WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.220 Hello and welcome to And you, How Did You Make It, 00:00:02.339 --> 00:00:04.400 the podcast in which we explore each step that 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:06.900 has built the career path of various individuals 00:00:06.900 --> 00:00:09.660 through the discovery of the habits, passions, 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:12.099 interests of the last few decades. I'm Yosra, 00:00:12.259 --> 00:00:16.320 your host, and today we meet Faz. I'm not going 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:20.000 to tell you too much, but Faz tells you how you 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.199 should approach your uni days and what I'm sure 00:00:22.199 --> 00:00:24.300 you will take out of this episode is the drive 00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:27.870 to build your own path through commitments. and 00:00:27.870 --> 00:00:30.050 to build your own community that aligns with 00:00:30.050 --> 00:00:33.130 your true self. As a high achiever, he embodies 00:00:33.130 --> 00:00:36.109 curiosity, innovation, and drive. Let's learn 00:00:36.109 --> 00:00:40.469 from him. Hi, Faz. Welcome to the podcast. I'm 00:00:40.469 --> 00:00:43.969 so happy to have you with us today. Well, I'll 00:00:43.969 --> 00:00:46.090 let you introduce yourself. Thank you for having 00:00:46.090 --> 00:00:50.770 me on the podcast, Yosra. My name is Faz. By 00:00:50.770 --> 00:00:54.420 day, I am a humble civil servant. But by night, 00:00:54.460 --> 00:00:56.600 I do all sorts of interesting things, hopefully. 00:00:57.539 --> 00:01:01.960 Despite my unwillingness to do these, I somehow 00:01:01.960 --> 00:01:04.420 end up organizing all sorts of different events 00:01:04.420 --> 00:01:06.900 for different clubs, for different organizations, 00:01:07.180 --> 00:01:10.920 for different companies even. I like to build 00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:14.780 stuff. So whether it's products, apps, things 00:01:14.780 --> 00:01:18.060 like that. And I just like to talk with lots 00:01:18.060 --> 00:01:20.799 of interesting people. So I go to lots of different 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:24.790 events. one too many socializing activities and 00:01:24.790 --> 00:01:27.409 generally a bit of an extrovert, I might say. 00:01:28.069 --> 00:01:32.730 So that's me in a nutshell. I do confirm. You 00:01:32.730 --> 00:01:34.709 were quite the leader in building communities 00:01:34.709 --> 00:01:36.769 in sports during your time in Dublin, and I highly 00:01:36.769 --> 00:01:39.489 appreciated that, by the way. I cannot wait to 00:01:39.489 --> 00:01:41.150 discuss this further when you start building 00:01:41.150 --> 00:01:45.430 communities and become so active outside or within 00:01:45.430 --> 00:01:47.810 your main responsibilities as a student and such. 00:01:48.670 --> 00:01:51.719 First. Faz, can you tell us your definition of 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:57.060 success? Yeah, it's a very deep question. I think 00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:00.299 there's, I love this question because I'm going 00:02:00.299 --> 00:02:01.879 to answer it with another question, which is 00:02:01.879 --> 00:02:05.799 when I think about success, I don't ask what 00:02:05.799 --> 00:02:11.439 I want. I ask myself why I want it. Because in 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:13.819 my mind, it's not just about having flashy things, 00:02:13.979 --> 00:02:16.539 you know, lots of money, big mansion, children, 00:02:16.659 --> 00:02:19.060 and et cetera, et cetera. It's about asking myself, 00:02:19.610 --> 00:02:22.289 what of what things will bring me fulfillment 00:02:22.289 --> 00:02:25.849 what things will make make me content and what 00:02:25.849 --> 00:02:29.530 things will drive you know high impact and and 00:02:29.530 --> 00:02:32.009 make the life make my life better as well as 00:02:32.009 --> 00:02:34.710 people around me better as well so if i'm doing 00:02:34.710 --> 00:02:38.969 something that enables a new skill it helps the 00:02:38.969 --> 00:02:42.270 community or it brings fulfillment and contentment 00:02:42.270 --> 00:02:44.729 to me then that is success in my mind did you 00:02:44.729 --> 00:02:48.259 hear that you already have takeaways here If 00:02:48.259 --> 00:02:50.099 you're not sure what your definition of success 00:02:50.099 --> 00:02:54.439 is, what will bring you fulfillment? What would 00:02:54.439 --> 00:02:57.460 make you content? What would drive high impact? 00:02:58.300 --> 00:03:01.340 Do you think that this reflection, this definition 00:03:01.340 --> 00:03:03.360 of success was there when you were still in high 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:07.360 school or did it come at a later stage? Absolutely 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.039 later stage. When I was younger, it was all about, 00:03:10.180 --> 00:03:14.300 you know, what is the most, like I would go on 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:16.699 Google and I would search, which job pays the 00:03:16.699 --> 00:03:19.580 highest amount? That's the kind of searching 00:03:19.580 --> 00:03:22.080 I was doing when I was younger. But now in my, 00:03:22.259 --> 00:03:24.419 you know, as I've grown older a bit, beginning 00:03:24.419 --> 00:03:26.199 to get some white hairs, you know, even in my 00:03:26.199 --> 00:03:29.379 20s now, I'm asking myself more difficult questions, 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:32.240 which is, well, why do you want that particular 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:35.280 thing? Why does it matter to you so much? Is 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:38.460 there something else that is more valuable? And 00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:42.419 I think when you add different, when you look 00:03:42.419 --> 00:03:46.120 for different things, beyond, say, just monetary 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:50.379 or beyond just... you know obvious uh satisfactory 00:03:50.379 --> 00:03:52.800 things then the question becomes a lot more interesting 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:55.800 so for me yeah it's definitely a much much more 00:03:55.800 --> 00:03:58.240 recent thing where i've asked myself you know 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:01.539 why are you doing what you're doing is this something 00:04:01.539 --> 00:04:04.099 that you is this something that your younger 00:04:04.099 --> 00:04:05.819 self would be proud of is this something that 00:04:05.819 --> 00:04:07.479 your future self would be happy that you're doing 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:09.560 those are the kind of questions i'm asking myself 00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:14.360 now so um it's a very much a new thing that i'm 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:19.240 looking into Those are fantastic questions. Is 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:21.399 this something your younger self would be proud 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:25.740 of and that your future self would be happy that 00:04:25.740 --> 00:04:28.160 you're doing? I think those questions are very 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:30.600 interesting as well because we change so much 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:33.439 throughout life. Asking yourself those questions 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:36.160 will help you so much when you're lost, unsure 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:40.720 of which choice or decision to make. Well, let's 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:42.920 now talk about your early teenage years, middle 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:46.779 school years, when you were 12, 13, what kind 00:04:46.779 --> 00:04:48.899 of students were you? What were your habits, 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:51.220 passions, anything that you can share with us? 00:04:52.500 --> 00:04:56.779 So when I was 12 and 13, that would be year eight 00:04:56.779 --> 00:04:58.819 and year nine, I believe, in the British education 00:04:58.819 --> 00:05:04.060 system. And so when I was in year eight, I was 00:05:04.060 --> 00:05:08.079 going to a preparatory school, which is a school 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:10.199 that is designed to essentially prepare you for 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:13.569 life and prepare you for kind of a particular 00:05:13.569 --> 00:05:17.389 life path whereas in in when i was 13 i went 00:05:17.389 --> 00:05:21.310 to a you know classical state school so for me 00:05:21.310 --> 00:05:23.250 those kind of early teenager years were really 00:05:23.250 --> 00:05:26.569 interesting to me because the um the first school 00:05:26.569 --> 00:05:29.810 that i went to there was it was a very posh it 00:05:29.810 --> 00:05:32.209 was very it was based in oxford so it was a very 00:05:32.209 --> 00:05:35.290 very posh place and the kinds of things that 00:05:35.290 --> 00:05:38.290 they kind of taught you weren't just the subjects 00:05:38.290 --> 00:05:40.189 that they were kind of teaching you as they would 00:05:40.189 --> 00:05:43.610 but it was also explaining etiquette which is 00:05:43.610 --> 00:05:46.350 a very weird and interesting thing when you're 00:05:46.350 --> 00:05:48.230 particularly at that age in your formative years 00:05:48.230 --> 00:05:51.470 so i'll give it i'll give a fantastic example 00:05:51.470 --> 00:05:53.970 here which is you know there was a day where 00:05:53.970 --> 00:05:58.689 i forgot to you know put my homework in the edge 00:05:58.689 --> 00:06:00.949 of the classroom where we were supposed to you 00:06:00.949 --> 00:06:03.319 know place it every single morning and for some 00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:06.360 reason i forgot to do that and i was panicking 00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:08.600 all of a sudden because oh my god you know my 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:11.199 homework isn't going to be there and so you know 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:14.139 i i rush upstairs again you know during lunchtime 00:06:14.139 --> 00:06:18.240 trying to put my my textbook there and i see 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:21.500 the entire entire stack of papers is gone so 00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:23.120 i realize that oh my gosh my teacher's taken 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:28.399 it so i i run downstairs at lunchtime and i find 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:30.800 the oh and this class was taught by the headmaster 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:32.519 as well so it wasn't just any typical teacher 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:35.139 so i run downstairs find the headmaster eating 00:06:35.139 --> 00:06:38.160 eating lunch and um i approach him and say i'm 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:41.019 really sorry uh you know i completely forgot 00:06:41.019 --> 00:06:45.060 to you know place my my my workbook uh on in 00:06:45.060 --> 00:06:47.100 the corner of the classroom uh but i have it 00:06:47.100 --> 00:06:48.939 with i have it i have it here now i didn't just 00:06:48.939 --> 00:06:52.319 do it now i did it last night etc etc and he 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:54.709 looks at me and he says I can give you two responses. 00:06:54.910 --> 00:06:57.110 Do you want the polite answer or do you want 00:06:57.110 --> 00:07:00.230 the honest answer? And I'm 12 years old here. 00:07:00.290 --> 00:07:02.410 I have no idea what this means. And so I say, 00:07:02.490 --> 00:07:04.910 can I have the polite answer, please? And he 00:07:04.910 --> 00:07:06.529 says, thank you very much. I'll get it marked 00:07:06.529 --> 00:07:08.910 for you by the next lesson. And that was it. 00:07:08.970 --> 00:07:11.250 And I just ran away. Obviously, now I kind of 00:07:11.250 --> 00:07:13.009 know what he would have said if I said honest 00:07:13.009 --> 00:07:16.189 answer, obviously. But that was kind of a, although 00:07:16.189 --> 00:07:17.750 it wasn't a piece of advice or anything, it was 00:07:17.750 --> 00:07:19.470 just an interesting experience to me because. 00:07:20.110 --> 00:07:23.029 it explained to me that sometimes giving your 00:07:23.029 --> 00:07:25.069 honest opinion isn't always the best thing to 00:07:25.069 --> 00:07:27.370 do sometimes you need to be charming and flattering 00:07:27.370 --> 00:07:30.050 at times rather than trying to be then the know 00:07:30.050 --> 00:07:32.129 -it -all person there or trying to express the 00:07:32.129 --> 00:07:34.389 opinion for the sake of it or whatever so i think 00:07:34.389 --> 00:07:36.470 that's kind of the vibe that was given to me 00:07:36.470 --> 00:07:39.829 when i was in kind of year eight at age 12 13 00:07:39.829 --> 00:07:43.279 that kind of uh kind of time period Then you 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:45.300 move on to the state school side of stuff, which 00:07:45.300 --> 00:07:47.600 is a very interesting dynamic because now all 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:50.459 of a sudden you're in an area where things are 00:07:50.459 --> 00:07:53.699 a lot more effectively rough, shall I say. Things 00:07:53.699 --> 00:07:57.439 are a lot more unfiltered and there isn't really 00:07:57.439 --> 00:08:01.019 anything that, you know, is unexpected at that 00:08:01.019 --> 00:08:04.620 point. Whereas in a more kind of formalized preparatory 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:06.819 school zone, things are a lot more specific, 00:08:07.019 --> 00:08:09.379 a lot more tailored, a lot more structured in 00:08:09.379 --> 00:08:12.490 comparison. And so That was very interesting 00:08:12.490 --> 00:08:14.290 to me because it was a new city. It was a new 00:08:14.290 --> 00:08:17.629 school. It was very interesting people there 00:08:17.629 --> 00:08:20.930 and interesting characters. So for me, having 00:08:20.930 --> 00:08:23.110 that dual experience was, I think, really important 00:08:23.110 --> 00:08:25.709 to understand because I understood how a particular 00:08:25.709 --> 00:08:27.790 type of person would interact with the world. 00:08:27.930 --> 00:08:29.250 You would probably call them partial, middle 00:08:29.250 --> 00:08:32.049 class or whatever. But you also had the masses, 00:08:32.169 --> 00:08:34.529 essentially. Everyone from, and you had all types 00:08:34.529 --> 00:08:36.730 of people from working class, middle class, even 00:08:36.730 --> 00:08:39.970 upper class there as well at times. So this was 00:08:39.970 --> 00:08:42.330 the... a very diverse experience when it came 00:08:42.330 --> 00:08:45.690 to the state school place, essentially. So that's 00:08:45.690 --> 00:08:49.190 kind of my experience at that age where you have 00:08:49.190 --> 00:08:51.370 these two different worlds and I've kind of been 00:08:51.370 --> 00:08:53.629 thrusted into both of them in a very short period 00:08:53.629 --> 00:08:56.529 of time. This is very interesting. Thanks, Fez. 00:08:57.009 --> 00:08:59.830 I do have a recommendation then for you who are 00:08:59.830 --> 00:09:02.870 listening to us is to ask yourself the following 00:09:02.870 --> 00:09:05.850 question. Should you be charming version of yourself? 00:09:06.230 --> 00:09:08.490 Or is it time for you to share your true opinion 00:09:08.490 --> 00:09:12.029 on the subject? Is... Trying to test and understand 00:09:12.029 --> 00:09:15.309 your environment. Trying to, as we say, to read 00:09:15.309 --> 00:09:18.769 the room. Like, when is it time for you to actually 00:09:18.769 --> 00:09:23.169 be persistent, asking questions, being a little 00:09:23.169 --> 00:09:27.409 bit bold. And when it's time to just lay back. 00:09:28.429 --> 00:09:31.070 In fact, how are you as a student? What about 00:09:31.070 --> 00:09:34.210 your favorite classes? All these favorite classes. 00:09:34.789 --> 00:09:39.389 As a student, I was very much average, to be 00:09:39.389 --> 00:09:42.409 honest. I think a lot of people, you know, if 00:09:42.409 --> 00:09:44.110 you were to ask me what set I was in, I would 00:09:44.110 --> 00:09:46.730 say middle set or maybe middle upper set or something 00:09:46.730 --> 00:09:50.809 like that. So, you know, my maths was a bit stronger. 00:09:50.870 --> 00:09:52.330 My science was a bit stronger than my English. 00:09:52.450 --> 00:09:56.129 But I think for me, it was, you know, for me, 00:09:56.149 --> 00:09:58.870 it was just a matter of, you know, I show up, 00:09:58.909 --> 00:10:00.929 I do the homework. I don't get into trouble. 00:10:01.090 --> 00:10:03.450 I raise my hand and job done. There you have 00:10:03.450 --> 00:10:08.129 it. So. that's my that's kind of the the this 00:10:08.129 --> 00:10:10.570 the extent of it i wasn't doing any prodigy work 00:10:10.570 --> 00:10:12.409 i wasn't you know leader of the chess club or 00:10:12.409 --> 00:10:16.409 anything like that so um my so my schooling was 00:10:16.409 --> 00:10:19.649 quite not generic but it was quite predictable 00:10:19.649 --> 00:10:22.629 in that sense because there wasn't anything shocking 00:10:22.629 --> 00:10:24.909 or anything that was you know out of the ordinary 00:10:24.909 --> 00:10:29.750 in that sense what is interesting is as a as 00:10:29.750 --> 00:10:33.950 a child i've had to wear glasses and so my eyesight 00:10:33.950 --> 00:10:37.139 has always been much weaker and while i can see 00:10:37.139 --> 00:10:39.000 things you know fine you know it's not that's 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:41.399 not that bad but historically i've always had 00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:44.120 the need to you know rely on the sense of touch 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:46.179 essentially rather than using my eyes so maybe 00:10:46.179 --> 00:10:48.639 that's why i preferred science and maths over 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:50.240 english because i don't have to read too much 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:53.860 but that's uh that's probably where that interest 00:10:53.860 --> 00:10:56.860 likely stems from um but for me it was always 00:10:56.860 --> 00:10:59.519 just numbers building stuff whether it's design 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:02.639 technology or uh whether it was science and and 00:11:02.639 --> 00:11:04.379 you know computer science and things like that 00:11:05.450 --> 00:11:08.389 And do you think your interest was only due to 00:11:08.389 --> 00:11:10.450 personal reasons, the one you just mentioned, 00:11:10.570 --> 00:11:14.649 or did you have fascinating teachers or was it 00:11:14.649 --> 00:11:17.710 a mix of both? I think it's a bit of both. I 00:11:17.710 --> 00:11:22.210 think as a child, you know, I was a big fan of 00:11:22.210 --> 00:11:26.909 Lego. And Lego is one of those classical toys 00:11:26.909 --> 00:11:30.769 where anybody from any background can pick it 00:11:30.769 --> 00:11:33.129 up. It's not supposed to be gendered. It's not 00:11:33.129 --> 00:11:37.049 supposed to... uh be specific to any particular 00:11:37.049 --> 00:11:38.750 genre i know that things have changed a bit now 00:11:38.750 --> 00:11:41.210 but it really you know in my childhood you would 00:11:41.210 --> 00:11:43.250 pick up the bricks you would build a set but 00:11:43.250 --> 00:11:44.509 then once you build a set you can do whatever 00:11:44.509 --> 00:11:47.350 you want with it well you know and i think the 00:11:47.350 --> 00:11:49.350 my favorite sets back then was something called 00:11:49.350 --> 00:11:51.509 lego mars mission sets so they were all about 00:11:51.509 --> 00:11:53.190 you know exploring the world exploring space 00:11:53.190 --> 00:11:56.029 exploring aliens and things like that and i think 00:11:56.029 --> 00:11:58.409 that has a very direct interest to science and 00:11:58.409 --> 00:12:02.029 the stem subjects inherently so there was definitely 00:12:02.029 --> 00:12:05.179 that link i can think of So regarding teachers, 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:09.059 I think the main thing there was science, particularly 00:12:09.059 --> 00:12:11.519 chemistry, had lots of interesting experiments. 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:14.919 And if you're a 12, 13 year old child, you're 00:12:14.919 --> 00:12:17.000 going to say, wow, look at this. I mean, a classic 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:20.779 experiment I can remember is the applying heat 00:12:20.779 --> 00:12:23.259 to a strip of magnesium. And when you do that 00:12:23.259 --> 00:12:25.299 against a Bunsen burner, it would generate a 00:12:25.299 --> 00:12:27.120 very bright light to the point where we were 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:29.500 told not to look directly at it to avoid, you 00:12:29.500 --> 00:12:31.379 know, having, you know. temporary blindness or 00:12:31.379 --> 00:12:33.440 anything like that and we're 12 13 year old children 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:34.940 i don't know what they were doing to be honest 00:12:34.940 --> 00:12:36.539 but you know they're saying you know look to 00:12:36.539 --> 00:12:39.080 the side of it just get an understanding of what's 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:41.100 there we'll take a video of it as well so you 00:12:41.100 --> 00:12:42.879 can see what it looks like in a safer environment 00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:46.179 it's things like that which are far more inspirational 00:12:46.179 --> 00:12:48.799 because you get to see some really exciting things 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:50.960 whether it's blowing up whether it's sparkling 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:53.019 away whether it's some popping or things like 00:12:53.019 --> 00:12:55.320 that another great example would be you know 00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:57.580 the you know the teacher would you know produce 00:12:57.580 --> 00:13:00.990 um some kind of hydrogen gas and then she would 00:13:00.990 --> 00:13:03.450 get a match lighter and pop boom fire comes out 00:13:03.450 --> 00:13:05.250 of it or pops and makes a very large popping 00:13:05.250 --> 00:13:08.149 sound that again you know as a child it inspires 00:13:08.149 --> 00:13:10.350 inspires you know crazy things like oh my god 00:13:10.350 --> 00:13:12.909 this is crazy you know let's let's do that again 00:13:12.909 --> 00:13:16.240 do that again and again so um For me, science 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:18.159 was a lot more interesting and exciting in terms 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:20.519 of the experiment, in terms of the content and 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:23.559 understanding, well, why is this the case? It's 00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:26.740 all well and good saying, okay, yeah, fire plus 00:13:26.740 --> 00:13:29.779 hydrogen equals popping sounds, but why is that 00:13:29.779 --> 00:13:32.240 the case? And then you kind of get into the science 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:34.360 behind it. You look at things like your electrons, 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:38.159 your protons. I don't remember. I probably have 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:39.519 some chemists screaming at me right now with 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:43.509 that. That's kind of where that inspiration starts 00:13:43.509 --> 00:13:46.129 from. So definitely experiments, definitely some 00:13:46.129 --> 00:13:49.909 childhood games and things like that. I think 00:13:49.909 --> 00:13:55.169 also, you know, when you, I mean, computers were 00:13:55.169 --> 00:13:57.169 just coming around, were getting in popularity. 00:13:57.350 --> 00:13:59.889 So I'm not that old, but, you know, I do remember 00:13:59.889 --> 00:14:03.659 a time. before i was like i wasn't a child on 00:14:03.659 --> 00:14:05.320 the internet all day long or anything like that 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:07.679 um you know i did play a video game but also 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:09.399 went outside at the same time i had a good proportion 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:12.039 of this so i think that'll get that again you 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:14.379 know you know it encourages you to think about 00:14:14.379 --> 00:14:18.120 what exists on this virtual plane essentially 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:22.519 so um you've got you know you've got going outside 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:23.860 with your friends and the bikes and everything 00:14:23.860 --> 00:14:25.879 but also you've got these these fantasies crazy 00:14:25.879 --> 00:14:27.820 big screens and devices that you're looking at 00:14:27.820 --> 00:14:30.220 and saying hey you know what can i do with this 00:14:30.220 --> 00:14:33.120 and That itself is also really cool because then 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:35.200 you have to do everything from little things 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:37.779 like moving a mouse, keyboard, downloading stuff. 00:14:38.580 --> 00:14:40.960 There's huge amounts of downloaded music, of 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:43.899 course, as we all did. Things like that. So all 00:14:43.899 --> 00:14:45.299 these different things where you have experiments, 00:14:45.480 --> 00:14:47.840 where you have introduction to new technology, 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:51.759 to general toys and interests. All of these linked 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:53.879 together to pushing towards science and STEM 00:14:53.879 --> 00:14:57.519 -related subject areas. Teachers were inspirational, 00:14:57.639 --> 00:15:01.620 I suppose. I had good teachers. They listened. 00:15:01.779 --> 00:15:04.139 They were very, very good. But it really was 00:15:04.139 --> 00:15:06.340 the experiments that were the cherry on top. 00:15:07.340 --> 00:15:10.000 And were you working hard to study those STEM 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.879 classes? What did you do to understand what was 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:17.980 expected from you? Yeah, I think not just with 00:15:17.980 --> 00:15:19.759 STEM, with all the learning, I think I'm much 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:23.240 more of a hands -on person. So if you were to... 00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:26.419 I rarely learn things from podcasts, whereas 00:15:26.419 --> 00:15:29.429 I will learn from... you know writing a blog 00:15:29.429 --> 00:15:33.250 a lot more um so that's kind of the way i've 00:15:33.250 --> 00:15:36.450 learned about things um it's by actually doing 00:15:36.450 --> 00:15:38.250 actually trying it myself and actually attempting 00:15:38.250 --> 00:15:40.570 to do it myself i get much better insights into 00:15:40.570 --> 00:15:46.029 how how stuff works and i find you know watching 00:15:46.029 --> 00:15:48.710 videos or reading books while interesting and 00:15:48.710 --> 00:15:50.710 some of it does stick i think the most effective 00:15:50.710 --> 00:15:52.570 form for learning at least for myself is just 00:15:52.570 --> 00:15:54.590 trying it yourself and trying to get hand get 00:15:54.590 --> 00:15:57.970 your hands dirty essentially um I think in terms 00:15:57.970 --> 00:16:02.070 of the type of student I was, I mean, you know, 00:16:02.110 --> 00:16:04.710 I think there are kind of two parts of this. 00:16:04.789 --> 00:16:08.429 So there was a school work, which I was a good 00:16:08.429 --> 00:16:10.870 student in the sense of I did all my homework 00:16:10.870 --> 00:16:13.070 on time. I'd submitted it. I didn't get into 00:16:13.070 --> 00:16:15.710 detention. I was a good boy. I didn't do anything 00:16:15.710 --> 00:16:20.100 like that. But, you know, was I coming consistently 00:16:20.100 --> 00:16:23.059 top of the class? No. Was I receiving, you know, 00:16:23.080 --> 00:16:25.179 accolades and awards and things like that when 00:16:25.179 --> 00:16:27.899 I was a school? Also no. I think for me, it was, 00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:31.679 put it this way. When I was in year eight and 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:34.220 year seven and year eight. So when you were 12th, 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:36.639 13th. We used to receive report cards every single 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:39.039 term. And there were two columns in these report 00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:41.080 cards. There was the attainment column and there 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:44.460 was the effort column. And my dad used to say 00:16:44.460 --> 00:16:47.629 to me, as long as your effort column. is top 00:16:47.629 --> 00:16:50.929 marks all a's he's satisfied doesn't matter what 00:16:50.929 --> 00:16:53.009 the attainment is as long as you tried your best 00:16:53.009 --> 00:16:55.309 then he's satisfied with whatever the attainment 00:16:55.309 --> 00:16:58.649 is and if there is a really bad score there then 00:16:58.649 --> 00:17:00.309 yeah we can look into things like tutoring maybe 00:17:00.309 --> 00:17:02.490 some extra homework maybe some you know extra 00:17:02.490 --> 00:17:04.650 classes things like that to see why why don't 00:17:04.650 --> 00:17:06.970 you get it despite the fact you're trying so 00:17:07.660 --> 00:17:10.779 my efforts were consistently high, almost always 00:17:10.779 --> 00:17:13.200 A grades with the occasional B. The attainments 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:15.059 were kind of mixed everywhere from kind of A 00:17:15.059 --> 00:17:17.420 to kind of B and maybe some Cs as well here and 00:17:17.420 --> 00:17:21.579 there. So it was a bit of a mix in that sense. 00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:24.420 But I think for me, it was about, you know, are 00:17:24.420 --> 00:17:26.920 you trying hard to get things done? And if you're 00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:29.220 not, then clearly you don't get it. Or clearly 00:17:29.220 --> 00:17:31.279 this learning style isn't working for you specifically. 00:17:31.680 --> 00:17:35.660 So that's kind of how things were back then. 00:17:37.420 --> 00:17:40.359 What you're highlighting is so important. You 00:17:40.359 --> 00:17:44.000 need to figure out what works best for you, for 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:47.119 your own studying approach strategy, if you can 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:51.339 call it like this. Whether it is listening to 00:17:51.339 --> 00:17:53.359 podcasts, watching YouTube videos and taking 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:56.140 notes, reading your course again and again and 00:17:56.140 --> 00:17:58.700 again, asking questions to your teacher, but 00:17:58.700 --> 00:18:02.680 consistently practicing is a non -negotiable. 00:18:03.099 --> 00:18:05.700 And this will help you get to the next level 00:18:05.700 --> 00:18:08.140 wherever you are right now. Yeah, absolutely. 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:11.420 Absolutely. And I think there's something which 00:18:11.420 --> 00:18:15.759 is very specific about trying something yourself, 00:18:15.900 --> 00:18:19.559 where if you observe somebody else, if you look 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:22.599 at somebody else doing something, then you will 00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:25.299 get some insight into what they're doing. But 00:18:25.299 --> 00:18:27.740 when you try something yourself, you will have 00:18:27.740 --> 00:18:31.630 to do every single small activity. Every single 00:18:31.630 --> 00:18:34.849 tiny little thing that has to go into a piece 00:18:34.849 --> 00:18:37.410 of work or whether it's homework, whether it's 00:18:37.410 --> 00:18:40.829 production of art or whatever, you have to know 00:18:40.829 --> 00:18:44.509 every single piece. Everything from knowing where 00:18:44.509 --> 00:18:48.630 to stand, how to hold your hands, how many times 00:18:48.630 --> 00:18:51.190 you have to screw in a screw and how many times 00:18:51.190 --> 00:18:53.210 you have to tighten it, what the material feels 00:18:53.210 --> 00:18:57.069 like. All your little things add up. to the overall 00:18:57.069 --> 00:18:59.470 experience. And you can't get that from reading 00:18:59.470 --> 00:19:01.289 a book. You can't get that from just observing 00:19:01.289 --> 00:19:04.089 somebody. You have to do it yourself. And I think 00:19:04.089 --> 00:19:08.089 that's why, for me, learning by doing something 00:19:08.089 --> 00:19:11.410 was always more effective than observing stuff. 00:19:11.670 --> 00:19:14.130 I know there are people out there who are brilliantly 00:19:14.130 --> 00:19:15.849 smart, who can just look at something and just 00:19:15.849 --> 00:19:18.009 understand it immediately. But for me, it was 00:19:18.009 --> 00:19:19.829 really just, if I really want to appreciate the 00:19:19.829 --> 00:19:22.210 depth of it, then I have to try it myself. And 00:19:22.210 --> 00:19:25.029 I think if somebody is struggling with something, 00:19:25.710 --> 00:19:29.049 then you know then try to do it yourself essentially 00:19:29.049 --> 00:19:32.869 you know if if you are you know if you're you 00:19:32.869 --> 00:19:34.150 know something as simple as saying that's you're 00:19:34.150 --> 00:19:36.089 playing a video game and you can't get past a 00:19:36.089 --> 00:19:39.589 certain level well okay in that situation you 00:19:39.589 --> 00:19:41.609 might go and you know watch a walkthrough and 00:19:41.609 --> 00:19:43.630 then and then understand what to do but when 00:19:43.630 --> 00:19:45.049 you go back to the game you don't have to do 00:19:45.049 --> 00:19:46.910 it yourself you don't have to appreciate all 00:19:46.910 --> 00:19:48.650 the little tiny micro movements that somebody 00:19:48.650 --> 00:19:50.789 might make on the controller on the keyboard 00:19:50.789 --> 00:19:53.670 to get to that result and so you can learn from 00:19:54.460 --> 00:19:56.500 visual from reading and things like that. But 00:19:56.500 --> 00:19:58.200 to get the full exposure, you have to try it 00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:01.799 yourself. I couldn't agree more. And the video 00:20:01.799 --> 00:20:04.200 game analogy is a fantastic example for our gamers 00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:08.059 out there who are not yet reconciled with practicing 00:20:08.059 --> 00:20:12.460 after class hours. So something you mentioned, 00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:14.759 which is super important as well to remember, 00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:19.759 by doing, you will also realize which area, classes, 00:20:19.819 --> 00:20:24.079 you prefer. If it remains challenging, it does 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:26.599 not mean that you won't succeed or you're not 00:20:26.599 --> 00:20:30.440 good at it. It could certainly know that it requires 00:20:30.440 --> 00:20:33.599 some adjustments and that more practice could 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:36.339 help you get to the level you aspire to, what 00:20:36.339 --> 00:20:40.980 is the next level, or a decent one. Faz, I do 00:20:40.980 --> 00:20:42.880 have a last question on your early teenage years. 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:46.599 As I know you are being in sports, were you practicing 00:20:46.599 --> 00:20:50.000 any other time? Oh, I love sports. I love sports. 00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:53.569 I think at the time... not as much so you know 00:20:53.569 --> 00:20:55.130 you would you would we have physical education 00:20:55.130 --> 00:20:57.769 classes as part of the British curriculum so 00:20:57.769 --> 00:21:01.049 I would play rugby football rounders do cross 00:21:01.049 --> 00:21:03.710 -country runs things like that um hate cross 00:21:03.710 --> 00:21:06.890 -country runs but hey uh you know I enjoyed in 00:21:06.890 --> 00:21:09.390 hindsight I enjoyed rugby I suppose football 00:21:09.390 --> 00:21:11.609 I enjoyed rounders I enjoyed and all the different 00:21:11.609 --> 00:21:14.210 racket sports as well I think I was quite a short 00:21:14.210 --> 00:21:16.490 child and i'm taller now but i was quite relatively 00:21:16.490 --> 00:21:18.829 speaking i had my growth spurt was a lot later 00:21:18.829 --> 00:21:21.210 so for me you know a lot of these sports were 00:21:21.210 --> 00:21:22.690 you know obviously physically demanding you're 00:21:22.690 --> 00:21:25.529 surrounded by much taller stronger stronger boys 00:21:25.529 --> 00:21:28.150 and so you do get a bit ruffled around here and 00:21:28.150 --> 00:21:29.609 there which is you know it's part of the game 00:21:29.609 --> 00:21:32.890 part of the fun i suppose um but it is uh it 00:21:32.890 --> 00:21:34.890 wasn't something that i was that good and too 00:21:34.890 --> 00:21:38.269 keen at the time fast forward today love sports 00:21:38.269 --> 00:21:40.970 regularly play squash cycle all the time love 00:21:40.970 --> 00:21:45.279 badminton um you know i'll i'll you know if someone 00:21:45.279 --> 00:21:47.200 you know plays football i'll happily join and 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:49.480 things like that so um definitely a lot more 00:21:49.480 --> 00:21:51.619 into sports today than i was back then but that's 00:21:51.619 --> 00:21:54.079 probably just because when i have glasses i probably 00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:56.819 couldn't see the ball too well um wasn't as big 00:21:56.819 --> 00:21:59.099 as the other people there so you know wally wasn't 00:21:59.099 --> 00:22:00.980 that good at rugby in that sense although i was 00:22:00.980 --> 00:22:03.779 fast enough to get around people and uh yeah 00:22:03.779 --> 00:22:05.740 i suppose i found my calling with you know road 00:22:05.740 --> 00:22:07.839 racket sports and things like that where it's 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:09.440 much more controlled it's much more specific 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:12.220 and much more uh it's very specific skills very 00:22:12.220 --> 00:22:15.130 bespoken that sense and sports teach you so much 00:22:15.130 --> 00:22:20.769 from team spirit resilience pushing yourself 00:22:20.769 --> 00:22:25.509 trusting yourself believing in yourself and having 00:22:25.509 --> 00:22:28.210 fun so to wrap up on your early teenage years 00:22:28.210 --> 00:22:31.109 do you have any advice beyond everything you 00:22:31.109 --> 00:22:33.630 already shared so far you have to always keep 00:22:33.630 --> 00:22:37.170 trying you if you if you stop trying you stop 00:22:37.170 --> 00:22:39.509 learning if you stop learning you stop progressing 00:22:39.509 --> 00:22:43.750 and the one thing that every single teenager 00:22:43.750 --> 00:22:47.049 should know is that you are in your formative 00:22:47.049 --> 00:22:50.430 years there is so many years ahead you might 00:22:50.430 --> 00:22:52.769 think that high school was the worst thing in 00:22:52.769 --> 00:22:56.210 the world you know you hate it etc etc you hate 00:22:56.210 --> 00:22:57.509 your teachers you hate your classmates you hate 00:22:57.509 --> 00:23:01.950 the homework etc but actually just try and put 00:23:01.950 --> 00:23:04.750 a bit of effort into it because when you you 00:23:04.750 --> 00:23:07.130 know five years later ten years later It might 00:23:07.130 --> 00:23:09.609 seem ages away, but actually now that I'm here 00:23:09.609 --> 00:23:12.869 in that situation, it felt like literally decades 00:23:12.869 --> 00:23:19.549 ago now. So always try or keep trying and trying 00:23:19.549 --> 00:23:21.450 and trying. I think the other thing I'd say here 00:23:21.450 --> 00:23:26.509 is if failure is okay, I think people often get 00:23:26.509 --> 00:23:29.920 terrified at failure. And I think... when we're 00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:33.519 teenagers failure to us is like getting a getting 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:36.200 an f on a paper or getting zero percent or you 00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:38.359 know not doing well in a school test and yes 00:23:38.359 --> 00:23:39.819 it's important you should study and everything 00:23:39.819 --> 00:23:43.740 but actually you learn more from the things that 00:23:43.740 --> 00:23:45.660 are wrong and from the things that are right 00:23:45.660 --> 00:23:50.759 on your marking sheet and so just because just 00:23:50.759 --> 00:23:52.539 just because you do badly in something doesn't 00:23:52.539 --> 00:23:55.259 mean that you're incapable it just means that 00:23:55.759 --> 00:23:57.900 And in that moment in time, you maybe weren't 00:23:57.900 --> 00:23:59.819 there. But now that you know what's wrong, you 00:23:59.819 --> 00:24:01.880 can now improve. And maybe the second time you 00:24:01.880 --> 00:24:04.299 do it, you'll be much better. I mean, just try 00:24:04.299 --> 00:24:07.380 this. Do an exam paper. The first time, you might 00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:10.059 do okay on average or whatever. Do the exact 00:24:10.059 --> 00:24:12.720 same paper again, and you'll do way better. And 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:14.359 you know how to apply it in a better way now. 00:24:14.599 --> 00:24:16.640 So the more you try something, the better you 00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:18.380 get at it. And the better you get at it, the 00:24:18.380 --> 00:24:20.039 more confident you'll feel about these things. 00:24:20.859 --> 00:24:23.019 You should never, ever stop trying. You should 00:24:23.019 --> 00:24:25.740 never, ever stop learning about these things. 00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:29.279 That's my advice. Keep trying, keep trying, keep 00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:32.460 trying. And failure is more than okay. And I 00:24:32.460 --> 00:24:34.559 think if you keep both of them in your head, 00:24:34.680 --> 00:24:37.700 you will be able to reach your potential, what 00:24:37.700 --> 00:24:41.720 you're actually able to do. Thanks, Faz. That's 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:45.460 incredibly helpful. Can you now tell us a little 00:24:45.460 --> 00:24:47.720 bit more about your high school years or late... 00:24:47.930 --> 00:24:51.410 teenage years, 15 to 18, I would say. What did 00:24:51.410 --> 00:24:53.750 those years teach you? What kind of student were 00:24:53.750 --> 00:24:55.750 you? Did you know what you wanted to do after 00:24:55.750 --> 00:24:59.390 those years? Were you still interested in STEM? 00:24:59.430 --> 00:25:03.049 So moved more towards humanities, which covers 00:25:03.049 --> 00:25:05.990 more literature, history, philosophy, and arts. 00:25:07.210 --> 00:25:12.529 So when I was younger, the ambition was to become 00:25:12.529 --> 00:25:15.619 a nuclear physicist. i don't know i don't really 00:25:15.619 --> 00:25:17.440 remember why there was such an obsession with 00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:19.819 this but i suppose you know that i did enjoy 00:25:19.819 --> 00:25:21.480 history as well that's one of the few humanities 00:25:21.480 --> 00:25:23.339 that i did actually enjoy quite a lot alongside 00:25:23.339 --> 00:25:26.059 stem so maybe it was just this fascinating fascination 00:25:26.059 --> 00:25:29.880 of like stem in in you know war and history and 00:25:29.880 --> 00:25:32.660 big big events like that so i think for whatever 00:25:32.660 --> 00:25:35.119 reason i was quite obsessed with becoming a nuclear 00:25:35.119 --> 00:25:39.279 physicist of some kind um obviously that didn't 00:25:39.279 --> 00:25:41.339 turn out to be the case. Can't read that. I don't 00:25:41.339 --> 00:25:43.460 know physics particularly well. Math is fine, 00:25:43.519 --> 00:25:47.039 but physics is not so great. So that plan obviously 00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:51.380 was crap. But I think STEM was kind of my go 00:25:51.380 --> 00:25:55.839 -to from throughout primary and then early secondary 00:25:55.839 --> 00:25:59.000 school and then towards the kind of middle part 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:00.579 of secondary school and towards the later stage, 00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:02.200 it kind of moved more towards humanities and 00:26:02.200 --> 00:26:06.259 social sciences. mostly because the maths got 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:07.960 more difficult mostly because the things I just 00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:10.539 didn't understand it as well and humanities just 00:26:10.539 --> 00:26:13.240 made a bit more sense in terms of it was more 00:26:13.240 --> 00:26:15.700 practical to me as well so obviously physics 00:26:15.700 --> 00:26:18.319 and maths I have a passion for very interested 00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:21.920 in it but I'm more of a amateur enthusiast of 00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:24.220 it rather than being an academic or being very 00:26:24.220 --> 00:26:26.700 deep and studying it properly in a conventional 00:26:26.700 --> 00:26:31.720 sense the obviously over time I kind of moved 00:26:31.720 --> 00:26:35.869 towards more business and economic related stuff 00:26:35.869 --> 00:26:41.170 over time. So I think the key difference here 00:26:41.170 --> 00:26:46.769 is that, you know, STEM tends to have this characterization 00:26:46.769 --> 00:26:49.069 of being right or wrong. You know, one plus one 00:26:49.069 --> 00:26:51.910 equals two. It can't be anything else. You know, 00:26:51.910 --> 00:26:54.750 this particle does this. And, you know, that's 00:26:54.750 --> 00:26:57.970 how the world works. So, you know, accept it 00:26:57.970 --> 00:26:59.490 or don't accept it, but that's what happens. 00:26:59.710 --> 00:27:02.930 So there's very, very hard specific lines around 00:27:02.930 --> 00:27:05.890 what is and isn't true, what is and isn't right 00:27:05.890 --> 00:27:08.970 in STEM. Whereas in humanities, things are far 00:27:08.970 --> 00:27:13.630 more subjective. And so the, and typically the 00:27:13.630 --> 00:27:16.500 subjectivity comes from people. because you're 00:27:16.500 --> 00:27:18.339 because humanities are talking about you know 00:27:18.339 --> 00:27:20.980 people interacting with other people essentially 00:27:20.980 --> 00:27:24.299 so you know you take something like history or 00:27:24.299 --> 00:27:26.359 what is history well history is just people interacting 00:27:26.359 --> 00:27:28.539 with other people and then doing stupid things 00:27:28.539 --> 00:27:30.900 and then leading to all sorts of weird events 00:27:30.900 --> 00:27:33.460 take it take business or economics again this 00:27:33.460 --> 00:27:35.680 is just people interacting with each other one 00:27:35.680 --> 00:27:38.900 is for you know trade one is for uh you know 00:27:38.900 --> 00:27:40.480 starting a business or something like that and 00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:45.549 so this movement from trying to know what is 00:27:45.549 --> 00:27:48.450 right and wrong in definitive terms like in maths 00:27:48.450 --> 00:27:51.210 and science moving over to humanities where you 00:27:51.210 --> 00:27:52.829 actually have this people component to it and 00:27:52.829 --> 00:27:55.369 so you actually know actually what should what's 00:27:55.369 --> 00:27:59.029 the price of xp well who knows who knows it can 00:27:59.029 --> 00:28:01.269 be five pounds five euros it could be ten it 00:28:01.269 --> 00:28:03.630 could be two you know pick whichever one you 00:28:03.630 --> 00:28:05.609 want and that becomes a lot more interesting 00:28:05.609 --> 00:28:07.930 so for me there was always this link towards 00:28:07.930 --> 00:28:11.150 at least particularly maths but it became more 00:28:11.150 --> 00:28:13.900 of a people -oriented thing. So why are we using 00:28:13.900 --> 00:28:15.680 maths? How are we using maths? People use maths, 00:28:15.819 --> 00:28:17.720 not maths isn't there for the sake of it. We're 00:28:17.720 --> 00:28:20.039 using maths to do things with it. So what is 00:28:20.039 --> 00:28:24.039 that? And how can I learn more about it? People 00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:26.259 use math and you are trying to understand the 00:28:26.259 --> 00:28:28.240 dynamics around it. It's so interesting. And 00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:30.839 it explains also your higher degree orientation 00:28:30.839 --> 00:28:34.819 after high school. But how did you make the shift 00:28:34.819 --> 00:28:38.079 from wanting to become a nuclear physicist? And 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:41.130 I'm curious to understand. what other elements 00:28:41.130 --> 00:28:44.750 outside of school or within school impacted your 00:28:44.750 --> 00:28:49.130 choice? Yeah, I'll be honest. I think this comes 00:28:49.130 --> 00:28:53.650 from video games. So I was a massive Minecraft 00:28:53.650 --> 00:28:56.710 fanatic. I loved the game so much. I played it 00:28:56.710 --> 00:28:58.690 every single day. I remember when it came out 00:28:58.690 --> 00:29:02.430 in alpha mode. So I had it really early on. And 00:29:02.430 --> 00:29:05.529 Minecraft is an interesting game because it is 00:29:05.529 --> 00:29:09.569 very... mathsy in the sense of you have 64 stacks 00:29:09.569 --> 00:29:13.569 of blocks you've got um you know you have certain 00:29:13.569 --> 00:29:15.569 number of steps every single block is one meter 00:29:15.569 --> 00:29:17.589 by one meter or whatever so there's a lot of 00:29:17.589 --> 00:29:21.549 numbers involved but it is fundamentally a social 00:29:21.549 --> 00:29:24.500 game you are building a world you are you may 00:29:24.500 --> 00:29:26.339 be playing in multiplayer with other players 00:29:26.339 --> 00:29:29.059 and things like that and that's where you kind 00:29:29.059 --> 00:29:31.759 of have this transition from being a purely oh 00:29:31.759 --> 00:29:35.039 i must get x number of or 64 number of blocks 00:29:35.039 --> 00:29:38.180 or whatever to you know i'm gonna i'm gonna build 00:29:38.180 --> 00:29:39.740 something and build a house and a base with my 00:29:39.740 --> 00:29:43.200 friends now so you have this link between numbers 00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:45.700 and stem and and kind of moving towards a more 00:29:45.700 --> 00:29:47.779 social element of these sorts of things so i 00:29:47.779 --> 00:29:49.720 think that's definitely probably how i kind of 00:29:49.720 --> 00:29:52.900 moved over just from a social element i think 00:29:52.900 --> 00:29:55.539 on top of that i watched a lot of youtube as 00:29:55.539 --> 00:29:57.900 well when i was back then and uh a lot of kind 00:29:57.900 --> 00:30:00.859 of mini documentaries and a lot of um uh kind 00:30:00.859 --> 00:30:05.079 of interesting um channels were out there not 00:30:05.079 --> 00:30:08.119 new channels but infographic new channels that 00:30:08.119 --> 00:30:11.720 are quite abundant nowadays um you know the classic 00:30:11.720 --> 00:30:14.099 ones like wendover productions box i think they 00:30:14.099 --> 00:30:15.240 weren't there at the time but there were similar 00:30:15.240 --> 00:30:18.339 types of channels back back then um those were 00:30:18.339 --> 00:30:20.599 really interesting to me because they promoted 00:30:20.599 --> 00:30:24.400 themselves as being these very objective scientific 00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:28.440 uh videos when actually they were very subjective 00:30:28.440 --> 00:30:31.000 in terms of what the what the topic was so you 00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:33.779 know topic would be something like you know how 00:30:33.779 --> 00:30:36.799 do you build the biggest uh plane or something 00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:40.180 like that well, okay, you know, that's, that's 00:30:40.180 --> 00:30:41.779 interesting. It's an engineering video or whatever, 00:30:41.940 --> 00:30:45.660 but you know, there's a lot of subjectivity around 00:30:45.660 --> 00:30:47.079 that because you can always put the bigger plane 00:30:47.079 --> 00:30:49.420 or, you know, maybe it's the biggest plane by 00:30:49.420 --> 00:30:52.000 this company or by this, uh, or this type. And 00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:55.339 so, you know, it became a lot more, I think the 00:30:55.339 --> 00:30:57.680 storytelling aspect of it became a lot more interesting 00:30:57.680 --> 00:31:00.200 to me. So that's how that, that's how that transition 00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:03.099 went from kind of core STEM. and kind of going, 00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:04.700 you know, numbers, science, things like that, 00:31:04.839 --> 00:31:06.839 moving into that kind of social element of it 00:31:06.839 --> 00:31:09.599 behind the scenes saying, you know, well, why, 00:31:09.819 --> 00:31:11.880 you know, how does this stuff even come out to 00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:14.119 be? Who discovered this? Why did they discover 00:31:14.119 --> 00:31:15.640 this? Why were they looking into this, et cetera? 00:31:15.900 --> 00:31:17.519 And then you kind of muse that and to move on 00:31:17.519 --> 00:31:20.960 into more social science -y stuff down the line. 00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:24.460 So the numbers and the social aspect of the game, 00:31:24.619 --> 00:31:26.539 whose parents could have guessed the impact on 00:31:26.539 --> 00:31:30.250 your major thanks to video games? From what you're 00:31:30.250 --> 00:31:32.829 saying, you have been highly curious since your 00:31:32.829 --> 00:31:36.470 early teenage years. Do you know how come? You 00:31:36.470 --> 00:31:39.509 are questioning yourself. I'm sure most kids 00:31:39.509 --> 00:31:42.930 are just playing Minecraft. They did not connect 00:31:42.930 --> 00:31:45.450 the dots at the time. How does someone become 00:31:45.450 --> 00:31:49.769 curious? How did you? Honestly, I think it's 00:31:49.769 --> 00:31:52.170 probably the Lego. It's probably the Lego. I 00:31:52.170 --> 00:31:56.730 mean, it's one of those toys where, you know... 00:31:57.160 --> 00:32:00.299 your imagination is really what drives it so 00:32:00.299 --> 00:32:03.400 you can build anything and the thing is you can 00:32:03.400 --> 00:32:06.500 have a bunch of lego as a child you can build 00:32:06.500 --> 00:32:09.299 something really really ugly but it doesn't matter 00:32:09.299 --> 00:32:12.119 because what the imagination is of the child 00:32:12.119 --> 00:32:15.160 so if i build like if i use three blocks to build 00:32:15.160 --> 00:32:17.450 a plane that's a plane in my mind It might look 00:32:17.450 --> 00:32:19.269 like three blocks to you, but it's a plane to 00:32:19.269 --> 00:32:21.730 me. It's got all the details of the plane, in 00:32:21.730 --> 00:32:23.410 my mind at least, where it's got the engines, 00:32:23.650 --> 00:32:25.250 it's got the rudder, it's got the wings, it's 00:32:25.250 --> 00:32:28.789 got the cockpit, all the different things. So 00:32:28.789 --> 00:32:31.569 I think that as an essence, you know, in a physical 00:32:31.569 --> 00:32:33.690 world, Lego is probably the most imaginative 00:32:33.690 --> 00:32:35.230 tool out there. So, you know, maybe they could 00:32:35.230 --> 00:32:36.730 sponsor the podcast or something like that. But 00:32:36.730 --> 00:32:40.930 that's kind of how I see it. And then you have... 00:32:41.639 --> 00:32:44.240 other kind of sandbox games so these are things 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:47.579 like minecraft um and other games where you have 00:32:47.579 --> 00:32:49.740 to just express yourself in whatever way you 00:32:49.740 --> 00:32:52.240 want so yeah you have some specific things that 00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:53.720 you have some specific missions you have to do 00:32:53.720 --> 00:32:56.839 here and there but really it really is your world 00:32:56.839 --> 00:32:58.680 that you can do whatever you want in and that 00:32:58.680 --> 00:33:01.299 is a it's both terrifying and it's completely 00:33:01.299 --> 00:33:03.519 freeing at the same time because now all of a 00:33:03.519 --> 00:33:05.720 sudden you have to you can build whatever you 00:33:05.720 --> 00:33:08.420 want you can do whatever you want And there's 00:33:08.420 --> 00:33:11.019 no restriction, no time restriction, no resource 00:33:11.019 --> 00:33:12.900 restriction, nothing that can stop you from doing 00:33:12.900 --> 00:33:16.160 whatever you want. So I think in those kinds 00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:19.279 of games and those kinds of activities is I think 00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:22.059 what is probably the root of the curiosity and 00:33:22.059 --> 00:33:24.180 inspiration of that. So that's where it probably 00:33:24.180 --> 00:33:27.019 starts. I think the other part of it is, I think 00:33:27.019 --> 00:33:30.799 my, you know, my upbringing was also very positive 00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:32.240 in that sense where, you know, we were always 00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:34.660 taught to think, always taught to understand, 00:33:34.859 --> 00:33:37.420 not just. we weren't told to do things we also 00:33:37.420 --> 00:33:39.160 asked to think about why we're doing this as 00:33:39.160 --> 00:33:42.799 well so though that again is is a part of the 00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:44.440 curiosity aspect because it's not just a matter 00:33:44.440 --> 00:33:46.940 of well you should you should be good well why 00:33:46.940 --> 00:33:49.279 should i be good well you know you because it's 00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:50.640 nice because it's kind to people you want to 00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:52.779 see you want to promote good good things across 00:33:52.779 --> 00:33:55.460 the community you want to uh you know be respectful 00:33:55.460 --> 00:33:58.079 you want to build a community around that is 00:33:58.079 --> 00:34:00.400 more positive and and it feels good to yourself 00:34:00.400 --> 00:34:01.960 as well you know all you do all these things 00:34:01.960 --> 00:34:04.750 and so many more so Those are the kind of places 00:34:04.750 --> 00:34:06.769 where I think you get curiosity coming from. 00:34:06.789 --> 00:34:09.369 You have the games from childhood, you have types 00:34:09.369 --> 00:34:11.230 of things you're doing with, and I think most 00:34:11.230 --> 00:34:12.889 importantly, just talking with people as well. 00:34:13.030 --> 00:34:15.110 You know, every single person has a fascinating 00:34:15.110 --> 00:34:18.449 story behind them. And the more you interact 00:34:18.449 --> 00:34:21.110 with people, the more curious you become because 00:34:21.110 --> 00:34:23.150 you learn more about different experiences, you 00:34:23.150 --> 00:34:26.010 learn more about different people, and that goes 00:34:26.010 --> 00:34:29.050 on and on and on and on. Call to action here 00:34:29.050 --> 00:34:33.110 to parents and to the younger generation. First. 00:34:33.550 --> 00:34:36.630 play video games like Minecraft, you will not 00:34:36.630 --> 00:34:39.690 only develop a strategic and creative mind, you'll 00:34:39.690 --> 00:34:42.409 also develop your curiosity. And the second thing 00:34:42.409 --> 00:34:45.469 is to be supportive and stimulate that curious 00:34:45.469 --> 00:34:48.349 mind. Surroundings and upbringings can play a 00:34:48.349 --> 00:34:51.090 big role. Yeah, it's a combination of all the 00:34:51.090 --> 00:34:54.210 little things that have combined together to 00:34:54.210 --> 00:34:57.650 become more curious as a person, I suppose. And 00:34:57.650 --> 00:34:59.989 do you remember an advice you received at the 00:34:59.989 --> 00:35:03.590 time? Do you have an advice yourself looking 00:35:03.590 --> 00:35:07.889 back? It's a good question. You live in reality. 00:35:08.070 --> 00:35:10.750 You don't live online. As much as they may not 00:35:10.750 --> 00:35:13.369 see a separation between the two, there is separation. 00:35:14.030 --> 00:35:17.150 And we need to understand this. And so, you know, 00:35:17.170 --> 00:35:19.809 the internet is a beautiful thing if you use 00:35:19.809 --> 00:35:22.429 it properly. But I feel that they haven't been 00:35:22.429 --> 00:35:24.469 taught the proper etiquettes and proper ways 00:35:24.469 --> 00:35:26.510 of using it in a way that's most effective to 00:35:26.510 --> 00:35:28.869 them. So my advice to any high school student 00:35:28.869 --> 00:35:32.980 is... find some find a project or interest and 00:35:32.980 --> 00:35:35.940 just go all in on it and just see what see what 00:35:35.940 --> 00:35:39.980 happens um doesn't have to be anything overly 00:35:39.980 --> 00:35:42.920 complex but if you just do a series of small 00:35:42.920 --> 00:35:45.559 interesting projects that can be really really 00:35:45.559 --> 00:35:47.719 good because you can use your time one of the 00:35:47.719 --> 00:35:49.480 reasons why i like lego so much is the fact that 00:35:49.480 --> 00:35:51.659 you have to build something then you complete 00:35:51.659 --> 00:35:53.519 it and then you start again you build something 00:35:53.519 --> 00:35:56.429 else and in a way thinking back they're kind 00:35:56.429 --> 00:35:58.570 of mini projects on their own right just on your 00:35:58.570 --> 00:35:59.889 own terms really but you are building something 00:35:59.889 --> 00:36:03.429 tangible out of it and so find something that 00:36:03.429 --> 00:36:07.170 is bothering you and try to come up with something 00:36:07.170 --> 00:36:09.409 that would fix it i mean a good example of this 00:36:09.409 --> 00:36:11.769 could be something like you know you might have 00:36:11.769 --> 00:36:14.389 um if you're into computers or computer science 00:36:14.389 --> 00:36:18.449 you know you could for example get um uh you 00:36:18.449 --> 00:36:21.130 know lights fairy lights or whatever around your 00:36:21.130 --> 00:36:25.079 room and try to create a program that the lights 00:36:25.079 --> 00:36:28.159 change based on the weather outside. So if it's 00:36:28.159 --> 00:36:30.539 raining, they change to blue. If it's sunny, 00:36:30.619 --> 00:36:32.289 it changes to yellow. Something like that. And 00:36:32.289 --> 00:36:35.630 there's loads of existing code out there that 00:36:35.630 --> 00:36:37.150 can support that development. It's not a brand 00:36:37.150 --> 00:36:39.570 new thing. But it's just the fact that we were 00:36:39.570 --> 00:36:42.030 able to write the code, write the program, install 00:36:42.030 --> 00:36:43.889 the lights and everything, all the little tasks, 00:36:44.250 --> 00:36:46.289 they add up and they generate a valuable skill. 00:36:46.449 --> 00:36:48.590 And the younger you do this, the better. So that's 00:36:48.590 --> 00:36:50.670 an example of a nice, fun little project that 00:36:50.670 --> 00:36:53.250 makes your room look nicer. You gain a few skills 00:36:53.250 --> 00:36:55.090 in terms of coding. And if you like it enough, 00:36:55.329 --> 00:36:57.030 you might do more of this kind of stuff. And 00:36:57.030 --> 00:36:59.230 if you hate it, fine. That's okay. At least you 00:36:59.230 --> 00:37:03.780 know now. I think, I think doing more physical 00:37:03.780 --> 00:37:06.000 things as well, you know, and not just like sports, 00:37:06.099 --> 00:37:09.320 but also arts and crafts, you know, um, not finger 00:37:09.320 --> 00:37:10.699 painting, obviously, but, you know, painting 00:37:10.699 --> 00:37:13.780 itself, uh, you know, um, writing with a bit 00:37:13.780 --> 00:37:15.320 of pen and paper specifically, not just, not 00:37:15.320 --> 00:37:18.219 just, uh, typing on the keyboard. These, these 00:37:18.219 --> 00:37:19.980 might seem quite old fashioned traditional things, 00:37:20.099 --> 00:37:22.739 but actually they develop little things like 00:37:22.739 --> 00:37:24.420 motor neuron skills when you're in your hands. 00:37:24.519 --> 00:37:27.179 So you become much, much better at using your 00:37:27.179 --> 00:37:29.719 hands properly. Um, there's something about. 00:37:30.110 --> 00:37:32.610 you know touching paper when you're painting 00:37:32.610 --> 00:37:35.750 something which is something much more spiritual 00:37:35.750 --> 00:37:39.070 much more impactful than say um you know just 00:37:39.070 --> 00:37:41.469 drawing something on an ipad in my at least in 00:37:41.469 --> 00:37:45.449 my in my view at least so start to connect more 00:37:45.449 --> 00:37:48.309 with the physical world rather than being obsessed 00:37:48.309 --> 00:37:50.269 with things online because this is actually i 00:37:50.269 --> 00:37:52.449 think part of the problem that a lot a lot of 00:37:52.449 --> 00:37:54.469 a lot of young people are facing and to no fault 00:37:54.469 --> 00:37:55.849 of their own by the way i think they just pushed 00:37:55.849 --> 00:37:59.099 onto this so i'm not having a dig at the young 00:37:59.099 --> 00:38:01.239 people themselves i think you know i would probably 00:38:01.239 --> 00:38:04.039 do the same if i had a phone at 11 or 12 i'd 00:38:04.039 --> 00:38:06.679 probably do the same to be honest so um yeah 00:38:06.679 --> 00:38:10.079 you know go outside you know experience the world 00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:12.840 for what it is and and um breathe in breathe 00:38:12.840 --> 00:38:16.940 out those are brilliant advice files and there 00:38:16.940 --> 00:38:18.719 are so many takeaways i'll just highlight two 00:38:18.719 --> 00:38:23.750 now and to quote you first Try to find something 00:38:23.750 --> 00:38:26.550 that is bothering you and go fix it. And I think 00:38:26.550 --> 00:38:28.929 it's a brilliant call to action and fantastic 00:38:28.929 --> 00:38:33.090 mindset to have from as early as you can, basically, 00:38:33.210 --> 00:38:37.809 and from as early as you can. Using the tools 00:38:37.809 --> 00:38:42.190 and countless access we have, find what sparks 00:38:42.190 --> 00:38:45.730 interest, passion, and move on being at the mercy 00:38:45.730 --> 00:38:48.250 of scrolling and trying to leverage those tools 00:38:48.250 --> 00:38:53.239 to make your life more interesting. more exciting 00:38:53.239 --> 00:38:57.400 and the second point is doing more physical things 00:38:57.400 --> 00:39:01.239 writing sports painting develop and create that 00:39:01.239 --> 00:39:03.559 constant balance between working on different 00:39:03.559 --> 00:39:05.639 projects as well as developing your physical 00:39:05.639 --> 00:39:09.420 and mental strengths and capabilities the combination 00:39:09.420 --> 00:39:13.280 of both and i will repeat that in every single 00:39:13.280 --> 00:39:17.039 episode that i'm doing is it will give you a 00:39:17.039 --> 00:39:22.139 chance to learn to try to fail and grow And at 00:39:22.139 --> 00:39:24.380 the end of the day, it will also allow you to 00:39:24.380 --> 00:39:27.239 understand what works for you, how capable you 00:39:27.239 --> 00:39:30.440 are, and what meets you. I've got a couple other 00:39:30.440 --> 00:39:34.380 things as well there, actually. So there are 00:39:34.380 --> 00:39:37.619 little things that you can do, just probably 00:39:37.619 --> 00:39:41.360 in your local community. So volunteering at a 00:39:41.360 --> 00:39:44.760 local charity shop. is a really interesting experience 00:39:44.760 --> 00:39:48.179 i wouldn't do it i wouldn't do it as a job necessarily 00:39:48.179 --> 00:39:49.519 i mean you can do it as a job and get some get 00:39:49.519 --> 00:39:52.400 some money for as well but you know if you're 00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:55.320 just volunteering you might have to do things 00:39:55.320 --> 00:39:59.400 which are completely that suck a lot to be honest 00:39:59.400 --> 00:40:02.260 but i actually think those that's actually where 00:40:02.260 --> 00:40:05.219 you grow the most so you know are you stacking 00:40:05.219 --> 00:40:08.159 shelves for example are you manning the till 00:40:08.159 --> 00:40:10.730 are you You're making furniture and helping customers 00:40:10.730 --> 00:40:14.750 buy and trade things. Are you in the stock room 00:40:14.750 --> 00:40:17.190 checking things and ticking things off? These 00:40:17.190 --> 00:40:22.110 are boring tasks. I fully accept this. But when 00:40:22.110 --> 00:40:25.630 you do them yourself, you appreciate the world 00:40:25.630 --> 00:40:28.070 around you a bit more and you understand what 00:40:28.070 --> 00:40:31.250 responsibility means. And you can't really fake 00:40:31.250 --> 00:40:33.550 it as much. Whereas if you were to try and do 00:40:33.550 --> 00:40:36.019 your thing entirely by your own. you're doing 00:40:36.019 --> 00:40:37.760 it in an unstructured fashion and i think it's 00:40:37.760 --> 00:40:40.159 quite difficult for young people to get into 00:40:40.159 --> 00:40:43.219 because you're in school day long you have you 00:40:43.219 --> 00:40:45.280 know 8 a .m starts 9 a .m start you finish at 00:40:45.280 --> 00:40:47.719 3 p .m 4 p .m or whatever and so you have this 00:40:47.719 --> 00:40:50.019 very very big structure attached to you and so 00:40:50.019 --> 00:40:51.619 trying to do something independently entirely 00:40:51.619 --> 00:40:53.500 on your own can be quite difficult at times so 00:40:53.500 --> 00:40:56.199 maybe look at you know getting a doing some volunteering 00:40:56.199 --> 00:40:58.900 on the side can be a pay job as well you know 00:40:58.900 --> 00:41:01.059 um could be helping you know if your parents 00:41:01.059 --> 00:41:02.699 are out of other business maybe help out there 00:41:02.699 --> 00:41:05.909 as well if you know already um Or even something 00:41:05.909 --> 00:41:07.630 as simple as, you know, going around to your 00:41:07.630 --> 00:41:09.349 neighbors and offering them tea, you know, making 00:41:09.349 --> 00:41:11.829 them tea or, you know, or doing a charity run 00:41:11.829 --> 00:41:13.449 or something like that. I think these are little 00:41:13.449 --> 00:41:16.530 things that you can do just to separate, again, 00:41:16.650 --> 00:41:19.829 get out of the house, do something that's actually 00:41:19.829 --> 00:41:22.489 impactful for the community and just add a bit 00:41:22.489 --> 00:41:25.570 of variety into your life. This is a brilliant 00:41:25.570 --> 00:41:29.409 addition and advice. You learn so much from those 00:41:29.409 --> 00:41:31.929 experiences and we're still talking about the 00:41:31.929 --> 00:41:35.130 early teenage years. In most countries, you're 00:41:35.130 --> 00:41:38.989 not allowed to actually properly work. So getting 00:41:38.989 --> 00:41:41.590 this volunteering experience will not only allow 00:41:41.590 --> 00:41:44.530 you to be exposed to new skill set, knowledge, 00:41:44.710 --> 00:41:46.369 understanding of the world, of the expectation 00:41:46.369 --> 00:41:49.869 of a working environment, even if it's fully 00:41:49.869 --> 00:41:53.369 volunteering. And giving back is one of the best 00:41:53.369 --> 00:41:55.769 experiences you can have. Learning how to help 00:41:55.769 --> 00:41:58.250 your own community, your local community or wider 00:41:58.250 --> 00:42:01.210 communities, I think, is absolutely life -changing. 00:42:01.739 --> 00:42:04.360 I think it also allows you to interact with another 00:42:04.360 --> 00:42:07.019 generation, so people from outside as well, from 00:42:07.019 --> 00:42:09.800 your close circle, so you will learn from them. 00:42:10.079 --> 00:42:14.380 It will be very enriching. And also, you mentioned 00:42:14.380 --> 00:42:17.000 it earlier, it will allow you to become more 00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:19.460 curious, trying to understand more of what's 00:42:19.460 --> 00:42:22.199 happening around you and outside of the school 00:42:22.199 --> 00:42:26.559 doors and your home. Let's now discuss your undergrad. 00:42:26.820 --> 00:42:28.820 You explained to us why business and economics 00:42:28.820 --> 00:42:32.389 were of interest to you. Were your teachers inspiring? 00:42:32.789 --> 00:42:34.769 Did you ever think about changing your major, 00:42:34.829 --> 00:42:37.969 your path? What did you like the most about that 00:42:37.969 --> 00:42:41.610 curriculum? And tell us a little bit more about 00:42:41.610 --> 00:42:49.329 that experience. So when I was in year 10 and 00:42:49.329 --> 00:42:53.150 year 11, so doing my GCSEs, it was a requirement 00:42:53.150 --> 00:42:55.809 at my school that every single student would 00:42:55.809 --> 00:42:59.519 do business GCSE. And the reason... a little 00:42:59.519 --> 00:43:02.239 bit more what it is so so business gcse this 00:43:02.239 --> 00:43:05.460 is just looking at um this is a general certificate 00:43:05.460 --> 00:43:09.059 for secondary education and this is the first 00:43:09.059 --> 00:43:12.320 major exam that a student in the UK will do and 00:43:12.320 --> 00:43:14.460 my school and normally schools in the in the 00:43:14.460 --> 00:43:17.780 UK they will have a specific type of subject 00:43:17.780 --> 00:43:19.840 area that they specialize in so you might have 00:43:19.840 --> 00:43:21.559 a language school and so they'll force every 00:43:21.559 --> 00:43:23.659 single student to do at least one language as 00:43:23.659 --> 00:43:26.039 part of their GCSEs whereas my school that I 00:43:26.039 --> 00:43:28.099 went to forced every single student to do business 00:43:28.099 --> 00:43:31.639 and that was probably the first formal time I 00:43:31.639 --> 00:43:34.630 understood what business actually was. And I 00:43:34.630 --> 00:43:37.730 enjoyed it quite a lot. The other part of it 00:43:37.730 --> 00:43:41.429 was there was a competition that I took part 00:43:41.429 --> 00:43:47.670 in called the Stock Market Young Investor Challenge. 00:43:48.349 --> 00:43:51.190 And this was run by the Institute for Fiscal 00:43:51.190 --> 00:43:54.940 Studies, which is a... you know a large um economic 00:43:54.940 --> 00:43:57.800 slash finance think tank in the uk but the point 00:43:57.800 --> 00:43:59.900 being is that this this was the first time that 00:43:59.900 --> 00:44:02.760 i got any kind of insight into economics into 00:44:02.760 --> 00:44:06.300 financial markets and into that sort of world 00:44:06.300 --> 00:44:09.679 that existed i liked it so much i was good at 00:44:09.679 --> 00:44:12.420 it to the point where i used to get a's and did 00:44:12.420 --> 00:44:14.840 really well in the competition etc Then I then 00:44:14.840 --> 00:44:17.219 did economics in my A -levels, which is the highest 00:44:17.219 --> 00:44:20.599 tier of education before you do a degree in the 00:44:20.599 --> 00:44:24.079 UK. Did economics, did really well there. Did 00:44:24.079 --> 00:44:28.159 some maths alongside it as well. Got a lot more 00:44:28.159 --> 00:44:31.800 stuck into it. And I found things clicked a lot 00:44:31.800 --> 00:44:33.860 more for me because it explained how the world 00:44:33.860 --> 00:44:36.639 worked around me as well, for better or for worse, 00:44:36.679 --> 00:44:40.860 for that matter. And then I decided, hey, I wasn't 00:44:40.860 --> 00:44:43.010 good enough for physics. I tried A -level physics, 00:44:43.210 --> 00:44:45.570 couldn't do it, dropped it as a subject, decided 00:44:45.570 --> 00:44:47.329 to do double down on maths and economics instead. 00:44:47.710 --> 00:44:51.750 And so in my mind, it was, you know, do what 00:44:51.750 --> 00:44:53.630 you're good at, which is, you know, economics. 00:44:53.809 --> 00:44:56.730 So that's why I pursued that a lot more. I often 00:44:56.730 --> 00:44:59.409 like to give economics this interesting announcement, 00:44:59.469 --> 00:45:02.230 which is that it's the, at least in retrospect, 00:45:02.449 --> 00:45:05.250 I think it's the highest respect degree for the 00:45:05.250 --> 00:45:08.510 least amount of effort. It's got a perfect ratio 00:45:08.510 --> 00:45:11.010 there. Whereas if you were to say, do law, medicine, 00:45:11.329 --> 00:45:14.150 any STEM subject, or even any kind of other social 00:45:14.150 --> 00:45:15.550 science, like history, there's a lot of essay 00:45:15.550 --> 00:45:17.869 writing in history, for example, you know, that's 00:45:17.869 --> 00:45:20.670 high effort, high respect. I'm picking, I'm being 00:45:20.670 --> 00:45:22.389 quite lazy. I'm picking, you know, high respect, 00:45:22.449 --> 00:45:25.949 low effort. So it was a bit of a, it's a bit 00:45:25.949 --> 00:45:29.289 of a cheeky one, I suppose, in that sense. But 00:45:29.289 --> 00:45:33.489 I think economics for me, it explains why things 00:45:33.489 --> 00:45:36.940 are the way they are. oh, the world works like 00:45:36.940 --> 00:45:39.599 this, this is a good thing. It's like, no, the 00:45:39.599 --> 00:45:43.699 world works in this way because our incentives 00:45:43.699 --> 00:45:51.079 are this way, because society has decided to 00:45:51.079 --> 00:45:54.019 set itself off in this way. Oh, and because we 00:45:54.019 --> 00:45:55.860 need capitalism because we need to eat and we 00:45:55.860 --> 00:45:57.900 need to make money and all that kind of stuff 00:45:57.900 --> 00:46:00.659 as well. So it explains in lots of detail why 00:46:00.659 --> 00:46:03.099 things are the way they are and why it's so difficult 00:46:03.099 --> 00:46:06.039 to change them as well. and what drives a value 00:46:06.039 --> 00:46:08.699 inherently drives value i mean if you have five 00:46:08.699 --> 00:46:10.940 of something that's quite rare if you have a 00:46:10.940 --> 00:46:12.940 million of something that's not rare at all and 00:46:12.940 --> 00:46:14.900 so the value of the thing that is only you have 00:46:14.900 --> 00:46:16.880 five of is obviously a lot more than the one 00:46:16.880 --> 00:46:20.079 that you have a million of so um you know it's 00:46:20.079 --> 00:46:22.019 the classic phrase if money if money grew on 00:46:22.019 --> 00:46:25.980 trees it would be as worth as leaves so they 00:46:25.980 --> 00:46:29.579 um you had this very nice kind of scene of transition 00:46:29.579 --> 00:46:31.920 from you know doing business and doing competitions 00:46:31.920 --> 00:46:35.480 in GCSEs, doing A -level economics more formally, 00:46:35.619 --> 00:46:37.960 then moving properly into an undergraduate degree 00:46:37.960 --> 00:46:40.239 in that subject area, which combined a lot of 00:46:40.239 --> 00:46:41.719 these different things around business, around 00:46:41.719 --> 00:46:44.320 maths, and general curiosity around how people 00:46:44.320 --> 00:46:46.760 worked. And that's what economics is in a nutshell. 00:46:48.099 --> 00:46:50.440 Oh, you did mention that you're enrolling in 00:46:50.440 --> 00:46:53.739 a competition. How do you build the confidence 00:46:53.739 --> 00:46:57.500 to do so? Well, you get confidence by trying. 00:46:58.239 --> 00:47:01.300 It goes back to what I said before. If you do 00:47:01.300 --> 00:47:04.199 something for the first time, you will suck at 00:47:04.199 --> 00:47:07.440 it. That's just how it is. It's very, very unlikely 00:47:07.440 --> 00:47:08.880 that you will be good at something the first 00:47:08.880 --> 00:47:11.579 time. And that's not because you're bad at it. 00:47:11.679 --> 00:47:13.760 It's because you haven't trained for it. In fact, 00:47:13.960 --> 00:47:17.059 ask yourself, you know, the first time that, 00:47:17.079 --> 00:47:19.980 say, you know, a football player kicks a ball, 00:47:20.219 --> 00:47:23.380 will they score a fantastic goal? No, they won't. 00:47:23.380 --> 00:47:26.380 It'll be terrible. But by doing it again and 00:47:26.380 --> 00:47:28.800 again and again, you get better and better and 00:47:28.800 --> 00:47:31.400 better. And if you train it enough, then you 00:47:31.400 --> 00:47:33.800 will become excellent at it. Now, yes, there's 00:47:33.800 --> 00:47:35.199 a bit of talent involved and things like that. 00:47:35.420 --> 00:47:38.739 But I really do believe that if you put your 00:47:38.739 --> 00:47:41.280 mind to something for a long enough period of 00:47:41.280 --> 00:47:45.159 time, you're guaranteed to get to a very good 00:47:45.159 --> 00:47:50.079 standard at this. And only the last 5 -10 % is 00:47:50.079 --> 00:47:52.900 raw talent, I suppose. But beyond that, you can 00:47:52.900 --> 00:47:55.139 get really good at lots of different things just 00:47:55.139 --> 00:47:57.440 by sheer practicing it. And in some things, you'll 00:47:57.440 --> 00:47:59.179 be really quick and really natural to it. Other 00:47:59.179 --> 00:48:00.739 things might take a bit of extra time, but you 00:48:00.739 --> 00:48:04.039 just have to try and see what works. It really 00:48:04.039 --> 00:48:07.579 is a trial and error thing. So to get confidence, 00:48:07.820 --> 00:48:11.380 you need to just put yourself in there and see 00:48:11.380 --> 00:48:14.440 how it goes. And don't fear failure. competitions 00:48:14.440 --> 00:48:15.920 yeah they're competitive that's what competitions 00:48:15.920 --> 00:48:18.179 are but you know are you going to win every single 00:48:18.179 --> 00:48:21.079 competition well no you're not so it's okay so 00:48:21.079 --> 00:48:23.519 so you know go go into these competitions not 00:48:23.519 --> 00:48:25.960 not just with a kind of i want to win mindset 00:48:25.960 --> 00:48:28.199 and that's fine to have but also go into it and 00:48:28.199 --> 00:48:30.039 say well have i learned anything new from here 00:48:30.039 --> 00:48:33.280 will i gain anything valuable from this experience 00:48:33.280 --> 00:48:36.800 and am i pushing myself to learn more have those 00:48:36.800 --> 00:48:39.409 other things as well you know, because if you 00:48:39.409 --> 00:48:41.150 win, but you didn't, you know, I could, I could 00:48:41.150 --> 00:48:43.570 win. Anyone here could win a competition for, 00:48:43.630 --> 00:48:46.369 you know, primary school students, you know, 00:48:46.369 --> 00:48:49.250 but what's the point of that? Um, it's not, there's 00:48:49.250 --> 00:48:51.429 no fun. It's no competition. It's too easy, but 00:48:51.429 --> 00:48:52.989 we do want to get, we do want to win this tough 00:48:52.989 --> 00:48:54.690 competitions because that's where the, that's 00:48:54.690 --> 00:48:58.090 where the more excited things are. So, um, that's 00:48:58.090 --> 00:48:59.809 kind of a big thing. I think the other thing 00:48:59.809 --> 00:49:02.989 with confidence is believe in yourself that you 00:49:02.989 --> 00:49:05.909 can do it. And that might sound very cliche and 00:49:05.909 --> 00:49:09.090 very obvious, but I think a lot of people think 00:49:09.090 --> 00:49:12.090 to themselves, oh, I can't do that. Oh, I'm not 00:49:12.090 --> 00:49:13.789 good enough. When actually your mindset should 00:49:13.789 --> 00:49:15.789 really be around, your mindset should really 00:49:15.789 --> 00:49:19.929 be, of course I can do that. Of course I can 00:49:19.929 --> 00:49:22.170 do that. You know, so I will do it just to prove 00:49:22.170 --> 00:49:24.670 a point. I think that's a much more effective 00:49:24.670 --> 00:49:26.710 way of thinking about things rather than trying 00:49:26.710 --> 00:49:28.550 to discount yourself and say, no, actually I 00:49:28.550 --> 00:49:30.570 can be amazing. I will be amazing. Let me try 00:49:30.570 --> 00:49:32.719 this and prove it to the world. that gets better 00:49:32.719 --> 00:49:34.400 results in my opinion and when i've had that 00:49:34.400 --> 00:49:36.559 mindset and different things it might go horribly 00:49:36.559 --> 00:49:38.300 wrong but at least i tried at least i learned 00:49:38.300 --> 00:49:40.260 something interesting from it and when it is 00:49:40.260 --> 00:49:42.159 when it does go well amazing i just proved myself 00:49:42.159 --> 00:49:44.699 right i proved myself proved the world i'm right 00:49:44.699 --> 00:49:48.579 as well so um so yeah so it just comes down to 00:49:48.579 --> 00:49:50.699 just you know just pushing yourself in there 00:49:50.699 --> 00:49:52.900 a lot of competitions also have teams as well 00:49:52.900 --> 00:49:55.469 so if you're not you know pair with your friends 00:49:55.469 --> 00:49:58.570 do that as well you know no no shame in fact 00:49:58.570 --> 00:49:59.909 it can be a good thing as well because you'll 00:49:59.909 --> 00:50:01.469 learn from each other you'll bounce ideas off 00:50:01.469 --> 00:50:03.489 as well so you know you don't have to do everything 00:50:03.489 --> 00:50:05.630 alone you can do it in teams you can do it in 00:50:05.630 --> 00:50:08.809 you can do it on your own as well um or you can 00:50:08.809 --> 00:50:10.650 do do kind of easy competition and build yourself 00:50:10.650 --> 00:50:12.409 up from that from that side as well so you know 00:50:12.409 --> 00:50:14.050 pick a competition that you know you're more 00:50:14.050 --> 00:50:16.969 likely to win or do well in and then build up 00:50:16.969 --> 00:50:19.989 from there so but you just have to start you 00:50:19.989 --> 00:50:23.019 just have to get stuck in I couldn't have said 00:50:23.019 --> 00:50:26.059 better, Faz. Thank you. And I would love to just 00:50:26.059 --> 00:50:30.000 quote you and repeat what you just said. You 00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:32.519 said two things first. It's not that you're bad 00:50:32.519 --> 00:50:34.360 at it, it's that you haven't trained for it. 00:50:35.739 --> 00:50:39.360 The second thing you said is, will you win each 00:50:39.360 --> 00:50:42.440 competition? No, you're not. And to understand 00:50:42.440 --> 00:50:45.920 better what Faz just said, think about the reality 00:50:45.920 --> 00:50:49.239 of athletes. They are competing, but they are 00:50:49.239 --> 00:50:51.599 not winning all the time. And we saw it clearly 00:50:51.599 --> 00:50:54.639 during the Olympics. So if you don't understand 00:50:54.639 --> 00:50:59.159 what Fass meant through this, watch again your 00:50:59.159 --> 00:51:03.619 country's involvement in the Olympics. Look at 00:51:03.619 --> 00:51:07.780 how hard they were working and willing to compete 00:51:07.780 --> 00:51:11.440 and knowing that they could potentially win as 00:51:11.440 --> 00:51:14.360 much as they could potentially lose. But they 00:51:14.360 --> 00:51:17.840 just went with this mindset. Again, going back 00:51:17.840 --> 00:51:21.280 to what Fass just said. just i can do that i 00:51:21.280 --> 00:51:25.699 can try and will i learn something new what will 00:51:25.699 --> 00:51:27.820 i gain in terms of experience again to go fast 00:51:27.820 --> 00:51:31.320 there's so much to gain from that going back 00:51:31.320 --> 00:51:34.920 to your undergrad fast how are your marks what 00:51:34.920 --> 00:51:37.139 did you learn from those years i was a better 00:51:37.139 --> 00:51:39.960 student at university uh did very well in first 00:51:39.960 --> 00:51:43.239 year and did okay average in in second year and 00:51:43.239 --> 00:51:45.219 then did pretty well in my final year as well 00:51:45.219 --> 00:51:50.500 um i think the I think the key thing for me at 00:51:50.500 --> 00:51:53.360 university is that university has two aspects 00:51:53.360 --> 00:51:57.340 to it. You have the degree aspect. So why are 00:51:57.340 --> 00:51:58.880 you there? You're studying to get a degree out 00:51:58.880 --> 00:52:00.659 of it. And then you have the other part, which 00:52:00.659 --> 00:52:04.159 is the experience part. You are there to develop 00:52:04.159 --> 00:52:08.699 as a person because university is the last place 00:52:08.699 --> 00:52:12.579 where you will have a controlled environment. 00:52:13.260 --> 00:52:15.480 It is the last place where you will have an environment 00:52:15.480 --> 00:52:18.519 where you can fail with the safety net. that's 00:52:18.519 --> 00:52:20.300 that's that's what university offers you because 00:52:20.300 --> 00:52:24.000 if you mess up you know yes your parents aren't 00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:25.400 there yes your family isn't there your friends 00:52:25.400 --> 00:52:27.139 aren't maybe your friends are in different places 00:52:27.139 --> 00:52:31.679 but your university is designed as a organization 00:52:31.679 --> 00:52:34.440 and as an institution should i say to support 00:52:34.440 --> 00:52:37.800 you so that's from every aspect that's from housing 00:52:37.800 --> 00:52:41.260 from financing from um from taking risks and 00:52:41.260 --> 00:52:43.079 all these different things you know that's what 00:52:43.079 --> 00:52:45.400 university's job is it is to cultivate youth 00:52:45.400 --> 00:52:48.469 and make it not just productive members of society, 00:52:48.750 --> 00:52:52.449 but critical thinkers as well. That's the purpose 00:52:52.449 --> 00:52:56.170 of education. And so, yes, you have your degree. 00:52:56.869 --> 00:52:59.070 Yes, you should become an expert in that by getting 00:52:59.070 --> 00:53:03.940 your degree. But you need to explore. everything 00:53:03.940 --> 00:53:06.420 that you can, that a university has to offer. 00:53:06.659 --> 00:53:08.099 And I think that's what my university experience 00:53:08.099 --> 00:53:11.780 was like. So yeah, I did the assignments. Yeah, 00:53:11.880 --> 00:53:13.400 I missed a few lectures here and there. You know, 00:53:13.400 --> 00:53:16.280 yeah, maybe you could have studied a bit harder, 00:53:16.280 --> 00:53:18.739 got a bit of a higher mark or whatever. But I 00:53:18.739 --> 00:53:21.199 did enough. I did my part there to get the grades 00:53:21.199 --> 00:53:24.179 that I needed. And then I, but I also prioritized 00:53:24.179 --> 00:53:26.079 a lot of extracurriculars as well on the side 00:53:26.079 --> 00:53:27.840 as well. So you have these two aspects to university 00:53:27.840 --> 00:53:31.880 that you need to consider. University is designed 00:53:31.880 --> 00:53:34.960 to support you. Do remember this as you start 00:53:34.960 --> 00:53:38.840 this new year. Go all in and embrace learnings, 00:53:38.840 --> 00:53:42.139 failures, whatever you want to call it, and embrace 00:53:42.139 --> 00:53:45.139 growth. Fast, tell us a little bit more about 00:53:45.139 --> 00:53:48.599 your own experience. You won awards, you built 00:53:48.599 --> 00:53:52.500 projects, joined societies, and built even more 00:53:52.500 --> 00:53:55.739 from the ground up. And you went all in yourself. 00:53:56.099 --> 00:53:59.000 What did those years teach you? It taught me 00:53:59.000 --> 00:54:03.340 I have a lot more time than I think. 24 hours 00:54:03.340 --> 00:54:06.980 is actually quite a lot of time. And if you know 00:54:06.980 --> 00:54:09.219 how to use it effectively, you can do a lot of 00:54:09.219 --> 00:54:11.699 stuff, a lot of stuff. So that's the first thing. 00:54:12.179 --> 00:54:16.500 So the way in which I think about my university 00:54:16.500 --> 00:54:20.119 time is that there were kind of four different 00:54:20.119 --> 00:54:23.380 categories. So you have things that I would do 00:54:23.380 --> 00:54:26.099 with my department itself. So every single university 00:54:26.099 --> 00:54:28.659 has a department that will teach you the subject. 00:54:28.840 --> 00:54:30.800 And so I did a lot of work directly. with my 00:54:30.800 --> 00:54:33.360 department. This included things like volunteering 00:54:33.360 --> 00:54:36.159 for various experiments. So there were some game 00:54:36.159 --> 00:54:38.179 theory experiments which I volunteered for. This 00:54:38.179 --> 00:54:41.500 was helping out with becoming a course representative, 00:54:41.719 --> 00:54:44.000 which means that I'm a student, but I will represent 00:54:44.000 --> 00:54:46.679 the entire student class in front of the faculty 00:54:46.679 --> 00:54:47.980 and in front of the lecturers and professors 00:54:47.980 --> 00:54:52.059 to get their voices heard. There are module representatives 00:54:52.059 --> 00:54:55.110 as well. For a particular module, you might be 00:54:55.110 --> 00:54:56.829 the representative just for that module to make 00:54:56.829 --> 00:54:58.610 sure that the professor hears the guidance and 00:54:58.610 --> 00:55:00.969 hears the feedback from the students for that 00:55:00.969 --> 00:55:03.949 particular class. So I did that as well. Then 00:55:03.949 --> 00:55:06.050 you have kind of supporting the university at 00:55:06.050 --> 00:55:09.070 various other things, like you can become a student 00:55:09.070 --> 00:55:11.050 ambassador. So you can do tours of the university 00:55:11.050 --> 00:55:14.409 for parents and younger students who may be interested 00:55:14.409 --> 00:55:16.769 in joining that university. So that's kind of 00:55:16.769 --> 00:55:18.349 the first part, things that are directly with 00:55:18.349 --> 00:55:21.550 the university itself. Then you've got societies. 00:55:21.949 --> 00:55:25.949 And this is the most fun part where you, societies 00:55:25.949 --> 00:55:29.949 are fantastic because a good university will 00:55:29.949 --> 00:55:33.670 have virtually any society of any kind. And if 00:55:33.670 --> 00:55:36.530 it doesn't exist, you can create your own. And 00:55:36.530 --> 00:55:39.070 that's the best part about it. So you are using 00:55:39.070 --> 00:55:42.730 them to find like -minded individuals and people 00:55:42.730 --> 00:55:45.329 with the same interests as you do to make friends, 00:55:45.530 --> 00:55:49.530 to make connections. People I know have got married. 00:55:49.610 --> 00:55:52.510 They found people, they got married with a society. 00:55:52.670 --> 00:55:54.710 So it's really, really great stuff that happens 00:55:54.710 --> 00:55:57.110 in these places. You meet lifelong friends. I 00:55:57.110 --> 00:55:59.329 have loads of friends that I've met from, I talked 00:55:59.329 --> 00:56:01.789 to today from these societies as well. And you 00:56:01.789 --> 00:56:05.010 really understand and really hone in on a particular 00:56:05.010 --> 00:56:07.130 interest that you have in a lot more detail than 00:56:07.130 --> 00:56:08.929 you might think. Because some of the people in 00:56:08.929 --> 00:56:11.550 these societies will just be obsessed with something. 00:56:12.780 --> 00:56:15.980 And I remember, you know, I went to a blockchain 00:56:15.980 --> 00:56:18.500 society event once. I knew nothing about blockchain 00:56:18.500 --> 00:56:20.840 at the time, but the level of detail these guys 00:56:20.840 --> 00:56:23.679 had was just ridiculous. And it was very interesting 00:56:23.679 --> 00:56:25.199 to me. I was like, that's actually quite interesting 00:56:25.199 --> 00:56:27.739 stuff you're looking at. Don't necessarily believe 00:56:27.739 --> 00:56:30.139 in it, but that's a separate question, I suppose. 00:56:32.159 --> 00:56:34.340 So that's kind of a really big, really big thing 00:56:34.340 --> 00:56:38.139 about it. The third part of it is kind of other 00:56:38.139 --> 00:56:41.840 things like internships, inside days. spring 00:56:41.840 --> 00:56:44.820 week summer internships winter internships things 00:56:44.820 --> 00:56:48.659 like that so anything that can give you a real 00:56:48.659 --> 00:56:51.599 world experience around what life will look like 00:56:51.599 --> 00:56:55.199 in a traditional white collar job that is i think 00:56:55.199 --> 00:56:58.119 essential and it is best done when you're at 00:56:58.119 --> 00:57:00.199 university because you're not going to work in 00:57:00.199 --> 00:57:01.860 a particular place for the next 40 years or whatever 00:57:01.860 --> 00:57:05.780 and you can get a quick insight into what types 00:57:05.780 --> 00:57:08.880 of jobs and what types of careers exist out there 00:57:08.880 --> 00:57:11.699 and so you know you should be looking at things 00:57:11.699 --> 00:57:13.960 across industries across different companies 00:57:13.960 --> 00:57:16.619 across different departments inside of companies 00:57:16.619 --> 00:57:21.079 so you know i i did an experience at accountancy 00:57:21.079 --> 00:57:25.199 firms i had experiences at an oil and gas company 00:57:25.199 --> 00:57:29.300 i had experiences um you know also different 00:57:29.300 --> 00:57:32.519 insight days at various banks technology companies 00:57:32.519 --> 00:57:34.519 and a bunch of other places as well. And the 00:57:34.519 --> 00:57:36.860 way in which they do things is very, very different, 00:57:37.099 --> 00:57:41.780 even in the same industry as well. But also, 00:57:41.860 --> 00:57:44.079 you know, you might think of, you know, let's 00:57:44.079 --> 00:57:47.219 say you do a role such as, you know, let's say 00:57:47.219 --> 00:57:50.699 you become an IT professional. Well, an IT professional 00:57:50.699 --> 00:57:52.639 in an oil and gas company will be very different 00:57:52.639 --> 00:57:54.559 from an IT professional in a bank, which is very 00:57:54.559 --> 00:57:57.159 different to an IT professional in a healthcare 00:57:57.159 --> 00:58:00.050 company or a pharmaceutical company. It's the 00:58:00.050 --> 00:58:01.849 same role, but there's a very different experience 00:58:01.849 --> 00:58:04.329 and different type of there. And you have to 00:58:04.329 --> 00:58:07.469 talk to people in these industries to understand 00:58:07.469 --> 00:58:10.309 how things work. There are loads of insight days 00:58:10.309 --> 00:58:11.909 out there where you can get a one or two day 00:58:11.909 --> 00:58:14.289 or even up to a four day experience in these 00:58:14.289 --> 00:58:16.389 different industries as well. I think in the 00:58:16.389 --> 00:58:17.909 UK they're called spring weeks most frequently. 00:58:19.440 --> 00:58:21.340 There are internships that you typically do in 00:58:21.340 --> 00:58:23.239 your second or third year. There are placement 00:58:23.239 --> 00:58:25.420 years where you can spend a full year in a particular 00:58:25.420 --> 00:58:27.559 company or doing a very interesting role. And 00:58:27.559 --> 00:58:29.599 most of the time these are paid as well, so you'll 00:58:29.599 --> 00:58:30.780 get money for it as well, which is obviously 00:58:30.780 --> 00:58:33.920 great to have. Some pocket money for summer and 00:58:33.920 --> 00:58:36.940 everything. And all of these things are there 00:58:36.940 --> 00:58:41.179 to provide you with a perspective of how things 00:58:41.179 --> 00:58:43.900 work in the real world. You're not there to change 00:58:43.900 --> 00:58:46.409 things. You're not there to... disrupt things 00:58:46.409 --> 00:58:48.570 you're there just to learn and see how the world 00:58:48.570 --> 00:58:50.429 works and these are fantastic experience you 00:58:50.429 --> 00:58:53.969 have to do and the fourth one and the final one 00:58:53.969 --> 00:58:56.670 is personal projects so you've got your university 00:58:56.670 --> 00:58:59.670 stuff you've got your society stuff you've got 00:58:59.670 --> 00:59:01.309 your corporate stuff and those three are very 00:59:01.309 --> 00:59:04.869 structured because you have a defined uh society 00:59:04.869 --> 00:59:06.590 structure you have defined university structure 00:59:06.590 --> 00:59:09.230 you have defined companies that do specific things 00:59:09.230 --> 00:59:11.769 the personal projects is where you really shine 00:59:11.769 --> 00:59:13.849 because these are things that you yourself are 00:59:13.849 --> 00:59:16.809 passionate about that you want to do alone um 00:59:16.809 --> 00:59:19.010 typically alone it can be with a few friends 00:59:19.010 --> 00:59:21.050 these are things that you have complete control 00:59:21.050 --> 00:59:23.469 over from start to finish so if it gets done 00:59:23.469 --> 00:59:25.510 it's on you if it doesn't get done it's on you 00:59:25.510 --> 00:59:27.929 as well nobody's there to check it nobody's there 00:59:27.929 --> 00:59:31.449 to tell you off either you do or you don't and 00:59:31.449 --> 00:59:34.630 i think that's where you really generate the 00:59:34.630 --> 00:59:36.170 most amount of experience the most amount of 00:59:36.170 --> 00:59:38.650 maturity when it comes to your university time 00:59:38.650 --> 00:59:41.869 so I spent a lot of time doing things like I 00:59:41.869 --> 00:59:44.429 created a conference company to kind of run events 00:59:44.429 --> 00:59:46.670 for different things. It's called the York Science 00:59:46.670 --> 00:59:51.190 Conference. There was a, I won a few awards for 00:59:51.190 --> 00:59:52.610 something called the Proof of Concept Award, 00:59:52.789 --> 00:59:55.289 which I, where I developed a student incubator 00:59:55.289 --> 00:59:59.539 for students who are entrepreneurial ideas. you 00:59:59.539 --> 01:00:01.599 know there were other things as well so you know 01:00:01.599 --> 01:00:03.340 i i developed there was a student investment 01:00:03.340 --> 01:00:05.000 club which i was part of as well which was a 01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:07.500 lot of good fun uh you know we were investing 01:00:07.500 --> 01:00:10.099 about 10 000 pounds of university money real 01:00:10.099 --> 01:00:12.320 real money that we could just pay around in the 01:00:12.320 --> 01:00:14.159 stock market had to get a lot of fun there as 01:00:14.159 --> 01:00:19.380 well um it was things like that which pushed 01:00:19.380 --> 01:00:22.659 me way further than any any degree could teach 01:00:22.659 --> 01:00:24.380 me or any kind of society could teach me because 01:00:24.380 --> 01:00:28.309 i had to do everything myself and so try so try 01:00:28.309 --> 01:00:30.150 and do all of these different things because 01:00:30.150 --> 01:00:34.690 when you leave university you want to look back 01:00:34.690 --> 01:00:37.610 and say i had i used that time those three or 01:00:37.610 --> 01:00:40.309 four years to its absolute fullest i got the 01:00:40.309 --> 01:00:43.280 degree yes i got the marks i wanted But I also 01:00:43.280 --> 01:00:46.219 made great friends. I've got lifelong contacts 01:00:46.219 --> 01:00:49.300 with the university. I've based societies and 01:00:49.300 --> 01:00:52.559 I created a nice culture and a nice community 01:00:52.559 --> 01:00:55.699 inside the university. I got some work experience, 01:00:55.800 --> 01:00:58.159 got a bit of money as well. I learned how the 01:00:58.159 --> 01:01:00.579 real world works. And I have my own personal 01:01:00.579 --> 01:01:03.079 project as well that I'm doing side on too. So 01:01:03.079 --> 01:01:06.659 try and do as much as you can as possible. You 01:01:06.659 --> 01:01:09.280 can do it. I think a lot of people think you 01:01:09.280 --> 01:01:14.329 can do it. And just try to use your time there 01:01:14.329 --> 01:01:17.309 to become a more formative person overall. That's 01:01:17.309 --> 01:01:21.730 the big takeaway from that. You do have a lot 01:01:21.730 --> 01:01:25.610 of time and absolutely agree, use it wisely. 01:01:26.510 --> 01:01:29.170 Parallel engagements will teach you more than 01:01:29.170 --> 01:01:32.769 classes would. And societies are a goldmine. 01:01:32.929 --> 01:01:35.449 They're such an interesting opportunity. Use 01:01:35.449 --> 01:01:37.929 them, the funds offered by the university, to 01:01:37.929 --> 01:01:40.559 find like -minded people to make friends. Build 01:01:40.559 --> 01:01:42.780 the society that you need if you don't find one 01:01:42.780 --> 01:01:44.960 that aligns with your interests, values, passions, 01:01:45.139 --> 01:01:48.599 anything. Thanks, Fass, for sharing. And looking 01:01:48.599 --> 01:01:51.960 back at everything you did and shared, what are 01:01:51.960 --> 01:01:54.639 the things that you would not do again and the 01:01:54.639 --> 01:01:57.820 things that you would do again for sure? There's 01:01:57.820 --> 01:02:01.679 nothing that I wouldn't do again. I'm genuinely 01:02:01.679 --> 01:02:05.510 serious about that because there is... There 01:02:05.510 --> 01:02:07.849 are so many interesting things that you can do 01:02:07.849 --> 01:02:10.110 at university that I think, even if you don't 01:02:10.110 --> 01:02:12.429 necessarily like it that much, that I still think 01:02:12.429 --> 01:02:14.349 the experience is worthwhile just to have and 01:02:14.349 --> 01:02:17.030 have it for your own eyes. I mean, a good example 01:02:17.030 --> 01:02:19.449 of this is I attended a debate society event 01:02:19.449 --> 01:02:21.969 once and I thought it was really interesting. 01:02:22.250 --> 01:02:24.829 I wouldn't go back again, personally, but I thought 01:02:24.829 --> 01:02:27.190 it was a good experience. The people were very 01:02:27.190 --> 01:02:30.619 nice, despite being... in the actual debate itself, 01:02:30.760 --> 01:02:33.860 which was good humor and everything. But I think 01:02:33.860 --> 01:02:38.000 it was, so no, I wouldn't change anything. I 01:02:38.000 --> 01:02:40.780 would do everything again, to be honest. I think 01:02:40.780 --> 01:02:45.340 what was interesting for me was, is there enough 01:02:45.340 --> 01:02:50.320 variety in what I'm doing? So, you know, there's 01:02:50.320 --> 01:02:53.159 a society that's typically called Model United 01:02:53.159 --> 01:02:56.360 Nations. I would strongly recommend anyone of 01:02:56.360 --> 01:02:59.570 any subject do that. Not because you don't have 01:02:59.570 --> 01:03:01.829 to have a particular interest in politics or 01:03:01.829 --> 01:03:04.070 diplomacy or international relations, but they 01:03:04.070 --> 01:03:08.289 have a very specific way of doing things, which 01:03:08.289 --> 01:03:11.030 is that you will be given a brief on a particular 01:03:11.030 --> 01:03:14.030 country and topic area. And then on the big screen 01:03:14.030 --> 01:03:15.650 of the projector, they'll give you 30 seconds 01:03:15.650 --> 01:03:19.030 to say your piece. And if you don't finish in 01:03:19.030 --> 01:03:20.769 that 30 seconds, they literally take the mic 01:03:20.769 --> 01:03:23.650 away from you or they start smacking the gavel 01:03:23.650 --> 01:03:26.340 on the thing saying. no no no you can't do that 01:03:26.340 --> 01:03:31.059 whatsoever shut up sit down it forces you to 01:03:31.059 --> 01:03:33.860 think on your feet and to be very precise in 01:03:33.860 --> 01:03:36.099 what you're saying because you only have 30 seconds 01:03:36.099 --> 01:03:38.780 maybe a minute if we're really lucky maybe a 01:03:38.780 --> 01:03:40.920 minute and a half or two minutes even but you 01:03:40.920 --> 01:03:42.760 have to be very precise in what you're saying 01:03:42.760 --> 01:03:45.460 and you have to be very clear about what what 01:03:45.460 --> 01:03:47.880 types of things and types of points you want 01:03:47.880 --> 01:03:50.420 to raise that is probably the best thing you 01:03:50.420 --> 01:03:52.179 can do for your public speaking and for your 01:03:53.359 --> 01:03:56.159 personal confidence because although everyone 01:03:56.159 --> 01:03:58.800 stares at you you get that fear out of you the 01:03:58.800 --> 01:04:00.679 more and more you do it and you will get picked 01:04:00.679 --> 01:04:02.940 on so you might as well go there and you might 01:04:02.940 --> 01:04:04.760 as well enjoy enjoy it while you're at it because 01:04:04.760 --> 01:04:06.019 at the end of the day no one cares that much 01:04:06.019 --> 01:04:08.280 they really don't after the after the event closes 01:04:08.280 --> 01:04:10.920 so just try it see what happens and go on from 01:04:10.920 --> 01:04:13.719 that side um i think so so that's kind of the 01:04:13.719 --> 01:04:15.480 so for me it was getting back getting a variety 01:04:15.480 --> 01:04:18.719 of experiences that matched the most and i think 01:04:18.719 --> 01:04:23.030 for me society's were really enjoyable because 01:04:23.030 --> 01:04:27.030 you were meeting people who you knew were already 01:04:27.030 --> 01:04:29.409 interested in that area. So you didn't have to 01:04:29.409 --> 01:04:31.050 second guess yourself. You're like, oh, why are 01:04:31.050 --> 01:04:34.150 you here? Let's say you like Pokemon. Why are 01:04:34.150 --> 01:04:37.110 you here? I like Pokemon as well. Great. It's 01:04:37.110 --> 01:04:38.789 an easy conversation starter, just like that. 01:04:39.210 --> 01:04:42.110 And if you go to the LEGO site, I was like, oh, 01:04:42.130 --> 01:04:43.909 I like LEGO, you like LEGO. Okay, great. Now 01:04:43.909 --> 01:04:46.409 let's have a final conversation about LEGO pieces. 01:04:46.909 --> 01:04:50.909 Whatever, just nerd out. It's great. That might 01:04:50.909 --> 01:04:52.489 not be your choice, but there will definitely 01:04:52.489 --> 01:04:56.289 be something there. And that's the beauty of 01:04:56.289 --> 01:04:59.150 societies. And I love the point that you mentioned. 01:04:59.309 --> 01:05:02.550 If you don't see a society that exists, make 01:05:02.550 --> 01:05:06.329 it yourself. Because I honestly guarantee you 01:05:06.329 --> 01:05:08.250 there will be at least five other people around 01:05:08.250 --> 01:05:12.469 who will join you and have fun with it. We had 01:05:12.469 --> 01:05:15.380 a Taylor Swift society. I don't listen to Taylor 01:05:15.380 --> 01:05:18.179 Swift, but that society was very popular, naturally, 01:05:18.380 --> 01:05:21.340 and good for them. Great, you know, all the Swifties 01:05:21.340 --> 01:05:24.079 are over there having a lot of fun. You know, 01:05:24.079 --> 01:05:26.300 we had the Hat Society. People wore different 01:05:26.300 --> 01:05:29.340 hats. Why not? Little things like that. They 01:05:29.340 --> 01:05:31.280 can be silly. They can be fun. They can be whatever 01:05:31.280 --> 01:05:33.099 you want. It's just about finding people of interest, 01:05:33.260 --> 01:05:36.019 finding people that you can get along with and 01:05:36.019 --> 01:05:38.260 just getting as many new experiences as possible 01:05:38.260 --> 01:05:40.260 by talking to people, by doing interesting things 01:05:40.260 --> 01:05:43.360 and by doing it in a safe and reliable format. 01:05:43.739 --> 01:05:48.300 That's why it was all so good. I think for me, 01:05:48.340 --> 01:05:51.420 the corporate experiences, they are very structured. 01:05:52.380 --> 01:05:54.360 But the purpose of the corporate experiences 01:05:54.360 --> 01:05:58.309 is to give you... a realistic view on what's 01:05:58.309 --> 01:06:00.530 going to happen so you you need to have honestly 01:06:00.530 --> 01:06:02.909 you need to have both so you have your side is 01:06:02.909 --> 01:06:04.210 where you're a free spirit you can do whatever 01:06:04.210 --> 01:06:06.070 you want have all the fun you will have all the 01:06:06.070 --> 01:06:07.889 fun you like you have your and you have internships 01:06:07.889 --> 01:06:09.230 and things where you're supposed to wear your 01:06:09.230 --> 01:06:11.409 suit and tie supposed to do the job properly 01:06:11.409 --> 01:06:13.869 it's assigned to you and you have these two different 01:06:13.869 --> 01:06:18.090 worlds entirely and you need to find where you 01:06:18.090 --> 01:06:21.300 fit in that balance some people i know love the 01:06:21.300 --> 01:06:23.780 structure they like they want a corporate job 01:06:23.780 --> 01:06:25.920 because they love they like the stability they 01:06:25.920 --> 01:06:28.460 like the money they like the fact that it's very 01:06:28.460 --> 01:06:31.340 predictable and that brings ease to that that's 01:06:31.340 --> 01:06:33.960 absolutely fine other people like to go absolutely 01:06:33.960 --> 01:06:36.059 crazy they want to go full society mode so they'll 01:06:36.059 --> 01:06:37.599 become artists musicians these are kind of real 01:06:37.599 --> 01:06:40.039 creative types and for them it's all about expressing 01:06:40.039 --> 01:06:42.639 themselves producing fascinating interesting 01:06:42.639 --> 01:06:45.940 culture literature music art etc that's great 01:06:45.940 --> 01:06:47.840 for them as well you might be somewhere in the 01:06:47.840 --> 01:06:50.139 middle between those two extremes and that's 01:06:50.139 --> 01:06:52.880 also good as well so you have to get both experiences 01:06:52.880 --> 01:06:56.039 so you can find which part of it which way you 01:06:56.039 --> 01:06:58.179 lean more i probably when i was younger probably 01:06:58.179 --> 01:06:59.719 lead a bit more to the corporate side of stuff 01:06:59.719 --> 01:07:01.840 but as time has gone on i probably lead a bit 01:07:01.840 --> 01:07:03.820 more over to the more creative side over time 01:07:03.820 --> 01:07:07.420 so you know you have to do both and they're both 01:07:07.420 --> 01:07:09.320 complementary and i wouldn't say that they're 01:07:09.320 --> 01:07:10.980 not mutually exclusive you have to do both to 01:07:10.980 --> 01:07:13.420 get a bigger picture and a wider picture of how 01:07:13.420 --> 01:07:16.869 the world works Oh, that's so interesting. And 01:07:16.869 --> 01:07:20.869 Model UN is an absolute fantastic experience. 01:07:21.809 --> 01:07:24.010 You need to be precise, clear on what you're 01:07:24.010 --> 01:07:27.030 saying, and such a great exercise for public 01:07:27.030 --> 01:07:30.190 speaking, even if you have the fear of speaking 01:07:30.190 --> 01:07:33.530 in front of hundreds of people or just five people 01:07:33.530 --> 01:07:36.869 or two people. I think you just get to understand 01:07:36.869 --> 01:07:39.170 that everybody's scared, everybody's confused, 01:07:39.389 --> 01:07:43.820 no one has the confidence, but as... Faz said, 01:07:44.039 --> 01:07:46.340 and other guests have said, you gain the confidence 01:07:46.340 --> 01:07:52.800 from doing, so go for it. Maturity, consistency, 01:07:53.260 --> 01:07:56.119 commitment. You do need so much to start building 01:07:56.119 --> 01:07:58.559 your own thing. But where do you start to build 01:07:58.559 --> 01:08:00.639 it? You mentioned the conference projects you 01:08:00.639 --> 01:08:04.239 had. What advice would you give someone who thinks 01:08:04.239 --> 01:08:06.360 about moving forward with their own projects? 01:08:06.800 --> 01:08:09.460 So at my university, I went to the University 01:08:09.460 --> 01:08:12.889 of York. And in my first year, there were a variety 01:08:12.889 --> 01:08:15.389 of student -run conferences in different areas. 01:08:15.590 --> 01:08:18.029 So there was the York Finance Conference, the 01:08:18.029 --> 01:08:20.909 York Consulting Conference, even a York Law Conference. 01:08:21.210 --> 01:08:23.850 And all of these conferences were student -run. 01:08:23.989 --> 01:08:27.289 They were very successful. And I was looking 01:08:27.289 --> 01:08:29.970 around at this and thinking, is there a science 01:08:29.970 --> 01:08:32.050 or technology conference? And the answer was 01:08:32.050 --> 01:08:34.529 no. And so I was like, okay, let me just do it 01:08:34.529 --> 01:08:36.430 myself because clearly there's no interest in 01:08:36.430 --> 01:08:40.260 this. let's see what happens so that was the 01:08:40.260 --> 01:08:42.659 first point of inspiration where and i thought 01:08:42.659 --> 01:08:44.159 i saw that there was a gap in the market and 01:08:44.159 --> 01:08:47.000 i thought hey i don't study a stem subject i 01:08:47.000 --> 01:08:50.100 study economics but you know i do have a genuine 01:08:50.100 --> 01:08:53.600 interest in science and technology so why not 01:08:53.600 --> 01:08:56.800 you know you know create one and it was a very 01:08:56.800 --> 01:09:01.479 simple start it didn't cost me anything i created 01:09:01.479 --> 01:09:04.640 a facebook page And I put a couple of job ads 01:09:04.640 --> 01:09:06.859 on that. I created a nice job description saying 01:09:06.859 --> 01:09:09.039 I need people to help me on marketing, finance, 01:09:09.359 --> 01:09:13.020 operations, speakers, etc. If you're interested, 01:09:13.279 --> 01:09:16.140 fill in this Google form and I'll get back to 01:09:16.140 --> 01:09:19.060 you. And I put that across all the different 01:09:19.060 --> 01:09:22.479 society Facebook groups that existed. I don't 01:09:22.479 --> 01:09:24.039 know if Facebook is still used as much nowadays, 01:09:24.159 --> 01:09:26.600 but that's how I worked back then at least. And 01:09:26.600 --> 01:09:28.489 I just spammed it everywhere. on departments 01:09:28.489 --> 01:09:31.430 i even went to departments i said hey i am creating 01:09:31.430 --> 01:09:34.329 a science conference i would like students to 01:09:34.329 --> 01:09:37.310 help me on this please can you put it into your 01:09:37.310 --> 01:09:39.890 weekly news data so people can read it and come 01:09:39.890 --> 01:09:42.770 come to me can i can i go into a lecture hall 01:09:42.770 --> 01:09:45.710 well i would email professors and say hey can 01:09:45.710 --> 01:09:48.430 i go to your lecture for the first literally 01:09:48.430 --> 01:09:51.489 30 seconds Just make a quick announcement and 01:09:51.489 --> 01:09:54.850 asking if anybody wants to be part of my team, 01:09:55.010 --> 01:09:57.810 then scan this QR code that I have on the front 01:09:57.810 --> 01:10:02.949 desk and reach out to me on my email. That was 01:10:02.949 --> 01:10:04.949 very successful to the point where I got about 01:10:04.949 --> 01:10:09.489 10 or so people to respond to those ads to build 01:10:09.489 --> 01:10:11.810 out of my first team. And that first team was 01:10:11.810 --> 01:10:13.529 very, very good. They knew exactly what they 01:10:13.529 --> 01:10:17.770 were doing. The point I'm making here is that 01:10:17.770 --> 01:10:19.810 it didn't cost me anything to put those Facebook 01:10:19.810 --> 01:10:25.090 ads up or posts up. It didn't cost anything to 01:10:25.090 --> 01:10:27.069 go to the various departments and ask them to 01:10:27.069 --> 01:10:29.170 put it into a student newsletter. It didn't cost 01:10:29.170 --> 01:10:32.210 anything to go up to a lecturer and say, hey, 01:10:32.229 --> 01:10:34.470 can I do a lecture shout out or something? It 01:10:34.470 --> 01:10:36.430 just took a bit of grit and a bit of time. That's 01:10:36.430 --> 01:10:40.050 all it was. And a bit of creativity. But it didn't 01:10:40.050 --> 01:10:43.649 cost me anything financially. And that's kind 01:10:43.649 --> 01:10:46.340 of how it started. once i got the team sorted 01:10:46.340 --> 01:10:49.500 then it became very easy to actually do what 01:10:49.500 --> 01:10:51.479 a conference is which is all the classical things 01:10:51.479 --> 01:10:53.140 such as you know you need to find speakers a 01:10:53.140 --> 01:10:56.279 venue get some catering and all the things that 01:10:56.279 --> 01:10:59.380 go alongside of it right and i think the thing 01:10:59.380 --> 01:11:01.319 for me is that the interesting thing about it 01:11:01.319 --> 01:11:04.539 was that there was a bit a level of naivety that 01:11:04.539 --> 01:11:06.739 i had which is that i didn't even know what i 01:11:06.739 --> 01:11:11.119 didn't know and so you know i i had this level 01:11:11.119 --> 01:11:14.409 of confidence than I just did things without 01:11:14.409 --> 01:11:16.069 actually thinking about the consequences. And 01:11:16.069 --> 01:11:19.810 I got very good results from it. Whereas if I 01:11:19.810 --> 01:11:22.350 had a bit more information about how the university 01:11:22.350 --> 01:11:24.270 worked, I probably would have thought a second 01:11:24.270 --> 01:11:27.729 time. But the fact is, I think what that taught 01:11:27.729 --> 01:11:29.970 me is that you need to ask for forgiveness, not 01:11:29.970 --> 01:11:32.310 permission at times, because you get much better 01:11:32.310 --> 01:11:35.949 results. Whereas, you know, if you always ask 01:11:35.949 --> 01:11:38.210 for permission, you have people always, put it 01:11:38.210 --> 01:11:41.050 this way, people always have an excuse to shut 01:11:41.050 --> 01:11:43.930 you down. It will always have very, it's very 01:11:43.930 --> 01:11:46.050 easy to critique. It's very difficult to do. 01:11:46.670 --> 01:11:49.810 And so, you know, in my mind, it was just, I 01:11:49.810 --> 01:11:52.770 am a non -STEM student going up to a STEM department 01:11:52.770 --> 01:11:54.970 and saying, hey, I want to build an event. Can 01:11:54.970 --> 01:11:56.810 you help me? And they're looking at me and says, 01:11:56.949 --> 01:12:00.000 eh, why not? is this health map i mean some some 01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:01.739 departments said oh go away just go away silly 01:12:01.739 --> 01:12:03.119 child you know i don't want to interact with 01:12:03.119 --> 01:12:04.859 you but most of the departments that were very 01:12:04.859 --> 01:12:07.399 supportive and we had some really nice uh interactions 01:12:07.399 --> 01:12:08.960 with different different lecturers professors 01:12:08.960 --> 01:12:11.039 who were genuinely really supportive for our 01:12:11.039 --> 01:12:14.979 for our cause which was great to see um So that's 01:12:14.979 --> 01:12:16.819 kind of how it kind of got started. And then 01:12:16.819 --> 01:12:18.659 bit by bit, month by month, we kind of worked 01:12:18.659 --> 01:12:21.079 as a team together. We found the speakers, we 01:12:21.079 --> 01:12:24.199 found the venue, we found sponsors, we developed 01:12:24.199 --> 01:12:28.560 a website, we developed all the kind of things 01:12:28.560 --> 01:12:30.640 that you expect to do. And a lot of this stuff 01:12:30.640 --> 01:12:32.699 is already out there on Google. You can quickly 01:12:32.699 --> 01:12:35.260 search for it and stuff. It's just a matter of 01:12:35.260 --> 01:12:38.779 doing the actual work. There is no shortage of 01:12:38.779 --> 01:12:41.140 advice out there. But the biggest problem people 01:12:41.140 --> 01:12:43.020 have is no one actually applies the advice that 01:12:43.020 --> 01:12:45.619 gets given to them. If you actually apply advice 01:12:45.619 --> 01:12:48.039 that's given to you, the outcomes you get are 01:12:48.039 --> 01:12:51.199 so much better. I would go and check Google and 01:12:51.199 --> 01:12:52.659 say, hey, you know, I want to make money from 01:12:52.659 --> 01:12:54.359 this. How do I do this? And they said, okay, 01:12:54.460 --> 01:12:56.180 well, you need to find sponsors. Okay, well, 01:12:56.220 --> 01:12:57.600 how do I find sponsors? Okay, well, you need 01:12:57.600 --> 01:12:59.439 to create a sponsorship deck. Okay, well, how 01:12:59.439 --> 01:13:01.500 do you do that? Here's a template. Fill it out 01:13:01.500 --> 01:13:03.119 with your own information. Okay, well, I did 01:13:03.119 --> 01:13:04.720 that as well. And I kind of went every single 01:13:04.720 --> 01:13:06.619 step of the way. I kind of asked myself again 01:13:06.619 --> 01:13:08.479 and again, what things do I need to do to get 01:13:08.479 --> 01:13:11.279 these things done? And when I did that, and when 01:13:11.279 --> 01:13:13.739 I did all the action, and then I got a good result. 01:13:13.859 --> 01:13:15.380 So I had a sponsorship pack. I had some good 01:13:15.380 --> 01:13:17.960 marketing, good socials out there. A couple of 01:13:17.960 --> 01:13:19.189 companies even reached out to me. and said, hey, 01:13:19.229 --> 01:13:21.949 we want a sponsor. Great. Happily, I'm happy 01:13:21.949 --> 01:13:24.130 to take your money from you. So yeah, we got 01:13:24.130 --> 01:13:26.909 about £500 plus from one sponsor. The university 01:13:26.909 --> 01:13:29.029 itself sponsored us with another £500. We had 01:13:29.029 --> 01:13:30.829 a few departments sponsored us as well with a 01:13:30.829 --> 01:13:32.729 couple of hundred pounds here and there. We had 01:13:32.729 --> 01:13:35.949 a whole host of companies arrive and it was honestly 01:13:35.949 --> 01:13:37.789 magical. It was honestly impressive for the first 01:13:37.789 --> 01:13:40.430 event to get that many companies of one single 01:13:40.430 --> 01:13:42.949 place of that variety as well, where you had 01:13:42.949 --> 01:13:48.789 everyone from aerospace companies to... governmental 01:13:48.789 --> 01:13:50.949 bodies such as the Royal Society of Chemistry, 01:13:51.130 --> 01:13:53.869 Institute of Physics, things like that. You had 01:13:53.869 --> 01:13:55.670 government departments themselves like Ferro 01:13:55.670 --> 01:13:59.909 Science and others. You had private corporations. 01:14:00.270 --> 01:14:01.909 So we had a sticker from Amazon Web Services 01:14:01.909 --> 01:14:03.949 arrive from California, which was great to see. 01:14:05.369 --> 01:14:10.439 It was a truly crazy time. My grades suffered 01:14:10.439 --> 01:14:12.760 a bit of it. In fact, to the point where my grades 01:14:12.760 --> 01:14:13.960 actually quite suffered quite a bit of it. I 01:14:13.960 --> 01:14:15.479 probably could have got a far much higher mark. 01:14:15.880 --> 01:14:17.359 If I didn't have the confidence, I would have 01:14:17.359 --> 01:14:19.319 got a first in my second year, but I didn't because, 01:14:19.500 --> 01:14:22.600 you know, there wasn't enough time to study, 01:14:22.619 --> 01:14:25.340 basically. But I don't regret it at any point 01:14:25.340 --> 01:14:28.899 because there were so many... things I learned 01:14:28.899 --> 01:14:31.279 so many mistakes made and I had to do everything 01:14:31.279 --> 01:14:33.979 from interviewing candidates for the roles to 01:14:33.979 --> 01:14:35.640 putting the adverts up to doing the social media 01:14:35.640 --> 01:14:39.239 to doing to finding a venue for free to managing 01:14:39.239 --> 01:14:41.560 sponsors and relationships all these little things 01:14:41.560 --> 01:14:43.539 that all that have are still serving me today 01:14:43.539 --> 01:14:48.460 you know almost five plus years later so that's 01:14:48.460 --> 01:14:51.100 why it was such a fantastic experience and it 01:14:51.100 --> 01:14:53.600 all started from just seeing a very obvious problem 01:14:53.600 --> 01:14:55.760 which was oh there's a finance and law conference 01:14:55.760 --> 01:14:58.020 why isn't there a science one And I started from 01:14:58.020 --> 01:15:02.520 there. Don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness. 01:15:03.380 --> 01:15:06.920 It's something I absolutely live by for professional 01:15:06.920 --> 01:15:11.119 projects. And so just go for it. Because if you 01:15:11.119 --> 01:15:14.659 wait for advice, feedback before starting, it 01:15:14.659 --> 01:15:17.119 might prevent you from moving forward because 01:15:17.119 --> 01:15:20.060 people will have a very limited understanding 01:15:20.060 --> 01:15:22.600 of what you mean, your idea, your ambitions, 01:15:22.739 --> 01:15:25.640 and it can be... due to so many different reasons. 01:15:25.920 --> 01:15:28.460 So the idea is that just go, don't ask for permission, 01:15:28.720 --> 01:15:30.859 ask for forgiveness, and you'll see what happens. 01:15:32.859 --> 01:15:35.779 And thank you for your transparency on your grades, 01:15:35.779 --> 01:15:40.079 Faz. If you want to do a lot, if you have to 01:15:40.079 --> 01:15:43.779 do a lot, because you have to work part -time 01:15:43.779 --> 01:15:46.659 to finance your study or any other activity, 01:15:47.039 --> 01:15:50.420 you will have to make concessions, and it might 01:15:50.420 --> 01:15:54.109 impact your grades. If you make everything happen, 01:15:54.289 --> 01:15:57.310 that's absolutely amazing. But my advice to you 01:15:57.310 --> 01:15:59.930 is to ask people who have graduated from your 01:15:59.930 --> 01:16:03.489 program or are in a position you're aiming for 01:16:03.489 --> 01:16:08.029 or surrounding you what you should prioritize 01:16:08.029 --> 01:16:10.649 and where you should invest more of your time. 01:16:11.109 --> 01:16:14.310 I just want you to know that it's incredibly 01:16:14.310 --> 01:16:16.710 challenging to find the first job you're interested 01:16:16.710 --> 01:16:20.159 in. without having a minimum of experience, whether 01:16:20.159 --> 01:16:24.220 it's internship or a part -time job in a professionalizing 01:16:24.220 --> 01:16:29.520 space. And to almost wrap up on your university 01:16:29.520 --> 01:16:33.100 years, Faz, what advice do you have for first 01:16:33.100 --> 01:16:35.520 -year students or someone going through their 01:16:35.520 --> 01:16:41.600 undergrad as we speak? Ooh, so my advice does 01:16:41.600 --> 01:16:44.710 change depending on... at what stage of university 01:16:44.710 --> 01:16:47.329 you're at. So if you're about to start or you're 01:16:47.329 --> 01:16:52.529 in your first year, do everything you can, genuinely. 01:16:53.270 --> 01:16:59.409 There's no shortcut to this. You have to participate 01:16:59.409 --> 01:17:03.750 in as many activities as possible, especially 01:17:03.750 --> 01:17:05.829 if you're in your first year, because that's 01:17:05.829 --> 01:17:08.029 when you have the most amount of time. I mean, 01:17:08.069 --> 01:17:11.170 most people in my year, we got first class degrees 01:17:11.170 --> 01:17:14.229 in our first year. with very little ease you 01:17:14.229 --> 01:17:17.289 know it was it was it was very easy to get those 01:17:17.289 --> 01:17:19.430 to get those high marks because a lot of the 01:17:19.430 --> 01:17:21.529 information that we had was studying were just 01:17:21.529 --> 01:17:25.170 from my a -level exams and so for us we had loads 01:17:25.170 --> 01:17:29.430 of spare time to uh not study but spend time 01:17:29.430 --> 01:17:31.310 on societies and other things and that's the 01:17:31.310 --> 01:17:35.470 best time to do it because at lots of universities 01:17:35.470 --> 01:17:38.569 first year doesn't count at all to your overall 01:17:38.569 --> 01:17:40.510 degree or it counts to a very small portion of 01:17:40.510 --> 01:17:44.029 it like 10 20 20 max and so that's the time to 01:17:44.029 --> 01:17:46.050 do it so if you're in if you're about to start 01:17:46.050 --> 01:17:48.949 university or you're in your first year do absolutely 01:17:48.949 --> 01:17:52.510 everything you can to to maximize uh the time 01:17:52.510 --> 01:17:54.510 you're spending on campus and getting involved 01:17:54.510 --> 01:17:57.470 in as many activities as possible if you're in 01:17:57.470 --> 01:17:59.850 second year or third or like a middle year penultimate 01:17:59.850 --> 01:18:04.800 year something like that um you know it is you 01:18:04.800 --> 01:18:07.159 can still do a lot of different things i think 01:18:07.159 --> 01:18:08.520 at that point you need to be a little bit more 01:18:08.520 --> 01:18:11.279 targeted so you can't just do anything you want 01:18:11.279 --> 01:18:14.300 you need to be a bit more specific in terms of 01:18:14.300 --> 01:18:17.899 going for committee roles specifically so in 01:18:17.899 --> 01:18:19.340 first year i would just do kind of a general 01:18:19.340 --> 01:18:22.979 explorative mode in uh second year you need to 01:18:22.979 --> 01:18:25.119 be on committee positions because that's where 01:18:25.119 --> 01:18:27.819 you get actual experience and you need to do 01:18:27.819 --> 01:18:30.939 a good job at it as well So you need to be on 01:18:30.939 --> 01:18:33.800 the committee that grew your society membership 01:18:33.800 --> 01:18:36.920 by 100 people, that you got money, you got over 01:18:36.920 --> 01:18:39.939 £100 of sponsorship by the department or by various 01:18:39.939 --> 01:18:42.859 companies of interest or things like that. You 01:18:42.859 --> 01:18:44.460 need to be doing really well in that regard. 01:18:45.899 --> 01:18:48.760 growth in social media and and and you know really 01:18:48.760 --> 01:18:50.960 fancy events people are going to etc etc like 01:18:50.960 --> 01:18:52.479 that's what your job needs to be done you should 01:18:52.479 --> 01:18:55.479 be facilitating this and being and being the 01:18:55.479 --> 01:18:58.439 uh the hands -on people doing this work so you 01:18:58.439 --> 01:19:01.159 go from being an attendee to the events to all 01:19:01.159 --> 01:19:04.239 to being a supporting organizer in final year 01:19:04.239 --> 01:19:07.060 you should really be president of at least one 01:19:07.060 --> 01:19:11.840 society or at least vice president at bare minimum 01:19:12.279 --> 01:19:15.619 you know you have to uh you need to be in a leadership 01:19:15.619 --> 01:19:18.619 position um you can do it as first you can do 01:19:18.619 --> 01:19:20.720 it first second year as well but um you know 01:19:20.720 --> 01:19:22.579 if third year is almost essential to have this 01:19:22.579 --> 01:19:28.079 and so if you're going into if you're going into 01:19:28.079 --> 01:19:31.819 the final year then find a leadership position 01:19:31.819 --> 01:19:35.699 that you can take on in existing society and 01:19:35.699 --> 01:19:38.220 and try your best in that world and show leadership 01:19:38.220 --> 01:19:42.119 qualities in that sense um It's a bit too late 01:19:42.119 --> 01:19:44.659 to start a society in the final year, in my opinion. 01:19:44.739 --> 01:19:48.979 I tried that with one thing. COVID didn't help, 01:19:49.119 --> 01:19:51.920 but it was very difficult. So by the time we 01:19:51.920 --> 01:19:53.460 started, although we started it in September, 01:19:53.779 --> 01:19:55.619 we didn't actually get it off the ground until 01:19:55.619 --> 01:19:59.699 January, after our winter exams. And at that 01:19:59.699 --> 01:20:01.600 point... COVID hit. And so we kind of, and then 01:20:01.600 --> 01:20:04.899 after that exams have come around. And so you 01:20:04.899 --> 01:20:07.020 don't actually get that much time. Most of the 01:20:07.020 --> 01:20:09.779 society work happens over the summer during the 01:20:09.779 --> 01:20:11.680 breaks. Well, that's where the most amount of 01:20:11.680 --> 01:20:14.079 impact comes through because you're able to get 01:20:14.079 --> 01:20:17.340 new students involved, able to do a lot of the 01:20:17.340 --> 01:20:19.340 groundwork that will set you up for success the 01:20:19.340 --> 01:20:24.359 following academic year. So that's kind of on 01:20:24.359 --> 01:20:26.380 the society side. I think the other part of it 01:20:26.380 --> 01:20:31.949 is your job as a student. is to demonstrate credibility 01:20:31.949 --> 01:20:37.550 in your skill set. So you might be a programming 01:20:37.550 --> 01:20:41.109 genius, but if you don't have any proof of this, 01:20:41.350 --> 01:20:47.909 nobody cares, respectfully. So if you are doing 01:20:47.909 --> 01:20:49.869 lots of interesting things, or if you have a 01:20:49.869 --> 01:20:52.670 very good skill set, you need to have a portfolio 01:20:52.670 --> 01:20:55.529 of some kind where you are doing interesting 01:20:55.529 --> 01:20:59.060 projects, where you have outputs of this. The 01:20:59.060 --> 01:21:01.739 easiest way to start this is by taking your dissertation 01:21:01.739 --> 01:21:05.939 and making it into blog posts. That's actually 01:21:05.939 --> 01:21:08.199 the easiest way to do this because all of a sudden 01:21:08.199 --> 01:21:10.039 you become, because you should be an expert in 01:21:10.039 --> 01:21:11.420 your particular area when you have a degree. 01:21:11.479 --> 01:21:13.840 That's what a degree is for. And so that's, if 01:21:13.840 --> 01:21:16.100 you literally are struggling for nothing, try 01:21:16.100 --> 01:21:18.380 that as your first protocol. Make blog posts 01:21:18.380 --> 01:21:24.060 out of your dissertation or your thesis. I think 01:21:24.060 --> 01:21:26.800 other than that, there isn't really much else 01:21:26.800 --> 01:21:30.270 you can do. um you can apply for jobs you can 01:21:30.270 --> 01:21:32.210 you know do some internships here and there but 01:21:32.210 --> 01:21:35.569 it really comes down to skill learning and skill 01:21:35.569 --> 01:21:38.449 development and credibility and these both go 01:21:38.449 --> 01:21:41.750 hand in hand and if you can't get one or both 01:21:41.750 --> 01:21:45.850 then my hot take on this is you probably didn't 01:21:45.850 --> 01:21:48.890 use your time effectively at university and so 01:21:48.890 --> 01:21:51.289 there's not much you can do behind that unless 01:21:51.289 --> 01:21:54.689 you were to do a bunch of personal projects that 01:21:54.689 --> 01:21:57.659 were that would support this down the line or 01:21:57.659 --> 01:21:59.199 you were to do a master's or do another degree 01:21:59.199 --> 01:22:02.800 essentially so that's kind of the the reality 01:22:02.800 --> 01:22:05.840 I think many people need to hear when it comes 01:22:05.840 --> 01:22:10.399 to university life and experiences the only thing 01:22:10.399 --> 01:22:14.880 I'd add to this is at least in the UK I am I 01:22:14.880 --> 01:22:17.340 think I'm very well aware that you know you have 01:22:17.340 --> 01:22:19.260 things like cost of living crisis and you have 01:22:19.260 --> 01:22:23.630 things where these opportunities are not as readily 01:22:23.630 --> 01:22:26.369 available because you just can't afford to do 01:22:26.369 --> 01:22:28.770 it. So you have to then work a part -time job, 01:22:28.869 --> 01:22:33.689 for example. Or you might have other responsibilities, 01:22:33.810 --> 01:22:35.649 like caring responsibilities, that you have to 01:22:35.649 --> 01:22:37.550 go back home to take care of people. There are 01:22:37.550 --> 01:22:39.590 realities of life that can get in the way of 01:22:39.590 --> 01:22:44.449 these things. That said, these things you can 01:22:44.449 --> 01:22:47.250 change into a strength. They don't have to be 01:22:47.250 --> 01:22:49.810 weaknesses. So if you are working part -time 01:22:49.810 --> 01:22:54.050 in a retail job, That itself can be used as a 01:22:54.050 --> 01:22:56.590 strength because you have punctuality, timekeeping. 01:22:56.829 --> 01:23:00.029 You need to be working in a team. Sometimes working 01:23:00.029 --> 01:23:01.869 in St. McDonald's is a very stressful environment, 01:23:01.890 --> 01:23:04.489 actually. People make it a joke, but actually 01:23:04.489 --> 01:23:07.430 it's a very demanding job at times. So I do have 01:23:07.430 --> 01:23:08.909 a lot of respect for people who are in those 01:23:08.909 --> 01:23:10.930 environments, particularly young people and students 01:23:10.930 --> 01:23:13.029 who don't really have any other choice at times. 01:23:14.310 --> 01:23:16.550 If you have caring responsibilities, again, it's 01:23:16.550 --> 01:23:18.590 a very noble thing to do that, and you can make 01:23:18.590 --> 01:23:22.960 it into a strength. don't make excuses because 01:23:22.960 --> 01:23:25.359 even if you're in a situation where things are 01:23:25.359 --> 01:23:27.560 not that great for you, you can still demonstrate 01:23:27.560 --> 01:23:30.119 those skills and provide a rational story for 01:23:30.119 --> 01:23:33.140 why you got that point. And if you can just do 01:23:33.140 --> 01:23:37.260 one thing, one society really well, that can 01:23:37.260 --> 01:23:39.439 be enough to tip you over the edge and give you 01:23:39.439 --> 01:23:42.819 that extra boost that you need. So while it's 01:23:42.819 --> 01:23:44.399 great to do as many things as possible, and at 01:23:44.399 --> 01:23:47.039 least maybe when I was in university, it was 01:23:47.039 --> 01:23:49.569 a lot easier to do a lot more things. Even if 01:23:49.569 --> 01:23:52.329 you can't do all 10 different things, if you 01:23:52.329 --> 01:23:54.850 can just do one or two, that goes a long way 01:23:54.850 --> 01:23:59.149 over doing literally nothing. So the takeaway 01:23:59.149 --> 01:24:01.529 here is whether you're doing your part -time 01:24:01.529 --> 01:24:03.550 job because you have to pay your rent, your utilities 01:24:03.550 --> 01:24:07.529 and feed yourself, or you have plenty of time 01:24:07.529 --> 01:24:09.729 but you have not yet started to do something 01:24:09.729 --> 01:24:12.689 in parallel to your studies, try to do something. 01:24:12.810 --> 01:24:15.229 Do something and if you're doing something, try 01:24:15.229 --> 01:24:17.590 to identify what kind of skills you're developing 01:24:17.590 --> 01:24:20.149 and what... You will be able to present to a 01:24:20.149 --> 01:24:23.710 job interview. Or what are you going to bring 01:24:23.710 --> 01:24:26.449 to the table if you need to build your own thing? 01:24:28.529 --> 01:24:31.869 So wrapping up those very important years. So 01:24:31.869 --> 01:24:34.789 Faz, what did you do after uni? So my first job 01:24:34.789 --> 01:24:37.369 at Strixfellow University was in Dublin, in Ireland. 01:24:37.470 --> 01:24:40.890 So I moved abroad from the UK to Ireland. But 01:24:40.890 --> 01:24:43.390 for me, it was just great to leave the country 01:24:43.390 --> 01:24:45.510 and just particularly when I was that young, 01:24:45.569 --> 01:24:49.029 you know, I'm 21, I'm in a new place. Why not 01:24:49.029 --> 01:24:50.710 just experience, you know, the world in a different 01:24:50.710 --> 01:24:53.130 place and just get, you know, there's no support 01:24:53.130 --> 01:24:55.369 network, completely brand new place to me. I 01:24:55.369 --> 01:24:57.529 can't run to my parents. There's no, my sisters 01:24:57.529 --> 01:24:59.989 aren't around, you know, there's no cousins or 01:24:59.989 --> 01:25:02.189 extended family I can look to. And, you know, 01:25:02.210 --> 01:25:04.329 the closest way to get there is by plane. or 01:25:04.329 --> 01:25:07.029 like a ferry on a very long train journey so 01:25:07.029 --> 01:25:10.250 okay um you have to push yourself to a new limit 01:25:10.250 --> 01:25:12.649 so i think that's kind of what happened there 01:25:12.649 --> 01:25:17.529 so um my expectation was to join the finance 01:25:17.529 --> 01:25:21.789 sector after i graduated um but that didn't happen 01:25:21.789 --> 01:25:25.430 um for for for various reasons i graduated in 01:25:25.430 --> 01:25:27.869 covid etc things like that so i was like hey 01:25:27.869 --> 01:25:30.140 why not try something different I've created 01:25:30.140 --> 01:25:32.880 a science conference. I have always been interested 01:25:32.880 --> 01:25:35.699 in STEM and computer science, things like that. 01:25:35.840 --> 01:25:37.899 So why not look at the tech sector as well? And 01:25:37.899 --> 01:25:41.859 so I found a job at then Facebook, now Meta. 01:25:42.220 --> 01:25:44.739 That was in their risk management and intelligence 01:25:44.739 --> 01:25:48.420 team where you were analyzing social media trends 01:25:48.420 --> 01:25:51.819 and you were coming up with solutions to very 01:25:51.819 --> 01:25:54.680 difficult problems. And what did you learn during 01:25:54.680 --> 01:25:57.539 your time there? Did you have any... mentors 01:25:57.539 --> 01:26:01.180 sponsors someone who coached you yeah loads loads 01:26:01.180 --> 01:26:03.779 i think it was i don't think i could have asked 01:26:03.779 --> 01:26:09.979 for a better first job um mostly because it structured 01:26:09.979 --> 01:26:13.579 my thinking in a much better way i'll give an 01:26:13.579 --> 01:26:18.899 example so meta's whole thing is impact there 01:26:18.899 --> 01:26:22.319 is an obsession with doing impactful things um 01:26:22.939 --> 01:26:26.159 And that is the most important thing to the company. 01:26:26.239 --> 01:26:27.779 And it's the most important thing, I think, for 01:26:27.779 --> 01:26:30.340 any company to really have. A lot of companies 01:26:30.340 --> 01:26:32.960 might focus on the hours you're working. They 01:26:32.960 --> 01:26:34.819 might focus on how many days you're in the office. 01:26:35.100 --> 01:26:38.840 They might focus on, you know, very trivial, 01:26:38.920 --> 01:26:41.439 tiny little things like this. And that or how 01:26:41.439 --> 01:26:42.880 many emails you're sending, how many messages 01:26:42.880 --> 01:26:44.819 you're sending. These are not impactful things 01:26:44.819 --> 01:26:48.880 inherently. What is impactful is, did you do 01:26:48.880 --> 01:26:53.359 a particular task that led to... that help the 01:26:53.359 --> 01:26:55.500 company achieve a particular aim. So if you're 01:26:55.500 --> 01:26:58.199 in sales, are you making more money for the company? 01:26:58.520 --> 01:27:01.060 If you're in operations, are you making things 01:27:01.060 --> 01:27:03.560 more efficient and smoother for everybody? If 01:27:03.560 --> 01:27:06.399 you're in a leadership position, are you inspiring 01:27:06.399 --> 01:27:07.899 your team and motivating them and hiring the 01:27:07.899 --> 01:27:09.880 best people around? These are the things that 01:27:09.880 --> 01:27:12.600 drive impact. And Meadow is very good at explaining 01:27:12.600 --> 01:27:16.159 this to its people, in my opinion. And it's very 01:27:16.159 --> 01:27:18.819 good at... driving this into your head that it's 01:27:18.819 --> 01:27:22.279 impact that matters not these tiny things you 01:27:22.279 --> 01:27:24.140 know oh how many hours have you worked oh i worked 01:27:24.140 --> 01:27:26.159 two hours but if that's two hours i made a company 01:27:26.159 --> 01:27:29.659 a billion dollars great who cares because that's 01:27:29.659 --> 01:27:31.760 what matters the most it's about the impact and 01:27:31.760 --> 01:27:34.880 the metrics behind it rather than the uh than 01:27:34.880 --> 01:27:37.859 the vanity stuff that exists so that was the 01:27:37.859 --> 01:27:40.859 biggest thing that i learned from from my time 01:27:40.859 --> 01:27:44.800 there In terms of kind of mentors and sponsored 01:27:44.800 --> 01:27:50.000 things like that, I think the key thing about 01:27:50.000 --> 01:27:52.279 this first job is that because it's your first 01:27:52.279 --> 01:27:55.880 job, you have a clean slate. So although it internships 01:27:55.880 --> 01:27:59.479 and things like that, I think I was looking at 01:27:59.479 --> 01:28:02.189 it from a very corporate lens. from the banking 01:28:02.189 --> 01:28:04.810 side, the currency world, things like that, where 01:28:04.810 --> 01:28:06.390 I'm looking at it and telling it, oh, you know, 01:28:06.390 --> 01:28:09.109 your logos need to be at exactly this, this dimension 01:28:09.109 --> 01:28:11.489 in this particular corner of a, of a sly or whatever, 01:28:11.649 --> 01:28:13.630 or, you know, you need to, you cannot use Excel 01:28:13.630 --> 01:28:15.649 without a mouse. This is, this is a, you know, 01:28:15.649 --> 01:28:18.109 a cardinal sin or whatever. So I'm looking at 01:28:18.109 --> 01:28:19.850 it from that perspective and I kind of see, oh, 01:28:19.930 --> 01:28:22.229 okay, actually the world is not that stuffy and 01:28:22.229 --> 01:28:24.470 not that specific, you know, crazy. Um, you can 01:28:24.470 --> 01:28:26.210 do things, you can, you can use a mouse with 01:28:26.210 --> 01:28:28.689 Excel if you want to, um, you know, you can. 01:28:29.439 --> 01:28:32.159 leave the office at 3 p .m if you have if as 01:28:32.159 --> 01:28:33.819 long as you do your work and get everything done 01:28:33.819 --> 01:28:36.680 and this is this is okay you can have a life 01:28:36.680 --> 01:28:39.000 so i think that was kind of the the good thing 01:28:39.000 --> 01:28:41.279 that i experienced which is it changed my perspective 01:28:41.279 --> 01:28:45.960 in terms of what really matters here um i kind 01:28:45.960 --> 01:28:48.399 of expand on that as well so a lot of students 01:28:48.399 --> 01:28:52.479 will have particular ambition they might say 01:28:52.479 --> 01:28:55.020 oh i want to become famous i want to become an 01:28:55.020 --> 01:28:57.840 entrepreneur and on the surface i understand 01:28:57.840 --> 01:29:01.739 where these things come from but you're looking 01:29:01.739 --> 01:29:04.560 at it the wrong way. The aim shouldn't be to 01:29:04.560 --> 01:29:06.319 get the label, to become an entrepreneur, to 01:29:06.319 --> 01:29:08.880 become famous. The aim should be to do something 01:29:08.880 --> 01:29:11.880 so interesting that people look at you enough 01:29:11.880 --> 01:29:15.199 to make you famous. The thing should be you produce 01:29:15.199 --> 01:29:18.460 a good or service that's so useful and so valuable 01:29:18.460 --> 01:29:21.140 that people make you an entrepreneur because 01:29:21.140 --> 01:29:24.489 of that. That's what... is that's what Mela taught 01:29:24.489 --> 01:29:26.649 me around. Don't focus on the hours you work. 01:29:26.810 --> 01:29:28.569 Don't focus on the number of times you're in 01:29:28.569 --> 01:29:31.430 the office. Focus on what you're actually doing 01:29:31.430 --> 01:29:34.069 behind the scenes and what's the actual impact 01:29:34.069 --> 01:29:38.010 behind it. So ask yourself whenever you're doing 01:29:38.010 --> 01:29:41.189 a task, what is the impact of this particular 01:29:41.189 --> 01:29:44.550 activity? Have I helped people? Have I got money 01:29:44.550 --> 01:29:47.369 for my society? Have I... grown my social media 01:29:47.369 --> 01:29:50.149 accounts? Have I, you know, got more events? 01:29:50.210 --> 01:29:52.930 Have I inspired a generation of children and 01:29:52.930 --> 01:29:55.149 students to do some particular thing? Have I 01:29:55.149 --> 01:29:57.430 improved the prestige of the university that 01:29:57.430 --> 01:30:00.050 I'm at via the events I'm hosting? These are 01:30:00.050 --> 01:30:02.449 the things that drive impact and what you should 01:30:02.449 --> 01:30:06.149 be focusing on. And to wrap up on this episode, 01:30:06.270 --> 01:30:09.630 Fez, do you have any last advice? I know you 01:30:09.630 --> 01:30:12.449 shared so many throughout, but do you have any 01:30:12.449 --> 01:30:18.640 last advice for our listeners? And to wrap up 01:30:18.640 --> 01:30:22.180 on this episode, Faz, do you have any last advice? 01:30:22.439 --> 01:30:25.260 I know you shared so many throughout, but do 01:30:25.260 --> 01:30:29.140 you have any last advice for our listeners? Oh, 01:30:29.140 --> 01:30:35.380 such a hard question. I'll go back to what I 01:30:35.380 --> 01:30:39.399 said initially when I talked about success. So 01:30:39.399 --> 01:30:43.819 I said at the beginning, don't ask what you want, 01:30:43.979 --> 01:30:49.420 ask why you want it. to kind of expand upon that 01:30:49.420 --> 01:30:53.840 a bit more you know ask yourself you know what 01:30:53.840 --> 01:30:58.180 generates the most impact what generates the 01:30:58.180 --> 01:31:00.720 the most amount of fulfillment contentment because 01:31:00.720 --> 01:31:02.680 that's what all this matters that's where this 01:31:02.680 --> 01:31:05.220 matters it's fine to have those accolades it's 01:31:05.220 --> 01:31:07.920 fine to you know do crazy things and and have 01:31:07.920 --> 01:31:09.619 fun and yeah and you should and you should have 01:31:09.619 --> 01:31:11.500 fun you should enjoy your things are doing it 01:31:11.500 --> 01:31:13.739 but you should be asking yourself you know you 01:31:13.739 --> 01:31:16.630 should be doing this because you want to live 01:31:16.630 --> 01:31:20.770 an interesting and fulfilling life and that's 01:31:20.770 --> 01:31:23.710 where all this comes down to um there's so much 01:31:23.710 --> 01:31:25.350 knowledge in the world there's so many things 01:31:25.350 --> 01:31:29.109 to see and do and you are only barely scratching 01:31:29.109 --> 01:31:31.750 the surface and you'll never have enough time 01:31:31.750 --> 01:31:33.649 to see everything so you might as well just try 01:31:33.649 --> 01:31:36.010 your best and see as much as you can talk to 01:31:36.010 --> 01:31:39.409 people learn from people try things try as many 01:31:39.409 --> 01:31:42.050 things as possible because something will stick 01:31:42.050 --> 01:31:46.210 something will stick and When it does, you'll 01:31:46.210 --> 01:31:49.869 find a true, something you're good at. And when 01:31:49.869 --> 01:31:52.710 you're good at something, you'll actually enjoy 01:31:52.710 --> 01:31:54.409 doing it and you'll become better at it. And 01:31:54.409 --> 01:31:55.869 then, yeah, you can make money from it. You can 01:31:55.869 --> 01:31:58.229 create a business from it or whatever. But I 01:31:58.229 --> 01:32:03.630 think just constantly ask yourself, is this useful? 01:32:03.850 --> 01:32:08.449 Is this impactful? And is this helping my community? 01:32:08.529 --> 01:32:12.210 Is this helping? you know, my soul? And do I 01:32:12.210 --> 01:32:14.350 feel more fulfilled from doing this work? And 01:32:14.350 --> 01:32:16.710 this is not just monetary. This is in every aspect 01:32:16.710 --> 01:32:21.130 of life. So don't just ask what you want, ask 01:32:21.130 --> 01:32:25.090 why you want it. Amazing. Thank you so much, 01:32:25.090 --> 01:32:27.069 Faz, for everything that you shared so far with 01:32:27.069 --> 01:32:29.590 us and for your brilliant advice to close this 01:32:29.590 --> 01:32:32.289 conversation. So thank you again for coming on 01:32:32.289 --> 01:32:33.989 the podcast. Thank you for having me.