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)