Transcript

TEDxVienna - Selma Prodanovic - The Influence of One

[Music] hi everybody um I'm really really happy because I had this uh great opportunity to have somebody talking about the future and about exploration before me I consider myself really to be exploring uh what the human capacity is and what we can do and how we can make a positive difference talking about the gaps today it's really about crossing the borders between the one the we and the positive difference we can all make this is really my subject and today I will be telling you a story a story about passion I'm an extremely passionate connector if I want it or not I do it so my brain if you tell me something my brain starts where does this person belong to and how we can connect that I realize in the meantime I do not react to numbers I do not react to names I react to feelings I react to personality and the ideas the these people have this is what I do and when they inspire me I immediately have connections all around the world how to do that I still very often I'm asked what do I do for a living and it's very difficult to explain I started my own business 5 years ago in 2005 I started brains work brains working together for a better future it is a consulting company we are a business developer we do a lot of work for startups but it's still not really a classical consulting company we are not the classical promotional company and we are not a graphic designer so we do a lot of things how do you explain something that is not in the Box people need boxes so I can explain what we do so I need to say we are this this this and that and it's very very difficult so I've been for years considered a bit of Freak the person that looks too far into the future is far advance in her time and finally I realized very shortly that in this in this in this fall I really had the de uh the the deepest point in in my business really had a hard time in my business and it was a situation where it's die or fly and brains work flies we have made it uh with connecting to other people with connecting connecting worldwide to really from a very small business from two people to build up a business with 132 Partners worldwide that means that basically through the network connections and the the structure we have we can connect about 6 to 700 people at a glance should we need that of course we don't have such a kind of a job but still it is a possibility that we have so it is about the passion about the we and the one that get connected to for positive uh making a positive difference the problem we have today is that through Facebook through Twitter through all the social networks we become a very strong we we the community of tedx we the community of something but what happens is that we have a problem of a person kind of this the responsibility the person has for it for herself or himself uh towards others gets lost because we are part of a larger community and we don't have to do that somebody else would do it I'm just part of that I'm just of a member because that's a classical Network structure in any network you have the leaders you have the acting members and the vast majority which are just passive members of the network so if I'm member of the tedex network I'm kind of part of that and I don't need to do I need to do nothing because the tedex community will do something for me and this is my problem that I have now is that although I am a strong connector and somebody who brings people together we need to go back to the I the one and my own responsibility what I can do and making a positive difference I'm absolutely convinced that every single person can make a positive difference and we do that every single day for example if you think of the the fact that um what is it really what makes Humanity survive we can talk about all kinds of philosophical uh thoughts and and very specific physical things but at the end of the day we survive because of a smile of a baby any of you who has children who had has a baby or has friends that have a baby and has gone through the fact that the baby doesn't sleep you don't sleep the baby constantly cries the baby says some constantly something if it wouldn't smile they would have a really hard time a smile makes a huge difference in our lives they did a an um exercise or they did an experiment in a in a New Yorker bus and I asked the bus driver to um uh to say hello to everybody that came into the room into the bus so everybody that came into the bus that morning he said Hi how are you good morning how is your day today and it turned out that at the very beginning everybody's like like what's wrong with the bus driver today but within a very few minutes the whole atmosphere in the bus changed completely it was not these phases down but it was more like a positive atmosphere so even smiling to somebody might make a difference and that's something you can try every now and then it's just in the morning you stand in front of a mirror and you smile to yourself that might help at the very beginning why because if you are trying to travel to Mars or if you're travel trying to travel to the Moon or if you are trying what I'm trying to do to think about the year 2049 with the initiative that we did with the year 2049 it's talking about Europe um very often you're considered reading to be in freak so you need some kind of a positive feedback you can get it from yourself on one hand but very importantly the network it is the connecting the Bridging the Gap between one person the IND division you have and the majority or or or group you have around um yesterday evening by coincidence I watched again the uh Forest Gump the movie and you see this guy that starts running what day just stands up and starts running and runs through the one coast and then runs to the to the other coast and then goes back and forth for two years and then suddenly other people start joining he had no clue why he's running in the movie um but people start running with him because they saw a meaning in something that he was doing so he did it for another year and a half and then suddenly he said oh I'm tired that's it and all the others kind of stayed and say uh what's wrong what's up with me I want to go further I want to run with you so we do need leaders and we do need people that have dreams Visions are ready to fight for that are ready to go through many many of years of of really being if you think of Mahatma Gandhi or if you think of Galileo galile all kinds of people that really had an idea of vision and needed supporters at some point in time to be considered as the truth or the right thing to do smiling to a person or making a small difference can be very different I was born in Boston and there was a war um in Saro um ' 9295 and my father was there um at that time um or not immediately at the very beginning but very soon they had no water no electricity I mean when I say no water that means that if you get a bottle one and a half liter bottle of water to uh shower and bath that was really luck so of course the the first thought is you would say people will kind of get into themselves would not wash anymore and and wouldn't kind of dress up anymore but what was important was really this human dignity and my father was somebody who was known for doing that he would go out and tell people dress up and put your makeup on because that was part of his inspiring or his number the the one person that is inspiring others who get to we which meant in one way or the other uh resistance or showing that you're not down you're kind of going up connecting very small little things that can do that also in the fact that um this initiative that I mentioned earlier this uh incredible Europe is about seeing Europe I think I'm absolutely convinced European and um I think that the way Europe is functioning now is not good and we need to change something so I can sit down and say the EU and the governments and all of them are bad guys and bad girls I think I need to do something I need I want actions worth spreading not just ideas actions worth spreading and that's how we started incredible Europe which means Innovative creative Europe by the year 2049 why 2049 because it was just exactly 40 when we started in 2009 it was 40 years from the mo from the uh first uh moon landing and we said okay what is going to be the next big small step for Humanity and for for mankind and we are gathering people together it is very similar we kind of looked at all the best there is around so we looked at what Ted does we looked also what the world economic Forum does we looked at all the best there is around and put up together a a conference on one hand but also a movement that is growing of people that are want actively want to do something to change and act they they give their own little step to towards that change and not just consume this is something that also happens here basically except for one or two things that happen is you are consuming we are talking you are consuming or or I was also myself consuming and it's about changing that into having more active approach into having people really doing something for themselves and for the community and without making a positive difference the um other problem being that basically the the the passionate connection that I have is really I I need to get inspired of course one of the things that I was was really um I was really interested and I really wanted to have is I wanted to meet the Dalai Lama which is not really an easy task I mean you sit in Vienna and it's kind of okay Dal Lama why don't you come over and I want to talk to you and um yeah well finally did happen there were some people that did a great conference here in Vienna and valel and the Dal Lama was there and I had the chance to really listen to him and I was absolutely amazing experience for myself but on the other hand I must say that I learned from the Daly Lama as much as I learned from my children there is no knowledge that is worth more than the other knowledge it is and also Ted is about really exchanging that knowledge getting these together exchanging the experiences and in this in this sense it's like networking with each other or U mingling around and talking to each other is really getting this Bridging the gaps what they would call in the social network analysis they would call it lvid yeah it's gapping that and uh brokerage gapping the the bridge or Bridging the Gap uh and getting the people together getting that knowledge together and pushing putting it together in another sense wonderful thing a concert a few days ago I was I went to um there was this guy um playing on his stradivari and he had a rock band and an orchestra with him at the same time amazing experience something that is not usual it is not normal but it works greatly it's just amazing how you can match things together that would did not match earlier and now are just part of the our our normal life um the um the thought of that of Europe is one of the things that we are trying to do as a as a business consultant that's something I have to do immed constantly is like Consulting businesses and Consulting people to come further and we are constantly um comparing to the Silicon Valley and comparing to how the states are doing business and I think that we have something more than here in Europe I I think we have an enormous creative and Innovative potential but we are not using it the right way we're kind of trying to copy something that is not our way of doing stuff and small is beautiful Europe is is based 90 90% of of the European businesses are small businesses so what's wrong with that why can't we kind of have a network structure so that we have the strength but still can live and innovate and be creative be more flexible be faster than large corporations that are around this is something that is really an enormous power I mean just think of that um if you look at the um Oscars night yeah uh who is the real winner at Oscars every year European fashion what do they wear yeah if you think of the last uh World football um um how is it Go World football championship who are the three teams that won come on somebody last oh European teams you're saying was that a European Championship or or a worldwide Championship huh the thought is just we don't think that way we always think it's Germany it's Spain it's another country but imagine we would all the statistics put it and say this is Europe how strong would that be it's there we don't need to invent it we could if we would want to just change the way we think about it we always think it's something that is kind of imposed onto us but it's just there there's diversity it is just fantastic the diversity we have you just travel 20 minutes an hour in in another country another culture another language Europe is 700 million people who speak more than 50 languages and we should be one single Global player we definitely need to change the way we think about that an enormous power that is behind that but not even thinking about such large sums it's about really about each of you making a little step and making your life better and making the life of others better that's something that we can really do with a little um environmental changes around us there is a um kaenen is a is a Japanese um business philosophy which says about talks about improving daily constantly improving your direct environment it's not about Innovation from today a really a groundbreaking Innovation it's about constant Innovation around you of course we do need also the big innovation but if each of you and each of us makes a small little difference then it sums up to a lot and if we then as one person and if we then connect and become a we then we can make a much larger Innovation and if that's also in with the thought of making a positive difference into the world then we can really make something that will make the our future much better very simple I'm absolutely egoistic I have children I want my children to have a better tomorrow so there is no something I'm kind of very altruistic and I'm thinking of something very egoistic point of view but a story says and this is one of the most amazing Stories I've I've heard a woman has five children her husband dies she has no job she starts cleaning up in in houses she gets really very little money and every now and then she get two slices of bread she takes one slice of bread and um SE um divides it into five pieces and each of the children gets one small little piece of that one slice of bread and she eats the second slice of bread my immediate reaction is how could you but this is the only way for her to have if she doesn't have enough energy she will not be able to work tomorrow she will not be able to bring the money that will make the education of her children for secure all of her five children finish school it's a philosophy of taking care of yourself as also to be taking care of the others it doesn't both are needed to really have um to have a better influence both are needed to make a positive difference so take care of yourself this is something that we very often now there's a whole trend of Nos and young people kind of doing a lot of stuff as as nonprofits and uh and where you need to also make some money and make your living so take care of of your living do make a positive difference it doesn't exclude each other but just you need to have both of both of those things and it's really if you just think of it I mean who of you would have a problem to really smile at another person and kind of make them feel better we always have our days so we just need somebody to push up our our um self self sufficient self-esteem thank you uh to feel better better but then we can be more creat creative Innovative and what whatever you do so it's really about Bridging the the gaps between the one and the wi and making a positive difference at the end of the day if you if I were to ask you um I would like all of you who think you can make a positive difference to stand up and now I would like you to repeat with me yes I will make a positive difference yes I will make a positive difference thank you