[Music]
[Applause]
fear is something we live with every day
it might be one of our most basic
emotions but it might actually be one of
our most important ones too but why
because out of all the emotions like
surprise sadness joy and so on
I believe that fear has the strongest
impact on our lives fear has kept us
alive for millions of years no matter
what we are feeling at a certain time if
we feel like we’re afraid of something
we will do whatever it takes to avoid
doing what we fear so therefore we can
assume that the vast majority of the
decisions in our life have been shaped
by our response to fear so here’s a
question worth asking what is our
reaction to fear I’m gonna use a very
universal and common fear as an example
the fear of heights something we all
have even animals that can fly are
afraid of heights at some point now most
of us absolutely hate Heights we would
never ever be stuck in the twentieth
floor on the edge with no walls but some
people have a different feeling we all
might enjoy the feeling when Y all might
enjoy the view out of the twentieth
floor but some people have a much
stranger feeling they like to stand
right at the edge of the twentieth floor
look down at the ground below and think
to themselves I could jump right now I
want to show you a short clip to make
you understand what’s going through the
mind of someone that experiences this
for a lot of us this short clip from the
2014 film divergent shows us our worst
fear to fall into a bottomless pit to
fall to our death
however the sensation I described to you
earlier about wanting to jump on the
20th floor is common enough that French
people have given it a name lapel the
wheat or in English the call of the void
the phrase is used to describe our
attraction to risk everything and jump
from the edge some say the phrase is
used to describe the thrill excitement
or adrenalin rush we would feel if we
actually jumped now this phenomenon is
so common that it was also worth
studying many people have wrongly
assumed that the phenomenon is linked to
people that are depressed or
experiencing feelings of suicide but
that has proven to be untrue in 2012 dr.
Jennifer Haines at the Department of
Psychology at Florida State University
completed a study on this phenomenon she
found out that over 30% of her subjects
had felt the call of the void out of
those 30% the majority had never had any
thoughts about suicide before so dr.
Haynes concluded that the call of the
void might actually be our body’s way of
appreciating life by having the ability
to jump but choosing not to were
actually taking control of our
circumstances by avoiding a certain
death situation giving ourselves a small
adrenaline rush and making you
appreciate staying alive so now that we
know approximately one third of people
feel the call of the void let’s take a
look another look at the expression what
is it that we’re really afraid of if you
look at the next
rushon void I can tell us a lot the void
is the emptiness it is the darkness and
why do we fear this emptiness it is
because it is unknown it is a mystery we
have no idea what is waiting for us at
the bottom of the void
so therefore the call of the void can
really just be the call of the unknown
but there are a lot of things we don’t
know why are we afraid of some unknowns
and not others it’s because the unknowns
were afraid of our about the things we
care about most our deepest desires what
we dream about at night but these
desires carry huge risk both super
exciting and super scary at the same
time now I wanted to know how to use the
thing I’ve come up with a theory
regarding the call of the void while
only about a third of people experienced
the call of the void
I believe that number changes when we
look at their expression again I believe
that everyone no matter their age or
culture feels the call of the unknown
both super exciting and super scary at
the same time let’s look at a few
examples of some unknowns we all might
be thinking about right here right now
starting a new relationship ending an
old relationship quitting your job
following a childhood dream starting a
new company moving to a new city or even
to a whole new country and then there is
my own story a while ago I had connected
with a childhood friend I had not seen
for 17 years I lived in Dallas Texas
she lived in Esfahan Iran the more I
talked to her
the more I realized that if I was to get
serious with this relationship I had to
travel to the other side of the world so
I packed my bags bought a two-way plane
tickets
and came to Iran after about a week and
a half I didn’t really get the
connection that I was expecting mostly
because I barely spoke Farsi and
definitely not enough to be able to
express my feelings not just with her
but with everybody else as well I was
very upset to find out that I really
couldn’t make any connections with my
fellow Iranians after living so long in
the US I felt like I wasn’t truly
Iranian so I started to go for long
walks in the middle of the city trying
to gather up my emotions I walked at
mornings afternoons at nights in the
squares along the bridges along the
river so many different places after a
while I started to fall in love with the
architecture of the city I fell in love
with the energy and activity of Isfahan
it was unlike anything I had experienced
before and I started to feel something I
had not felt for a long time I realized
I was actually searching for myself a
piece of myself a piece of my heritage
my culture here in Iran more than
establishing connections I wanted to
find myself the unknown was calling me
adventure was calling me so I called my
boss back in the US quit my job and
stayed what was supposed to be a
two-week vacation turned into two and a
half years during this time I began to
teach English as a way to connect with
more people the Institute that I was
working with gave me their free
discussion classes and after about a
week I was teaching about 10 to 15
classes a week my friends would ask me
what I do for a living and I would say
nothing much I just show up to class and
I start talking and for a while it was
good and afterwards in the same time I
fell in love with local Iranian food I
wanted to make a documentary focusing on
local food which is so over
and almost all online resources it was
during this time that I got introduced
to a group of very young entrepreneurs
working in the tourism sector I didn’t
think that I would enjoy working in
tourism and I had never thought about it
before but I liked the group and their
energy so much that I decided I would
stay after a while I knew that I would
want to become a permanent member of
their team and so today I’m one of the
cofounders of one of the fastest growing
tourism startups in Iran and just wanted
to show you a picture of my team so to
sum things up I want you to listen to
the call of the void not only will you
realize your fears and we’re phobias but
you will also realize how much pressure
you can handle you will unlock
unimaginable opportunities unlike which
you have ever seen before I’m going to
show you the same clip I showed at the
to achieve something you’ve never
achieved before you must become someone
you have never been are you brave enough
to answer the call of the unknown
because even though you don’t know
what’s on the other side it may not be
as scary as you thought thank you [Applause]
[Applause]
fear is something we live with every day
it might be one of our most basic
emotions but it might actually be one of
our most important ones too but why
because out of all the emotions like
surprise sadness joy and so on
I believe that fear has the strongest
impact on our lives fear has kept us
alive for millions of years no matter
what we are feeling at a certain time if
we feel like we’re afraid of something
we will do whatever it takes to avoid
doing what we fear so therefore we can
assume that the vast majority of the
decisions in our life have been shaped
by our response to fear so here’s a
question worth asking what is our
reaction to fear I’m gonna use a very
universal and common fear as an example
the fear of heights something we all
have even animals that can fly are
afraid of heights at some point now most
of us absolutely hate Heights we would
never ever be stuck in the twentieth
floor on the edge with no walls but some
people have a different feeling we all
might enjoy the feeling when Y all might
enjoy the view out of the twentieth
floor but some people have a much
stranger feeling they like to stand
right at the edge of the twentieth floor
look down at the ground below and think
to themselves I could jump right now I
want to show you a short clip to make
you understand what’s going through the
mind of someone that experiences this
for a lot of us this short clip from the
2014 film divergent shows us our worst
fear to fall into a bottomless pit to
fall to our death
however the sensation I described to you
earlier about wanting to jump on the
20th floor is common enough that French
people have given it a name lapel the
wheat or in English the call of the void
the phrase is used to describe our
attraction to risk everything and jump
from the edge some say the phrase is
used to describe the thrill excitement
or adrenalin rush we would feel if we
actually jumped now this phenomenon is
so common that it was also worth
studying many people have wrongly
assumed that the phenomenon is linked to
people that are depressed or
experiencing feelings of suicide but
that has proven to be untrue in 2012 dr.
Jennifer Haines at the Department of
Psychology at Florida State University
completed a study on this phenomenon she
found out that over 30% of her subjects
had felt the call of the void out of
those 30% the majority had never had any
thoughts about suicide before so dr.
Haynes concluded that the call of the
void might actually be our body’s way of
appreciating life by having the ability
to jump but choosing not to were
actually taking control of our
circumstances by avoiding a certain
death situation giving ourselves a small
adrenaline rush and making you
appreciate staying alive so now that we
know approximately one third of people
feel the call of the void let’s take a
look another look at the expression what
is it that we’re really afraid of if you
look at the next
rushon void I can tell us a lot the void
is the emptiness it is the darkness and
why do we fear this emptiness it is
because it is unknown it is a mystery we
have no idea what is waiting for us at
the bottom of the void
so therefore the call of the void can
really just be the call of the unknown
but there are a lot of things we don’t
know why are we afraid of some unknowns
and not others it’s because the unknowns
were afraid of our about the things we
care about most our deepest desires what
we dream about at night but these
desires carry huge risk both super
exciting and super scary at the same
time now I wanted to know how to use the
thing I’ve come up with a theory
regarding the call of the void while
only about a third of people experienced
the call of the void
I believe that number changes when we
look at their expression again I believe
that everyone no matter their age or
culture feels the call of the unknown
both super exciting and super scary at
the same time let’s look at a few
examples of some unknowns we all might
be thinking about right here right now
starting a new relationship ending an
old relationship quitting your job
following a childhood dream starting a
new company moving to a new city or even
to a whole new country and then there is
my own story a while ago I had connected
with a childhood friend I had not seen
for 17 years I lived in Dallas Texas
she lived in Esfahan Iran the more I
talked to her
the more I realized that if I was to get
serious with this relationship I had to
travel to the other side of the world so
I packed my bags bought a two-way plane
tickets
and came to Iran after about a week and
a half I didn’t really get the
connection that I was expecting mostly
because I barely spoke Farsi and
definitely not enough to be able to
express my feelings not just with her
but with everybody else as well I was
very upset to find out that I really
couldn’t make any connections with my
fellow Iranians after living so long in
the US I felt like I wasn’t truly
Iranian so I started to go for long
walks in the middle of the city trying
to gather up my emotions I walked at
mornings afternoons at nights in the
squares along the bridges along the
river so many different places after a
while I started to fall in love with the
architecture of the city I fell in love
with the energy and activity of Isfahan
it was unlike anything I had experienced
before and I started to feel something I
had not felt for a long time I realized
I was actually searching for myself a
piece of myself a piece of my heritage
my culture here in Iran more than
establishing connections I wanted to
find myself the unknown was calling me
adventure was calling me so I called my
boss back in the US quit my job and
stayed what was supposed to be a
two-week vacation turned into two and a
half years during this time I began to
teach English as a way to connect with
more people the Institute that I was
working with gave me their free
discussion classes and after about a
week I was teaching about 10 to 15
classes a week my friends would ask me
what I do for a living and I would say
nothing much I just show up to class and
I start talking and for a while it was
good and afterwards in the same time I
fell in love with local Iranian food I
wanted to make a documentary focusing on
local food which is so over
and almost all online resources it was
during this time that I got introduced
to a group of very young entrepreneurs
working in the tourism sector I didn’t
think that I would enjoy working in
tourism and I had never thought about it
before but I liked the group and their
energy so much that I decided I would
stay after a while I knew that I would
want to become a permanent member of
their team and so today I’m one of the
cofounders of one of the fastest growing
tourism startups in Iran and just wanted
to show you a picture of my team so to
sum things up I want you to listen to
the call of the void not only will you
realize your fears and we’re phobias but
you will also realize how much pressure
you can handle you will unlock
unimaginable opportunities unlike which
you have ever seen before I’m going to
show you the same clip I showed at the
to achieve something you’ve never
achieved before you must become someone
you have never been are you brave enough
to answer the call of the unknown
because even though you don’t know
what’s on the other side it may not be
as scary as you thought thank you [Applause]
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