[Music] So, I was thinking about luck, and I was thinking how lucky I am to be here in Cluj. I feel really lucky to be here, and I'm thinking, how did I actually come to be on this stage talking to you? Was it luck, or is it something else?
So, how did I get here? I was invited. I was invited by the guy from TEDx Cluj who met me in Belgrade.
It was in Belgrade. What was I doing in Belgrade? I was teaching, that's right, I was teaching a workshop for entrepreneurs, creative hubs.
They were talking about things like Richard Branson and Steve Jobs, and I was there. I'm a theatre director. I was there, talking about Shakespeare and Aristotle.
They were a bit confused, and it was that confusion that I was trying to nurture, their creative imaginations. I was talking about tasks and opportunities, the difference between a task and an opportunity. I was talking about the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.
I talked about Aristotle, and Aristotle said, "If you want to avoid criticism, then say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. " And I was saying, "If you want to have an opinion, if you want to make a difference, then say something, do something, be something. " And that's why I was doing, I was being something.
And the guy from Cluj said, "Come here and tell us about this. " So, I did, and I'm here. It's so lucky, but it's not.
It's not the first time I've been in Romania. I was in Bucharest a few years ago. Why was I in Bucharest?
The coffee. It's because of the coffee in Cambridge where I'm from. I went into a cafe, and I asked for a doppio mia macchiato cafe, and the guy said, "No, we just serve coffee.
" And someone laughed, another customer laughed. They said, "Oh, you only get coffee like that in Italy. " And I said, "I've just come from Italy.
" I was showing off a little bit about coffee. I've just come from Italy. Why was I in Italy?
Ah, because I'd been in Frankfurt in Germany for the weekend. I went for a weekend, and I stayed for five years, that's right. But I was in a dinner party, and the guy said, "What do you do?
" I didn't really know what I did because I just graduated from college. So I said, "I'm a theatre director. " And he said, "Really?
" I said, "Yes. " He said, "Oh, that's interesting. I run a theater.
" And I was like, "Fantastic, this is so lucky. " He said, "Do you like working with children? " And I said, "No, not really.
" Well, I'm running a program for children in theatre. I said, "Hey, I like theatre. I'll do it.
" And I did it. It was great. And he said, "Come and work for me.
" And I did. And I worked for him for five years. And then he said, "Would you like to do some more work?
" And I said, "Sure. " He said, "Come and work in France. Come and work in Belgium.
Come and work in Italy. " I was directing a play in Italy. I love the coffee.
I was in the cafe in Cambridge, and I asked for the complicated coffee, and they said no. And the guy said, "I'm opening a cafe in Cambridge. I'm going around all the other cafes to see what kind of coffee they have, and I'm going to have the best coffee in Cambridge.
If you would like a good coffee, come and see me. We open in one week's time. But if you come today, I will make you a coffee in one hour's time.
" So I said, "Well, I can't come in an hour. I'm not free. I'm not available.
" He said, "OK. " But when the hour came, I thought, "I've got to go. I've got to go and see this cafe.
I've got to have a coffee. I've got to have my double macchiato espresso coffee. " I knocked on the window.
Sure, the builders were in. I went into the cafe. He said, "Welcome.
" He made me a coffee. It was great coffee. And I said, "This is a fantastic place, full of books everywhere.
" And in the corner were some computers. And I said, "What are the computers for? " He said, "This is going to be the first internet cafe in Great Britain.
" I said, "I don't think it'll catch on. " And I went downstairs. He showed me around.
And I went downstairs, and there was a storeroom. And the storeroom was full of books and bottles. And I said, "What a great space.
" He said, "This shouldn't be a storeroom. This should be a performance space. You could do theater here and poetry and music.
" He said, "What, really? " I said, "Yes, let me do it. I'll do it for you.
" Yeah, I've just come back from Italy. I don't have anything to do. And I did it.
Every Friday and Saturday and Sunday, 50 people would come and listen to poetry, music, and theater. It's still there. Every night they have some performance on.
It's amazing. I love that space. And I would book all the acts.
And one guy, one guy was so annoying. Okay, he would call me at home. He would say, "Hi, I want to get my band on in your space.
" I'm like, "Where did you get my number from? Why do you keep calling me? You're so annoying.
Leave me alone. " He called me again and again and again. I said, "Fine, fine.
I'll put your band on. " And he came, he performed, he was good. I said, "Okay, you're part-time musician.
What do you do the rest of the time? " And he said, "I'm an academic. " I said, "Okay, what kind of thing do you teach?
So, I teach business, business communication. " I said, "Oh. " I do a bit of business communication.
When I was in New York, I was teaching a theater class. On the theater class was a lady and her husband taught in the military school in New York. He asked me to come and teach communication skills to soldiers.
So, I was doing trust exercises with people who had guns, and I thought if I can teach them communication skills, I can teach anybody communication skills. So, I said, I can do it. Okay, come and teach my students.
I taught his students, and we worked together. He said, let's work with other businesses, and we did. We came to Bucharest and worked with the Economic University on startups.
I worked with the professors and teachers and helped them to think about Aristotle and be something and say something and do something. I tried to help them in Bucharest. It was a great privilege.
We went with his professor around the world to South America and then to North America. I went to Nashville and did a workshop on teaching methodologies, how you can use the theater in business, and we won a prize. How lucky was that?
We won a prize, and we had to go and receive this prize for the best workshop of the year. There was another guy who was also getting a prize for being a wonderful teacher. This guy told a story that I would like to tell to you now, but to tell the story, I need an apple.
Don't mean the computer, I mean the sort that you eat. Does anybody have an apple? Do you have an apple?
You have an apple? Quick, bring me the apple! Bring me the apple, pass the apple down, throw the apple.
I need the apple, bring the apple. I'm going to have my five a day, okay? Can you bring the apple up to me?
Yeah, bring me the apple. Okay, so where are we? We're being very lucky in Nashville.
Fantastic! Perfect! All right, as for me, thank you.
The guy that was also getting the award told the story of how he became a millionaire when he was only 10 years of age. A millionaire at ten! He told the story, he lived in the Midwest of America in a farm that was isolated in the middle of nowhere.
He was only ten years of age and he wanted to make his fortune. He told the story of how he became a millionaire. One night, he went into his bedroom, he looked at all the money he had, and he only had five cents.
That's all he had, five cents. "If I'm gonna make my fortune," he thought. He got up early the next morning and he walked ten miles, about 15 kilometers, to the nearest town.
He walked all morning, got to the town, and at the town, he spent that five cents, and he bought himself an apple. He walked all the way back ten miles back to the farm. He did his chores, he worked with his grandfather, his parents, mother, his brothers, his sisters, his family.
They worked on the farm, worked really hard. And then at night, he polished that apple till it was really, really shiny. He got up early the next morning, he walked all the way to the market and he sold the apple.
It was so shiny, he sold it for ten cents. He bought two apples, put the apples in his pocket. He walked all the way home, did his chores, stayed up all night, polished the apple.
Got up early the next morning, went all the way into town, sold that apple and bought four apples. And he did this day after day after day. And at the end of the month, his grandfather died and left him a million dollars.
(Applause) And in that workshop, listening, was a lady from Russia. A lady from Russia was there, and she said, "Paul, I would love you to come to Russia. I know lots of people in the theater, I know lots of people in business.
Please come to Russia. " And I said, "Okay, sure, lovely. Let's stay in touch.
" You know, you say, "Let's stay in touch," but you never do. Six weeks later, through my letterbox came an envelope. In that envelope was an airline ticket to go to Moscow.
"Where did you get my dress from? How did she know my name? How did you know the details for the ticket?
" I said. She says, "I'm Russian. We know these things.
" I looked at the ticket, thought, "Should I do this? " "I've got to do it. " I went to Moscow.
I did the workshop. We've been working together now for 15 years. We've traveled to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, right across Russia to Sochi, Novosibirsk.
We've been in St. Petersburg, and we've been using theater skills in business. Then I was so lucky.
She introduced me to the people of the Moscow Arts Theater. I'd studied about the Moscow Arts Theater, and I got to work there. How lucky was that?
And we brought shows from Russia and other countries and brought them to Cambridge. By now, we had a theater. Somebody had come into the storeroom.
Theater in the little cafe had seen our work and said, "Come into our theater. " In a big theater, I was now the artistic director. Of this big theater, we invited shows to come to Cambridge.
People came to Cambridge to perform, and it was wonderful. The awed audiences. People would come and say, "I enjoyed that show so much.
" I spoke to one lady and she said, "I look after the archive of Charles Darwin in the library in Cambridge. " I said, "Wow, that is incredible. So, when there's a reason, when there's a time, you can come and visit, and I will show you his personal letters, his personal diary.
" It was time for the people from Bucharest to come to Cambridge. I took them into the library, showed them Charles Darwin's personal letters and diary. The diary from the Beagle travel, a piece of paper which had the original sketch of the evolutionary tree of life.
On that piece of paper, where he had done all his works, his children also drew pictures of cowboys and Indians all over it. I thought, this is incredible, this is the diary that Charles Darwin took on the Beagle. She had on the white gloves, she said, "It's very, very precious, nobody can touch this.
" I said, "What's that over there? " I'm touching the book, I'm touching it, I know I shouldn't touch it, but it's Charles Darwin's, I had to touch it, it had to be done. She said, "You know what would be amazing?
Why don't you do a play in which you read the letters of Charles Darwin? " Fantastic! We research Charles Darwin, we learn about Charles Darwin.
We learn the most important lesson. We learn that the survival of mankind, the survival of all species, depends upon its ability to improvise and collaborate. We learn this, we do the performance, people love it.
A member of the audience comes up and says, "I like Charles Darwin, but actually, why don't you do a play about my Cambridge hero, Sir Isaac Newton? " "Okay, sure, we'll do a play about Isaac Newton. " We research Isaac Newton.
Yes, he is an amazing character, an amazing physicist, but he wasn't looking to understand physics, he was searching for God. It wasn't about physics, it was to understand the universe. He wasn't searching for gravity, but to understand, it wasn't this, it was God he was looking for one thing and he found another.
We found out that Newton was the worst ever teacher at the University of Cambridge because nobody could understand anything he was talking about. So they made him stop being a teacher and sent him to London to be the Member of Parliament for Cambridge. He was there for five years, and he only said one thing in five years.
They write down every single thing that everyone says in the houses of parliament, and for one debate in five years, he said one thing. The speaker was speaking, it was a debate, and he said, "Ah, Sir Isaac Newton has a contribution to make to the debate. " "Sir Isaac Newton, what would you like to say?
" He said, "It's a little bit warm in here, could somebody please open the window? " That's the only thing he ever said. We got to take the play all around the world.
We got an invitation to Toronto in Canada to take the play, but the actor was sick, he couldn't do it. It was three days, what bad luck! Good luck was we had a fantastic actor who said he could learn the part in three days.
We went to Toronto and he was so amazing. He was learning the part on the plane, it was amazing. I said to him, "Let me buy you a beer to say thank you.
" He told me a story while we had that beer, but I remember now and I'd like to share with you. He told a story of seeing a magician on stage. The magician was on stage and he said, "I'm going to do a trick now and I'm going to make some very valuable things disappear, to become worthless.
" On stage, he had two stands, and on one stand was a violin and on the other stand was a painting with a gold picture frame. He produced a piece of paper and said, "I have on stage now an original Stradivarius and an original Picasso. I'm going to make them disappear, I'm going to make them worthless.
" He walked over to the violin and he picked up the violin, and he walked over to the painting and he smashed the violin through the painting. The painting was destroyed, the violin was in pieces, the audience gasped. He said, "Don't worry, don't panic, it turns out Stradivarius was an awful painter, and Picasso made terrible violins.
" I thought, that's right, that's what we do. We label things, we presume conditionally, we see the world, we don't look behind. I remember thinking about Picasso, I remember thinking he's right, he talks about inspiration, inspiration does happen, it finds you while you're working, and I was working.
I was working and I was being inspired by other people by working. I remember another thing Picasso said, "If you're painting and you don't have any yellow, just use blue. " Who knows?
And we came back to Cambridge and we did the performance, and the professorship of Cambridge that was from Isaac Newton was passed down to Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking came to the show. He came in.
His chair, and he came to the show, and he watched the show. He watched the show, and afterwards, they said, "Would you like to meet Stephen Hawking? " And I said, "Sure, I'd love to meet Stephen Hawking.
" So I said to him, "Hello, how are you? " And we talked a little bit. And I said, "I do what I say to Stephen Hawking.
I said I read you hadn't been very well, Stephen. " We were getting on very well at this stage, and he said, "Yes, so that's right Paul, I hadn't been very well. " And I said, "Why did I say this?
I said, 'Did you see the joke about you when you weren't well in the newspaper? '" And he said, "No, what was it? " "I know, doesn't matter, no, no, tell me the joke, tell me the joke.
" "As I really, it's okay. " So, there was a newspaper, and Stephen Hawking was in the hospital bed, they had all the wires and everything, and the two doctors had clipboards standing over the bed. And one doctor said to the other doctor, "What do you think?
What do you think we can do? Because I don't know, maybe we should try turning him off and turning him on again. " And I told this joke to Stephen Hawking, and he laughed, and I thought, "And I, I told this story, and I told this story to my friend.
" And he said, "That's a wonderful story. " And I thought, "Great, I've got all these stories. I must keep telling these stories.
" And I must keep telling these stories. And the guy that built the theater that I became director of, he invited me to go to Koshice, Slovakia. It was European Capital of Culture.
I went to talk about Aristotle and all these people. And in Koshice, was the guy from Belgrade, and he said, "Come to Belgrade and tell us about Aristotle. Tell us about your stories.
" And I went to Belgrade, and in Belgrade was the guy from Cluj. And he invited me here today. How lucky was that?
And he said to me, "Paul, I want you to talk about going beyond. What do you know about going beyond? " And I said, "Well, I don't know.
I know that if you haven't got yellow, you should use blue. I know that inspiration finds you when you're working. I know that you have to be able to laugh at yourself.
I know that you have to be able to improvise and collaborate. I know that if the room is warm, you have to open the window. I know that a storeroom doesn't have to be a storeroom.
It can be a performance space. I know that it's great to drink coffee. And I know that you have to say something.
I know that you have to do something. And I know you have to be something. Be lucky.
