Impact now! | Linda Laatikainen | TEDxYouth@Kamppi

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED conferences.
Linda Laatikainen, in this talk, gives some serious advice on how we all can have an impact on the world around us. It all comes down to how you manage your own life and career in a simple five-step plan!

Every single one of you
will have an impact on society.

The reason I've agreed
to speak to you today

is because I want to inspire you

to make that impact as positive
and as meaningful as possible.

This might sound pretty abstract
or far away in the future for you,

but I hope that the story of how
I've had an impact at such a young age

will show you that
it's not rocket science,

you have no excuses,
and you can start now.

So, what kind of impact have I had?

I finished my PhD in Psychiatry
at Oxford University at 23,

and by that point, I've already had
an impact on the pool of knowledge

in the field of neuroscience.

I've also contributed to several
mental health programs,

and things related to substance abuse

while I was working
at the World Health Organization.

I've also worked for several of
the world's largest public health programs

which have impacted
hundreds of millions of people,

and I've also volunteered

to help disadvantaged children
and disadvantaged families.

More interesting than what
I've actually done is how I have done it.

And I will concentrate,
in particular, on high school time,

to make it as tangible
as possible for you.

So the first thing you need is direction.

Just choose a direction.

It can be a goal, it can be a dream

or it can be a vague idea.

My godmother told me I could become
an international researcher,

and I thought it was a good one,
so I took it as one of my ideas.

The second goal I had
was getting to win a Nobel Prize.

If you put your aim high enough,

you're going to come up with
some cool things on the way.

It wasn't a real goal,

it was just something to get me started
and move towards a good direction.

And the third thing I had
as a goal when I was your age

was actually going to a top university.

And this might sound obvious to you,
but when I think about it in hindsight,

my motivation for it
wasn't entirely selfless,

I wanted to show the people who bullied me
at school that I can make it somewhere.

And so, what I've just told you,
is that you can choose any direction,

it doesn't have to be your own,
it doesn't have to be your real goal,

and it doesn't have to be
out of selfless motivation.

The perfect example of it
not having to be a selfless motivation

is Marc Burnett, the producer
of the MTV Music Awards.

He once gave a talk and said

that he wanted to become
a producer because chicks like it.

And it doesn't matter, that's
absolutely fine as a motivation,

he's had a great impact on our world.

The other thing is, also
when you choose that direction,

your starting point doesn't matter.

A dear friend of mine found himself
in jail in the Ukrainian countryside

and he still decided at that point

he's going to take
a more positive direction.

And he made it into
Harvard Business School,

and he's been doing similar work
like me around the world.

The second need is
say yes to opportunities.

I always say yes to any opportunity
along that direction I've chosen,

without overthinking it.

So one of the goals I told you about
was going to a top university.

So what did I do?

Without overthinking it, I've found
a list of top universities,

chose Cambridge and MIT on the list,
printed out the application papers

filled them out,
ticked every possible box,

including all the scholarships
that I had no clue about,

turned up at the interviews
and, for example, at Cambridge

I just went to the bar
and watched "Life of Brian"

and then I went to my exams
the next morning.

The others had actually
been studying the night before.

But I did get in,
I even got that scholarship.

So you didn't have to overthink it

or prepare in a very serious manner
for that direction or having said yes.

Same with MIT, the night before
the SATs, the university examinations,

I actually sat with my friend Cathrine
and we were thinking:

"Yeah, so we've filled in
those applications,

but we haven't actually signed up
for the entrance exams,"

so we've realised:
"OK, tomorrow's the entrance exam,

we'll have to go
and we'll sign up on the day."

That's what we did, and we realised
also it's maths and English exam,

neither of us was
a native English speaker,

so we went and got
the dictionary out that night,

- it was maybe 11 o'clock at night -

and she opened the first page
and the first word: quinquagenarian.

Anybody know what that is?

We were like, "Oh, dear Lord..."

It's somebody who's between
the age of 50 and 59, inclusive.

We decided, "Fine, that's enough.
We're just going to go the cinema."

But, I did get into MIT.

I'm not very proud of how
I got into these universities,

I actually got into
12 top universities in the end,

and I did it without overthinking it.

What would it be to say:

"No, I won't print out
those applications forms

and fill them out,"
and I'm very happy I did

because I didn't come up with the excuse:

"Oh, I'm not good enough
for any of that;" my teachers did, though.

They told me:
"You're never going to get into MIT."

But I was like: "Well, what am I going
to lose from filling out this application?

How are you going to know
if you're good enough, if you don't try?

And it's often something
you've done way before,

that's going to help you
in that situation.

So maybe I didn't study for my SATs,

maybe I didn't study for
my Cambridge entrance exam,

but I had earlier listened at school,
I have done my homework,

and I even had extracurricular activities.

At school they offered Latin or maths.

My parents said Latin is a dead language,

so I was: "OK, I'll just go
to the math club then."

And I went every singe week
to the math club as the only student.

Nobody else went. It wasn't
a particularly cool thing to do.

But that probably helped me
later on in life.

So, third thing you need
is figuring out your character,

and what are your character's strengths.

So you should do a test and find out,

and use those wisely.

One of my character strengths is bravery.

So as I told you, if you have a direction,

you say yes to any opportunity
that is along that way.

I also say yes to that direction
and any opportunity along that way

because I'm brave.

So, for example, politics
is not one of those things

I've been planning to do,

but when I was 15 years old

I saw a newspaper article
about an EU politics event,

and I signed up.

And I turned up and little did I know
the event was for only about 50 people,

and all of them were
top politicians in Frankfurt.

So I was in the lift,

chit-chatting to the mayor
of Frankfurt, Petra Roth, at the time.

And it all went fine,

and when they asked me
who was I representing, I said,

International Institute in Oberursel,
read the Frankfurt International School.

But it all went fine.

If I had wanted to become a politician,
maybe that was the one opportunity

that would have changed
my direction in life.

So, on top of direction,

chance and character,
you also need investment.

What comes to mind
when I say investment?

Maybe angel investors?

Maybe the stock market?

You certainly don't think of somebody
sitting in a dusty library

reading books in the middle of the night.

I have read books,
but I really don't like it.

And it's not what got me
through high school,

it's not what got me through university,

it's not what got me
through my job interviews,

and it's certainly not what
has got me through life so far.

What my investments
have been is that one, I listened.

At university I only ever
missed two lectures,

and those were also
for a very good reason.

So I always went and listened.

Number two, I drew.
All my lectures notes are pretty pictures.

And my revision notes are very,
very pretty and memorable pictures,

I can even remember now
and helped me get through my life.

Number three, I slept.
Mostly 8.5 hours, every night.

And number four, I said yes.

And that is an investment,
you have no idea how hard it is

to say yes to every party
and every dinner party, and every concert,

and every meeting there is,
if you can possibly make it.

But, if you say yes to all of those,
you might say yes to ten events

and one of those is the one
where you will realise:

"Yes, this is actually
where I want to go,"

and you can shift
your direction in that case.

Last and least.

Least, you need talent.

The one thing
I'm really not talented at is sport.

I remember sitting underneath
a tree when I was about six years old

and feeling really embarrassed
about myself.

I was a chubby girl
and I was so bad at sport, but I thought:

"If I ever become a sportsman,
I'm going to give a speech and tell people

that even if you're a chubby kid
at six, you can make it.

I'm not a sportsman,
sorry to disappoint you.

But, I did decide that I want the top mark

at my upper secondary school diploma,

is what I think
you call it here in Finland.

And I did get that mark, it was
the toughest mark to get though.

I had to swim a heck of a lot
to get to that top mark.

It was much more difficult
than any of my other grades that I got.

I've also got
the Varsity Cross Country Running prize.

And I even got a silver medal

in the national running championships
this year.

So even though I don't have talent,
you can get pretty far.

I always liked to be honest, though.

And, there is about 1% of things
that even I can't do.

And there's going to be
1% of things that even you can't do.

And you have to accept that,
and that's where you need the talent,

and appreciation of your talent
for that one last percent.

Don't be daunted by the fact that
I've told you to choose the direction now,

it doesn't have to be
your ultimate direction

because you can't choose that now.

The last ingredient
that you need for deciding

where you are going to go
when having that impact,

are your own values and they change.

These were the values
that I had about ten years ago.

It was adventure, it was excellence,
and it was achievement.

I got the adventure that I wanted.

In DR Congo I just escaped
the ebola outbreak

by going through the border
five minutes just before it closed,

I got onto a speedboat, wearing
my Bond-girl, see-through outfit,

- I've lost my luggage and I was
wearing a local trend outfit,

which was see-through -

only to get to the other side,

get to Nigeria, and realise,

there was a bomb threat
and an arm attack ahead of me.

It was thrilling, I must admit,
but I was there mainly to save the world.

I'm still saving the world,

now I'm doing it
through a gene risk project

which starts next year and aims
to use genetic information

to improve our health
and wealthfare here in Finland.

But I'm also trying to save myself,
and do good things to myself.

This started all about a year ago,
when I was at the training programme,

and I was given a stack of cards,
very similar to these ones.

And I had to choose my top three values,

and the ones I chose were these:

happiness, kindness, and health.

I compared them to the guy next to me,

and he had power, and money,
and all those kinds of things,

and I had happiness, kindness, and health.

And I compared them to what I was doing,

and realised, I'm going
to change my life now.

And that's what I did.

Because I believe
that society doesn't work

unless each and everyone
of us are feeling happy,

healthy, and we're kind to each other.

Ten years from now,
my values might look like this.

And hopefully, by then I'll learn
to balance even better

my impact on society, my impact on me,
and my impact on my friends and family.

Oy, you! I know
you haven't been listening so far,

but it really is worth it now,
last minute to go.

I've got a top secret recipe for you.

It's my recipe
of how you can have an impact.

Number one, keep moving.

Number two, leverage
your character strengths.

Number three, say yes to opportunities.

Number four, invest wisely.

And number five, do not let
lack of talent be an excuse

unless it's that 1% of things
that you literally just cannot do.

Now I've given you my top secret recipe,
you have no more excuses,

you know it's not rocket
science, so start now!

(Applause)