Marhaba welcome we live in a world that
is full of uncertainty globalization and
technology are disrupting every single
industry artificial intelligence are
disrupting every single job in climate
change are threatening our own existence
we as humans have this grave
we crave for certainty that’s what we
crave for when everything is becoming
uncertain how can we embrace uncertainty
in the world we live in today we must
embrace some degree of uncertainty to
show you how I’m gonna share with you
three stories to begin with I would like
to introduce you to somebody that I’m
sometimes a little bit embarrassed about
my young self to your far right were two
of my brothers Omar and Sharif as a kid
I loved imagining things
I loved imagining being an ash not a
police officer I loved I dreamt about
going to the space the moon was my first
love that’s when I learned the meaning
of love but the reality that I was
living in in the UAE was very different
to the reality that I imagined the
reality that we were not included from
birth we were not included and that’s
okay that’s their rules and we have to
respect their rules but we were living
in one home eight people sleeping in the
same room scared of uncertainty scared
that we might be deep watered and all of
the other stuff that came with it it was
a scary time for my parents but I am
blessed I’m blessed for the mother that
I have do we have any mothers in the
room today
give it up to all the mothers in the
room today my mother raised eleven kids
she gave yes she gave birth to them and
she raised him and my father retired he
went back to Iran and she raised every
single one of us she taught us the art
of persistence perseverance being calm
in the face of uncertainty that was my
foundational journey my founder but the
foundations that I had as growing up as
a teenage kid but the way I saw my life
what I had at that moment was one option
which meant there could be a different
option and that option was to leave 200
miles go away get a job build a new life
for myself uplift myself from poverty
and I was hired by a Kiwi person from
Oakland Craig Ross he hired me to make
him coffee every morning I never drank
coffee all my life my life never and
just print his papers and sign his
papers because I could speak Arabic so I
could just sign you know anything that I
wanted but that was there was the Rich
Dad in my life who gave me a new pathway
he saw something in me and in life when
you live a life of uncertainty you open
your arms people welcomed you people
one day in 2009 I drive to the hospital
to pick up my Kiwi dad who’s just had an
eye surgery driving back we’re talking
about work how’s the office here
everything is going good I’ve got it
under control don’t worry he said look
my wife and I have decided to go back
home would you like to come with us I
thought whoa my dream but since I’ve
been 18 to leave to find a new home to
be a citizen to have a flag to sing the
national anthem to support a national
team I said yes little did I know that
the leap of faith
took from 200 miles to the 15,000 miles
was so different the energy of shift of
change that I was dealing with what’s so
different and powerful new country new
way of speaking people love rugby here
but I grew up watching sports I didn’t
understand why you have to pass the ball
backwards it kick it forward I didn’t
like rugby until I discovered the New
Zealand drinking culture
I loved rugby yeah yeah bro yeah and six
months later I got very depressed missed
home went back realized what have I done
came back again did this for six months
went back and I thought okay it really
hit me I went back forever I came back
in three days and I really started to
embrace New Zealand and I was in
Auckland working in the innovation scene
helping businesses transform grow deal
with uncertainty health people would
change all that sort of stuff and I was
looking for a subject to study for my
masters and I’m really passionate about
uncertainty how can we create a
framework that makes it easier for
people to deal with uncertainty that’s
when I spent three years studying the
New Zealand startup ecosystems and what
intrigued that study was the fact that a
start-up is not an organization that
just has a great idea or a great app
it’s not a group of people just come
together and hang out in t-shirts and
play foosball every day they are
actually a human body that deal with
uncertainty every single day they know
how to unlock it in over the last 10
years this phenomena has grown from the
Silicon Valley all around the world we
have seen companies like Facebook
Dropbox become massive enterprises that
know how to deal with uncertainty and my
outcome of the study was how can we
replicate this in normal life how can we
replicate this sort of a model in
governments in big organizations how can
we be more entrepreneur
and that’s when I came up with the model
called the entrepreneurial way which
I’ll take you through in a wee while
entrepreneurship is a very critical
skill that we need for the future the
machines will do the predictable work
humans will do the creative
unpredictable work which I call
entrepreneurship that’s important to
build the skills we need the
entrepreneurial skills we have to take a
big leap effects to build human capital
but first we must challenge one mindset
we must not see success based on
financial performance I always laugh
when I see these reports countries write
businesses write 45 pages look at us as
its value going up jobs going up look
look look at all these financial things
but nobody ever talks about the value of
learning how do we capture the value of
learning in hard dollar figures there’s
a concept that venture capitalists use
concept the startups use is called
innovation accounting now please do not
confuse innovation accounting with
innovative accounting innovative
accounting is how you end up in prison
okay
so innovation accounting is basically
studying your learning your
experimentation the leading indicators
that you can sort of turn into potential
net value cash flow in the future you
can see that I’d love to live in a world
where we publish a report every and say
look we’ve done this many experiments we
have learned this many things the
potential value we can create in the
next 10 years is this many dollars I
think that’s beautiful
because that just shifts our mindset to
not be afraid with experimentation to
play with it to learn with it that’s
really important this year
my wife Elle she’s in the audience and I
am
after Noah journey entrepreneurial
journey to start building learning
communities we’re using the business
model of a shared working space
innovation hub startup incubator we want
to build such communities in regional
New Zealand because we believe the
future of New Zealand is regional and we
want to build interconnected communities
all around regional New Zealand so we
can create accessibility of knowledge
and learning and share it and build
startups build the digital economy
anything we want to do build more on
their own the space economy we have here
what you’re starting now I want to show
you quickly what the entrepreneurial way
is in a very simple in simple 4 steps
it starts with imagination we must have
vision entrepreneurs are really good
with being driven by a vision I was 17 I
had one simple vision leave the country
become a citizenship of another country
there was nothing underneath it I didn’t
write a 200 page book I didn’t do a
study there was just a vision okay and
then I did a lot of experimentation
there’s two types of experimentations we
can do a value hypothesis a growth
hypothesis will someone buy this yes can
I expand it to more people we experiment
with us and then we learn I want to
emphasize that learning should be
validated which means it’s actionable is
achievable it’s accessible that’s
learning in other words it’s productive
failure we know what to do with it we
can grow with it we can take it to the
next level and in the end we are the
pivot we persevere we stop that’s the
entrepreneurial way a lot of government
are using this today to build new
economies such as Dubai Finland America
we’re seeing a little bit of it’s
starting to happen in New Zealand we
should do more in the space and I think
this is so important for us as a
humanity to move forward to embrace
uncertainty unlock opportunities within
those uncertainties that we face but I
don’t want to sugarcoat this this is not
as simple as it sounds when we talk
about change of this magnitude or change
our operating base or prey totally
differently reorganize ourselves
differently we’re talking a type of
energy that is similar to breaking atom
if we don’t break it carefully we it’s
gonna be a massive big bang and that’s
not good for us but not good for economy
for all sorts of different things so the
entrepreneurial way really helps us to
break it down in a rigorous way and
manage it and grow it and also keep up
with the economy of speed to keep up
with how fast the world is going so
before you leave this room I want to
certainty is the opposite of certainty I
should say is not uncertainty it’s
learning its willingness to grow its
willingness to be interconnected it’s
the willingness to be open as long as we
do that the entrepreneurial way can
really help us build humanity’s golden age in the century ahead thank you
is full of uncertainty globalization and
technology are disrupting every single
industry artificial intelligence are
disrupting every single job in climate
change are threatening our own existence
we as humans have this grave
we crave for certainty that’s what we
crave for when everything is becoming
uncertain how can we embrace uncertainty
in the world we live in today we must
embrace some degree of uncertainty to
show you how I’m gonna share with you
three stories to begin with I would like
to introduce you to somebody that I’m
sometimes a little bit embarrassed about
my young self to your far right were two
of my brothers Omar and Sharif as a kid
I loved imagining things
I loved imagining being an ash not a
police officer I loved I dreamt about
going to the space the moon was my first
love that’s when I learned the meaning
of love but the reality that I was
living in in the UAE was very different
to the reality that I imagined the
reality that we were not included from
birth we were not included and that’s
okay that’s their rules and we have to
respect their rules but we were living
in one home eight people sleeping in the
same room scared of uncertainty scared
that we might be deep watered and all of
the other stuff that came with it it was
a scary time for my parents but I am
blessed I’m blessed for the mother that
I have do we have any mothers in the
room today
give it up to all the mothers in the
room today my mother raised eleven kids
she gave yes she gave birth to them and
she raised him and my father retired he
went back to Iran and she raised every
single one of us she taught us the art
of persistence perseverance being calm
in the face of uncertainty that was my
foundational journey my founder but the
foundations that I had as growing up as
a teenage kid but the way I saw my life
what I had at that moment was one option
which meant there could be a different
option and that option was to leave 200
miles go away get a job build a new life
for myself uplift myself from poverty
and I was hired by a Kiwi person from
Oakland Craig Ross he hired me to make
him coffee every morning I never drank
coffee all my life my life never and
just print his papers and sign his
papers because I could speak Arabic so I
could just sign you know anything that I
wanted but that was there was the Rich
Dad in my life who gave me a new pathway
he saw something in me and in life when
you live a life of uncertainty you open
your arms people welcomed you people
one day in 2009 I drive to the hospital
to pick up my Kiwi dad who’s just had an
eye surgery driving back we’re talking
about work how’s the office here
everything is going good I’ve got it
under control don’t worry he said look
my wife and I have decided to go back
home would you like to come with us I
thought whoa my dream but since I’ve
been 18 to leave to find a new home to
be a citizen to have a flag to sing the
national anthem to support a national
team I said yes little did I know that
the leap of faith
took from 200 miles to the 15,000 miles
was so different the energy of shift of
change that I was dealing with what’s so
different and powerful new country new
way of speaking people love rugby here
but I grew up watching sports I didn’t
understand why you have to pass the ball
backwards it kick it forward I didn’t
like rugby until I discovered the New
Zealand drinking culture
I loved rugby yeah yeah bro yeah and six
months later I got very depressed missed
home went back realized what have I done
came back again did this for six months
went back and I thought okay it really
hit me I went back forever I came back
in three days and I really started to
embrace New Zealand and I was in
Auckland working in the innovation scene
helping businesses transform grow deal
with uncertainty health people would
change all that sort of stuff and I was
looking for a subject to study for my
masters and I’m really passionate about
uncertainty how can we create a
framework that makes it easier for
people to deal with uncertainty that’s
when I spent three years studying the
New Zealand startup ecosystems and what
intrigued that study was the fact that a
start-up is not an organization that
just has a great idea or a great app
it’s not a group of people just come
together and hang out in t-shirts and
play foosball every day they are
actually a human body that deal with
uncertainty every single day they know
how to unlock it in over the last 10
years this phenomena has grown from the
Silicon Valley all around the world we
have seen companies like Facebook
Dropbox become massive enterprises that
know how to deal with uncertainty and my
outcome of the study was how can we
replicate this in normal life how can we
replicate this sort of a model in
governments in big organizations how can
we be more entrepreneur
and that’s when I came up with the model
called the entrepreneurial way which
I’ll take you through in a wee while
entrepreneurship is a very critical
skill that we need for the future the
machines will do the predictable work
humans will do the creative
unpredictable work which I call
entrepreneurship that’s important to
build the skills we need the
entrepreneurial skills we have to take a
big leap effects to build human capital
but first we must challenge one mindset
we must not see success based on
financial performance I always laugh
when I see these reports countries write
businesses write 45 pages look at us as
its value going up jobs going up look
look look at all these financial things
but nobody ever talks about the value of
learning how do we capture the value of
learning in hard dollar figures there’s
a concept that venture capitalists use
concept the startups use is called
innovation accounting now please do not
confuse innovation accounting with
innovative accounting innovative
accounting is how you end up in prison
okay
so innovation accounting is basically
studying your learning your
experimentation the leading indicators
that you can sort of turn into potential
net value cash flow in the future you
can see that I’d love to live in a world
where we publish a report every and say
look we’ve done this many experiments we
have learned this many things the
potential value we can create in the
next 10 years is this many dollars I
think that’s beautiful
because that just shifts our mindset to
not be afraid with experimentation to
play with it to learn with it that’s
really important this year
my wife Elle she’s in the audience and I
am
after Noah journey entrepreneurial
journey to start building learning
communities we’re using the business
model of a shared working space
innovation hub startup incubator we want
to build such communities in regional
New Zealand because we believe the
future of New Zealand is regional and we
want to build interconnected communities
all around regional New Zealand so we
can create accessibility of knowledge
and learning and share it and build
startups build the digital economy
anything we want to do build more on
their own the space economy we have here
what you’re starting now I want to show
you quickly what the entrepreneurial way
is in a very simple in simple 4 steps
it starts with imagination we must have
vision entrepreneurs are really good
with being driven by a vision I was 17 I
had one simple vision leave the country
become a citizenship of another country
there was nothing underneath it I didn’t
write a 200 page book I didn’t do a
study there was just a vision okay and
then I did a lot of experimentation
there’s two types of experimentations we
can do a value hypothesis a growth
hypothesis will someone buy this yes can
I expand it to more people we experiment
with us and then we learn I want to
emphasize that learning should be
validated which means it’s actionable is
achievable it’s accessible that’s
learning in other words it’s productive
failure we know what to do with it we
can grow with it we can take it to the
next level and in the end we are the
pivot we persevere we stop that’s the
entrepreneurial way a lot of government
are using this today to build new
economies such as Dubai Finland America
we’re seeing a little bit of it’s
starting to happen in New Zealand we
should do more in the space and I think
this is so important for us as a
humanity to move forward to embrace
uncertainty unlock opportunities within
those uncertainties that we face but I
don’t want to sugarcoat this this is not
as simple as it sounds when we talk
about change of this magnitude or change
our operating base or prey totally
differently reorganize ourselves
differently we’re talking a type of
energy that is similar to breaking atom
if we don’t break it carefully we it’s
gonna be a massive big bang and that’s
not good for us but not good for economy
for all sorts of different things so the
entrepreneurial way really helps us to
break it down in a rigorous way and
manage it and grow it and also keep up
with the economy of speed to keep up
with how fast the world is going so
before you leave this room I want to
certainty is the opposite of certainty I
should say is not uncertainty it’s
learning its willingness to grow its
willingness to be interconnected it’s
the willingness to be open as long as we
do that the entrepreneurial way can
really help us build humanity’s golden age in the century ahead thank you
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