like many of us here I love going beyond
the ordinary going beyond my comfort
zone and pushing boundaries we’ve heard
amazing stories of pushing boundaries in
the space of culture technology
marketing in various areas of our
society and the question is how are we
pushing boundaries in our personal life
how are each of us individually pushing
boundaries on a day to day basis my
journey with pushing boundaries started
quite early on so while I was 2 or 3
years old my parents have noticed that I
have a very developed tendency of
spending time with myself rather than
with other little human beings like me
and in time that has developed into me
running away from our guests to solve
math and physics equations while that
was cute for a little while it stopped
being cute quite fast so my parents took
me to a child psychologist now bear in
mind this was Romania 1980s still
communist Romania so the child
psychologist concluded quite fast that I
am mentally unwell that’s as far as he
could go well luckily my parents didn’t
take that label as a fact and started
going beyond the ordinary started
pushing boundaries and exploring other
ways in which they can maximize my
potential and so I’ve done everything
from gymnastics ballet
martial arts painting dancing singing
everything under the Sun and things have
improved quite a bit
so across my teenage years I was a ok
the game change rather abruptly when I
was 17 and my father passed away from a
heart attack so at that point I decided
to push my boundaries yet again and
leave home at 17 with 300 euros in my
pocket and with a huge passion that was
inspired by my father a physicist to
find out how the world works to find out
how things work and to find out how we
work as human beings to understand each
and every one of us and the first big
mission I set for myself was to push
boundaries in the space of knowledge
academia and professional pursuits so
fast-forward five degrees in finance
economics Investment Banking published
book on microfinance and spent about a
decade in investment management and
strategy across Germany Blunden and
other areas in Europe and I came with a
that that journey came with a key
insight a key learning that if I’m very
clear about the goal that I aim to
achieve and I bring together the most
sophisticated state-of-the-art data
tools technology insights and people I
can make almost everything happen yeah
it took me 10 years to figure that one
out but it was worth it and beyond that
I thought well let me try pushing other
boundaries so I went into my physical
boundaries I thought I’ll take it easy
but still do something extreme just like
every other respectable investment
banker so I decided to walk eight
hundred and sixty kilometers from a room
to Santiago de Compostela
about 19 days that’s about 50 2k a day
19 consecutive days and then I thought
well that’s great but it’s a little bit
boring so I thought the next thing I’m
gonna climb the tallest mountain in
Africa but I was running out of vacation
days so I went up and down in three and
a half days because I needed to get back
to the office all of that was incredibly
inspiring motivating empowering but what
I didn’t realize at the time was that it
all came at a price
and the price of Asperger’s arrhythmia
asthma sleep deprivation were all things
that I was ready to pay for and I was
paying for what I wasn’t quite in for
was a severe thyroid condition which was
diagnosed in my mid-20s and so I thought
okay well I’m going to throw myself in
the hands of medical experts and do
whatever they tell me to do
so fast forward five years taking
ever-increasing doses of hormones on a
day-to-day basis and at the end of the
five years the conclusion was well what
kind of sorry but it didn’t work so all
of the different things I’ve tried over
five years it actually didn’t work I was
as healthy or unhealthy as at ground
zero so that’s when I kind of broke up
with my doctors and started a very
intimate relationship with data science
genetics and natural health therapies
across two years I’ve done everything
from reading hundreds of research papers
looking at my genetics and engaging with
acupuncture Osteopathy massage yoga
meditation every form of meditation on
the planet the good news was that after
about two years I felt like a million
bucks all I needed was to make it
official
so I went to the most reputed
endocrinologist in London and I
underwent a series of tests and to his
surprise not to mine
I was a-ok no tumors no hormonal
imbalance and blood values were a okay
and I thought okay how do I celebrate
this this renewed sense of being healthy
again luckily a friend jumped at my
rescue and said I have the perfect thing
for you I said well you know has it been
done before what is it she says he’s
never been done before and it’s for an
educational charity so it’s perfect for
you it’s brilliant I mean well the the
challenge was endearingly called the
triple 7 challenge and that stands for
seven marathons on seven continents in
seven days the first six went incredibly
well we finished the sixth one in Chile
happy days lots of energy lots of
adrenaline in our blood and we were
really ready to navigate the last ten
hours before gaining to Guinness World
Records so we get on the plane
and we’re about to land when the pilot
comes and says I’m deeply sorry but it
looks like the weather is really bad
a lot of winds and ice well we surely
think that’s a joke because we were
talking about landing in Antarctica so
none of the ice should have been a
surprise anyway fast-forward the third
attempt into Antarctica we land we doing
a marathon finish all good now the good
news of the story was that all of this
marathon on the plane of the plane
marathon on the plane of the plane
thorn gave me enough time to think what
am i all about what am I good at what do
I love doing what’s my purpose how can I
use my knowledge my insight and my
experience to make other people’s
journey to look to health to healthiness
a lot easier and fun as well as
personalized because each of us are very
very different so it made me question
what health is all about and in
antiquity health was embodied by these
gorgeous looking young women with a
snake around their body which symbolized
vitality growth wisdom and the English
etymology of the word health is hail
with me which means hole to behold as a
human being and I think health over the
past decades has been centuries has
moved quite far from that concept in
Asia the idea was that you go and see an
acupuncturist and you pay for the
sessions as long as you’re healthy when
you stop being healthy you stop paying
so when did we start paying for being
ill there are a few insights over the
past 400 years and he started with
insight from john locke reputed
philosopher and he said it’s all about
life liberty and property a couple of
hundred years later Thomas Jefferson
adapted that in the u.s. Declaration of
Independence and said it’s all about
life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness well today yet another couple
of hundred years later the paradigm has
shifted to be all about life liberty and
healthiness because ultimately if we
don’t have health
if we are not healthy we cannot enjoy
property and certainly not enjoy our
friends our family the typical sources
of our happiness in our life so now I
would like to ask you for a favor if you
look back at the past decades and you
look at our healthcare system we spend
over 10% of the global GDP purely on
health care and of that 75% of that an
overwhelming percentage is purely cost
related to lifestyle and preventable
disease so that’s everything from stress
diabetes heart conditions back pain
anxiety depression weight we have 1 in 6
Europeans that are obese and we have 10
percent of the u.s. population which has
diabetes and we have we are spending
over 600 billion euros every year purely
on stress-related conditions
so obviously the system is broken the
system is not doing what is supposed to
do we are looking at health as being the
absence of disease and we are not
looking at the individual at each of us
personally as a whole so now the favor
I’d like you to take 20 seconds not more
and I’d like to give you to give me your
undivided attention and observe
everything you possibly can about me and
I will do the same about you
how does that feel do you feel relaxed
aware energized well this was just a
small sample of a meditation practice
this is a practice that we’ve been doing
for millennia where there is a mental
break pause or a minute of meditation or
a moment of Prayer we’ve been engaging
with these practices for millennia
what has changed over the past few
decades however is the distractions
brought about new sources of
communication technology media and while
some of these are beneficial what we see
now is that we are bombarded every 10 to
15 seconds with new pieces of
information and our tools around us
query us non-stop around did we get
enough sleep did we walk enough steps is
our heart rate variability at the right
level did we have enough blueberries
then we have our kale smoothie this
morning so we are overwhelmed with all
of this data so the question is how do
we leverage technology data science and
our personal insight in a way in which
we can focus focus on one single health
goal and then identify the three most
powerful activities and nutrients that
we can engage with we can genuinely
focus on and engage with on a day to day
basis that is the opposite of personal
health excellence knowing exactly what
are the smallest changes that each of us
can make on a day to day basis to
maximize our health potential now
imagine you knew that you’re predisposed
to glute
intolerance and you’re having dinner
with a good friend you’re both having
pasta and he’s filling a okay and you’re
feeling quite bloated and unwell at the
end of the dinner
well you might feel guilty thinking oh
my god I’ve ate too much but the reality
is that your jeans might not be designed
for you to easily process gluten or
imagine that you’re predisposed
genetically to hypertension and you’re a
dinner and you’re having a glass of wine
you’re having a nice spicy curry and
then you feel like you’re becoming quite
verbose you’re you’re very passionate
about every word you say you feel a
little bit awkward and you’re thinking
what should I be doing differently but
actually it’s just your genes speaking
to you and saying that you’re
predisposed to hypertension and red wine
and spicy curry might not be the right
combination for you or imagine that you
have a high sensitivity to sweetness
built into your genes like me and I feel
there’s never enough chocolate in this
world while my friends are perfectly
okay to with crackers and biscuits so
the idea is bringing together
state-of-the-art genetic science
technology and data to create your very
own you manual to maximize your health
potential and doing all of that in an
easy fun and personalized manner I
believe that health technology just like
art science and us human beings serve a
purpose to make life easy healthy and
fun your very own you Manuel brings to
life exactly that
your maximum health potential in an easy
and fun way
so that you can take charge of your
health today thank you very much
[Applause]
the ordinary going beyond my comfort
zone and pushing boundaries we’ve heard
amazing stories of pushing boundaries in
the space of culture technology
marketing in various areas of our
society and the question is how are we
pushing boundaries in our personal life
how are each of us individually pushing
boundaries on a day to day basis my
journey with pushing boundaries started
quite early on so while I was 2 or 3
years old my parents have noticed that I
have a very developed tendency of
spending time with myself rather than
with other little human beings like me
and in time that has developed into me
running away from our guests to solve
math and physics equations while that
was cute for a little while it stopped
being cute quite fast so my parents took
me to a child psychologist now bear in
mind this was Romania 1980s still
communist Romania so the child
psychologist concluded quite fast that I
am mentally unwell that’s as far as he
could go well luckily my parents didn’t
take that label as a fact and started
going beyond the ordinary started
pushing boundaries and exploring other
ways in which they can maximize my
potential and so I’ve done everything
from gymnastics ballet
martial arts painting dancing singing
everything under the Sun and things have
improved quite a bit
so across my teenage years I was a ok
the game change rather abruptly when I
was 17 and my father passed away from a
heart attack so at that point I decided
to push my boundaries yet again and
leave home at 17 with 300 euros in my
pocket and with a huge passion that was
inspired by my father a physicist to
find out how the world works to find out
how things work and to find out how we
work as human beings to understand each
and every one of us and the first big
mission I set for myself was to push
boundaries in the space of knowledge
academia and professional pursuits so
fast-forward five degrees in finance
economics Investment Banking published
book on microfinance and spent about a
decade in investment management and
strategy across Germany Blunden and
other areas in Europe and I came with a
that that journey came with a key
insight a key learning that if I’m very
clear about the goal that I aim to
achieve and I bring together the most
sophisticated state-of-the-art data
tools technology insights and people I
can make almost everything happen yeah
it took me 10 years to figure that one
out but it was worth it and beyond that
I thought well let me try pushing other
boundaries so I went into my physical
boundaries I thought I’ll take it easy
but still do something extreme just like
every other respectable investment
banker so I decided to walk eight
hundred and sixty kilometers from a room
to Santiago de Compostela
about 19 days that’s about 50 2k a day
19 consecutive days and then I thought
well that’s great but it’s a little bit
boring so I thought the next thing I’m
gonna climb the tallest mountain in
Africa but I was running out of vacation
days so I went up and down in three and
a half days because I needed to get back
to the office all of that was incredibly
inspiring motivating empowering but what
I didn’t realize at the time was that it
all came at a price
and the price of Asperger’s arrhythmia
asthma sleep deprivation were all things
that I was ready to pay for and I was
paying for what I wasn’t quite in for
was a severe thyroid condition which was
diagnosed in my mid-20s and so I thought
okay well I’m going to throw myself in
the hands of medical experts and do
whatever they tell me to do
so fast forward five years taking
ever-increasing doses of hormones on a
day-to-day basis and at the end of the
five years the conclusion was well what
kind of sorry but it didn’t work so all
of the different things I’ve tried over
five years it actually didn’t work I was
as healthy or unhealthy as at ground
zero so that’s when I kind of broke up
with my doctors and started a very
intimate relationship with data science
genetics and natural health therapies
across two years I’ve done everything
from reading hundreds of research papers
looking at my genetics and engaging with
acupuncture Osteopathy massage yoga
meditation every form of meditation on
the planet the good news was that after
about two years I felt like a million
bucks all I needed was to make it
official
so I went to the most reputed
endocrinologist in London and I
underwent a series of tests and to his
surprise not to mine
I was a-ok no tumors no hormonal
imbalance and blood values were a okay
and I thought okay how do I celebrate
this this renewed sense of being healthy
again luckily a friend jumped at my
rescue and said I have the perfect thing
for you I said well you know has it been
done before what is it she says he’s
never been done before and it’s for an
educational charity so it’s perfect for
you it’s brilliant I mean well the the
challenge was endearingly called the
triple 7 challenge and that stands for
seven marathons on seven continents in
seven days the first six went incredibly
well we finished the sixth one in Chile
happy days lots of energy lots of
adrenaline in our blood and we were
really ready to navigate the last ten
hours before gaining to Guinness World
Records so we get on the plane
and we’re about to land when the pilot
comes and says I’m deeply sorry but it
looks like the weather is really bad
a lot of winds and ice well we surely
think that’s a joke because we were
talking about landing in Antarctica so
none of the ice should have been a
surprise anyway fast-forward the third
attempt into Antarctica we land we doing
a marathon finish all good now the good
news of the story was that all of this
marathon on the plane of the plane
marathon on the plane of the plane
thorn gave me enough time to think what
am i all about what am I good at what do
I love doing what’s my purpose how can I
use my knowledge my insight and my
experience to make other people’s
journey to look to health to healthiness
a lot easier and fun as well as
personalized because each of us are very
very different so it made me question
what health is all about and in
antiquity health was embodied by these
gorgeous looking young women with a
snake around their body which symbolized
vitality growth wisdom and the English
etymology of the word health is hail
with me which means hole to behold as a
human being and I think health over the
past decades has been centuries has
moved quite far from that concept in
Asia the idea was that you go and see an
acupuncturist and you pay for the
sessions as long as you’re healthy when
you stop being healthy you stop paying
so when did we start paying for being
ill there are a few insights over the
past 400 years and he started with
insight from john locke reputed
philosopher and he said it’s all about
life liberty and property a couple of
hundred years later Thomas Jefferson
adapted that in the u.s. Declaration of
Independence and said it’s all about
life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness well today yet another couple
of hundred years later the paradigm has
shifted to be all about life liberty and
healthiness because ultimately if we
don’t have health
if we are not healthy we cannot enjoy
property and certainly not enjoy our
friends our family the typical sources
of our happiness in our life so now I
would like to ask you for a favor if you
look back at the past decades and you
look at our healthcare system we spend
over 10% of the global GDP purely on
health care and of that 75% of that an
overwhelming percentage is purely cost
related to lifestyle and preventable
disease so that’s everything from stress
diabetes heart conditions back pain
anxiety depression weight we have 1 in 6
Europeans that are obese and we have 10
percent of the u.s. population which has
diabetes and we have we are spending
over 600 billion euros every year purely
on stress-related conditions
so obviously the system is broken the
system is not doing what is supposed to
do we are looking at health as being the
absence of disease and we are not
looking at the individual at each of us
personally as a whole so now the favor
I’d like you to take 20 seconds not more
and I’d like to give you to give me your
undivided attention and observe
everything you possibly can about me and
I will do the same about you
how does that feel do you feel relaxed
aware energized well this was just a
small sample of a meditation practice
this is a practice that we’ve been doing
for millennia where there is a mental
break pause or a minute of meditation or
a moment of Prayer we’ve been engaging
with these practices for millennia
what has changed over the past few
decades however is the distractions
brought about new sources of
communication technology media and while
some of these are beneficial what we see
now is that we are bombarded every 10 to
15 seconds with new pieces of
information and our tools around us
query us non-stop around did we get
enough sleep did we walk enough steps is
our heart rate variability at the right
level did we have enough blueberries
then we have our kale smoothie this
morning so we are overwhelmed with all
of this data so the question is how do
we leverage technology data science and
our personal insight in a way in which
we can focus focus on one single health
goal and then identify the three most
powerful activities and nutrients that
we can engage with we can genuinely
focus on and engage with on a day to day
basis that is the opposite of personal
health excellence knowing exactly what
are the smallest changes that each of us
can make on a day to day basis to
maximize our health potential now
imagine you knew that you’re predisposed
to glute
intolerance and you’re having dinner
with a good friend you’re both having
pasta and he’s filling a okay and you’re
feeling quite bloated and unwell at the
end of the dinner
well you might feel guilty thinking oh
my god I’ve ate too much but the reality
is that your jeans might not be designed
for you to easily process gluten or
imagine that you’re predisposed
genetically to hypertension and you’re a
dinner and you’re having a glass of wine
you’re having a nice spicy curry and
then you feel like you’re becoming quite
verbose you’re you’re very passionate
about every word you say you feel a
little bit awkward and you’re thinking
what should I be doing differently but
actually it’s just your genes speaking
to you and saying that you’re
predisposed to hypertension and red wine
and spicy curry might not be the right
combination for you or imagine that you
have a high sensitivity to sweetness
built into your genes like me and I feel
there’s never enough chocolate in this
world while my friends are perfectly
okay to with crackers and biscuits so
the idea is bringing together
state-of-the-art genetic science
technology and data to create your very
own you manual to maximize your health
potential and doing all of that in an
easy fun and personalized manner I
believe that health technology just like
art science and us human beings serve a
purpose to make life easy healthy and
fun your very own you Manuel brings to
life exactly that
your maximum health potential in an easy
and fun way
so that you can take charge of your
health today thank you very much
[Applause]
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