Hello everyone, hello. So, we are going to ask a very simple question: how to make your
dreams come true? Do you think it's a good question? I think it's a good wiki question.
Actually, when you were a kid, when you were younger, what did you dream of becoming? An
astronaut? Yeah? A model? Journalist? Speaker - yeah, it's great. An actor? How many actors
or actresses in the room? The next Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts? Maybe a rockstar?
How many rockstars in the room? Ah Gadsby - yeah for sure. How many financial directors?
One, two, ok.
How many bankers? No? Accountants, sales rep, product manager - how many product managers?
You don't even know what it is. Don't laugh, it's my job. Yeah, I'm a product manager.
And yet, I wanted to be a rockstar. But you can figure out that it didn't work. Otherwise
you would know, right? It's me in the picture by the way. It was some years ago.
I wanted to be a rockstar because my dream was about sharing. Sharing a big adventure,
you know, with a band. Touring in a bus, playing every night in a different city in front of
hundreds of thousands of people. It was really exciting, and I wanted to create, every day,
every single day creating, feeling free, you know. And, most of all, I wanted to colour
up people's lives, because this is how music works with me. When you are a little down,
when you've got some troubles, when you want to get some courage, you listen to music,
and you feel better.
And so, I wanted to be this rockstar. But, actually, things went slightly differently.
So I'm going to tell you - very briefly - my story and maybe answer this question. So,
when I was 20, wanting to become this rockstar, I just thought that maybe it wasn't the safest
profession on Earth - rockstar, I mean. So I wondered, what could I do... what could
I do. I was looking for a safer job. And I thought about becoming a film director. Yes,
it was quite realistic I guess - if music doesn't work let's do some cinema, yes of
course. But ok, I was 20, don't laugh.
And so, I wanted to go to this cinema school. And to do so, I had to get this scientific
degree. So, I went to a scientific college, Jussieu, in Paris. And in doing this degree,
I've discovered artificial intelligence, that was pretty different from music and from cinema,
but actually, that was quite fascinating, because it was about understanding human beings.
The way we think, the way we act, the way we make decisions, but studying that from
a scientific approach. It was that interesting, that I kept following my studies, until I
got a PhD in computer science - and honestly that wasn't expected at all. But it was interesting,
because I kept learning and learning about human beings.
But since preparing a PhD doesn't pay a lot, well, I became a web designer. Because I had
to earn my living, you know. To be honest, I wasn't very good at it, and I didn't earn
a lot of money, but I met this guy, a coach, a company coach, you know, going into companies
and trying to help employees to feel better, to be more efficient in their jobs. And so
to design his website, I had to understand what he was doing, so we were talking for
hours, days, weeks. And he began to get interested in what I was doing during my PhD, and it
was kind of complementary, actually. It was so complementary that he asked me to create
a company with him. That wasn't expected at all, and I had no skills - I was still practicing
music a lot, and that wasn't expected; but I ran a consulting firm for 7 years. We've
been pretty successful actually, and it was very interesting because we met a lot of people,
I learnt a lot of things about human beings, but I didn't plan that, to be honest.
7 years later, a customer of mine once asked me - and honestly I still don't know why - but
he asked me, could you help me, could you help my human resources director to support
all of his processes. So could you create the software? But I wasn't doing that at all,
and I said 'no' the first time, and I said 'no' the second time, and the third time I
said 'ok, why not'?
That wasn't expected, I had no specific skills, but since he insisted that much I said ok,
and finally I became a product manager, and once again, we've been kind of successful
with that, with this talent management field. And since we were successful, I could become
a blogger, starting writing books about talent management and the way to develop yourself.
And this is where it becomes quite interesting, because actually, I started to share and share
and share again, with everyone, the users of the blogs, and so on. And finally I realised
that my dreams came true.
Well, I know that you are laughing, because, well, it is kind of different from being a
rockstar. I could ask Gadsby, 'well, you are going to become a product manager, will you
be happy with that?' Maybe he won't be that happy; but what is interesting, is that I
wanted to share a powerful strong adventure with a lot of people. Actually, I share this
string adventure with more than 150 colleagues; most of them have become friends. I wanted
to create; well, even if you don't know what a product manager is, creating is the exact
job description of product management. I wanted to become free; I am one of the bosses of
the company, so I'm pretty free, even if I have to go to the office in suits and I have
a schedule, I'm kind of free.
And the most important thing is that I wanted to colour up people's lives, and actually
with our software we help our customers' employees to find their own way, to find their path,
to get their dream job, to drive their own career. So when you think about it, yes my
dreams came true, but nothing of what I had ever expected had happened. The question is
not how to make your dreams come true; it's how to let your dreams come true. Because
if you think about it, we all focus on the 'how': how are we going to achieve our dreams,
but the truth is, we have no idea about it. So the important thing is not to focus on
the means; it's to try to be able to see, to identify, to recognise, to spot opportunities
when they come.
This is a tough thing, it's not obvious. There is this guy, falling from his boat, drowning
in the ocean, and he prays to god, he prays to god to come and save him. He says 'god,
please, help me'. The first boat comes, and says 'hey, man, come on up'. The guy says
no, no thanks; god is going to save me. The second boat comes and says 'hey, man, come
on up'. 'No, no, no thanks, god is going to save me'. The third boat comes and - you know
the story - he says no, and finally he dies. He goes to paradise, he meets god, and says
'hey god, what did you do? I prayed for you to come and save me and you didn't show up!'
and god says, 'are you kidding me? I sent three boats!'
This is our problem - we don't see boats, we are not expecting boats, we are expecting
something else. I don't know what, but something else. And so the truth is that if you want
to become a rockstar, a model, an actor, an astronaut, maybe it's not going to happen,
but that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is what is lying under
your dreams; what do you really want to do. Not necessarily to do, but to be. And so you've
got to stay very open, to stay tuned for opportunities when they come. And I can swear, life will
do the rest. So the question for you is, what's in it for me? What is it going to be? And
so, you can take this coin, and say heads or tails. Heads. You don't know, but I swear
that you will see.