Be a giraffe: grow quietly, reach higher every day. | Prashant Girbane | TEDxPune
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eX3k9hxP0M Video ID: 8eX3k9hxP0M ============================================================ Transcriber: Niamh Linnane Reviewer: Anastasia Ratushniak (Music) Hello. Let me start with something very familiar. Have you heard this phrase? Be yourself. When did you hear it? Was it when you were applying for a university interview? Or was it when you were applying for a job interview? Or was it your best buddy telling you to just be yourself when you’re going on your very first date? When was it? For me, I was 21. I was applying for an interview. An MBA interview. I was very nervous, very uncertain. The stage was big. It was interview for Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. I was nervous because good 15 years of my life I had spent in a tiny village of about 15,000 population. After that I had stayed, gone to the university campus. University hostels. I felt I don’t have enough of an exposure. I'm not polished enough and that's the reason of nervousness. I thought, I'll go and meet a couple of people who have graduated from IMS. So I went to meet three people. All of them met me. They gave advice. Each one of them gave the same advice. It all distilled to two words. Be yourself. Now, by the time I heard it third time, it was very frustrating. What do you mean by be yourself? Does that mean I don't grow up? Does that mean I remain static? And if that's the case, why would the interviewers choose me? That was confusing. I have spent now, years after that, had thousands of conversations in about 20 odd countries. After having done all of this, I believe for myself at least, I have figured out what it means to be yourself. For me to be yourself would mean to be a giraffe. Yes, a giraffe. Now you would wonder, why Giraffe? When you look at the animal kingdom, there are popular animals. Like the lion. Like the cheetah. Giraffe ain't one of those. But the giraffe still stands tall and has its own distinguished leadership. A giraffe is not trying to roar like a lion. A giraffe is not trying to sprint like a cheetah. A giraffe believes in its own uniqueness, in being itself, in its own long and strong neck. How did the giraffe get its long and strong neck? Darwin would say this happened over generations. Some of the giraffes generations ago had little longer neck. It wasn't looked at as an advantage. It was an oddity. But those giraffes with little longer neck could reach little higher food. They had higher chances of reproduction. Their progeny cannot reproduce further. And those giraffes over generations got their neck longer and stronger. I would say to be yourself is to be a giraffe for those two distinct reasons. One, a giraffe is not trying to copy a lion or a cheetah. And second, giraffe evolves transforms over a long period of time. Let's rewind back to my interview. So I was all of 21, and I was about to get into the interview room. I was still feeling nervous. I went into the interview room. There were interviewers there. They asked me a bunch of questions. I answered them. In one question, I had an opportunity to share my story, and I told them my story. Here it is. I was all of 17 when I completed my higher secondary and I was applying for undergrad university. Having grown up in a small village, I wouldn't know which university to apply to, which branch to choose. So, I and my father went to meet a couple of people where their family members were already studying in the university. The response wasn't very welcoming. In one case, the family told us that their 18 year old is sleeping. Essentially, it meant not available to interact with you. We didn't get any new appointment either. That was disappointing. Felt sad. Felt rejected. Went home. Spent a few days to figure out where to apply. Eventually, I got into university. A year later when I turned 18. I came back to my hometown for vacation, and I decided the humiliation that I went through a year ago. Others shouldn't face it. So in my colony, I figured out a couple of people, and I helped them understand how to apply to a university. When I helped a girl, she went around and talked to a couple of people. In couple of days, I was helping 3 or 4 people. Within a week I was helping about ten people. Then I talked to another friend of mine who was 18 years old, who was also back from university, to the hometown for vacation. And soon there were a dozen of us. A dozen of us were helping hundreds of 17 year olds to understand how to apply to a university next year. The 17 year olds became 18 year olds. They came back on their vacation and they conducted the program. This story continued year after year after year, and thousands of students benefited from this program. When I told this story to the interviewers before telling the story, I was feeling nervous. I felt I'm not polished enough. I felt I'm raw enough, but I was true. They selected me in that rawness. They found some initiative in that rawness. They found some leadership. That's the first time I realized the impressions in my mind. The impressions in my mind matter more than the impressions I am trying to create in their mind to impress them. That was the first time I realized that's my giraffe moment. That's the moment when I realized that I do not have to copy. Another student who'd have studied in convent school, would have been prefect in the school, would have gone to Model United Nations. And it’s all right. I could believe in my little longer neck and that’s what I did. And that’s what I did. That was the first moment. But thereafter, year after year, as I keep gaining experiences and evolving, there were many other such moments where my belief in being myself further strengthened. When I was 23, I appeared for corporate jobs. Thanks to my approach, I got a corporate job offer. I'm sure my friends also got it. And once again I decided to be just myself. I decided not to do the corporate job. I decided to be a volunteer in earthquake affected Gujarat in 2001. Now why? Because in 1993, when I was studying in La Tour in Maharashtra, there was an earthquake killing about 10,000 people. My house had got cracks. I was only 16, I couldn't volunteer and I always wanted to volunteer in such a situation. So when I was 23, I let go of the job and decided to volunteer as a volunteer for some time, the United Nations organization made me an offer, and eventually I joined a United Nations organization, and the United Nations organization (Audience applaud) (Applause) made me believe that yes, being yourself is not just good, but great. Because out there I figured out that representatives from different countries, no two representatives looked the same. No two representatives talked the same. It further reinforced my understanding and belief that being yourself is not just good, but great. I must share with you why it works, why it works to be yourself, how it works. There is some magic behind it. And what's the magic? It's a bit mathematical. The magic is power of compounding when you're trying to transform yourself. If you make small little changes over a long period of time. When today's gains build on yesterday's gain and yesterday's gains build on day four, yesterday's gains, then you are compounding something rather than just growing at a normal pace. That's the compounding that happened in the case of the giraffe. That is the compounding that happened in my case when I first helped one student, then a couple of them, then ten of them, then dozens of them, then hundreds of them, eventually thousands of them. That's how compounding worked. Here is another example of compounding. I told you that I did volunteering and then joined United Nations. So from 16 year old me affected by earthquake, 23 year old me doing volunteering, 24, 25 year old me working for the United Nations. I must add to that, few years later, when I was in London, I had an opportunity to be adviser to the Secretary General of Commonwealth, and I got an opportunity to write a paper. The paper went in the kit of 52 prime ministers and presidents. The paper was about connected world and was built upon my understanding of disaster management. Exactly. I compounded two things a my desire to do something in that environment, and b my experience and expertise over the period of about a decade. That's why I have a strong belief, thanks to the power of compounding the giraffe movements. Works very, very well. Now that I shared what it means to me to be yourself, now that I shared what it means to have a giraffe moment. Now that I shared my giraffe moment, may I invite each and every one of you to think about your giraffe moment? When is it that you felt just being yourself? You did not just survive, but you thrived. Was it when you felt first a stage fear and eventually addressed a little larger gathering? Or was it when, like me, you studied in a local language medium school and eventually built on it over a period of time to gain proficiency in a global language? Or was it about you wanting to help lots of people, but started small with 1 or 2 and eventually helped lots of people? What did you compound? When did you decide to be different that worked for you and when did you decide and what did you decide to compound over a period of time? And who did you tell this to? Did you tell your giraffe moment? I must appeal to each and every one of you. Today I have an opportunity to present my giraffe moment to hundreds of you. I hope some of you would share your giraffe moment with your best buddy. Some of you would share your giraffe moment with dozens of people and some others would share with hundreds of people, and it will be an impact of compounding over a period of time. There will be hundreds of thousands of people, thanks to the power of compounding, who would all believe in their own long and strong neck, in their own differentiator, in their own compounding. And that would be a community of hundreds of thousands of us, a community that's not connected physically, a community that's not even connected digitally, but a community that's connected with a purpose, a purpose of little longer and little stronger neck of each member of the entire community, and at the end, contributing to even longer and stronger neck of the entire nation. Thank you. (Audience applaud) (Music)