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Hello everyone, hello. So, we are going to
ask a very simple question: how to make your

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dreams come true? Do you think it's a good
question? I think it's a good wiki question.

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Actually, when you were a kid, when you were
younger, what did you dream of becoming? An

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astronaut? Yeah? A model? Journalist? Speaker
- yeah, it's great. An actor? How many actors

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or actresses in the room? The next Robert
De Niro, Julia Roberts? Maybe a rockstar?

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How many rockstars in the room? Ah Gadsby
- yeah for sure. How many financial directors?

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One, two, ok.

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How many bankers? No? Accountants, sales rep,
product manager - how many product managers?

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You don't even know what it is. Don't laugh,
it's my job. Yeah, I'm a product manager.

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And yet, I wanted to be a rockstar. But you
can figure out that it didn't work. Otherwise

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you would know, right? It's me in the picture
by the way. It was some years ago.

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I wanted to be a rockstar because my dream
was about sharing. Sharing a big adventure,

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you know, with a band. Touring in a bus, playing
every night in a different city in front of

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hundreds of thousands of people. It was really
exciting, and I wanted to create, every day,

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every single day creating, feeling free, you
know. And, most of all, I wanted to colour

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up people's lives, because this is how music
works with me. When you are a little down,

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when you've got some troubles, when you want
to get some courage, you listen to music,

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and you feel better.

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And so, I wanted to be this rockstar. But,
actually, things went slightly differently.

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So I'm going to tell you - very briefly - my
story and maybe answer this question. So,

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when I was 20, wanting to become this rockstar,
I just thought that maybe it wasn't the safest

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profession on Earth - rockstar, I mean. So
I wondered, what could I do... what could

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I do. I was looking for a safer job. And I
thought about becoming a film director. Yes,

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it was quite realistic I guess - if music
doesn't work let's do some cinema, yes of

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course. But ok, I was 20, don't laugh.

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And so, I wanted to go to this cinema school.
And to do so, I had to get this scientific

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degree. So, I went to a scientific college,
Jussieu, in Paris. And in doing this degree,

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I've discovered artificial intelligence, that
was pretty different from music and from cinema,

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but actually, that was quite fascinating,
because it was about understanding human beings.

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The way we think, the way we act, the way
we make decisions, but studying that from

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a scientific approach. It was that interesting,
that I kept following my studies, until I

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got a PhD in computer science - and honestly
that wasn't expected at all. But it was interesting,

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because I kept learning and learning about
human beings.

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But since preparing a PhD doesn't pay a lot,
well, I became a web designer. Because I had

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to earn my living, you know. To be honest,
I wasn't very good at it, and I didn't earn

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a lot of money, but I met this guy, a coach,
a company coach, you know, going into companies

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and trying to help employees to feel better,
to be more efficient in their jobs. And so

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to design his website, I had to understand
what he was doing, so we were talking for

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hours, days, weeks. And he began to get interested
in what I was doing during my PhD, and it

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was kind of complementary, actually. It was
so complementary that he asked me to create

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a company with him. That wasn't expected at
all, and I had no skills - I was still practicing

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music a lot, and that wasn't expected; but
I ran a consulting firm for 7 years. We've

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been pretty successful actually, and it was
very interesting because we met a lot of people,

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I learnt a lot of things about human beings,
but I didn't plan that, to be honest.

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7 years later, a customer of mine once asked
me - and honestly I still don't know why - but

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he asked me, could you help me, could you
help my human resources director to support

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all of his processes. So could you create
the software? But I wasn't doing that at all,

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and I said 'no' the first time, and I said
'no' the second time, and the third time I

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said 'ok, why not'?

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That wasn't expected, I had no specific skills,
but since he insisted that much I said ok,

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and finally I became a product manager, and
once again, we've been kind of successful

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with that, with this talent management field.
And since we were successful, I could become

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a blogger, starting writing books about talent
management and the way to develop yourself.

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And this is where it becomes quite interesting,
because actually, I started to share and share

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and share again, with everyone, the users
of the blogs, and so on. And finally I realised

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that my dreams came true.

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Well, I know that you are laughing, because,
well, it is kind of different from being a

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rockstar. I could ask Gadsby, 'well, you are
going to become a product manager, will you

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be happy with that?' Maybe he won't be that
happy; but what is interesting, is that I

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wanted to share a powerful strong adventure
with a lot of people. Actually, I share this

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string adventure with more than 150 colleagues;
most of them have become friends. I wanted

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to create; well, even if you don't know what
a product manager is, creating is the exact

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job description of product management. I wanted
to become free; I am one of the bosses of

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the company, so I'm pretty free, even if I
have to go to the office in suits and I have

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a schedule, I'm kind of free.

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And the most important thing is that I wanted
to colour up people's lives, and actually

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with our software we help our customers' employees
to find their own way, to find their path,

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to get their dream job, to drive their own
career. So when you think about it, yes my

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dreams came true, but nothing of what I had
ever expected had happened. The question is

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not how to make your dreams come true; it's
how to let your dreams come true. Because

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if you think about it, we all focus on the
'how': how are we going to achieve our dreams,

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but the truth is, we have no idea about it.
So the important thing is not to focus on

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the means; it's to try to be able to see,
to identify, to recognise, to spot opportunities

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when they come.

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This is a tough thing, it's not obvious. There
is this guy, falling from his boat, drowning

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in the ocean, and he prays to god, he prays
to god to come and save him. He says 'god,

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please, help me'. The first boat comes, and
says 'hey, man, come on up'. The guy says

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no, no thanks; god is going to save me. The
second boat comes and says 'hey, man, come

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on up'. 'No, no, no thanks, god is going to
save me'. The third boat comes and - you know

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the story - he says no, and finally he dies.
He goes to paradise, he meets god, and says

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'hey god, what did you do? I prayed for you
to come and save me and you didn't show up!'

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and god says, 'are you kidding me? I sent
three boats!'

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This is our problem - we don't see boats,
we are not expecting boats, we are expecting

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something else. I don't know what, but something
else. And so the truth is that if you want

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to become a rockstar, a model, an actor, an
astronaut, maybe it's not going to happen,

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but that's not the most important thing. The
most important thing is what is lying under

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your dreams; what do you really want to do.
Not necessarily to do, but to be. And so you've

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got to stay very open, to stay tuned for opportunities
when they come. And I can swear, life will

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do the rest. So the question for you is, what's
in it for me? What is it going to be? And

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so, you can take this coin, and say heads
or tails. Heads. You don't know, but I swear

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that you will see.