So I grew up in Limpopo, on the border of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, a little town called Motetema. Water and electricity supply are as unpredictable as the weather, and growing up in these tough situations, at the age of 17, I was relaxing with a couple of friends of mine in winter, and we were sunbathing. The Limpopo sun gets really hot in winter. So as we were sunbathing, my best friend next to me says, "Man, why doesn't somebody invent something that you can just put on your skin and then you don't have to bathe?" And I sat, and I was like, "Man, I would buy that, eh?"
我在南非的林波波省長大 一個離普馬蘭加省不遠 叫Motetema的小鎮 這裡的水電供應 跟天氣一樣很不穩定 我就是在 這種艱困的環境中長大的 17歲那年的冬天,我和幾個朋友 正輕鬆地曬著太陽,做日光浴 林波波省的冬天陽光宜人 正享受著日光浴時 我的好朋友突然問我 欸!為什麼沒有人發明一種東西 可以直接塗在身上,就不用洗澡了? 聽完我馬上坐了起來,心想 酷喔!有的話我一定買!
So I went home, and I did a little research, and I found some very shocking statistics. Over 2.5 billion people in the world today do not have proper access to water and sanitation. Four hundred and fifty million of them are in Africa, and five million of them are in South Africa. Various diseases thrive in this environment, the most drastic of which is called trachoma. Trachoma is an infection of the eye due to dirt getting into your eye. Multiple infections of trachoma can leave you permanently blind. The disease leaves eight million people permanently blind each and every year. The shocking part about it is that to avoid being infected with trachoma, all you have to do is wash your face: no medicine, no pills, no injections.
回到家,我開始做一些研究 發現一些驚人的數據 全世界有超過25億人口 沒有穩定的自來水源 和健全的下水道設施 其中4億5千萬人在非洲 又有5百萬人在南非 在這種環境中 各種疾病肆虐 其中最恐怖的病叫 粒性結膜炎 (又名沙眼) 沙眼是一種因為眼睛進沙 進而感染的疾病 多處感染可能導致永久失明 因為這種病而失明的病患 每年高達800萬人 最諷刺的是,預防沙眼沒什麼訣竅 只要養成洗臉的好習慣 就不用擔心沙眼找上你 不用吃藥也不用打針
So after seeing these shocking statistics, I thought to myself, "Okay, even if I'm not just doing it for myself and the fact that I don't want to bathe, I at least need to do it to try to save the world." (Laughter) So with my trusty little steed, my Nokia 6234 cell phone -- I didn't have a laptop, I didn't have Internet much, except for the 20-rand-an-hour Internet cafe — I did research on Wikipedia, on Google, about lotions, creams, the compositions, the melting points, the toxicities -- I did high school science -- and I wrote down a little formula on a piece of paper, and it looked like the KFC special spice, you know?
看完這些恐怖的數據後 我心想 這樣吧! 就算不是為了實現不洗澡的願望 我也應該來拯救世界(笑聲) 所以,全靠這支神機 諾基亞6234 因為我沒有筆電,網路也不方便 這邊只有一小時70塊的網咖 我上維基百科和谷歌做功課 找了和乳液、乳霜相關的各種資料 研究它們的成分、溶點和毒性 於是,我用高中自然課學過的概念 寫下了簡易配方 還真像肯德基的獨門辣椒醬配方
So I was like, okay, so we've got the formula ready. Now we need to get this thing into practice. Fast forward four years later, after having written a 40-page business plan on the cell phone, having written my patent on the cell phone, I'm the youngest patent-holder in the country, and — ("No more bathing!") — I can't say any more than that. (Laughter) I had invented DryBath, the world's first bath-substituting lotion. You literally put it on your skin, and you don't have to bathe. (Laughter)
我心想,既然都有配方了 應該來實際做做看 時間快轉到四年後 我用手機 寫了一份40頁的商業計畫書 和專利說明書 我成為全國最年輕的專利權人 我的專利就是-再也不用洗澡了! 不解釋(笑聲) "乾洗澡"終於成功了! 世界上第一個 可以代替洗澡水的乳液 只要把它塗在身上,就不用洗澡 (笑聲)
So after having tried to make it work in high school with the limited resources I had, I went to university, met a few people, got it into practice, and we have a fully functioning product that's ready to go to the market. It's actually available on the market. So we learned a few lessons in commercializing and making DryBath available. One of the things we learned was that poor communities don't buy products in bulk. They buy products on demand. A person in Alex doesn't buy a box of cigarettes. They buy one cigarette each day, even though it's more expensive. So we packaged DryBath in these innovative little sachets. You just snap them in half, and you squeeze it out. And the cool part is, one sachet substitutes one bath for five rand. After creating that model, we also learned a lot in terms of implementing the product. We realized that even rich kids from the suburbs really want DryBath. (Laughter) At least once a week. Anyway, we realized that we could save 80 million liters of water on average each time they skipped a bath, and also we would save two hours a day for kids who are in rural areas, two hours more for school, two hours more for homework, two hours more to just be a kid.
高中時 我用有限的資源研發乾洗澡 上大學後 我和一些朋友 終於把構想變為現實 乾洗澡也就這樣上市了 為此 我們也學會如何行銷 如何滿足客戶需求 我們發現貧困人家 不會大量購買 而是用多少買多少 Alex的居民不會買整盒香菸來抽 (約翰尼斯堡的貧民區) 即便要花比較多的錢, 他們還是一次買一支 所以我們設計了乾洗澡隨身包 只要對折,就可以擠出來用 更酷的是 一包不到20塊就可以洗一次澡 在建立模式的過程中 我們發現 連郊區那些有錢人家的小孩 都很喜歡乾洗澡 (笑聲) 每個禮拜至少要用一次 總之,他們每少洗一次澡 就可省下8000萬公升的洗澡水 鄉下孩子們 每天就多兩個小時上課 多兩個小時做功課 多兩個小時享受童年
After seeing that global impact, we narrowed it down to our key value proposition, which was cleanliness and convenience. DryBath is a rich man's convenience and a poor man's lifesaver.
看到這些國際影響之後 我們歸納出產品的價值和訴求 主打-乾淨方便 乾洗澡不僅可以給有錢人方便 還能救窮人的命
Having put the product into practice, we are actually now on the verge of selling the product onto a multinational to take it to the retail market, and one question I have for the audience today is, on the gravel roads of Limpopo, with an allowance of 50 rand a week, I came up with a way for the world not to bathe. What's stopping you? (Applause) I'm not done yet. I'm not done yet. And another key thing that I learned a lot throughout this whole process, last year Google named me as one of the brightest young minds in the world. I'm also currently the best student entrepreneur in the world, the first African to get that accolade, and one thing that really puzzles me is, I did all of this just because I didn't want to bathe. Thank you. (Applause.)
量產後 我們準備把產品賣給跨國企業 再由跨國企業銷往零售市場 我還想問大家一個問題 像我在這種環境長大 每週零用錢不到200塊的年輕人 都能發明乾洗澡 到底還有什麼理由讓你停滯不前? (掌聲) 我還沒講完,我還沒講完 整個過程中 另外一大收穫就是 去年,我被谷歌評選為 世界上最聰明的年輕人之一 我也是目前最優秀的學生企業家 第一位獲獎的非洲人 令人摸不著頭緒的是 這一切都從不想洗澡開始 謝謝