Disrupt yourself: how to turn a crisis into an opportunity

Published on January 31, 2021   22 min

Other Talks in the Series: The Purpose Economy

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0:00
Hi, I'm Elke Leyman. As co-author of the Dutch book, Disrupt yourself, if you are really looking to move the world forward, begin by innovating on the inside that I wrote together with my husband, Mischa Verheijden. I want this talk to explain to you what is going on in society and in people's lives. Showing you how to turn crisis into opportunities through insights by looking with new eyes.
0:31
Sunday afternoon, two o'clock, a person of 80 years old looks out of the window with a sweet soft look, satisfied with what she has achieved in a life. Waiting for her grandchild to arrive, an 11-year-old girl who has to give a presentation in school about one of her grandparents. This afternoon, she comes over to ask a few questions. Imagine that you are the person waiting for your grandchild, what would you like that little girl to be saying about you in class? What have you done in your life that would appear in her presentation?
1:08
It was Steve Jobs who shook up my husband and me. Through the years, we dozed off and did what we did every day until I got stuck, hit by a burnout. Shortly after this knock to our lives, we watched Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford University. There, he taught three life stories. His first story, is about connecting the dots in life. Sometimes you do things in your life without knowing why exactly. You follow your curiosity, your intuition. His message is, "You, can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards." You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. His second story is about love and loss. "You've got to find what you love." He says. That is as true for your work as it is for your lover's. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied, is to do what you believe is great work. The only way to do great work, is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. His third story is about death. When Steve Jobs looks in the mirror in the morning, he asks himself, "If today was the last day of my life, would I want to do what I'm about to do today?" Whenever the answer has been "No," for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Your time here is short, so don't waste it by living someone else's life. Steve Jobs woke me up that's it. I realized that for too many days in a row, I've done what I wouldn't have done if this was my last day. I just kept going like that as so many do today. I'll come back to this again later. "Do you know there is one percent likelihood of

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