The courage to be yourself| Lilou Macé | TEDxÉcolePolytechnique

This presentation was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED conferences.

Life's trials had Lilou Mace face several dilemmas, among which to take a risk and try her luck, to do what she had always wanted to do: make interviews and share them for free. Message: dare to be yourself.

"Take the first step in faith.

You don't have to see the whole staircase,
just take the first step.”

Martin Luther King.

In February 2009, I lost my job
as a marketing director,

I was all dynamic, in London,

when suddenly one day, I lost my job.

It was a real slap in the face
but I told myself,

"it's time to live your dream,
I want to inspire millions of people,

nothing less,

I want to put videos online for free.

I don't know how I'm going
to make a living from it

but this is what I want to do.

Now is the time to do it
because I've been fired.

Let's do it!"

I already had two,
three million views on Youtube,

so I thought the time was right.

I also thought it was time
to write a book.

Why not?

I had just lost a job,

After all, I had been practicing
self-improvement for years,

I had attended training courses,

if all that, the meditations, do work,

it may be time to try them
and to put them into practice.

So I wrote a book about it
and by the end of 2009,

I had a book in my hands,
which had been made very quickly,

but not a cent on my bank account.

I ended up broke, in London,
a very very expensive city,

and at the age of 32,
I had to go back to my parents',

well, to mum's, my parents were divorced.

That's a real blow to your ego, for sure,
but I didn't have any other choice,

it was that or finding another
regular marketing job,

working for someone that didn't suit me
or at least, I wouldn't get along with

and I thought, no, I want
to live my dream, I don't know how,

but I would rather go back
more or less to square one,

live what I must live with my parents
and not do that job again.

So I stayed but I still didn't know
how to make a living from my passion.

My book had known a bit of success
but not enough to make a living.

On January, 11, 2011

I decided to go on tour across
the United States, Mexico and Canada,

a 12-month tour of interviews,
during which I would interview authors,

people that I thought were nice,
authors mainly.

I wanted to learn from them
so I brought my small camera,

my very small camera, a little bit ashamed
of coming over with such a small camera,

they were so famous!

I showed up there
and I started to interview them,

to ask the questions I had always wanted
to ask and I broadcast it on Internet.

But you are probably
wondering how I paid for it.

Because traveling for twelve months
costs a lot, it can be very expensive.

I simply put a donation button,
a Paypal button, on the website.

I had no idea that it would work
when I started my tour.

It showed no sign.

So it was a big leap of faith,

and the day before the tour started,
I was in New Mexico,

I was ready to do my first interview,
and a donation happened.

It was the exact amount
for the computer I needed,

that I just bought to upload
these videos on Youtube.

I was blown away!

I was like: "What? Someone just made
a donation so that I can live my dream,

I didn't even really ask,
I didn't even say what I need,

and someone make me a donation!"

It was like everything became
more colorful, more alive,

and it blew me away.

Of course these steps transformed my life,

it changed me, they were difficult steps,

challenges, leaps into the unknown,
almost quantum leaps,

and it transformed my life.

10 years after uploading my first video
on Youtube in March 2006,

I got my first "like" and my first view,
it was very exciting,

well, ten years later,
I have put 3,000 videos online,

got around 2,000 interviews
in several languages,

in French and English
since I am French-American,

I am doing it in both languages.

I have traveled in a lot of countries,

I am just back from Martinique,
Guadeloupe and Thaïland,

45 millions of people
have watched my videos,

so it has produced a snowball effect
thanks to the social media and all that,

these videos inspire people
to move forward.

Lately I interviewed Mantak Chia
in Thaïland for example,

who has written lots of books
about longevity,

on having a blooming sexuality.

Then I am going to interview
Professor Henri Joyeux on nutrition,

or Frédéric Laloue
on Reinventing Organizations,

so the new economic models for companies.

In short, I am having a ball!

I am going from one person to another,
I upload everything on Youtube.

But to tell you the truth,
I absolutely have no idea,

I still don't see the whole staircase.

In other words,
I answer the call every time,

every time I feel this impulse,
this intuition, this desire,

when something resounds inside me,

I say yes, but I don't know
where I am headed.

What I can tell you is I am having a ball,

What I can tell you is
I am enjoying myself,

that I am filled with gratitude
and joy of life,

that I am feeling more and more myself,
and since the day I lost my job,

and found myself broke,
this is when my real life began.

It makes me laugh
because when I look back,

I was so afraid of opening
myself to others,

I would have been so afraid
of talking in public, of making a video,

I needed to do everything on my own,
I needed to protect myself,

I was afraid of being manipulated,
of being betrayed,

I was afraid of being everything
you can imagine,

I was protecting myself.

Especially since that time
when I had no money,

because it was the hardest thing
I had to live,

being an entrepreneur at the age of 23

and achieving success,
even a financial one,

to find myself in this situation has been
the most beautiful gift after all,

because it has opened myself again
to life, to gratitude,

to care about myself,
rather than being hard on myself,

it has helped me
to look beyond differences,

beyond appearances,
particularly to tell real 'yes' to life,

to learn to say 'no' when needed,
to follow this intuition,

to listen to my intelligence,
the intelligence of the heart,

that comes at the service
of the intelligence which is up there,

and to learn to let go, to trust life

and admit that, maybe,
this is not a threatening universe.

This is the principle of this world 2.0
that I offer versus the 1.0 one,

that I feel has reached its limits.

Today we are in a world asking us
to be joyful, to be spontaneous,

to be grateful for small things,

to understand we don't need
to suffer to move forward,

that we all have something unique
inside us, that you have something unique,

you even have a responsibility,

a responsibility to life, to yourself,

and in order to live this responsibility,
we need to be brave,

we need to be ourselves.

We need to go draw within ourselves.

It is far from being an easy path
but, at least, we become ourselves,

and we really can help change the world.

I think we got here, to the point
where we have this ability,

and you know we have this ability to help,

to contribute, if only we want
to make a positive impact on the world,

but it's up to us to decide, to say yes,

to not hesitate to also ask
life to support us,

and to have visions
that are bigger than us.

I remember watching a TED talk
by Jacques Attali,

who said : "What's most important
is to undertake your life"

I totally agree with that of course,
because I think it's deeply connected,

life, our company
and our professionnal life

and to blossom like that.

So I ask you tonight to look
at what your role in this society is,

what role you want to play,
and what your commitment is,

what excites you,

and what you would like to answer
your grandchildren if, one day,

you had a conversation with them

and they asked about the influence
you have had on this world.

Thank you.

(Applause)