Born a Changemaker featuring Ade Adepitan and Trevor Noah

I mean how cool was that shamina and Lily that was amazing all right all right all right so lovely moment they're just sitting up you know getting the table ready I want a nice Throne some grapes and stuff ready just there um please uh ladies and gentlemen I am really uh really honored for this moment but can you welcome to the stage uh Mr Trevor Noah [Music] oh [Music] he's back there I have seen him trust me I'll just chill out have a seat we'll have a chat come on ah bro bro bro come on yes yes Trevor making you sweat make it I'm sweating I'm really like super super excited to have you here thank you very much thank you for having me thank you good morning everyone good morning yeah first and foremost thank you for taking time out at your busy schedule to be here thank you um let's chat man let's chat so Trevor what is what's your driving force man what makes you you tick and how has that been influenced by your childhood and growing up in South Africa oh it's interesting I I've always felt like my driving force is um is is a combination of people and and learning you know I think those are the two things that from a very young age I was imbued with I always found my joy and my purpose and my passion in that you know and and growing up in South Africa you know one one key element of African culture I always find is that there's always a wonderful mix of the people you'll meet and then the learnings that you will experience because of them you know and and and so that that's honestly what drives me it's as simple as that and I find the more people I meet the more I want to learn the more I learn the more I want to help people meet new people create new experiences because of those people um and that's I mean that's what I do with my Foundation that's what I try and do with my life that's a lot of what stand-up comedy is you know spending time somewhere getting to know the people trying to synthesize that experience and then seeing if I can create something that brings people together and then you know how have you used that I mean the the big theme of today is about inclusive growth you know how have you been able to to use that and how what what's your thought on inclusive growth you know taking us all in that direction together well I think the first thing that that I found was oftentimes when people are having these conversations in and around inclusive growth or inclusivity in any way was people often made it seem like it was a charity Venture they made it seem like it was a nice thing to do they made it seem where's I I never understood how you know people who had these growth mindsets never looked at the fact that they were neglecting so much of a market uh base a potential space to grow in it it always it always didn't make sense to me you know and so when when I think of inclusive growth oftentimes I think of complete growth yes why would you not want to grow everywhere that you can grow in the most sustainable ways possible why would you only want to grow in one part or another you know I I always challenge people when I when I meet them people will be proud like you know capitalists and business people and all of this and and I'll say to them well well if you see somebody who's not part of a market then don't you think of that as a failing and don't you think of that as an opportunity you know anyone who can't participate in in banking anyone who can't participate in education anyone who can't participate that that's your system that is now failing and more importantly it's somebody who can't participate in the market that you love so much that free market that you love and so I think people take for granted oftentimes how growth even when you look at that word is something that you actively need to create you know and and it comes in stages you know so if you think of growth there's a moment where you have to plant the seed there's the moment where the seed is doing nothing for all intents and purposes you're watering it you're nurturing the soil that it exists within and then it sprouts and then it grows and still you're putting in more effort than you may be getting out of it but at some point you reap the rewards of that and I think somewhere along the line people have forgotten that there's a period of growth that requires what seems like no return When in fact that is the most important part of growth because at some point you know you get these giant trees that have been planted a generation before and you you forget that somebody just had the foresight to grow them it's called investment isn't it it's exactly yeah Futures I know coming from a sporting background you know though I it always surprises me when I come out into the everyday world because our job is to allow everyone to be the best they possibly can be you know there's no point in us having a team where we have any weak links because people are going to exploit that and I don't mean weak links as in people who are not good enough but people who we don't give the opportunity right to be the best they can be you know myself growing up um one of the things I learned very quickly is that I grew up with a disability and being black I grew up in a world that wasn't built for me right I grew up in a world that wasn't set up for me and that I was going to have to challenge people every day in order to to to to to progress um but what I also loved about it is I met incredible enablers people out there in the world who who saw who believed in me before I believed in myself that's right it makes all the difference yeah it does it does and I mean that's that that's this thing about inclusive growth we have to find that tribe and we have to find uh these enablers so we can spread that word right get it out there I think we also take for granted how much Innovation growth and and um and and just like a world expanding possibility we can experience when we think we are catering to others you know uh some of my favorite conversations I've had have been with Disability Advocates who have shown me how much you know currently abled body people will benefit from things that things that everybody takes for granted you know so you you live in a world with stairs you don't realize you live in a world with stairs until somebody with a wheelchair comes along and says hey there's no ramp here what's this what's this fixation you able-bodied people have with stairs they say the truth will set you free I say a ramp and a good lift will set you free brother but you see me and that's that's that's that's exactly it you look at how many of those Innovations have now benefited people who initially would have been against them because they would have gone oh why are we doing this for oh man it's just for a few people it's just and then you look at ramps today most of the people using the ramps are people who initially were like oh I don't know if we need them oh I'm I'm a proper snob about this when I see any of you good old-fashioned two Legos on a ramp I'm like get off that rap man that's mine I fought hard for that Ram come on and so I I think we we see that in in every sphere we take for granted how much we can all grow inclusively grow yeah if we cater to those who live in a world that hasn't catered to them and it's it's not about good guys and bad guys it's not about what what it's just it's blinders you know oftentimes you will create for yourself health and that's natural and so I think what we always have to do is look at who doesn't have the opportunity to grow for themselves and then try and give them the opportunity to grow for themselves and I think that's the key thing that I've learned even in our foundation is is not prescribing it's it's listening it's saying to groups of people you know on the African continent for a long time people have told Africans how they should do they've told Africans how they should have their money how they should grow how they should not realizing that there's thousands of years of knowledge contained within the continent you know what we are doing though come on people don't get that they go you know it's like if you know your history you know that it's people who are interrupted in their growth interrupted in their knowledge interrupted in what they were doing and so essentially what you're trying to do is now just give people the tools to have that ramp to get to a place where they were already trying to get to and were only impeded by the fact that somebody put stairs for themselves exactly I'm conscious of time here but um please what part do you think technology and education is going to play in in this inclusive growth well I think we we we're on the precipice of something truly amazing especially when you look at Tech through the lens of AI and and and what it can do and I think I scare you no I I honestly it doesn't it doesn't but but I would be AI right now you know you see you don't scare me at all I think you know what it is for me it's um I've always been a futurist and I I've always loved technology and this was growing up in a world where oftentimes I didn't have access to it but I saw what changes it created in my world in my life my mother learned how to use a typewriter when when they weren't ubiquitous and then they grew over time and then it was a computer Etc I think when we think of technology and education I'm always thrown by the fact that we separate the two it doesn't make sense to me we've got like technology and education no it's just education how can you educate somebody apart from the technologies that are available at the time that makes absolutely no sense to me a pen is technology we just don't think of it as such you know a book is a technology we don't think of it as such but it is we've just created this finite definition of what technology is and so for me I think if you are educating anybody you should educate them to be able and capable in the world that they're going to need to exist in and you know you look at how education in so many places in the United States and many places around the world hasn't evolved from the Industrial Revolution you know children are still being taught to live in a world that no longer exists and so I think when we when we think about that I think we shouldn't separate them at all we should always ask ask ourselves what is the world we are aiming to live in what do you need need to be able to live in that world are we then empowering and educating people accordingly and when we look at things like AI you always have to look at the downsides you always have to look at with any technology you always have to look at how it can be misused how it can be abused Etc however we are now on the precipice of of a moment in time where the barrier to being able to using that technology is going to come way down and so now a graphic designer will be somebody who has the the imagination to know how to create an image with the help of AI as opposed to somebody who could afford to go to the school that then gave them the accreditation to learn the wealth is no longer will no longer become hopefully that's the key thing is the hopefully part of it and then how do we create an equitable pipeline for people in Africa and that's where you see like Broadband around the world giving people access to a fast enough connection to be able to use these tools you know not making it a luxury anymore and you see the difference that's made just on the smallest level look at the cell phone you know you look at how the cell phone and mobile networks around the world have completely changed the face of the developing world as we call it because people are banked in a way that they weren't before people can communicate in a way that they couldn't before and now if we Implement AI correctly people will have access to an information that they wouldn't have had before and I think that could hopefully create the slingshot that we need to provide like a little you know a catalyst that jumps not just Africa but every developing part of the world forward on that note of Hope Trevor listen man thank you so much thank you to be continued definitely definitely continue to ensure that's sweet but I really wanna

Channel: Mastercard News

Views: 47,741

Keywords: Trevor Noah, Ade Adepitan, Inclusive Growth, Mastercard, Center for Inclusive Growth, Global Inclusive Growth Summit, Changemaker, South Africa, Nigeria

Id: bVKqYB_pJXQ

Length: 12min 45sec (765 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023