[Music]
let’s start off with a question
whatdo worth worth an Einstein have in
common
feel free to take a guess don’t be shy
they’re both living things we need to
talk after this talk where’s my answer
they both have eyes all right I like
that
very creative all right I’ll give you
some more answers and can’t get over
that I have they both have eyes things
all right both of them live on planet
earth both of them need to eat to stay
alive and both their names start with
the letter e I know these answers and
nothing unusual but there is one more
thing that they have in common that I
would like to share with you and this
thing might blow your mind so here goes
both of them are driven by discomfort I
know you’re a little confused so let me
clarify by using a thought experiment
suppose we have a cage and we put an
earthworm in it this cage is divided
into two areas area 1 and area 2 these
two areas are the same except the floor
and area one will give the worm a
constant electric shock whenever he
stays on it now the question is on which
area you think you choose to stay area 2
you guys a genius like that thank you
have a genius audience definitely now if
we put n Stein in a cage why science and
we do the exact same thing to him then
on which area do you think you choose to
stay URI in Stein your descendents of
Einstein definitely naturally who is
used to stay there so you see this is
why I told you that both Einstein and
earthworms are driven by discomfort
in fact all lives are driven by
discomfort including yours but we’ll get
to you later for now let’s go back to
Einstein you see in real life
Einstein wasn’t put in a cage and he
didn’t receive any electric shock
although if you look at his hair then
you might think that he definitely did
we got the same hair so you know that’s
one thing I’m proud of
it’s natural to I digress alright let’s
go back to the topic in real life
Einstein although he wasn’t driven by
the pain of getting an electric shock
but he was driven perhaps even more
greatly by another kind of discomfort
curiosity you see when you look at it
carefully you realize that curiosity is
also a form of discomfort it’s an
annoying itch in the mind that you can
only scratch by finding out the answer
is the pain of not knowing which arises
together with the desire to know so you
see without discomfort Einstein wouldn’t
come up with any theory because although
he was a genius you wouldn’t have any
drive to use his brilliant mind to
figure out anything hence from earth one
to Einstein discomfort is the inherent
drive behind all lives and when that
discomfort becomes great enough it
transforms itself into pain we often
think that pain is always a bad thing
but it isn’t pain is actually a form of
power a great power and like all kinds
of power it depends on how you use it
which will determine whether it’s good
or bad now we have already looked at how
the pain of not knowing propel Einstein
to try to figure out the mystery of the
universe so that was supposedly a good
thing so now we’ll look at how pain can
be bad like really bad
this is Adolf Hitler you all know him
I’m sure but not personally I hope
Hitler had a lot of pain you even see it
on his face he felt that German people
who were being treated very unfairly and
that Germany’s true greatness was being
severely suppressed by the Versailles
Treaty and of course he also felt that
the Jews made this world a terrible and
disgusting place and that there amongst
many other groups of people were to
blame for Germany’s downfall in fact
even the book he wrote was called –
count he wrote a book and it means in
German my struggle or if you like my
pain
so you see Hitler had a lot of pain and
what did that great pain propel him to
do we all know the answer this is the
horrifying dark side of pain on the flip
side however almost every single great
thing in this world also owes its
existence to the power of pain and
discomfort from the war of Inventure for
examples we have Louis Braille who was
blinded by a true haul or just like the
one you can see on the screen right now
but instead of just cursing the world
the blindness propelled him to invent
the Braille system that every brain
person is still using today and in fact
he used that very same tool that blinded
him the or to create the first Braille
letters for the world amazing from the
world of artists we have Pablo Picasso
who painted this were renowned painting
Guernica from the great pain he felt
when he heard about the bombing of the
town of Guernica during the Spanish
Spanish Civil War and in fact this
painting was considered by many to be
the greatest anti-war painting ever
created from the wharf musician we have
Adele who wrote the famous song someone
like you after
agonizing heartbreak no I would not sing
that song for you today I want you to
see that she literally transcribed her
pain into the music from the world of
business we have Sir Richard Branson who
said that frustration has driven me from
music to space and will keep me working
for years to come
frustration is a form of pain and in
fact Sir Richard himself also founded
though his own airline out of the sheer
frustration and pain he felt when his
flight was abruptly canceled for no
apparent reason and last but not least
we have Malala yousufzai the youngest
Nobel Prize recipient ever Malala felt
so much pain from seeing so many
children around the world being denied
basic education but then this great pain
in turn propelled her to feel as the
advocates for the rights for education
for every single child in the world
these about a handful of examples from
an ocean of great individuals who shows
who transformed their pain into the
power to make this world a better place
but then this shouldn’t come as such a
surprise for us why you may wonder
because here’s the best part of all
perhaps I forgot to tell you that the
word passion passion came from the Latin
word passio which means you guess it and
suffering ah so it was one of the
biggest realizations in my life when I
found out that you really cannot have
passion without pain and in fact the
more pain you have around a certain
issue the more passion you have when
you’re trying to fix that issue
for example perhaps seeing someone
destroy nature gives you great pain so
you become currently passionate about
protecting nature or perhaps seeing an
unjust society gives you great pain so
you become greatly passionate about
creating a society with more equal
opportunity or perhaps seeing your loved
ones live in poverty gives you great
pain so you become greatly passionate
about earning more wealth and success in
order to help your family whatever your
passion may be it originates from the
pain you feel about something and
without this very pain this very
discomfort you don’t feel like doing
anything not for yourself not for your
loved ones and not for the world so of
course the great power of pain can not
be overstated but its power does not end
there because pain does not only gives
us passion but it also gives us
compassion all right do you remember
that the word passion came from passio
pain and suffering well it turns out
that the word calm in Latin means with
and suffering so us with and together
sorry so when you put these two together
then you realize that to feel compassion
literally means to feel pain with
someone and in fact the more pain you
feel with that person or that anymore
then the more compassion you will have
for them and in fact there’s even a
scientific proof for this in 2016
researchers at The Ohio State University
found out that not only painkiller
acetaminophen or paracetamol and lower
your sense of pain and suffering but it
can also lower your sense of empathy for
real
now I’m not trying to suggest that we
all stop taking paracetamol
in fact like after this talk you might
even need one
what I’m trying to let you see is that
although pain can be the power that
propelled the cruel cruelest individuals
in the world it can also be the force
that few the kindness individuals in the
world let’s take a monumental figure
like Buddha for example from what we
read about him when Buddha was still
Prince he saw an old man a sick man and
a corpse these sights made him feel
extremely sad and this sadness and pain
in turned propelled him to search for
way out of suffering not only for
himself though but for all other beings
as well so it goes without saying that
Buddha would have never gone in search
of truth or enlightenment if he felt
absolutely fine living in his palace
enjoying food and fine wine where there
was no wine back then in India but you
get the point you see for Buddha just
like Einstein it was this pain of not
knowing this curiosity coupled with the
pain the great pain of seeing suffering
in others which propelled him to help
the whole world but then this brings us
to the most important question of all
how could the same pain prepare
different individuals to do such
radically different things how could one
person express pain by trying to wipe
out the whole human race whereas another
person expressed pain by trying to help
out the whole human race the answer lies
in what I called the transference of
pain as compared to the transformation
of pain so what is the transference of
pain is when you use these three major
tools revenge violence and blame in
order to transfer the pain you feel onto
other people the truth is that most
atrocities in this world can be
including the one Hitler committed can
be traced back to the transference of
pain itself
as for its opposite the transformation
of pain I’ve already shown you several
examples throughout this talk but I
still have one last example I would like
to share with you and this one is very
personal this is me what it shall be guy
I know I don’t like that haircut either
trust me
you see I remember that the first time I
had a chance to speak in front of a
crowd was when I was in ninth grade
Thalia was forced to join the debating
team for our house I was in boarding
school and that very same year surely
enough we lost the very first round so I
remember so vividly as I walked up to my
room that one senior student came to
stop me and say I don’t want you to
compete for a house anymore
you’re just one bad apple that’s poor is
the whole barrel you see I already did
my best so that one particular comment
made me feel completely worthless I felt
like a loser who would never be any good
in speaking in front of the crowd after
I took some time to get them to pull
myself together however I finally
decided to stop letting that pain make
me bitter but instead I would use it as
a fuel to become better after that day I
kept Horning practicing my public
speaking skill day in day out until the
year after that I was confident enough
to join the debating team again and that
same year we won first place
I work
thank you but actually we have to give
thanks to that senior student so thank
you senior student for that comment
in fact the year after that I became the
chairman of the debating Club itself and
I also took first place in Thailand
national speech competition that’s my
mother by the way she’s yeah also hi mom
as I went abroad to study in New Zealand
and Australia
I also competed there sometimes I lost
sometimes I warned but every time I
learn from the pain and improved you see
surprising enough though nowadays
apart from being a full-time writer this
is what I do for a living giving public
lectures across the nation sharing my
knowledge about the brain and human mind
that’s one painful comment pushed this
little earthworm all the way from being
a bad apple in a barrel to being here on
this TEDx stage today
[Applause]
I I love this audience can I take you
around the world with me wherever I give
a speech is that possible oh thank you
it’s gonna cost a lot for me though that
would be too much pain all right
anyway I’ll turn it into power all right
so this is how I chose to transform my
pain into my passion my power my purpose
but now my job here is done
now it is your turn your time to choose
we all have pain but it’s not the amount
of pain we have which will determine our
destiny but where we allow it to push us
so where you allow your pain to push you
towards violence or wisdom toward sin
cruelty or passion towards resentment or
improvement towards bitterness our
greatness when pain arrived and securely
will we choose to transfer it or
transform it you see an earthworm does
not have such a choice but you do
because in the end pain can only push an
earthworm from area one of the cage to
area two of the cage but pain can push a
human being like you from being an
ordinary individual to becoming a legend
so here’s my one last question to you
what is your greatest pain and how will
you use it to change the world
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
let’s start off with a question
whatdo worth worth an Einstein have in
common
feel free to take a guess don’t be shy
they’re both living things we need to
talk after this talk where’s my answer
they both have eyes all right I like
that
very creative all right I’ll give you
some more answers and can’t get over
that I have they both have eyes things
all right both of them live on planet
earth both of them need to eat to stay
alive and both their names start with
the letter e I know these answers and
nothing unusual but there is one more
thing that they have in common that I
would like to share with you and this
thing might blow your mind so here goes
both of them are driven by discomfort I
know you’re a little confused so let me
clarify by using a thought experiment
suppose we have a cage and we put an
earthworm in it this cage is divided
into two areas area 1 and area 2 these
two areas are the same except the floor
and area one will give the worm a
constant electric shock whenever he
stays on it now the question is on which
area you think you choose to stay area 2
you guys a genius like that thank you
have a genius audience definitely now if
we put n Stein in a cage why science and
we do the exact same thing to him then
on which area do you think you choose to
stay URI in Stein your descendents of
Einstein definitely naturally who is
used to stay there so you see this is
why I told you that both Einstein and
earthworms are driven by discomfort
in fact all lives are driven by
discomfort including yours but we’ll get
to you later for now let’s go back to
Einstein you see in real life
Einstein wasn’t put in a cage and he
didn’t receive any electric shock
although if you look at his hair then
you might think that he definitely did
we got the same hair so you know that’s
one thing I’m proud of
it’s natural to I digress alright let’s
go back to the topic in real life
Einstein although he wasn’t driven by
the pain of getting an electric shock
but he was driven perhaps even more
greatly by another kind of discomfort
curiosity you see when you look at it
carefully you realize that curiosity is
also a form of discomfort it’s an
annoying itch in the mind that you can
only scratch by finding out the answer
is the pain of not knowing which arises
together with the desire to know so you
see without discomfort Einstein wouldn’t
come up with any theory because although
he was a genius you wouldn’t have any
drive to use his brilliant mind to
figure out anything hence from earth one
to Einstein discomfort is the inherent
drive behind all lives and when that
discomfort becomes great enough it
transforms itself into pain we often
think that pain is always a bad thing
but it isn’t pain is actually a form of
power a great power and like all kinds
of power it depends on how you use it
which will determine whether it’s good
or bad now we have already looked at how
the pain of not knowing propel Einstein
to try to figure out the mystery of the
universe so that was supposedly a good
thing so now we’ll look at how pain can
be bad like really bad
this is Adolf Hitler you all know him
I’m sure but not personally I hope
Hitler had a lot of pain you even see it
on his face he felt that German people
who were being treated very unfairly and
that Germany’s true greatness was being
severely suppressed by the Versailles
Treaty and of course he also felt that
the Jews made this world a terrible and
disgusting place and that there amongst
many other groups of people were to
blame for Germany’s downfall in fact
even the book he wrote was called –
count he wrote a book and it means in
German my struggle or if you like my
pain
so you see Hitler had a lot of pain and
what did that great pain propel him to
do we all know the answer this is the
horrifying dark side of pain on the flip
side however almost every single great
thing in this world also owes its
existence to the power of pain and
discomfort from the war of Inventure for
examples we have Louis Braille who was
blinded by a true haul or just like the
one you can see on the screen right now
but instead of just cursing the world
the blindness propelled him to invent
the Braille system that every brain
person is still using today and in fact
he used that very same tool that blinded
him the or to create the first Braille
letters for the world amazing from the
world of artists we have Pablo Picasso
who painted this were renowned painting
Guernica from the great pain he felt
when he heard about the bombing of the
town of Guernica during the Spanish
Spanish Civil War and in fact this
painting was considered by many to be
the greatest anti-war painting ever
created from the wharf musician we have
Adele who wrote the famous song someone
like you after
agonizing heartbreak no I would not sing
that song for you today I want you to
see that she literally transcribed her
pain into the music from the world of
business we have Sir Richard Branson who
said that frustration has driven me from
music to space and will keep me working
for years to come
frustration is a form of pain and in
fact Sir Richard himself also founded
though his own airline out of the sheer
frustration and pain he felt when his
flight was abruptly canceled for no
apparent reason and last but not least
we have Malala yousufzai the youngest
Nobel Prize recipient ever Malala felt
so much pain from seeing so many
children around the world being denied
basic education but then this great pain
in turn propelled her to feel as the
advocates for the rights for education
for every single child in the world
these about a handful of examples from
an ocean of great individuals who shows
who transformed their pain into the
power to make this world a better place
but then this shouldn’t come as such a
surprise for us why you may wonder
because here’s the best part of all
perhaps I forgot to tell you that the
word passion passion came from the Latin
word passio which means you guess it and
suffering ah so it was one of the
biggest realizations in my life when I
found out that you really cannot have
passion without pain and in fact the
more pain you have around a certain
issue the more passion you have when
you’re trying to fix that issue
for example perhaps seeing someone
destroy nature gives you great pain so
you become currently passionate about
protecting nature or perhaps seeing an
unjust society gives you great pain so
you become greatly passionate about
creating a society with more equal
opportunity or perhaps seeing your loved
ones live in poverty gives you great
pain so you become greatly passionate
about earning more wealth and success in
order to help your family whatever your
passion may be it originates from the
pain you feel about something and
without this very pain this very
discomfort you don’t feel like doing
anything not for yourself not for your
loved ones and not for the world so of
course the great power of pain can not
be overstated but its power does not end
there because pain does not only gives
us passion but it also gives us
compassion all right do you remember
that the word passion came from passio
pain and suffering well it turns out
that the word calm in Latin means with
and suffering so us with and together
sorry so when you put these two together
then you realize that to feel compassion
literally means to feel pain with
someone and in fact the more pain you
feel with that person or that anymore
then the more compassion you will have
for them and in fact there’s even a
scientific proof for this in 2016
researchers at The Ohio State University
found out that not only painkiller
acetaminophen or paracetamol and lower
your sense of pain and suffering but it
can also lower your sense of empathy for
real
now I’m not trying to suggest that we
all stop taking paracetamol
in fact like after this talk you might
even need one
what I’m trying to let you see is that
although pain can be the power that
propelled the cruel cruelest individuals
in the world it can also be the force
that few the kindness individuals in the
world let’s take a monumental figure
like Buddha for example from what we
read about him when Buddha was still
Prince he saw an old man a sick man and
a corpse these sights made him feel
extremely sad and this sadness and pain
in turned propelled him to search for
way out of suffering not only for
himself though but for all other beings
as well so it goes without saying that
Buddha would have never gone in search
of truth or enlightenment if he felt
absolutely fine living in his palace
enjoying food and fine wine where there
was no wine back then in India but you
get the point you see for Buddha just
like Einstein it was this pain of not
knowing this curiosity coupled with the
pain the great pain of seeing suffering
in others which propelled him to help
the whole world but then this brings us
to the most important question of all
how could the same pain prepare
different individuals to do such
radically different things how could one
person express pain by trying to wipe
out the whole human race whereas another
person expressed pain by trying to help
out the whole human race the answer lies
in what I called the transference of
pain as compared to the transformation
of pain so what is the transference of
pain is when you use these three major
tools revenge violence and blame in
order to transfer the pain you feel onto
other people the truth is that most
atrocities in this world can be
including the one Hitler committed can
be traced back to the transference of
pain itself
as for its opposite the transformation
of pain I’ve already shown you several
examples throughout this talk but I
still have one last example I would like
to share with you and this one is very
personal this is me what it shall be guy
I know I don’t like that haircut either
trust me
you see I remember that the first time I
had a chance to speak in front of a
crowd was when I was in ninth grade
Thalia was forced to join the debating
team for our house I was in boarding
school and that very same year surely
enough we lost the very first round so I
remember so vividly as I walked up to my
room that one senior student came to
stop me and say I don’t want you to
compete for a house anymore
you’re just one bad apple that’s poor is
the whole barrel you see I already did
my best so that one particular comment
made me feel completely worthless I felt
like a loser who would never be any good
in speaking in front of the crowd after
I took some time to get them to pull
myself together however I finally
decided to stop letting that pain make
me bitter but instead I would use it as
a fuel to become better after that day I
kept Horning practicing my public
speaking skill day in day out until the
year after that I was confident enough
to join the debating team again and that
same year we won first place
I work
thank you but actually we have to give
thanks to that senior student so thank
you senior student for that comment
in fact the year after that I became the
chairman of the debating Club itself and
I also took first place in Thailand
national speech competition that’s my
mother by the way she’s yeah also hi mom
as I went abroad to study in New Zealand
and Australia
I also competed there sometimes I lost
sometimes I warned but every time I
learn from the pain and improved you see
surprising enough though nowadays
apart from being a full-time writer this
is what I do for a living giving public
lectures across the nation sharing my
knowledge about the brain and human mind
that’s one painful comment pushed this
little earthworm all the way from being
a bad apple in a barrel to being here on
this TEDx stage today
[Applause]
I I love this audience can I take you
around the world with me wherever I give
a speech is that possible oh thank you
it’s gonna cost a lot for me though that
would be too much pain all right
anyway I’ll turn it into power all right
so this is how I chose to transform my
pain into my passion my power my purpose
but now my job here is done
now it is your turn your time to choose
we all have pain but it’s not the amount
of pain we have which will determine our
destiny but where we allow it to push us
so where you allow your pain to push you
towards violence or wisdom toward sin
cruelty or passion towards resentment or
improvement towards bitterness our
greatness when pain arrived and securely
will we choose to transfer it or
transform it you see an earthworm does
not have such a choice but you do
because in the end pain can only push an
earthworm from area one of the cage to
area two of the cage but pain can push a
human being like you from being an
ordinary individual to becoming a legend
so here’s my one last question to you
what is your greatest pain and how will
you use it to change the world
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
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