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

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The reason I've agreed 
to speak to you today

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is because I want to inspire you

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

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

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

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will show you that 
it's not rocket science,

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you have no excuses, 
and you can start now.

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So, what kind of impact have I had?

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

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

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in the field of neuroscience.

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I've also contributed to several 
mental health programs,

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and things related to substance abuse

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while I was working 
at the World Health Organization.

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

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which have impacted 
hundreds of millions of people,

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and I've also volunteered

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to help disadvantaged children
and disadvantaged families.

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

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

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to make it as tangible 
as possible for you.

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So the first thing you need is direction.

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Just choose a direction.

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It can be a goal, it can be a dream

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or it can be a vague idea.

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My godmother told me I could become
an international researcher,

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

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

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If you put your aim high enough,

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

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It wasn't a real goal,

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

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

35
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was actually going to a top university.

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

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my motivation for it 
wasn't entirely selfless,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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He once gave a talk and said

45
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that he wanted to become 
a producer because chicks like it.

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

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he's had a great impact on our world.

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

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your starting point doesn't matter.

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

51
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and he still decided at that point

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he's going to take 
a more positive direction.

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And he made it into
Harvard Business School,

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

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The second need is 
say yes to opportunities.

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

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without overthinking it.

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

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So what did I do?

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

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

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filled them out, 
ticked every possible box,

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including all the scholarships 
that I had no clue about,

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

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

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and then I went to my exams
the next morning.

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The others had actually 
been studying the night before.

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

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So you didn't have to overthink it

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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neither of us was 
a native English speaker,

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so we went and got 
the dictionary out that night,

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- it was maybe 11 o'clock at night -

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

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Anybody know what that is?

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

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

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

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But, I did get into MIT.

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

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I actually got into
12 top universities in the end,

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and I did it without overthinking it.

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What would it be to say:

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

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

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because I didn't come up with the excuse:

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

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

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

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

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

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that's going to help you 
in that situation.

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So maybe I didn't study for my SATs,

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

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

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and I even had extracurricular activities.

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At school they offered Latin or maths.

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My parents said Latin is a dead language,

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

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

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

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But that probably helped me
later on in life.

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

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and what are your character's strengths.

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So you should do a test and find out,

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and use those wisely.

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One of my character strengths is bravery.

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

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

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

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because I'm brave.

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

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I've been planning to do,

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but when I was 15 years old

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I saw a newspaper article 
about an EU politics event,

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and I signed up.

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

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and all of them were 
top politicians in Frankfurt.

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So I was in the lift,

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

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And it all went fine,

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

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International Institute in Oberursel,
read the Frankfurt International School.

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But it all went fine.

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

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that would have changed
my direction in life.

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So, on top of direction,

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chance and character, 
you also need investment.

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What comes to mind 
when I say investment?

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Maybe angel investors?

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Maybe the stock market?

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

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reading books in the middle of the night.

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

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

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it's not what got me through university,

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

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

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

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At university I only ever 
missed two lectures,

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and those were also 
for a very good reason.

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So I always went and listened.

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

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

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

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

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And number four, I said yes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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and you can shift 
your direction in that case.

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Last and least.

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Least, you need talent.

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

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

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and feeling really embarrassed
about myself.

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

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

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

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

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But, I did decide that I want the top mark

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at my upper secondary school diploma,

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is what I think 
you call it here in Finland.

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

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

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

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

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And I even got a silver medal

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in the national running championships
this year.

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

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I always liked to be honest, though.

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

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

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

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and appreciation of your talent
for that one last percent.

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

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it doesn't have to be
your ultimate direction

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because you can't choose that now.

189
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The last ingredient 
that you need for deciding

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where you are going to go
when having that impact,

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are your own values and they change.

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

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

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I got the adventure that I wanted.

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In DR Congo I just escaped 
the ebola outbreak

196
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by going through the border
five minutes just before it closed,

197
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I got onto a speedboat, wearing 
my Bond-girl, see-through outfit,

198
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- I've lost my luggage and I was
wearing a local trend outfit,

199
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which was see-through -

200
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only to get to the other side,

201
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get to Nigeria, and realise,

202
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there was a bomb threat
and an arm attack ahead of me.

203
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It was thrilling, I must admit, 
but I was there mainly to save the world.

204
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I'm still saving the world,

205
00:12:10,492 --> 00:12:13,273
now I'm doing it 
through a gene risk project

206
00:12:13,273 --> 00:12:16,907
which starts next year and aims 
to use genetic information

207
00:12:16,907 --> 00:12:20,782
to improve our health 
and wealthfare here in Finland.

208
00:12:22,926 --> 00:12:26,988
But I'm also trying to save myself, 
and do good things to myself.

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

210
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and I was given a stack of cards,
very similar to these ones.

211
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And I had to choose my top three values,

212
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and the ones I chose were these:

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happiness, kindness, and health.

214
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I compared them to the guy next to me,

215
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and he had power, and money,
and all those kinds of things,

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and I had happiness, kindness, and health.

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And I compared them to what I was doing,


218
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and realised, I'm going 
to change my life now.

219
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And that's what I did.

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Because I believe 
that society doesn't work

221
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unless each and everyone 
of us are feeling happy,

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healthy, and we're kind to each other.

223
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Ten years from now, 
my values might look like this.

224
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And hopefully, by then I'll learn 
to balance even better

225
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my impact on society, my impact on me, 
and my impact on my friends and family.

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

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

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I've got a top secret recipe for you.

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00:13:42,872 --> 00:13:45,790
It's my recipe 
of how you can have an impact.

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Number one, keep moving.

231
00:13:49,366 --> 00:13:52,922
Number two, leverage 
your character strengths.

232
00:13:52,922 --> 00:13:57,369
Number three, say yes to opportunities.

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00:13:58,163 --> 00:14:01,265
Number four, invest wisely.

234
00:14:01,726 --> 00:14:06,457
And number five, do not let 
lack of talent be an excuse

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00:14:07,017 --> 00:14:11,339
unless it's that 1% of things 
that you literally just cannot do.

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00:14:14,217 --> 00:14:19,474
Now I've given you my top secret recipe, 
you have no more excuses,

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00:14:19,474 --> 00:14:22,856
you know it's not rocket 
science, so start now!

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(Applause)