How to make your dreams come true? Alexandre Pachulski - WikiStage ESCP Europe

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.