Stop the waste of talents | Adèle Galey | TEDxESSECBusinessSchool

For Adèle Galey, find her path hasn't always been easy. Graduate of ESSEC in 2011, holder of the Chair of Social Entrepreneurship, she is a co-founder of the association "Ticket for Change." Today, what gets her out of bed in the morning is the prospect of helping other uncover their talents and in particular to see them applied in aid of personally meaningful causes.

This presentation was delivered at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED conferences.

I've never been alone.

I was born with someone else.

I have a twin sister called Lucie.

She's amazing.

She's probably the person in the world
who makes me laugh the most.

If I'm telling you this, it's because
being a twin has consequences.

Being a twin means creating
your identity with a partner.

It means always being
relative to someone else

and so always compare yourself.

This led me to question
our education system.

I am a pure product
of the national education.

Made in Henry IV High School,

packaged in a prestigious
university -I mean this one-

I've followed "the road,"
sometimes more of a highway,

without questioning myself too much.

Highways are convenient
you can just put yourself on autopilot.

So, our education system
is perfect for people like me,

for certain types of talents

such as people with structure

who can see life as three structures
and three substructures

and who easily adapt.

For all the rest,
people like my sister,

who don't really want to adapt,
those who break the mold,

for them, school
is often seen as a battle,

a battle to be won by getting a diploma,

that little piece of paper that will allow
us to begin our life at long last.

For all these people, it's only
once they get out of the system

that they realize they're good
at something, they have talents.

Now, I can tell you that my sister
is doing well and she's successful,

but I've told myself all along those years
that there was a problem,

a problem with waste of talents.

Why is it that my sisters' talent
took so long to come out?

Why did it take her 20 years to excel?

And why was only my talent
recognized in school?

Really, a talent isn't limited
to being a piano virtuoso.

We have such a restrictive idea of talent
that we think we don't even have any.

In the real meaning of the word,

a talent is something we do
naturally and without effort.

It could be being
an incredibly good listener.

It could be being a super-good organizer,

or being able to convince anyone
in less than two minutes.

We all have talents.

But the thing is we are not aware of them

firstly because we exercise
them without effort,

and secondly because usually,
they weren't valued at school

and most probably,
we aren't using them at work.

So, why is it important
to know our talent?

Okay, let's do a quick show of hands.

Who has ever told
himself, "I'm useless"?

Be honest.

Okay now, who has ever told himself,

"I'm hardly in a position
to do what I do"?

Okay.

And "I'll never make it"?

Now, all three?

Okay, those in that case please
come and see me after,

we've psychological treatment unit.

Seriously, we're all telling ourselves
these things all the time.

I do it almost every day.

That's precisely why it's so important

to ask yourself what your good at,
what your talents are.

At what point in life
do we realize our full potential?

Me, I got lucky

because I was lead to ask myself
some of these questions quite early on.

In fact, on arriving
at this fine establishment

two things happened.

The first is that I lost my talent.

I had intensely
studied literature before.

So I went from metaphysical questions

to financial management

and it was quite a shock for me.

Therefore, I wasn't so good
at school anymore.

That lead me to the second thing

which is asking
this abyssal question, "Why?"

"Why was I studying what I was studying?"

I was told about profit maximization
but I found hard to believe

that it was the only end goal
of all my classes.

So, during this first year,
I often thought about leaving,

running away.

Then I said to myself
I'd actually worked hard to get this far

and that I should scratch
below the surface.

So, I went yes, but on a journey
of discovery about my university.

That's how I discovered the unlikely
combination of two words:

social entrepreneurship.

And I became fascinated by these
two words for the eight following years.

I realized that going on a journey

sometimes means making an effort
to stay where you are.

But back then, I hadn't
fully taken that lesson on board.

"Going on a journey" only meant for me,
going far away, going somewhere else.

So, that's what I did.

I traveled the world for nine months.

It was amazing.

Then I came back home to France,

And there, I was lost.

At the time, I wanted to leave again,

I wanted to go live abroad,
to be again somewhere else,

to run away again.

But actually,
my real journey began here.

Well, not quite here in Cergy
but nearby in Paris.

It began with a meeting,

the meeting of three incredible people

who were reinventing the world
around a bottle of a bad red wine.

They invited me
to join them on their journey,

an entrepreneurial adventure
that allowed me to take action

regarding the issue I was
passionate about, the waste of talent.

So three years ago,
with the help of many others,

these associates and I
set up "Ticket for Change."

Ticket for Change starts with the idea
that everyone has talents.

I hope I've now convinced you
about that.

Now, the real question is
"What do we do with these talents?"

How could we enable each person

to use their talents to have
a positive impact on society?

How could we connect each problem
in the world and one of these talents

in order to solve it?

Because there are thousands
of people in France who want to act

but they don't know where to start.

We even did a nationwide study
with the help of a consultant,

and we found out that for every 100 French,

74 say they want to take action
to solve a social issue,

but are not doing it.

Now, that's a waste of talent.

So, how can we go about
helping all these talents

to act and get involved?

Well, we are developing programs

to train and educate people
about entrepreneurship:

a social start-up incubator,
a free online course open to all,

workshops, talks ...

In three years we reached
more than 53,000 people.

We brought forward
more than 400 projects,

and provide a long term support
to 89 social start-ups,

some of whom are present here.

Rather, we supported 89 talents.

We help them develop their projects
from a legal and financial point of view.

We introduce them
to the right mentors and experts.

We support them
in all those things but,

what's really unique

is that we help them
activate their talents.

And that's when they really
become entrepreneurial.

Because being
"an entrepreneur" is temporary.

It's a job title, an occupation.

But being "entrepreneurial"
is an enduring attitude.

In fact, it means being capable
in any situation,

be it in your private life
or your professional life,

of approaching each problem
by asking yourself,

"Is there not a solution to resolve this?"

This comes at the right time,

since we'll have more than a few
problems to resolve over the coming years.

There are local and global problems
that are urgent and important,

and you know them already,

but I've got three bits of good news.

The first one is that some people
are already leading the way,

they are taking action
and showing us that it's possible.

I told you about 89 of them,

but there are thousands more in France
and millions around the world.

The second is that each one of us
has solutions to offer.

Each one of us has
one or more talents

that allows him to approach
each problem of the world

from their own unique perspective.

And finally, the third one
is that our talents today

can have a potentially massive impact.

Thanks to modern technology,

thanks to these powerful computers
that we carry around in our pockets,

we can do extraordinary things
from our living rooms.

We are potential super heroes.

So yes, go on a journey!

Go on a journey, but do it
in an entrepreneurial way.

Go far away if you have to,

but leave asking yourself
why you're leaving,

and best of all, go into self-discovery,

go to discover your talents.

Try this exercise: tomorrow or this week,

really try to spot situations again
in your private or professional life,

where you enjoy being yourself,
you feel whole and unique.

Spot those moments where you feel
you're realizing your potential,

where you're good.

Make note of it and keep it
somewhere in your mind

or better yet say it, work it out.

So, it's super scary, I know,

so, let me show you.

I'll do it.

Me, my talent

it is my ability
to transmit my energy,

to transmit what I have inside.

So, there it is.

Now, it's your turn.

So, on your talents ... get set ... go!

Thank you.

(Applause)