
tee off and say you can and today i am
now as i stand in for you not to boast
in any way but i am the most senior
elected brit in Brussels I am the leader
of the third largest group in the
European Parliament I lead a group of 74
m eps from 18 different countries I’m
the first non-white non-christian leader
of any little group for the school group
and I still pinch myself sometimes even
just saying that now
I pinch myself when I think about that
journey and I’m not unique in any way
many people have achieved those dreams
and Institute and ambition but what I
want to talk to you today about some of
the lessons that I learned along the way
and maybe hopefully some of those
lessons might help you if you have an
ambition or a dream and someone has told
you that you can’t do it yet so let me
sorry this is my hand light energy
that’s that intention start off with a
power of intention you have to tell
yourself I intend to do this I expect to
do this there are different ways of
doing this some books suggest on this
subject suggest what you do you write
down on a piece of paper your dream you
put it in a pot you’ll go back there in
five or ten years time actually just
that power of intention you will have
achieved that dream one of the tricks
that I use that I really wonder what one
of the books that inspired me was that
she said talk about your life now in a
number of different categories where are
you now physically where are you
romantically where are you medically
where are you health wise where are you
financially right all those things down
and then right of where you were five
years ago in each of those categories
and then next right where you want to be
in five or ten years in all those
categories that is a power of intention
the fact that you’ve written it down is
the first step towards achieving those
dreams the second thing is read or to be
inspired and what I mean by that is read
those books read those biographies watch
those videos of people who’ve achieved
their dreams it could be anyone Martin
Luther King Gandhi it could be Steve
Jobs it could be people like David
Blunkett who despite his blindness went
on to be one of most senior politicians
in Britain it could be it could be some
of the British Paralympians that have
inspired us over over the summer these
are people who’ve overcome you know
barriers or Peter people put up these
are the bat they may have been well told
by others that they can’t achieve
anything but actually but Irene this
story you will find some pointers and
they will in
bye there’s a whole series if anyone
goes to America there’s a whole series
of inspirational speakers now sometimes
without sort of British sense of modesty
if you like you know their books are and
i’m great you can be great too but
actually matter but a G it means be
inspired by those there are some great
guys out there like Tony Robbins and wet
Wayne Dyer and others and they are
hugely inspiration the third one is time
make time to achieve your dreams you
know we’re all busy we all lead very
busy lives and one of the things that
actually inspire me is a diagram by
Hiram W Smith this is supposed to be a
pyramid you can you can tell when I was
a lecturer that I was a bit you know
people people often couldn’t read mine
ok I want to tell you that this pyramid
short-term medium-term long-term and
values this is something I use myself
when I wanted to achieve my dreams the
first one is think about your long-term
goals you may well have written them
down that power of intention but before
you go any further think about your own
long-term values are they in are they in
line with your long-term rallies I’ll
give you a an example I thought I want
to be incredibly wealthy actually when I
had my own business and I was doing well
I used to stop working at times because
actually I thought I had enough money I
want to spend time with her family so I
realized that money wasn’t getting money
wasn’t exactly when the highest values
and I realized time of the family and
actually just relaxing was far more
important to me so you’ve got to make
sure if there’s long term God’s gonna be
meaningful make sure that they all live
with your with your own long-term values
once you’ve got those long-term values
so long term goals set your medium term
goals and then your short-term goals a
very quick example from my life I wanted
to apply to be a politician and I
realized in order to be a politician
long term in the short term I actually
had to apply for a nap make an
application do some research work out
what it was well what it was I was
believed who was closest to my own
personal views but you know what life is
like we spend all our time in short term
get that essay in time have I done the
shopping have I pay the bills
we get to the end of the week and you
know something we look back at lifeless
I’ve been busy doing nothing I’ve done
all these things but I’ve achieved
nothing towards my long term goal and
one of the things you’ve got to do is
look at your long term goal inform your
medium term goal and make sure every
week every single week that when you
look back at your wig you think I’ve
done one thing short term towards my
long term goal if you don’t do it you
haven’t made time the fourth one maybe I
should have picked shorter words is
persistence the sign of a good man or
woman is the person who gets up one more
time than they are knocked down you read
stories of people in life who’ve
suffered setbacks step backs are part of
life whether you come from an incredibly
pendant going to be privileged family or
you come from the most hundreds of
backgrounds we will all suffer setbacks
in life we all get knocked back each
time you get knocked back dust yourself
off get off get up again and don’t say
to yourself I can’t not the tee off card
and say I can I stood for election in
1994 for the first time in local
authority in Lambeth I lost in 1995 I’ve
moved to bath and I was asked to stand
there in an election I lost in two
thousand I stood in the GLA election I
lost this is going somewhere I promise
you into in 2001 I stood in a general
election you know what happened I lost
and in 2004 I stood in a european
election for the first time and guess
what happened i lost but a year later I
became an MEP I was alleged that was at
the agent of 38 after 19 years of being
a party member people looked at me said
you’re 38 you’re quite young to be a
politician but what I didn’t realize was
behind that story I had joined the party
19 years earlier earlier and I had
fought five elections get up one more
time do you knock down that is that is a
storage persistent and finally the last
one is failure embrace failure that
learn from failure I knew think about
one industries that I love celery
is a tech industry in London and they’ve
got to say fail fast and then you move
on think about all those people who
failed and moved on think that’s the
most inspirational people who’ve been
about the thing is that the people who
have had setbacks in life think that
Thomas Edison who anger inventive had
all these inventions and actually failed
a number of times and he had a saying
that goes something like this it says
people who have failed have not realized
how close they were to success before
they gave up so each time you fail make
sure you learn from that failure think
about someone like Colonel Saunders like
maybe I apologize to the vegetarians in
the audience but Colonel Sanders who
found a Kentucky Fried Chicken he went
round with his recipe and was turned
down by over a thousand rest ones in
America many of you might might say I
hoped he’d failed a bit more but
actually what happened was that you know
eventually he found a restaurant that
was prepared to take his recipe and he
went on to build up a fried chicken
Empire not saying it’s your ambition but
actually that shows the story he
embraced faded so look at those five
things intention write down what you
intend to do lead be inspired make time
for you and make time to realize their
ambition be persistent and then failure
embrace failure get up one more time
than you knocked down I want to end with
one thing I want us as an I end I want
us to start that journey to achieving
your goal so I want each of you to think
today about your long-term goal and for
the next 10 seconds and I don’t run out
of time I want you to bite I’ve got five
seconds left I’m fine okay fine okay
well I don’t it for next two hours I
won’t ever know for the next term for
the next 10 or 20 seconds I want you to
think about your long term goal and
think of one thing that you are going to
do each in the next seven days towards
that long term goal write it down think
about it and then I want you if you are
if you fed thought or something to turn
the person next to you and say to them I
promise in the next seven days or I’m
going to do this one
you all thought about something how many
of you how many of you in this room have
made a promise how many of you you’ve
made a promise yeah and you’re going to
stick to that promise you promise me
that great so you’re going for sir so
you have now you have now taken the
first step to achieving your long-term
goal you’ve expressed the power of
intention when you leave not now because
they’re lots other speakers but later
today when you leave I want you to go on
the internet or go to the library or go
and buy the books that are those people
who’ve inspired you people have achieved
their goals and you from whom you can
learn and I wonder I want you to make
sure that every week you think about
this well maybe not but I mean oh you
think about this and you think about
actually one short term goal to your
long-term objectives I also want you to
say that I will be persistent I will not
give up every time got I have a setback
I will get up and I will dust myself off
and I will continue and finally whenever
you have a sense of failure exam you
fail to get the job or you know you some
time coming hasn’t gone gone quite right
in life you actually sir I am going to
learn for that if I have to fail 99
times to achieve a hundredth time I am
one step closer and with all those
things hopefully when someone next time
says to you or you look in the mirror
and say why can’t you say I’m going to knock the tee off and say I can thank