On Mondays and Thursdays, I learn how to die. I call them my terminal days. My wife Fernanda doesn't like the term, but a lot of people in my family died of melanoma cancer and my parents and grandparents had it. And I kept thinking, one day I could be sitting in front of a doctor who looks at my exams and says, "Ricardo, things don't look very good. You have six months or a year to live."
Ponedjeljkom i četvrtkom učim kako umrijeti. Nazivam ih svojim terminalnim danima. Mojoj supruzi Fernandi se ne sviđa taj naziv, ali više članova moje obitelji umrlo je od raka kože, a imali su ga i moji roditelji i djedovi. I tako sam mislio, jednog dana bi ja mogao sjediti ispred liječnika koji će pogledati moje nalaze i reći, "Ricardo, stvari ne izgledaju najbolje. Ostalo vam je šest mjeseci do godinu dana života."
And you start thinking about what you would do with this time. And you say, "I'm going to spend more time with the kids. I'm going to visit these places, I'm going to go up and down mountains and places and I'm going to do all the things I didn't do when I had the time." But of course, we all know these are very bittersweet memories we're going to have. It's very difficult to do. You spend a good part of the time crying, probably. So I said, I'm going to do something else.
I vi počinjete razmišljati što biste napravili s tim vremenom. I kažete si, "Provest ću više vremena s djecom otići ću na te destinacije, ići ću gore dolje planinama i vrletima i napravit ću sve one stvari koje nisam dok sam imao vremena." No, naravno, svi znamo sjećanje na ovo imat će gorak okus. To je jako teško napraviti Provest ćete najveći dio vremena plačući, najvjerojatnije. Zato sam rekao, ja ću napraviti nešto drugo.
Every Monday and Thursday, I'm going use my terminal days. And I will do, during those days, whatever it is I was going to do if I had received that piece of news. (Laughter)
Svakog ponedjeljka i četvrtka iskoristiti ću svoje terminalne dane. I ja ću tijekom tih dana raditi sve ono što bi napravio da su mi priopćili takvu vijest. (Smijeh)
When you think about -- (Applause) when you think about the opposite of work, we, many times, think it's leisure. And you say, ah, I need some leisure time, and so forth. But the fact is that, leisure is a very busy thing. You go play golf and tennis, and you meet people, and you're going for lunch, and you're late for the movies. It's a very crowded thing that we do. The opposite of work is idleness. But very few of us know what to do with idleness. When you look at the way that we distribute our lives in general, you realize that in the periods in which we have a lot of money, we have very little time. And then when we finally have time, we have neither the money nor the health.
Kad mislimo o – (Pljesak) Kad mislimo o tome što je suprotno radu, mi, više puta, mislimo kako je to odmor. I onda si kažete, kako trebate slobodnog vremena za odmor, i tome slično. Ali činjenica je kako smo u slobodno vrijeme jako zaposleni. Igramo golf i tenis, susrećemo druge ljude, idemo s nekim na ručak, i ostajemo do kasno uz film. Radimo cijelo čudo stvari. Suprotno od rada je lijenost. Ali jako mali broj nas zna što bi s lijenosti. Ako gledate da mi na neki način svoj život općenito raspodjeljujemo, onda shvatite da u razdobljima kad imate puno novaca imate jako malo vremena. I onda, kad konačno imamo vremena, više nemamo ni novaca ni zdravlja.
So we started thinking about that as a company for the last 30 years. This is a complicated company with thousands of employees, hundreds of millions of dollars of business that makes rocket fuel propellent systems, runs 4,000 ATMs in Brazil, does income tax preparation for dozens of thousands. So this is not a simple business.
Pa smo tako mi kao kompanija počeli razmišljati o tome prije nekih 30 godina. Mi smo komplicirana kompanija s tisućama zaposlenih i stotinama milijuna dolara investicija što nas čini sustavom na raketni pogon, imamo 4.000 bankomata u Brazilu pripremamo porezna izvješća za nekoliko desetaka tisuća ljudi. Dakle to nije jednostavan posao.
We looked at it and we said, let's devolve to these people, let's give these people a company where we take away all the boarding school aspects of, this is when you arrive, this is how you dress, this is how you go to meetings, this is what you say, this is what you don't say, and let's see what's left. So we started this about 30 years ago, and we started dealing with this very issue. And so we said, look, the retirement, the whole issue of how we distribute our graph of life. Instead of going mountain climbing when you're 82, why don't you do it next week? And we'll do it like this, we'll sell you back your Wednesdays for 10 percent of your salary. So now, if you were going to be a violinist, which you probably weren't, you go and do this on Wednesday.
U nekom trenutku smo ga pogledali i rekli idemo se vratiti tim ljudima dajmo tim ljudima kompaniju iz koje ćemo izuzeti sve one knjiški dosadne aspekte kao što su, tada trebate doći, tako se trebate oblačiti, tako trebate ići na sastanke, to trebate reći, ovo ne smijete reći, pa da vidimo što će ostati. S tim smo počeli prije nekih 30 godina i počeli smo se nositi s tim problemom. Rekli smo, vidiš, mirovina, kompletan problem kako raspoređujemo naš životni graf Umjesto planinarenja u 82., zašto to ne bi učinili sljedeći tjedan? Učinit ćemo to ovako, prodat ćemo vam vaše srijede za 10 posto vaše plaće. Pa tako sada, ako ste htjeli biti violinist, što vjerojatno niste, možete to učiniti srijedom.
And what we found -- we thought, these are the older people who are going to be really interested in this program. And the average age of the first people who adhered were 29, of course. And so we started looking, and we said, we have to do things in a different way. So we started saying things like, why do we want to know what time you came to work, what time you left, etc.? Can't we exchange this for a contract for buying something from you, some kind of work? Why are we building these headquarters? Is it not an ego issue that we want to look solid and big and important? But we're dragging you two hours across town because of it?
I što smo otkrili--- mislili smo kako će stariji ljudi biti oni koji će uistinu biti zainteresirani za ovaj program. A prosječna životna dob prvih ljudi koji su ovo odabrali bila je 29, naravno. I tako smo počeli promatrati, i rekli smo si, moramo čini stvari na drugačiji način. Pa smo počeli govoriti stvari poput, zašto bi htjeli znati u koje vrijeme ste došli na posao, kada ste otišli, itd.? Možemo li tako što zamjeniti ugovorom gdje ćemo recimo nešto kupiti od vas, recimo neku vrstu posla? Zašto gradimo ove poslovne zgrade? Nije li to stvar ega jer želimo izgledati uvjerljivo i veliko i važno? I zato vas navlačimo dva sata kroz cijeli grad?
So we started asking questions one by one. We'd say it like this: One: How do we find people? We'd go out and try and recruit people and we'd say, look, when you come to us, we're not going to have two or three interviews and then you're going to be married to us for life. That's not how we do the rest of our lives. So, come have your interviews. Anyone who's interested in interviewing, you will show up. And then we'll see what happens out of the intuition that rises from that, instead of just filling out the little items of whether you're the right person. And then, come back. Spend an afternoon, spend a whole day, talk to anybody you want. Make sure we are the bride you thought we were and not all the bullshit we put into our own ads. (Laughter)
Zato smo počeli postavljati pitanja jedno za drugim. Pitali smo se recimo ovakva pitanja: Prvo: Kako pronalazimo ljude? Izašli bi s ponudom i pokušali unovačiti ljude pa bi im rekli, vidite, kad dođete k nama mi vas nećemo provući kroz dva ili tri intervjua pa ćete onda biti vjenčani za nas ostatak života. To nije način na koji mi uređujemo ostatak života. Zato, dođete na svoje intervjue. Svatko tko je zainteresiran za intervjuiranje će se pojaviti. I onda ćemo vidjeti što će se dogoditi iz intuicije koja će se izroditi iz toga, umjesto da samo ispunjavamo rubrike o tome jeste li vi prava osoba. I onda, dođite opet. Provodite poslijepodne, provedite cijeli dan razgovarajući s kim god želite. Uvjerite se da smo mi mladenka za koju ste mislili da jesmo a ne sva ona sranja koja stavljamo u svoju promidžbu. (Smijeh)
Slowly we went to a process where we'd say things like, we don't want anyone to be a leader in the company if they haven't been interviewed and approved by their future subordinates. Every six months, everyone gets evaluated, anonymously, as a leader. And this determines whether they should continue in that leadership position, which is many times situational, as you know. And so if they don't have 70, 80 percent of a grade, they don't stay, which is probably the reason why I haven't been CEO for more than 10 years. And over time, we started asking other questions.
Polako smo ušli u proces u kojem kažemo stvari kao što su, ne želimo da itko bude vođa unutar kompanije ako nije bio intervjuiran i potvrđen od strane onih koje će ubuduće voditi. Svakih 6 mjeseci, svatko bude ocijenjen, anonimno, kao vođa. I to presuđuje hoće li se zadržati na toj voditeljskoj poziciji što je mnogo puta situacija, kao što znate. Pa tako ako ne skupe 70, 80 posto ocjenskih bodova, ne ostaju, što je vjerojatno razlog zašto ja nisam bio izvršni direktor više od 10 godina. S vremenom smo se počeli pitati druga pitanja.
We said things like, why can't people set their own salaries? What do they need to know? There's only three things you need to know: how much people make inside the company, how much people make somewhere else in a similar business and how much we make in general to see whether we can afford it. So let's give people these three pieces of information. So we started having, in the cafeteria, a computer where you could go in and you could ask what someone spent, how much someone makes, what they make in benefits, what the company makes, what the margins are, and so forth. And this is 25 years ago.
Recimo pitamo se zašto si ljudi ne bi mogli sami odrediti plaću? Što za to trebaju znati? Postoje samo tri stvari koje trebate znati: koliko ljudi zarađuju unutar kompanije, koliko ljudi zarađuju negdje drugdje baveći se sličnim poslom, i koliko mi općenito zarađujemo da vidimo možemo li si to priuštiti? Pa dajmo onda ljudima te tri informacije. Pa smo tako počeli držati, u kafeteriji, računalo u koji uđete i pitate koliko netko troši, koliko netko zarađuje, kakve imaju pogodnosti,, koliko kompanija zarađuje, koje su nam margine, i tako dalje. A danas je 25 godina kako
As this information started coming to people, we said things like, we don't want to see your expense report, we don't want to know how many holidays you're taking, we don't want to know where you work. We had, at one point, 14 different offices around town, and we'd say, go to the one that's closest to your house, to the customer that you're going to visit today. Don't tell us where you are. And more, even when we had thousands of people, 5,000 people, we had two people in the H.R. department, and thankfully one of them has retired. (Laughter)
je ta informacija počela dolaziti ljudima pa sada možemo reći recimo, ne želimo vidjeti tvoj financijski izvještaj, ne zanima nas koliko si bio na godišnjem, ne zanima nas gdje si radio. Imali smo, u jednom trenutku, 14 različitih ureda po gradu, pa bi rekli, odi u onaj koji je najbliži tvojoj kući, ili onaj koji je najbliži klijentu kojeg ćeš danas posjetiti. Nemoj nam reći gdje si. Štoviše, čak i kad smo imali tisuće ljudi, 5.000 ljudi, imali smo samo 2 čovjeka u službi ljudskih resursa, i srećom jedan je otišao u mirovinu. (Smijeh)
And so, the question we were asking was, how can we be taking care of people? People are the only thing we have. We can't have a department that runs after people and looks after people. So as we started finding that this worked, and we'd say, we're looking for -- and this is, I think, the main thing I was looking for in the terminal days and in the company, which is, how do you set up for wisdom? We've come from an age of revolution, industrial revolution, an age of information, an age of knowledge, but we're not any closer to the age of wisdom. How we design, how do we organize, for more wisdom? So for example, many times, what's the smartest or the intelligent decision doesn't jive. So we'd say things like, let's agree that you're going to sell 57 widgets per week. If you sell them by Wednesday, please go to the beach. Don't create a problem for us, for manufacturing, for application, then we have to buy new companies, we have to buy our competitors, we have to do all kinds of things because you sold too many widgets. So go to the beach and start again on Monday. (Laughter) (Applause)
I konačno pitanje koje smo si uvijek postavljali, kako se brinuti za ljude? Ljudi su najvažnije od svega što imamo. Ne možemo imati službu koji bi pratila i pazila na ljude. I kako smo počeli shvaćati da to funkcionira, rekli smo si, mi tražimo--- a to je, ja mislim, najvažnija stvar koju smo tražili u terminalnim danima i u kompaniji, a ta je, kako stvari posložiti za mudrost? Mi dolazimo iz doba revolucije, industrijske revolucije, iz doba informacija doba znanja, ali se nimalo nismo približili dobu mudrosti. Kako dizajniramo, kako se organiziramo, prema većoj mudrosti? Tako na primjer, mnogo puta, ono što je najpametnija ili inteligentna odluka ne zaživi. Tako na primjer kažemo, Idemo se dogovoriti da ćeš prodati 57 spravica tjedno. Ako ih prodaš do srijede, molim te odi na plažu. Nemoj nam praviti probleme, ni proizvodnji, ni primjeni, jer onda moramo kupovati nove kompanije, moramo kupiti svoju konkurenciju, moramo raditi sve i svašta zato što si ti prodao previše spravica. Zato lijepo odi na plažu i ponovno se pojavi u ponedjeljak. (Smijeh)(Pljesak)
So the process is looking for wisdom. And in the process, of course, we wanted people to know everything, and we wanted to be truly democratic about the way we ran things. So our board had two seats open with the same voting rights, for the first two people who showed up. (Laughter) And so we had cleaning ladies voting on a board meeting, which had a lot of other very important people in suits and ties. And the fact is that they kept us honest.
Dakle, proces je potraga za mudrošću. I u tom procesu, naravno, željeli smo da ljudi znaju sve, i htjeli smo istinski biti demokratski u načinu po kojem radimo stvari. Pa tako naša uprava ima dva otvorena mjesta s jednakim glasačkim pravom, za bilo koja dva čovjeka koji se prvi pojave. (Smijeh) Pa smo tako imali čistačice koje su glasale na upravnom odboru, zajedno s nizom vrlo važnih ljudi u odijelima i kravatama. A činjenica je da su nam one čuvale poštenje.
This process, as we started looking at the people who came to us, we'd say, now wait a second, people come to us and they say, where am I supposed to sit? How am I supposed to work? Where am I going to be in 5 years' time? And we looked at that and we said, we have to start much earlier. Where do we start? We said, oh, kindergarten seems like a good place.
U tom procesu, kako smo počeli promatrati ljude koji su nam dolazili, rekli bi, pričekajte malo, ljudi dolaze k nama i pitaju, gdje bih trebao sjesti? Kako bih trebao raditi? Gdje ću biti za 5 godina? Gledali smo to i onda smo zaključili moramo početi puno ranije. Gdje treba početi? Rekli smo, oh pa vrtić se čini dobrim mjestom.
So we set up a foundation, which now has, for 11 years, three schools, where we started asking the same questions, how do you redesign school for wisdom? It is one thing to say, we need to recycle the teachers, we need the directors to do more. But the fact is that what we do with education is entirely obsolete. The teacher's role is entirely obsolete. Going from a math class, to biology, to 14th-century France is very silly. (Applause) So we started thinking, what could it look like? And we put together people, including people who like education, people like Paulo Freire, and two ministers of education in Brazil and we said, if we were to design a school from scratch, what would it look like?
I tako smo osnovali zakladu, kojoj je sada 11 godina, ima tri škole, tamo smo si počeli postavljati ista pitanja kako redizajnirati škole za mudrost? Jedno je reći, treba reciklirati učitelje, trebaju nam ravnatelji koji mogu više. No činjenica je kako je ono što činimo s obrazovanjem posve zastarjelo. Uloga učitelja je posve zastarjela. Ići sa matematike, na biologiju, pa na Francusku 14. stoljeća je jako smiješno. (Pljesak) Pa smo počeli razmišljati kako bi to trebalo izgledati? Pa smo skupili ljude, uključujući one koji vole obrazovanje, ljude poput Paulo Freire-a, i dva ministra obrazovanja iz Brazila i rekli smo, ako bi dizajnirali školu od samih temelja, kako bi izgledala?
And so we created this school, which is called Lumiar, and Lumiar, one of them is a public school, and Lumiar says the following: Let's divide this role of the teacher into two. One guy, we'll call a tutor. A tutor, in the old sense of the Greek "paideia": Look after the kid. What's happening at home, what's their moment in life, etc.. But please don't teach, because the little you know compared to Google, we don't want to know. Keep that to yourself. (Laughter) Now, we'll bring in people who have two things: passion and expertise, and it could be their profession or not. And we use the senior citizens, who are 25 percent of the population with wisdom that nobody wants anymore. So we bring them to school and we say, teach these kids whatever you really believe in. So we have violinists teaching math. We have all kinds of things where we say, don't worry about the course material anymore. We have approximately 10 great threads that go from 2 to 17. Things like, how do we measure ourselves as humans? So there's a place for math and physics and all that there. How do we express ourselves? So there's a place for music and literature, etc., but also for grammar.
I onda smo kreirali tu školu koja se zove Lumiar, a Lumiar, jedna od njih je javna škola, i Lumiar kaže sljedeće: Podijelimo ulogu učitelja na dva dijela. Jednog od njih, zvat ćemo učitelj. Učitelj na starogrčkom 'paideia': onaj koji pazi na dijete. Što se događa kod kuće, koji su im značajni životni trenuci, itd. Samo molim vas ne podučavajte, jer koliko je malo ono što znate u odnosu na Google, to mi ne želimo znati. Zadržite to za sebe. (Smijeh) Sada uzimamo ljude koji posjeduju dvije osobine: strast i ekspertiza, a to može biti njihova profesija ili ne. Koristimo ljude starije dobi, koji čine 25 posto populacije s mudrošću koju više nitko ne treba. Vratimo ih u školu i kažemo, učite tu djecu bilo što u što uistinu vjerujete. Pa tako imamo violinista koji podučava matematiku. Imamo niz slučajeva u kojima kažemo, ne brinite više o materijalima za svoje predmete. Imamo otprilike 10 velikih usmjerenja od 2. do 17. Stvari kao što su, kako procjenjujemo sebe kao ljude? Postoje mjesta za matematiku i fiziku i sve ostalo. Kako se izražavamo? Postoji mjesto za glazbu i literaturu, itd., ali i za gramatiku.
And then we have things that everyone has forgotten, which are probably the most important things in life. The very important things in life, we know nothing about. We know nothing about love, we know nothing about death, we know nothing about why we're here. So we need a thread in school that talks about everything we don't know. So that's a big part of what we do. (Applause) So over the years, we started going into other things. We'd say, why do we have to scold the kids and say, sit down and come here and do that, and so forth. We said, let's get the kids to do something we call a circle, which meets once a week. And we'd say, you put the rules together and then you decide what you want to do with it. So can you all hit yourself on the head? Sure, for a week, try. They came up with the very same rules that we had, except they're theirs. And then, they have the power, which means, they can and do suspend and expel kids so that we're not playing school, they really decide.
A onda imamo stvari na koje su svi zaboravili, koje su vjerojatno najvažnije stvari u životu. Jako važne stvari u životu o kojima baš ništa ne znamo. Ne znamo ništa o ljubavi, ništa o smrti, ništa o tome zašto smo tu. Zato trebamo školsko usmjerenje koje govori o svemu onome o čemu ne znamo. Eto to je veliki dio onoga što mi radimo. (Pljesak) Tijekom godina, krenuli smo i u druge stvari. Razgovarali smo o tome zašto treba grditi djecu i govoriti, tu sjedni i dođi ovamo i napravi ovo, i tako redom. Rekli smo, idemo uvesti djecu u nešto što zovemo krug, koji se sastaje jednom tjedno. Pa im kažemo, vi sastavite svoja pravila, a zatim odlučite što želite učiniti s njima. Možete li se sada svi počešati po glavi? Naravno, tijekom jednog tjedna, pokušajte. Oni su došli do potpuno istih pravila koja smo mi imali, osim što su to sada njihova pravila. A onda, onda oni imaju moć, što znači, oni mogu i hoće suspendirati i izbaciti neko dijete pa se oni ne igraju škole već stvarno odlučuju.
And then, in this same vein, we keep a digital mosaic, because this is not constructivist or Montessori or something. It's something where we keep the Brazilian curriculum with 600 tiles of a mosaic, which we want to expose these kids to by the time they're 17. And follow this all the time and we know how they're doing and we say, you're not interested in this now, let's wait a year. And the kids are in groups that don't have an age category, so the six-year-old kid who is ready for that with an 11-year-old, that eliminates all of the gangs and the groups and this stuff that we have in the schools, in general. And they have a zero to 100 percent grading, which they do themselves with an app every couple of hours. Until we know they're 37 percent of the way we'd like them to be on this issue, so that we can send them out in the world with them knowing enough about it. And so the courses are World Cup Soccer, or building a bicycle. And people will sign up for a 45-day course on building a bicycle. Now, try to build a bicycle without knowing that pi is 3.1416. You can't. And try, any one of you, using 3.1416 for something. You don't know anymore. So this is lost and that's what we try to do there, which is looking for wisdom in that school.
I onda, u tom istom duhu, održavamo digitalni mozaik, jer ovo nije konstruktivizam ili Montessori ili nešto tako. To je nešto u čemu se pridržavamo brazilskog kurikuluma S ukupno 600 pločica u mozaiku, kojima želimo izložiti tu djecu prije nego napune 17. I slijedimo ih cijelo vrijeme i znamo kako im ide pa možemo reći, ovo te sada ne zanima, pričekajmo jednu godinu. Djeca su u grupama koje nemaju dobnu kategoriju, pa imamo 6-godišnjaka koji je jednako spreman za nešto kao i 11-godišnjak, što eliminira sve bande i grupe i sve one stvari koje smo imali u školama, općenito. A ocjene se kreću od 0 do 100 posto, koje oni daju sami sebi putem aplikacije svakih par sati. Dok ne znamo da odstupaju 37% od puta na kojem bi željeli da budu po tom pitanju, kako bi ih mogli poslati van u svijet, a da znaju dovoljno o tome. Predmet je Svjetski kup u nogometu, ili konstruiranje bicikla. Ljudi će upisati 45-dnevni predmet za izgradnju bicikla. Sad, probajte sagraditi bicikl bez da znate da pi iznosi 3,1416. Ne možete. A vi pokušajte, bilo tko od vas, upotrijebiti 3,1416 za bilo što. Vi to više ne znate. To je izgubljeno i to je ono što ovdje pokušavamo napraviti, što je potraga za mudrošću u školi.
And that brings us back to this graph and this distribution of our life. I accumulated a lot of money when I think about it. When you think and you say, now is the time to give back -- well, if you're giving back, you took too much. (Laughter) (Applause) I keep thinking of Warren Buffet waking up one day and finding out he has 30 billion dollars more than he thought he had. And he looks and he says, what am I going to do with this? And he says, I'll give it to someone who really needs this. I'll give it to Bill Gates. (Laughter) And my guy, who's my financial advisor in New York, he says, look, you're a silly guy because you would have 4.1 times more money today if you had made money with money instead of sharing as you go. But I like sharing as you go better. (Applause)
Što nas ponovno vraća na graf i onu raspodjelu života. Ja sam skupio puno novca razmišljajući o ovome. Kad razmišljate i kažete si, sada je vrijeme da se to vrati -- e pa, ako vraćate već ste uzeli previše. (Smijeh)(Pljesak) Razmišljao sam o Warren Buffetu kako se probudio jednog dana i shvatio da ima 30 milijardi dolara više nego je mislio da ima. Pa je pogledao i upitao se, što bih s tim mogao napraviti? I rekao si je, dat ću to nekome kome stvarno treba. Dat ću ih Bill Gatesu. (Smijeh) A moj čovjek, koji je moj financijski savjetnik u New Yorku, rekao je, vidiš, ti si smiješan čovjek jer bi danas imao 4,1 puta više novaca da si novac stvarao novcem umjesto što si ga podijelio. Ali meni se sviđa dijeljenje kako si bogatiji. (Pljesak)
I taught MBAs at MIT for a time and I ended up, one day, at the Mount Auburn Cemetery. It is a beautiful cemetery in Cambridge. And I was walking around. It was my birthday and I was thinking. And the first time around, I saw these tombstones and these wonderful people who'd done great things and I thought, what do I want to be remembered for? And I did another stroll around, and the second time, another question came to me, which did me better, which was, why do I want to be remembered at all? (Laughter) And that, I think, took me different places. When I was 50, my wife Fernanda and I sat for a whole afternoon, we had a big pit with fire, and I threw everything I had ever done into that fire. This is a book in 38 languages, hundreds and hundreds of articles and DVDs, everything there was. And that did two things. One, it freed our five kids from following in our steps, our shadow -- They don't know what I do. (Laughter) Which is good. And I'm not going to take them somewhere and say, one day all of this will be yours. (Laughter) The five kids know nothing, which is good.
Neko vrijeme sam predavao MBA na MIT-u i onda sam završio, jednog dana, na groblju Mount Auburn. To je prekrasno groblje u Cambridgeu. Šetao sam uokolo. Bio mi je rođendan i ja sam razmišljao. U prvom razgledavanju vidio sam te nadgrobne spomenike tim divnim ljudima koji su napravili velike stvari i onda sam razmišljao po čemu ja želim biti zapamćen? Napravio sam još jedan krug, i u drugom krugu, palo mi je na pamet sljedeće pitanje, koje mi se učinilo bolje, a to je bilo zašto uopće želim biti zapamćen? (Smijeh) I to me je, mislim, odvelo na sasvim druga mjesta. Kada mi je bilo 50, moja žena Fernanda i ja, sjedili smo cijelo jedno poslijepodne, imali smo kotao s otvorenim plamenom, i ja sam u njega bacio sve što sam ikad napravio. To je bila knjiga prevedena na 38 jezika, stotine i stotine članaka i DVD-a, sve što je bilo tamo. To je napravilo dvije stvari. Prvo, oslobodilo je naše petoro djece od toga da idu našim stopama, u našoj sjeni - Oni ne znaju što ja radim. (Smijeh) Što je dobro. I ja ih neću jednog dana povesti negdje i reći, jednog dana ovo sve će biti vaše. (Smijeh) Petero djece ne zna ništa, što je dobro.
And the second thing is, I freed myself from this anchor of past achievement or whatever. I'm free to start something new every time and to decide things from scratch in part of those terminal days. And some people would say, oh, so now you have this time, these terminal days, and so you go out and do everything. No, we've been to the beaches, so we've been to Samoa and Maldives and Mozambique, so that's done. I've climbed mountains in the Himalayas. I've gone down 60 meters to see hammerhead sharks. I've spent 59 days on the back of a camel from Chad to Timbuktu. I've gone to the magnetic North Pole on a dog sled. So, we've been busy. It's what I'd like to call my empty bucket list. (Laughter)
A druga stvar je, oslobodio sam samoga sebe od tog sidra prethodnih postignuća ili što god to bilo. Slobodan sam početi nešto novo u svakom trenutku i odlučivati stvari od početka u dijelu onih terminalnih dana. Neki će reći, o, sada imaš svo to vrijeme, sve te zadnje dane, i izlaziš i radiš svašta. Ma ne, mi smo već bili na raznim plažama, pa smo tako bili na Samoi i Maldivima,i u Mozambiku, pa je to riješeno. Popeo sam se na planine Himalaja. Spustio sam se 60 metara u dubinu kako bih vidio morskog psa čekićara. Proveo sam 59 dana na leđima deve od Čada do Timbuktua. Otišao sam na magnetski Sjeverni pol saonicama s psećom zapregom. Dakle, bili smo zaposleni. To je ono što ja volim zvati praznom listom želja. (Smijeh)
And with this rationale, I look at these days and I think, I'm not retired. I don't feel retired at all. And so I'm writing a new book. We started three new companies in the last two years. I'm now working on getting this school system for free out into the world, and I've found, very interestingly enough, that nobody wants it for free. And so I've been trying for 10 years to get the public system to take over this school rationale, much as the public schools we have, which has instead of 43 out of 100, as their rating, as their grades, has 91 out of 100. But for free, nobody wants it. So maybe we'll start charging for it and then it will go somewhere. But getting this out is one of the things we want to do.
I s ovom logikom gledam na protekle dane i mislim, Nisam u mirovini. Uopće ne osjećam kao da sam u mirovini. Pa tako pišem novu knjigu. Osnovali smo tri nove kompanije u posljednje dvije godine. Sada radim na tome da besplatno proširimo ovaj školski sustav po cijelom svijetu, I otkrio sam, što je stvarno zanimljivo, da to nitko ne želi besplatno. I tako već 10 godina pokušavam da javni sektor preuzme logiku naše škole jer većina javnih škola koje mi imamo koje umjesto da imaju 43 od 100 kao svoje bodovanje, svoju ocjenu, imaju 91 od 100. Ali besplatno, nitko to ne želi. Možda ćemo početi ovo naplaćivati, pa će to doći negdje. Proširiti to je jedna od stvari koju želimo napraviti.
And I think what this leaves us as a message for all of you, I think is a little bit like this: We've all learned how to go on Sunday night to email and work from home. But very few of us have learned how to go to the movies on Monday afternoon. And if we're looking for wisdom, we need to learn to do that as well. And so, what we've done all of these years is very simple, is use the little tool, which is ask three whys in a row. Because the first why you always have a good answer for. The second why, it starts getting difficult. By the third why, you don't really know why you're doing what you're doing. What I want to leave you with is the seed and the thought that maybe if you do this, you will come to the question, what for? What am I doing this for? And hopefully, as a result of that, and over time, I hope that with this, and that's what I'm wishing you, you'll have a much wiser future. Thank you very much. (Applause)
Pa si mislim s kojom vas to porukom ostavlja, mislim da bi mogla biti nešto poput: Svi smo naučili kako nedjeljom navečer otići na e-mail i raditi od kuće. Ali mali je broj nas naučio kako ponedjeljkom poslijepodne otići u kino i pogledati film. A ako tragamo za mudrošću, ovo također moramo naučiti. Pa tako, ono što smo mi radili svih ovih godina vrlo je jednostavno, a to je koristiti mala oruđa kao što je pitati se tri puta zaredom zašto. Zato što za prvi zašto uvijek imate dobar odgovor. Drugi zašto već zadaje probleme. Do trećeg zašto, vi stvarno ne znate zašto radite to što radite. Želim vas ostaviti sa sjemenom i mišlju da možda ako to učinite, doći ćete do pitanja, zašto? Zašto ja ovo radim? I nadajmo se, kao rezultat ovoga, tijekom vremena, ja se nadam da ćete s ovim, i to je ono što vam ja želim, imati mudriju budućnost. Puno vam hvala. (Pljesak)
Chris Anderson: So Ricardo, you're kind of crazy. (Laughter) To many people, this seems crazy. And yet so deeply wise, also. The pieces I'm trying to put together are this: Your ideas are so radical. How, in business, for example, these ideas have been out for a while, probably the percentage of businesses that have taken some of them is still quite low. Are there any times you've seen some big company take on one of your ideas and you've gone, "Yes!"?
Chris Anderson: Dakle Ricardo, vi ste na neki način ludi. (Smijeh) Za mnoge ljude ovo se čini ludim. A opet duboko mudrim, također. Kockice koje pokušavam složiti su sljedeće: Vaše su ideje tako radikalne. Kako, na primjer u poslovanju, ove ideje prisutne su već neko vrijeme, vjerojatno je postotak poduzeća koja su preuzeli neke od njih još uvijek prilično malen. Jeste li u i jednom trenutku vidjeli neku veliku kompaniju da je preuzela jednu od vaših ideja i vi ste rekli 'Da!'?
Ricardo Semler: It happens. It happened about two weeks ago with Richard Branson, with his people saying, oh, I don't want to control your holidays anymore, or Netflix does a little bit of this and that, but I don't think it's very important. I'd like to see it happen maybe a little bit in a bit of a missionary zeal, but that's a very personal one. But the fact is that it takes a leap of faith about losing control. And almost nobody who is in control is ready to take leaps of faith. It will have to come from kids and other people who are starting companies in a different way.
Ricardo Sempler: To se događa. Dogodilo se prije otprilike dva tjedna s Richardom Bransonom, koji je rekao svojim ljudima Oh, ja više ne želim kontrolirati vaše godišnje odmore, ili Netflix-om koji radi ponešto od ovoga i onoga, ali ja ne mislim da je to jako važno. Volio bih vidjeti da se to malčice dogodilo u misionarskoj gorljivosti, ali to je jako osobna želja. Činjenica je kako vam treba skok vjere kod gubitka kontrole. I gotovo nitko tko kontrolira situacijom nije spreman na skok vjere. Ovo mora doći od djece i drugih ljudi koji svoja poduzeća započinju na drugačiji način.
CA: So that's the key thing? From your point of view the evidence is there, in the business point of view this works, but people just don't have the courage to -- (Whoosh)
CA: Dakle to je ključna stvar? S vaše točke gledanja, dokazi su tu, s poslovne strane ovo funkcionira, ali ljudi naprosto nemaju hrabrosti da -- (Hoops).
RS: They don't even have the incentive. You're running a company with a 90-day mandate. It's a quarterly report. If you're not good in 90 days, you're out. So you say, "Here's a great program that, in less than one generation --" And the guy says, "Get out of here." So this is the problem. (Laughter)
RS: Oni čak nemaju inicijativu. Vodite kompaniju s ovlaštenjem od 90 dana. To je tromjesječno izvješće. Ako niste dobri u 90 dana, ispadate. Pa tako kažete: 'Ovo je veliki program koji, u manje od jedne generacije --' A tip vam kaže, 'Gubite se odavde.' Eto, to je problem. (Smijeh)
CA: What you're trying to do in education seems to me incredibly profound. Everyone is bothered about their country's education system. No one thinks that we've caught up yet to a world where there's Google and all these technological options. So you've got actual evidence now that the kids so far going through your system, there's a dramatic increase in performance. How do we help you move these ideas forward?
CA: To što vi pokušavate napraviti s obrazovanjem čini mi se fantastično dalekovidnim. Svi su zabrinuti njihovim nacionalnim školskim sustavima Nitko ne misli da nas je sustigao svijet u kojemu je Google i sve te tehnološke mogućnosti. Pa vi ste dobili stvarne dokaze da djeca koja su do sada prošla kroz vaš školski sustav pokazuju dramatično povećanje postignuća.
RS: I think it's that problem of ideas whose time has come.
Kako vam mi možemo pomoći da se ove ideje probiju?
And I've never been very evangelical about these things. We put it out there. Suddenly, you find people -- there's a group in Japan, which scares me very much, which is called the Semlerists, and they have 120 companies. They've invited me. I've always been scared to go. And there is a group in Holland that has 600 small, Dutch companies. It's something that will flourish on its own. Part of it will be wrong, and it doesn't matter. This will find its own place. And I'm afraid of the other one, which says, this is so good you've got to do this. Let's set up a system and put lots of money into it and then people will do it no matter what.
RS: Ja mislim da je to taj problem s idejama za koje je došlo vrijeme. I nikad nisam bio previše evanđeoski s tim stvarima. Mi ih samo izbacimo van. Odjednom pronađete ljude – Ima ta grupa u Japanu, koja me jako plaši, zove se Semlerists, a imaju 120 kompanija. Oni su me pozvali i ja sam se plašio otići. A ima i grupa u Nizozemskoj koja ima 600 malih, nizozemskih kompanija. To je nešto što će procvasti samo od sebe. Dio toga će biti krivo ali to nije važno. To će već pronaći svoje mjesto. A plašim se i onih drugi koji kažu to je dobro to moraš napraviti. Idemo uspostaviti sustav i uložiti puno novaca u njega i onda će to ljudi raditi bez obzira što je.
CA: So you have asked extraordinary questions your whole life. It seems to me that's the fuel that's driven a lot of this. Do you have any other questions for us, for TED, for this group here?
CA: I tako ste si vi postavljali izvanredna pitanja cijeloga života. Meni se čini da je to bio pogon koji je pokrenuo mnogo toga. Imate li vi pitanja za nas, za TED, za ovu grupu ovdje?
RS: I always come back to variations of the question that my son asked me when he was three. We were sitting in a jacuzzi, and he said, "Dad, why do we exist?" There is no other question. Nobody has any other question. We have variations of this one question, from three onwards. So when you spend time in a company, in a bureaucracy, in an organization and you're saying, boy -- how many people do you know who on their death beds said, boy, I wish I had spent more time at the office? So there's a whole thing of having the courage now -- not in a week, not in two months, not when you find out you have something -- to say, no, what am I doing this for? Stop everything. Let me do something else. And it will be okay, it will be much better than what you're doing, if you're stuck in a process.
RS: Uvijek se vratim na varijacije pitanja koje je postavio moj sin kada je imao 3 godine. Sjedili smo u jacuzziju a on me je upitao, 'Tata, zašto mi postojimo?' Nema drugih pitanja. Nitko nema neko drugo pitanje. Mi samo imamo različite varijacije tog pitanja od treće na dalje. Pa tako kada provedeš vrijeme u nekoj kompaniji, u birokraciji, u nekoj organizaciji i kažeš -- o čovječe koliko ljudi poznajete koji su na smrtnoj postelji rekli čovječe, da sam barem proveo više vremena u uredu? I cijela je stvar u tome da imaš hrabrosti sada ne kroz tjedan dana, ne za dva mjeseca ne kad otkriješ da imaš nešto -- za reći, ne, zašto ja ovo radim? Zaustavite sve. Dajte da učinim nešto drugo. I to će biti dobro, bit će mnogo bolje od onoga što radite ako ste zaglavili u procesu.
CA: So that strikes me as a profound and quite beautiful way to end this penultimate day of TED. Ricardo Semler, thank you so much. RS: Thank you so much.
CA: Ovo se čini kao duboki i vrlo lijepi način da završimo ovaj pretposljednji dan TED-a. Ricardo Semler, puno vam hvala. RS: Najljepša vam hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)