How Maria Conceiçäo Broke 9 Guinness World Records To Help Children to Transform Their Lives

I never did Sports in my life I didn't know what I was getting myself into it and the only Sports I was doing up to that point was walking from the galley to the cabin to serve you would you like tea would you like coffee hardly an athlete but I thought an athlete is not an athlete when he was born I will transform myself into an athlete four months later I became the first Portuguese woman to get to the North Pole Portugal thought I'm not a climber I was going to be an embarrassment for my country I transferred myself into a mountaineer one year later I stood at the top of Everest and I became the first and the third Portuguese citizen climbing Everest people they often ask me Maria what was the hardest thing you ever did in your life was it the North Pole was the freaking called the English Channel was it the South Pole was the Iron Man's what was it the hardest thing I ever done in my life was the honor I promise I've made in 2005 to 101 Single Moms living in Islams of Bangladesh I went to Bangladesh in 2005 and I promised them to change their life but ladies and gentlemen is these children and these people in Islams of Dhaka that they completely have transformed myself into who I am today foreign we talk a lot about this idea of living your most extraordinary life but what does it actually look like in person I want to share with you a really interesting story and it has to do with someone I actually met here in Dubai okay so imagine this I was speaking about operating at level four where you have goals for yourself fantastic but now you decide to stretch a little you feel a calling a calling that takes you from level two to level three and then eventually to level four the story I want to share has to do with this woman Maria consejao she is of Portuguese origin and she achieved a goal of coming from poverty and eventually becoming a stewardess at Emirates Airlines and she thought that was it that was her life she attained it she got to travel the world she got to be an Emirates stewardess and her life was going to be good until her flight took her to Dhaka Bangladesh and there she was roaming the slums of Dhaka and she certainly saw some of the most intense poverty you could imagine Dhaka has 50 000 slums and in these slums many of these children do not get to go to school they are child laborers or they live lives in abject poverty this image she couldn't shake from her head so she decided she needed to do something about it now she had no experience she was an Emirates stewardess how was she going to help these kids so she goes back and she starts to Google how can I help put kids through school and this led her on Google searches on how to get funding how to get sponsorship and somewhere she saw a search that said do something really crazy like climb Everest or ski the North Pole and raise sponsorship money and so this lady who's around 5'5 who had never ever even been to a gym before decided she was going to be an elite athlete Maria somehow went on become the first Portuguese woman to ski both the North and the South Pole she went on to then climb Everest all of this to raise money to help put these kids through school ever as she said was a failure and so she didn't raise any money she felt she had to shut down her entire operation then she thought wait a minute no I'm not going to give up so she became an ultra marathoner she ran seven marathons in seven days then seven Ultra marathons in seven days she went on to do all of these impossible Feats and today she holds nine Guinness World Records and she's running educational programs that put 600 kids through school GQ labeled her Woman of the Year Maria come on stage so so like Maria how old are you I'm 45 years old but soon 46 years old in 2018 I was attempting to become the first Portuguese woman to climb to Seven Summits unfortunately on my way down I had an accident I fell off the mountain and I lost my cartilage in 2018 my doctors that all the doctors I've been to they told me I could never be an athlete again and it took me four years but I managed to be in four years I managed to do my comeback and I broke my nine Guinness World Record and soon [Applause] and I have two more Guinness World Records planned for this year wow by the way I'm just getting to know Maria she's already probably one of my favorite people in Dubai now the reason I bring Maria up here is because Maria is symbolic of what the human mind can achieve everything you've learned today her story illustrates these ideas level two thinking that you have made it as an Emirates stewardess and then feeling that idea that you there was something more what was that spark for you what what was that Insight that made you made you first decide that you were gonna go to the North Pole to raise money how did you know it was real can I start my story so so that when I was two years old I'm the daughter of a single mother and she was struggling and she was unemployed this is when she met a poor Refugee woman from Angola mother of six children totally illiterate she was a cleaner and she was a widow when she saw my mother struggling she didn't hesitate to offer for help basically she told my mom why don't you go to Lisbon seven hours away from the little village find a job and I take care of Maria until then my mother left to the city she never came back so I became the seventh child of Christina Christina Moto was who fit six feet seven at the age of nine years old Christina had a heart attack and she passed away and my Christina daughters they were on their early twenties they took care of me from age of 12 I had to stop going to school and pretty much from that point I was told the only thing I could expect to achieve in life was to be a cleaner at the age of 18 I told myself if the only thing I'm going to achieve in life is to be a cleaner I refuse to just be a cleaner I'm gonna be to Ronaldo or the Messi of the cleaning world so I left Portugal and I went to Europe I went to wear the best cleaning jobs in the world they are which is Switzerland I learned how to speak French later I went to England I learned how to speak English and then always looking for better opportunities I went to the job center and I was offered the job to be an Emirates flight attendant I came to the there was 100 candidates on a job interview and only two of them they got the job and I was one of them when I came to Dubai I thought I really want a lottery I was traveling all around the world staying in five stars hotels and then shortly after I was I got the job to be a VIP flight attendant for Sheikh Mohammed so you can imagine the lives the glamorous and luxury lifestyle I was having and one in 2005 I was scheduled a flight in Bangladesh one of the poorest countries in the world and I always thought I had grown in a very humble background but I didn't know what was poverty until I was in Islams of Bangladesh so what did I do I met 101 families and I promised 600 children I was gonna take them out of poverty I started with 39 kids 98 200 600. I'm gonna be honest I had no idea how to help them but if Christina a poor Refugee woman from Angola she could take care of me I could take care of these kids in Bangladesh I came back to Dubai and I asked people to help me volunteers and experts to help me setting up a daycare center at preschool a primary school a secondary school a canteen computer center a first aid center a beauty salon and we had everything and all I was dreaming was one day my children when they grow up they're gonna go to university and they're going to go be Dash bidesh meaning they're gonna leave the slums of Dhaka and they're gonna go abroad 2008 and I was dreaming I was continuing to fly and in 2008 recession came and a school for 600 children that he has a lot of bills and overnight just like kovit came I started to lose my sponsorship so I Googled on internet what is the quickest and most efficient way to make money an internet said if I went actually they said if I met El Ellen or if I met Ronaldo or Angelina Jolie I will make the money if I went on a popular TV show like Ellen or Oprah I will get the money I need it so I sent letters but then I kept recession in Internet and internet said if I went to the North Pole I would raise 2 million pounds because there was a team from England going from England to the North Pole they had raised one million pounds and they were going to raise 2 million pounds now I never did Sports in my life I didn't know what I was getting myself into it and the only Sports I had I was doing up to that point was walking from the galley to the cabin to serve you would you like tea would you like coffee hardly an athlete but I thought an athlete is not an athlete when he was born I I will transform myself into an athlete all right to cut down shorts four months later I became the first Portuguese woman to get to the North Pole there was no two million pounds because the I forget to read the fine print and Prince Harry was the sponsor of that expedition that's why they'd make money I kept Googling the internet told me if I climbed Everest I could raise two million dollars so I transferred myself into a mountaineer Portugal thought I'm not a climber I was going to be an embarrassment for my country but one year later I stood in on that at the top of Everest and I became the first and the third Portuguese citizen climbing Everest yeah that was not enough actually it was one everyone was congratulating me for being the first Portuguese woman to get to the Everest but there was no funds at all we had to shut down and I had to send 600 kids back to the slums someone told me if I wanted to reopen my organization I had to be think bigger and Wilder so someone told me why don't you start breaking Guinness World Records so I I broke Guinness World Records running a marathons around seven marathons in seven continents in seven days I transformed myself into a swimmer I attempted to swim from England to France I did five I think and I became the first Portuguese woman to get to the South Pole and get to the Antarctica 18 years later the children yeah people they often ask me Maria what was the hardest thing you ever did in your life was it the North Pole was the freaking called the English Channel was it the South Pole was the Iron Man's what was it the hardest thing I ever done in my life was the honor I promise I've made in 2005 to 101 Single Moms living in Islams of Bangladesh thank you [Applause] I went to Bangladesh in 2005 and I promised them to change their life but ladies and gentlemen is these children and these people in Islams of DACA that they completely have transformed myself into who I am today a nine Guinness World Record I am currently trying no not trying I'm transforming myself into a climber and I'm attempting to climb K2 in four months time thank you Maria pull the mic now give her a round of applause any bring up the children seven dude I want to show you so you guys really feel this what happens when you really Step Up ladies and gentlemen meet the first generation students they have a primary education secretary education and they are working in companies in Dubai [Applause] and this is how how old I was when my mother left to Lisbon and never came back meet Mama our youngest child in a project [Applause] [Laughter] so I want you and you guys can sit I want you to just reflect on the story that you just heard a woman who was a victim of the culturescape level one told that the best she could aspire to be was to be a cleaner but she decided no I'm gonna go to level two I can poke the world I can change the world I'm gonna be the Ronaldo of cleaners she ends up becoming an Emirates stewardess but even though she achieved this wild success at level two she feels this nudging this urge that something isn't right she stumbles upon the slums of Dhaka every single one of the faces you see here and these are just a few of the 600 children who she's helped change the lives off she gets a calling she follows that calling and despite the body that she was born with despite the fun she had she somehow ends up becoming one of the most badass Elite athletes here today in the world not just in this room but this woman doesn't break these records for her own ego and this is where I get emotional when I think about it she's not doing this for the Guinness Records I hope you guys get that she's doing it for all of these kids and I want to ask some of these these wonderful young men and women whose lives will change by Maria following her insight and believing in the power of her own mind to share their thoughts uh uh I'm just speechless uh hi my name is Shane Khan and uh I'm a businessman I'm an influencer I'm here in Dubai just because of Maria consiso I'm here because of the Maria concert she told me I can become from nobody to the next nurse daily because of her let me tell you my story uh we all say we are alive because of the oxygen right we are wrong we are alive because of Hope that they hope cause we are gone by the time I saw her we'll I lost hope in my life so in 2010 I saw her back in our country in Bangladesh Dhaka I saw a foreigners and I'm a brown brown boy so I was very young so I'm like what she's doing here so I asked people what they are doing then she's a wonderful woman she's helping people and I'm like wow I under meet her uh then I learn English I text her I learn English because I want to meet you and she's like okay fine come I'll help you so from them I meet her she changed my mentality because the society I belong from where everyone say no no no no no no and she's like yes yes yes yes yes and we uh and she called us butterfly and uh so he's at the butterfly when I fly right but you can't fly so the boy who never saw the airport and she's like you cannot just see the airport you can see the whole world you can do it there is very few people in the world who will say ah I will inspire you my is my story should inspire you should achieve something else in life but there is very there were very few people in the world who would inspire you by not only saying but only doing with you sharing the journey with you the mother of 600 kids she has done that she's the best woman in the world [Applause] [Music] [Applause] how to explain to you uh I'm a kids from the back of the Slam in Dhaka I have never seen people in my life not the foreigners and now I see all from different nationalities and so many wonderful people and what happened because of her when now my uh like for in my area now when people used to see foreigners this is just foreigners to them because of Maria now when you see foreigners it's hope for us because of her she changed our mentality she helped us she's the best one in the world thank you so much thank you Amy hello everyone I'm so happy to be standing here in front of so many people my name is chadni 16 years old from Bangladesh today I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Maria our mom I would have been married and be a mother of honor to kids like my mother and grandmother but I am here today going to school and in future I will be a doctor it all happened for her [Music] and today my sister is in University in Europe who is coming soon for an internship in Chanel and my mother is here and my sister is here three for me and for all of us she is a fighter who fought for last 18 years to bring us this far in life and we will make her proud and all of you thank you so much everyone love you Mom hello everyone I am so my journey with Maria starts in 2006. and at that moment she was like an alien to us alien means why it's because of her skin tone and the language that she speaks we don't understand anything what she was saying so that's why we were thinking that she was an alien who just fell from a sky and that alien is now an angel to us thank you that that alien from 2006 to till now has made a slum boy into a smart boy who is in front of you right now like all of us she is like a Cristiano Ronaldo to all of us it's because all the hard work that she has done for us and still doing she is doing it for 24 7 never resting on any holidays we see her every day working just for us to have us a better future so let me give you a good news is that I'll be joining Grand certain soon which is one of the leading financial company in the world and this all is possible because of her she is our mom she is like doing all the things and we also have she also have 600 more kids and who are really waiting for her and she is definitely the best mother in the world thank you thank you to all of you guys and I I think you guys may not even know it but this was the biggest Standing Ovation that any speaker got today and I think all of you over here are doing an incredible Act of service by inspiring everyone else in this room the I was telling I was telling the kids the goal is not to not just to help Maria raise more money for kids or whatever that's not the goal the goal is to create more Maria's the goal is to inspire you guys in some way to just think a little bit beyond goals Visions accomplishments that might simply benefit you but to a center level four what can you do to create a greater impact on the world and I think one of the greatest lessons I got from Ria's thing is that the universe will bless you if you're thinking Beyond just yourself things will happen I really believe in that idea even Jose Silva who's one of the top teachers in mind Valley said he found that people manifest better when other people are benefiting and I think one of the reasons why Maria could become the nine-time Guinness record holder that she is is because she was never doing it for the Guinness record she was doing it for these beautiful faces that you see here please keep them all around with Applause [Applause] thank you guys

Channel: Mindvalley Talks

Views: 4,559

Keywords: mindvalley, Education, Personal Growth, tedx, tedx talk, ted talk, Maria Conceiçäo, flight attendant, Emirates Airlines, Dhaka slums, Bangladesh, North Pole, South Pole, Mount Everest, Guinness World Record, ultra marathoner, inspiring journey, education, poverty, transformation, children, charity, changing lives, philanthropy, fundraiser, life-changing, stewardess, adventurer

Id: J_1SCDg9-YU

Length: 23min 32sec (1412 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 28 2023