so what if I told you that luck is actually a myth then instead of waiting for it to find you you can actually create yourself now think about it how many times in your life have you thought something happened to you because you were lucky but what if that wasn't luck what if you had more control than you think I used to say that my successes in life were due to luck uh I got into my dream University studying computer science I made it on the financial times as top 50 with inspiring women in Tech
in the UK and then the year after top 50 in Europe and I also got to meet Hillary Clinton now you might think that it's because she's hardworking but I was surrounded by so many hardworking people and even my parents would joke my Dad's here in the audience that I must have some horseshoe around me because things just seem to fall right into place even though my journey was chaotic or turbulent I started wondering actually luck is more than just a random chance now we've all heard of the butterfly effect it's the idea that a
butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could set off or tornado in Texas now let's think about our own life could a small action a random conversation or a bold decision set off a chain reaction that could lead to Monumental change that's what happened to me so let me tell you a story so one day my my mom mistook an Asian lady with a white dog for me in Hy Park and as you can see we had two very similar looking adorable white dogs the lady's name was Tata and we laughed about the whole situation but
instead of letting her walk away I decided let me introduce myself why not just wanted to make a new friend and uh instead of letting her walk away I wanted to ask her for lunch so a month later we went for lunch we shared our stories and we were inspired by each other as female founders and she introduced me to the tedex team and that's why I'm standing here today partially because of my dog now you might think oh she's lucky to be here and yes I am lucky but this wasn't luck just falling into
my lap I made this happen and standing before you today I feel privileged and it makes me quite emotional because if you know me I'm a little bit of a shy person so all it took was a single moment of Courage a decision to step out of my comfort zone at the time and that's how L me here today and that's when I realized actually some of the biggest opportunities that will come into your life it's not going to come when you're 100% prepared or when you're perfect it's by saying yes to those little moments
beforehand and that is the first ingredient of my formula opportunity or as I like to call it being a yes woman or a yes man and now for the next part I had a long hard thing of what kind of analogy I wanted to use to best describe this and this is what I came up with a surfer so picture this you're pounding out in the ocean the perfect wave is coming towards you but there's a catch you've never learned how to surf in your life and it doesn't matter how perfect that wave is you're
not prepared so you're never going to be able to write it and that to me is what the definition of luck is luck are these occasional waves that come and go and it's waiting for that right Surfer to write it now let's take for example public speaking so I used to be terrified of it and still am a little bit um but in the past I was petrified and I was realizing that fear was really holding me back from so many opportunities and so six years ago I participated in one of the biggest university competitions
at Imperial College London and I was competing against phds and mbas and I was just a little Master student I was so nervous and I did everything I could to practice I practiced in front of the mirror in front of my friends in front of my friend's dog and then came the big day I took a deep breath went up to stage and everything was going smoothly and then it happened in this screenshot of this video clip I completely froze for an eternity I look back at the screen look back at the audience I look
back at the screen I didn't know what to do and I looked like a deer in headlights and in my head I was thinking completely blown this like I don't even think I'm going to get third place and that was my mindset at the time I was like I just wanted to aim for third place and so got down on stage went back to my seat feeling quite embarrassed about the whole ordeal let all the pitches go through and then it was time for them to announce the winners they announced third place wasn't me second
place wasn't us and then first place and the winner was me seriously I honestly was so shocked by this moment and I'm not joking because this was my face when I won literally the definition of happy tears literally and this looks super funny all over the news articles um and this is such a nostalgic moment for me because it's an old company so it was such a long time ago but um I realized that day that even when you think you've completely blown it it's one step towards preparation one step towards your next big moment
and that day I felt a change in me I felt mentally wired even differently and I was really curious to understand the psychology and the science behind this and this is where I came across the term neuroplasticity so neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to reorganize Itself by forming new neural connections so when you literally face your fears you're not only getting ready for the next opportunity you're reshaping your brain and you're biologically enhancing yourself to increase your capacities to succeed and I I just find that fascinating and that's the second part of my formula preparation
and now for the final spice to my formula I want everyone to have a think about the next question a personal question to yourself how often do you let fear or doubt stop you from putting yourself out there now instead of waiting for that perfect moment or that right circumstance What If instead we made ourselves visible and created these moments ourselves so when I became the CEO of a fintech startup I actually had minimal experience in finance I was my expertise was in computer science I at the time didn't know the difference between a bull
market and an actual bull at the time but I saw an opportunity and I wanted to go for it so I spent hours learning the basics for months and months I went out and met as many experts as possible and most importantly I was visible I was hungry I found any industry event in London that I could go to that related to that and that ended up exceeding All my expectations we ended up in the accelerator of the biggest bank in the UK followed by being admitted into uh one of the big four consulting firms
accelerators and our biggest break yet was we got um an investment from one of the biggest American accelerators in the world so we were the 12 startups that were chosen in London and to give you perspective less than 1% out of 177,000 global applications get accepted a year so we apply three times just so you know but um was that luck or was it being visible and putting yourself out there over and over and over again so have a hard thing to yourself what's stopping you from showing up and being seen right now in whatever
you're doing at the moment and that is the completed formula so the biggest takeaway that I want everyone to leave here with today is that the next time you're feeling unmotivated you're feeling a certain event meeting or occasion maybe doesn't sit well with you right now you're not really feeling it I would say think again you never know of what something that you might do today could open doors for you tomorrow or the future so please we need to stop thinking that luck is about chance we need to get out there create our own luck
and be your own lucky charm thank you
