00:05when I was eight years old yay high and
00:08in overalls I went to be an astronaut
00:10and a marine biologist and a
00:12paleontologist an artist and a racecar
00:14driver I wanted to know what the rocks
00:17on Pluto tasted like whether or not the
00:20trembling vibrations from a stampeding
00:22herd of Triceratops would really Clank
00:25my teeth I was brought to Canada when I
00:29was three years old my dad left his job
00:32managing a thousand people at a beer
00:34bottling factory to pump gas at Shell
00:36and like many immigrants he did this so
00:40that my brothers and I could have a
00:41better life there's something he always
00:44used to say he said money isn't
00:47everything but without money you have
00:50nothing I think he was trying to teach
00:53us what the majority of our economically
00:56driven society teaches us get a job that
01:00pays as much as possible in a position
01:02that is secure in an industry that is
01:05stable and so when I walk through those
01:09ironclad gates in my first year of
01:11college I wasn't gonna be an astronaut I
01:13was gonna be a doctor I was disappointed
01:17sure but that's the way the world works
01:20money is the only constant it's the only
01:23power it's the only objective make
01:26enough money to buy the stuff you want
01:28don't you want that beautiful Victorian
01:31house off of the coast don't you want to
01:33drive that latest Tesla Model S don't
01:35you want to throw a party so lavish it
01:38would make Gatsby turn in his grave be
01:42you kind of do and I kind of do too
01:47the basic assumption of our modern
01:50society is that more money equals more
01:52pleasure but something about that didn't
01:55feel right to me and I'm sure that if
01:58you're sitting in this room right now
01:59you also have an inkling that money can
02:03only get you so far I'm sure that if
02:06somebody asked you today what means the
02:08most to you and why you wouldn't say
02:11dolla dolla bills y'all
02:15I'm not saying that money is bad I'm
02:18just saying it's not enough and so two
02:22years into my undergrad one Christmas I
02:25went to my dad I said dad I'm not gonna
02:28be a doctor anymore because I think
02:31money and security are overrated you
02:35should have seen the look on his face
02:37and when I showed my best friend he
02:41referred me to this book it was the
02:424-hour workweek by Tim Ferriss
02:44now Tim is a Stanford undergrad and or a
02:48grad now and he became allowed an
02:51eccentric voice in a movement against
02:53the traditional notions of money
02:55insecurity he said that it was better to
03:00have freedom rather than money to live
03:03like a millionaire than be one to set
03:06your own hours to not have a boss to
03:08determine your own fate to be able to
03:10work from every mountain or forest or
03:12beach anywhere in the world for hours a
03:16week and spend the rest of it just
03:18exploring the hidden trails of old
03:20cities or just floating on a yacht be
03:24honest you kind of want that and I kind
03:28of do too so I did it between 2011 and
03:342013 my best friend and I started a web
03:37design firm turned our office mobile and
03:39traveled the world in two years we went
03:42to 21 countries in 59 cities we bungee
03:46jumped off the Macao Tower checked out
03:48Everest base camp and scuba dived off
03:50the coast of Cambodia we ate lunch at
03:52four world wonders celebrated five new
03:54years the best Pad Thai in the world is
03:56in sir sock and the best biryani at a
03:58train station between Darjeeling and
04:00Calcutta we witnessed the protests live
04:04in Turkey and Egypt and shared a power
04:07outage with 600 million Indian citizens
04:11we did all of this working about four
04:14hours a day four days a week
04:16we made 18,000 dollars per person per
04:19year and we could have done it forever
04:25see at the end of the two years I was
04:28exhausted I was lost I was lonely my
04:34social circles would reset every 90 days
04:36and my only solace was the next
04:39experience I had planned the next high I
04:43would feel I found that unlimited
04:47freedom becomes lethargic and new
04:50experiences became my drug I'm not
04:54saying that freedom is bad but for me it
04:57wasn't enough and so will riding sleeper
05:02class on a train from Varanasi to Delhi
05:04I whipped out my iPhone and I started
05:06typing up my application to the Graduate
05:10Stanford spoke to the part of me that
05:14yearned for something more it said that
05:16the right way to live was to live a life
05:19where you could change things change
05:20lives change organizations change the
05:22world so that my life could have meaning
05:26so that all of the investment that has
05:28been poured into me all of the privilege
05:30I have yet to earn would result in
05:33something influential to be meaningful
05:38and to not be wasted
05:41be honest you kind of want that and I
05:48so when I got into Stanford I was so
05:51excited I was this close to living the
05:54life that I thought I wanted or I think
05:56I want and so the summer before arriving
05:59to sunny California I visited Stefan
06:01Stefan is my closest mentor he was my
06:04high school philosophy teacher and he
06:06has four kids and if you know anybody
06:08with four kids you also know that they
06:11have this permanent calmness about them
06:16and so I went to Stefan I said Stef I'm
06:21going to revolutionize the entire
06:23education system I'm gonna affect
06:26millions and millions of kids and
06:28hundreds of thousands of schools I don't
06:29really know how I'm gonna do it or how
06:31it's gonna work but it's gonna happen
06:32and it's gonna make an impact so Stefan
06:37laughs and he smiles and then he asks me
06:41a question that I've been asking myself
06:43every single day since then he said are
06:49you doing that because you want to
06:51matter or because you think it matters
06:56are you doing it because you want to
07:00matter or because you think it matters
07:06I'm not really sure how to tell the
07:08difference well then you better figure
07:10it out because it's the difference
07:12between being the villain and the hero
07:17so I racked my brain for days for weeks
07:20for months and made a list of all the
07:23heroes I had the people I looked up to
07:25in my family from Forbes from fiction
07:29and a pattern emerged seems that all the
07:33heroes I had they they all dedicated
07:36their lives to something that was truly
07:38meaningful to them for my father it was
07:42myself and my brothers for Nelson
07:44Mandela it was South Africa for
07:46Beethoven who was music for Einstein it
07:48was physics for Dumbledore it was
07:51Hogwarts they all cultivated something
07:56and when someone cultivates something
07:59their self indulgent desires seem
08:01trivial and not in a willing to give up
08:03comfort today to get comfort tomorrow
08:05kind of way they're willing to give up
08:07comfort permanently if it furthers their
08:09cause when someone cultivates something
08:13it's not about a milestone or
08:15achievement they're never doing it for
08:17an award or a certificate or status
08:19they're doing it because it can always
08:21be better it's work that can last a
08:25lifetime when someone cultivates some
08:28and they see it done better elsewhere
08:31they're not jealous or anxious they're
08:34inspired and they're invigorated when
08:38someone cultivates something they're
08:41willing to give up money for it they're
08:44willing to give up freedom for it and
08:47they're willing to give up feeling
08:49important for it see the things we
08:55cultivate define us they make us feel
08:58grounded they tell us who we are how
09:01much money you have doesn't define you
09:04but what you're willing to give your
09:06money up for does how much freedom you
09:10have doesn't define you but what you're
09:13willing to give your freedom up for does
09:16how much power you have doesn't define
09:20you but what you're willing to give to
09:23give your power up for does five months
09:28ago when I started writing this talk I
09:30wasn't really sure what I wanted to do
09:32for the summer or post graduating but in
09:36articulating what it means to cultivate
09:38it became undeniably clear what I wanted
09:45so remember Stefan my mentor well the
09:49summer the two of us are building a high
09:51school a high school that places kids in
09:54between philosophy and innovation so
09:58that in the morning they'll reach
09:59Shakespeare and in the afternoon they
10:01learn entrepreneurship and though
10:04banking will pay more and consulting
10:07would probably allow me to travel again
10:10nothing speaks to Who I am what I
10:13believe in and what I stand for more
10:17than the school to find the things that
10:21we deem beautiful and then be willing to
10:26give our all to cultivate it I'm going
10:30to be honest I want that
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