so please join me in welcoming Karen Leong
you know whatever Priya said was the favorite part of my talk the end it's
such a pleasure to see all of you here has it been a long day yes and it has
been a longer journey I'm sure the journey continues do you know what the good news
is my talk today is very targeted so it's shorter than the TED talk but yet
the challenge for me is to see how I can leave you with at least one or two
actions that you can start putting into practice immediately and hopefully that it would
change the game for you and what I would like to focus on today is you know just
understanding what you guys have been through and want to achieve is that this
one thought that no matter what life throws at you how can you still stay
positive, proactive and focused on possibilities because if you look at
life and it's a guarantee that as you travel through life life is going to
throw a lot of things at you I see a lot of nods yes different kinds of things. now
lets focus on two main things sometimes it throws the big stuff that's what we call
the mega adversities I mean the heavy stuff like loss of a parent
maybe a disability that you've gotten or a serious illness I mean these mega
adversities can derail you and bring you down but the good news is they don't
happen very often and because they're so huge when it happens you are very
focused on taking it down and very often these major adversities are what
brings out the hidden strengths that you never knew you had
besides the mega adversities we have the other kind of adversities the
smaller ones we have the minor irritants the minor obstacles that come
at you and usually it's every single day and these minor stuff why they're so
potent is because they're often invisible they come at you under the
radar they hit you when you don't realize it but when they get at you
you're not sure why you feel your confidence gets eroded you feel your
energy getting sapped you feel negative and you feel that maybe you can't
achieve as much as you want to now what I wanted to focus on today are the
seemingly invisible minor obstacles and because these are the ones that are
often relentless because they're like you know how a river cuts through a
mountain it chips at you every single time but yet it gets you so what we're
gonna look at three of the most common types of minor obstacles number one
problems I mean we all have problems right some more than others number two
challenging people we also know some of these now don't turn to the person next
to you and thirdly we have what lies within so now
let's first focus on problems to do that I'm going to ask you to make a list of
all the problems you had in your life no we're just gonna put that aside that would
be depressing so what we're gonna do is I'm gonna ask you just to listen to a story and
this is a real story it's a client of mine who once shared that the very first
job he had was manning the customer service counter at a shopping mall you
know those people who just you know sit down there and wait for somebody to pay
attention to them and ask them some questions but the interesting thing is every day
since the first day at work there will be people coming to the counter and
asking whether there was a particular product being sold in that shopping
center and you must imagine that they kept asking that his colleague
who was sitting next to him actually complained oh my god this is so
irritating we should just put a sign at the counter saying there is no such
product the end what is really interesting then after 30 days on the
job he quit guess what he did
you guys are in the right place yes short of begging, borrowing and stealing
he actually raised enough money to set up a shop selling at that particular product
in the mall and today he owns more than
I think 20 outlets around Asia Pacific and he's considered a very
successful businessman so why did I share this story with you because opportunity
knocks our door every day but very often it wears a disguise
it is disguised as problems and in every situation with there is one person who
will look at it and see a problem and there is another person who look at it
and see an opportunity which one are you do you see problems or do you see
opportunities and it's not surprising if you think that back in all of history more
than 90% of all inventions are based on problems solving problems but look at all
the products that we take for granted in today's life I'm just gonna give you an
example have you been to the supermarket have you actually pushed a shopping
cart or a trolley do you know the story behind a
supermarket trolley it started in the nineteen thirties where there was a
supermarket owner who was facing a very big problem financial ruin
people were not buying enough so as he sat there late one night battling this
problem he asks himself about how can I make people buy more and then he got an idea
why don't I make their shopping baskets bigger right so they are all motivated
to put more stuff in but then there was yet another problem if the baskets were
bigger what happens it's too heavy they're not gonna be
walking around and getting more stuff and then he asked himself how do I make it
easier that's when the idea came i'm going to stick
some wheels under the basket and do you know what is really fascinating
his invention the supermarket trolley has made him more money than he ever
imagined more than his supermarket business and you're looking at the 1930s
right he retired a multi-millionaire just because of one problem
so my question to you is when you see a problem what do you ask yourself you
want to know a magic question this magic question that I'm going to share with
you is more powerful than Harry Potter wand because when you actually
wave it you will get the answer how to uncover the hidden opportunity in every
single problem guess what it is three letters W T O I didn't hear any Fs did I okay
so it's so whenever you see a problem just ask yourself what's the opportunity
the amazing thing is by asking that question your mind gets targeted at
finding the answer sometimes the best things are the simplest things so that's
what we've talked about PROBLEMS shall we move on to challenging
people we like that we have a lot of them in our lives don't we now let's
look at... I'm gonna ask you that for challenging people I've had lots of
experiences with people who are very aggressive very assertive
I remember one day when I was leading a masterclass there was this gentleman that
seemed bent on going against every single viewpoint that was raised including
mine and I would feel my irritation rising but more importantly I noticed
that everybody was getting very irritated and defensive and I knew I had
to do something and that's when I asked the class this question what do you
learn more from do you learn more from something that is comforting or do you
learn more from something that is challenging and uncomfortable I'm gonna
ask you this question also and if you think about it what do you learn more
from something that's comfortable or challenging and uncomfortable you guys
are in the right place you know all my answers but it's not surprising right that
we often learn more from challenging people and challenging situations
because if something makes us feel comfortable it's because it reinforces
our worldview but if something is uncomfortable
it actually widens our horizons it allows us to learn from a different
point of view and so it's not surprising I mean if you think about it some of the
most successful businesses and business owners thrive because there are
differences I mean marriages also right you have heard opposites attract so
even in my case my co-director Mukul is gonna be speaking next and he's a very
challenging guy Don't tell him that but because we
have such different viewpoints that's why we complement each other's
strengths and we widen our horizons and that's why we are very
excited that just very soon next month we're opening next office in Sweden
and it wouldn't have been possible without expanding our horizons from Asia
to global so that's what I would like you to leave with in terms of challenging
people whenever you meet a challenging person instead of being overwhelmed and
defensive and you defending your idea to death
take a deep breath and ask yourself this question what can I learn from this and
when you do that you will notice how the mind has stepped back and is able to
extract lessons and now we're going to move on to my third point what lies
within and to do this I'm going to first issue you a challenge
are you all ready for a challenge okay every row is going to be a group and
we want to see which group which row is going to make this happen
and you only have ten seconds I'm going to give you the instructions first
but before you act I will give each of you five seconds to think before we act
are you ready for the challenge now the challenge is can you ensure that for
each row the person here on my right and that's on your left within 10
seconds you are able to teleport him or her to the first floor
that's challenge now I'm going to give you five seconds to think don't discuss
each other just think how are you going to make it
happen or whether it's possible the five second starts but before you go I know you
people are already rushing off I want to first ask you what were you thinking
during those five seconds that I gave you what were you thinking
because when I've done this experiment there are often two kinds of people one
group would think can this be done can I do it
and the other group would think how can this be done how can I do it now what's
the difference between these two what's the difference between can I do it and
how can I do it it's only the difference of one word and if you immediately ask
can I do it what what you are doing is questioning your capability no
actually you're questioning the perception of your capability because
remember we never really know how much we are capable of till we are pushed to the
edge and if your first question is how can I do it
that means you assume you have the capability you assume that task can be
done and the mind then you would be amazed at how creative and confident
your mind goes in searching for solution so which question you ask yourself more
of is it can I do it or how can I do it do you know the good news do you know
that all of us were born we were born asking how can I do it you look at
little children under the age of seven seven is when one starts
critical analysis under the age of seven young children where there is a
challenge put in front of them they're only thinking about how not can
so that means all you need to do is to tap back into your under seven year old
tap back into the natural creative solutions focused mind is it all lies within
so to sum up up I'd like to again re-emphasize three things and these
are the three magic questions and I would like to do put forth number one
what is number one whenever you meet a problem what is the question you ask WTO
what's the opportunity in this number two when you meet a challenging person
what do you ask what can I learn from this number three when you meet a new
challenge something unfamiliar that you may not know ask yourself how can i and
just remember the results you get are based on the questions you ask thank you
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