How the Asia-Pacific Shaped Us: President Obama and Maya Soetoro-Ng

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- Swietenia Puspa Lestari. (lively orchestral music) (audience cheering) - Good morning, everyone. Good morning, or in Bahasa Indonesia we say (speaking Indonesian). (audience replying in Indonesian) My name is Tenia, and I'm an active scuba diver. And I lead an NGO called Divers Clean Action. This Obama Leaders Convening has made me reflect so much on dreams, passions, collaborations, curiosity and courage. These are values that captured my journey as a leader and are reflected in the values of the Obama Foundation also. It has made me remember the time when I was nine years old. I used to live in one of the 17,000 small islands of Indonesia. The name of the island is Pramuka island. It's located in the northern part of the capital city of Jakarta. I learned to scuba-dive there and had the privilege to see all the wonderful, beautiful creatures such as colorful corals, sea turtles, dolphins and even whale sharks. But year after year, I noticed that there was increasingly a lot of trash on the beach and under water. Then, in 2015, I was 19 years old and studying in my third year of university. I had time to reflect on the lack of awareness about how much trash was in our oceans, and also the lack of actions to prevent it. At the time, I couldn't find any organization that do clean up regularly. So, two of my friends and I decided that we will take this on our own. Our first step was to build a community of volunteers who cared and wanted to take actions. It was only with three friends at first, but we cleaned up the oceans monthly. And this movement grew. First, from only three to 10 people, and then to 100 people by the end of 2016. We realized that we needed to educate people living in the area, as this trash in the ocean was overwhelming to them. Most of the small islands do not have a proper waste management system. In part, because the islands are shrinking. So we went door to door to educate people on what to do with their waste, to make sure no more would go into our beloved ocean. Building on that passion and momentum, we also decided to empower those who live far away from the ocean, to remind them that we are all connected through a collaboration. In 2016 we started the No Straw movement campaign in partnership with the biggest fast food restaurants in Indonesia. We encouraged them to stop providing plastic straw. Now, I'm happy to say that this movement has inspired other restaurants. Together, we reduced single use plastic waste nationwide by 91%. (audience cheering and applauding) Throughout this journey I got a lot of questions from my fellow youth about how to make similar changes or programs on their own communities. So, my NGO started empowering youth by hosting workshop, when we train them to start the same recycling programs in their communities. Through the 70 people we train every year, they together in turn, impact to more 20,000 people throughout the country. This model was so successful, we expanded to 11 countries in Southeast Asia by 2018. And now, I am here, 24 years of age, leading an NGO with 10 full-time staff, and more than 1,500 volunteers across ASEAN, feeling so blessed that one of my inspirator, the one that inspired me to have the courage to do so, is here. President Obama is the one who said, "We are never too young to lead." His words and actions by bringing the 200 leaders from Asia-Pacific here, to give this privilege of learning, sharing, collaborating, enables us to get such a priceless support system. Mentors or even a family, a family for those who feel they do not belong, or are being doubted while leading various important causes in their regions. I learned from him that leaders should have passion and compassion to give impact. But only to prove to other people. Let's magnify our power with even bigger actions, after this convening. And there's no better way to understand what, in turn, inspired President Obama than having him talk with his sister Maya Soetoro about their roots in the Asia-Pacific from their time in my beloved Indonesia to their time in Hawaii. And the values that have shaped their lives, and, in turn, shaped all of us here Obama Leaders today. I am so pleased to welcome you to this conversation between President Obama and Maya, and we will hear from them after this short video. Thank you. (audience cheering) (upbeat music) - Barack and I had a lot of freedom growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii. We climbed summits and splashed in waterfalls. There was a lot of community gathering and nights spent under stars. - Part of my DNA is the influence of all the Asian cultures. Obviously, the love of the land and the love of Hawaiian culture is in me, and I think representative of a lot of the cultures throughout the Pacific region. - It's so powerful for us to return to Southeast Asia together. This is a place of great significance. There's so much in the way of grassroots, leadership and energy. - The intention of the Foundation is to build the next generation of leaders in the United States and around the world. And there's no region that is gonna be growing faster, is gonna be more populous, more dynamic than the Asia-Pacific region. - My hope is that we can acknowledge the many gifts we've received from this region. And begin to recognize the enormous gifts that this region possesses for the rest of the world. - One of the benefits of our foundation generally is to let all these young people know, "You're not by yourself. "You've got a community, you've got people, "who are going through the same struggles that you are, "see the same opportunities that you do, "are inspired by a similar vision." And if we can create a platform where they're supporting each other and creating that network effect, I'm confident that what we'll see are millions of young leaders around the world, who have positive vision for change, and they'll move mountains as a consequence. (gentle music) (audience applauding) - Please welcome Maya Soetoro and President Barack Obama. (upbeat music) (audience cheering and applauding) - Hello, hello. - (speaking Indonesian) - (speaking Indonesian) (audience replies in Indonesian) - Aloha, everyone, are you having a good time? - Yes! - Fantastic. Well, it is so much fun to be here with you, my big brother. - My baby sister, Maya. - Can you tell us a little bit about growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia and that probably informed your perspective and your view on life. What do you think? - Absolutely. So, first of all, growing up in Hawaii means, you're generally happy 'cause the weather is good all the time. (audience laughing) And people always used to ask me, "You seem so calm, you seem so relaxed. "You seem, you know, you don't get too stressed." It's like, when it's 80 degrees, and there's a beach, you feel good. So, there is something, I know we've got some fellow islanders here. I do think-- (audience cheering) I do think that there's an island spirit that you know, is important. I think there's a genuine sense of cooperation that arises out of the fact that you have limited land, limited resources. I think there's an appreciation of the land, and of our dependence on it, that probably informs how I saw environmental issues growing up. You know, pretty early on, even before you knew the word the environment. Like, if somebody threw trash out the window, you knew somebody was gonna give you a hard time about that. And, so I think that was important. Now, with respect to then, moving to Indonesia, first of all, it opens your eyes to how big the world is. It gave me a sense of how people can struggle. Because when I moved to Indonesia in 1967, Indonesia had just gone through a political turmoil. And the country was still very underdeveloped, there was a lot of poverty. There was also a lot of wealth. And so, you start to see how societies can give so much to some and so little to others. And that, I think, informed my views. At the time, in Indonesia also you didn't have a democracy. And so, you've got a sense of people sometimes being worried about expressing themselves. And so there were some lessons that I learned, even as a young person. I might not have been able to articulate them like a political scientist, but I knew, okay, this isn't always fair. And even in our own family, you know. My mother remarried Maya's father, who was Indonesian, he had a large family. 11 kids? 10, well, I think 'cause one died, didn't they? Right. - A lot of kids. - Along that spectrum, there was one who was one of the most successful people in the country, and then there was an uncle who wasn't so successful. And I think took our silverware one time. (chuckles) You have that uncle in your family also. (audience laughing) So, (laughs). (Maya laughs) So, the reason I say that, though, is because I think that that teaches you the fact that life isn't always fair. And that it distributes opportunities in different ways. And part of the role then, of a better society is to make sure that every child, regardless of the circumstances that they're born into, should have the ability to go to a school, and should have enough to eat, and should have healthcare, so that they're not sick. And I think that was part of what I learned. And then, finally, I think I appreciated or at least absorbed a certain restraint that comes from living in this part of the world. We're a little more reserved sometimes about how we interact, and not demonstrating your emotions all the time. - Mm-hmm, and there's humility and grace. - And some, you know, modesty is a value that isn't always the case in the United States. (laughs) (audience laughing) So, yeah. - Yeah, that seems right. Now, you alluded to the fact that there are economic disparities. Many of these leaders here have opportunities for personal advancement, but they also have a sense of commitment to their communities, some of which are not doing too well. Can you talk a little bit about how they can balance those individual and collective goals, or those personal and servant leadership? - Well, I've had a chance to meet some of you. Some while we were drilling holes and nailing things, and some of you off stage, some of you I'd met in previous meetings. First of all, I just wanna say you are so far ahead of where I was at your age. You're more sophisticated, you're more thoughtful, you are doing such remarkable things, and I could not be prouder of the leadership that's represented in this room. And it does cause me to think back to when I was in your shoes. So, some of you, I think, are aware that when I graduated from college, I'd been inspired by the Civil Rights movement in the United States. But at the time there was no movement to kind of attach myself to, so I looked for a series of jobs, eventually found a job as a community organizer in Chicago, working in poor communities. And, it wasn't the natural career path. So most of my classmates from college, they'd gone on to graduate school and some of them were working on Wall Street. And they could explain to their parents what they were doing, in a way I couldn't. And I didn't have an actual bed in my apartment, 'cause I wasn't paid enough. The apartment was too small. So I had a futon mattress that I'd roll up and put in the closet. And then, unroll it at night, when I got home, which was good, 'cause I didn't have to make my bed. But, (chuckles). - He's not exaggerating, I remember this. - No, no. You know, I was somebody who strongly believed that if I was serious about social change, that I had to make sacrifices, and shouldn't have more than five shirts (chuckles), and shouldn't have more than a beat-up car. And when you're young, I think that that's okay. Because one thing that we're fortunate of is Maya and I both, because of not just our mother, but also our grandparents. They didn't need help, so we were able to do whatever it was we needed to do to take care of ourselves. But as you get older, and you then have different responsibilities. Or some of you already have responsibilities, because your families may not be as fortunate, they may need more help. There is gonna be some struggle between your aspirations to bring about change and the career opportunities you have. Or in some cases, if you're operating in a country in which the political climate makes activism dangerous sometimes. You have to ask yourself, "How far am I willing to go "without getting into trouble, "or maybe getting my family into trouble?" And we've heard this in conversations with people. And the one thing I wanted to emphasize to everyone is that you're already doing incredible work. And, you should never feel guilty about the fact that you also sometimes have to pay the bills, and keep a roof over your head. And that you're already making sacrifices. So, you also had to think practically about "How am I going to stay in in the long haul." And I know some of these workshops have talked about this. Part of the reason, I think, that I ended up being able to sustain my public service over a long period of time, was that I met Michelle, and she forced me to have fun once in a while. - They heard from her yesterday, she was a lot of fun. - Yeah, she is, you know. And just taking time out to breathe, but it also means that in the decisions you make, you're not always going to take a straight line. Sometimes you have to zig and zag. Or those of you who know about sailing sailboats, you have to tack, right, depending on the winds. And that's okay. I was talking to Fonzie a while back. He's around here somewhere, from the Philippines. Amazing young doctor, doing work in a rural area, and his area just got hit by a typhoon. He was feeling kinda bad about coming here to this week, even though he has not left the country this entire time, because he's been working full time providing care to people. His boss, apparently, gave him some good advice, which is, "You need some time off, buddy." And that's okay. But I also think it's important to recognize that there will be times where you get an opportunity that maybe takes you out of your community for a certain period of time. There was a young woman from Micronesia who is rising up in leadership, and it's really exciting what she's been doing, but she's been working at a grassroots level. And now, her government saying, "We need you to be the voice for us somewhere else", and she's worried about that transition. You're not compromising yourself to be that voice, as long as you remember what your roots are. And the main point I wanna make is that each of us are gonna have a different path that we travel. There are gonna be times where you're right on the front lines, and you are taking great risks, and you're making great sacrifices, and then, there are gonna be times, where, strategically, you need to pull back, and you need to consolidate and figure things out, and maybe you have a family emergency, or you've just started a family, and you need to think more about finances. That's okay, right? The question is whether you're gonna be staying on the general path, that your values tell you you need to go. And if you maintain your general trajectory, then you shouldn't feel as if somehow you've lost your way. Because this is a long journey, this is not something, none of the things any of you are trying to accomplish, you're gonna accomplish in the next week, or the next month, or the next year. And that means you've gotta have staying power, and be comfortable with the fact that there are gonna be times where you have to take a pause and consolidate what you've done, and then move forward again. - Sound advice. You will listen, yes? Look after yourselves. I think of you as having a lot of cultural flexibility, which you inherited in part from our mother, who connected with people from far away, who were very different from the people with whom she grew up. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about, you know, the fact that I think that this comes in part from your respect for diversity, but also the presence in your mind and in your work of sort of, core universal values, which are also emphasized in the Obama Foundation. Is it really possible to find core universal values given the diversity of this region and the political differences? And how can these young leaders really use diversity as a strength, as opposed to being worried about, or having diversity impact cultural, religious and ethnic conflicts? - Well, look, we live at a time where there's a big contest of ideas around the globe between people who see the world as there's us, and there's them, whatever the them is. And those who, I think like you and I, and I believe a lot of people here, recognize we have differences of culture and experience and history, and that is important to recognize and preserve and honor. But that, ultimately, we have more in common than we have things that divide us. You know, that the dream of a parent for their children in Vietnam, is not fundamentally different than the dream of a parent in Australia has for their children, right? And so many of the things that we're seeing right now in our politics, sometimes in your own countries, but certainly you're seeing it around the world, sometimes between countries, that are based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation. All those things that say, "I'm better than you, "just because of my genetic predisposition "or the circumstances in which I was born." Those ideas are doing a lot of damage. And are the source of conflict, war, etc. So, yes, I believe that there are certain core values that apply to everyone. I believe that you have to respect people's basic dignity regardless of their circumstances and what they look like, and how they worship and, the station into which they were born. I believe that societies work better when everybody has a voice, not just a few people. I think that's a universal principle. I believe that every child should have basic care early in life. And that's not unique to any one society. So that if there's a society that educates boys, but doesn't educate girls, then I can understand the culture and where it comes from, I can recognize that those changes may not happen overnight, but I will insist that, as somebody who has two daughters, and a pretty strong-minded wife, that, women are at the very least equal of men, that countries that sideline half of their population are gonna be less successful. And countries that get all the talent that's available to their country and help it succeed, I think that's important. I believe that it's important to respect. I think it's a universal principle that if a state does not respect religious diversity, that eventually you have conflict. I think it is a dangerous thing, if any state says somebody can't practice the faith of their conscience. Now, I will also say this. I think it is important to recognize that there are gonna be sometimes conflicts in values. You know? It is one thing, for example, to respect somebody's religion. But what if that religion then actually says women should not be treated equally to men. Now you have a conflict of values. If you're a leader in that society, how do you manage that? And I think one of the things as leaders, that all of you are gonna have to do, is accept that sometimes there are gonna be some contradictions. Where it's not just a right and a wrong, sometimes it's two rights that you have to reconcile, or two wrongs that you have to deal with. You know, I remember when I was working as a community organizer, around your age, I discovered that some of the people who I loved, were great leaders, had done amazing work helping to lift up people in these communities, but when you talk to them about the LGBT community, would say really wrong things from my perspective, misinformed things. And that did not make them automatically bad people, but it did mean that I had to say to them, "Look, "the ideas you're expressing in "showing hatred towards that group is not consistent "with what you've told me you believe "with respect to your "belief in Jesus's teachings. "So let's talk about this." And sometimes I would lose friends for having challenged those ideas. And you're gonna have to feel comfortable, I think, at times, with the fact that people start at different places, cultures start at different places. If you're organizing in a rural area, you're not gonna immediately be able to expect that people are gonna think the same way that somebody in a big city is gonna think. If you're dealing with older populations, they're not gonna have the same ideas as younger populations, and you have to show some respect for where people are, before you can take them where you want them to be. Which is why, I think, it's important for young leaders to listen, as much as they're talking. And people are more likely to change their minds about certain issues, if they feel as if they're being heard. - Great answer. So, you mentioned girls education. This is the first time that we have the Girls Opportunity Alliance and the leaders together, which is cool. Our mother is someone who really emphasized equality and equity and worked hard on behalf of women and girls. Can you talk a little bit more to these leaders about what you think that they can do to increase participation and equity for women in government, in education, in other spaces? - Well, a lot of you're already working on these issues. And if you heard, I think, from Michelle and Julia, the visit they made in Vietnam, Yonder was there and some other people. It was a terrific reminder that there's still so many places where young women don't have opportunity and their own parents don't think they should get an education. And, you know, from a government's perspective, if I were the head of state in any country around the world, I'd look at the statistics, and it turns out that one of the best indicators of whether a country is developed or not, is how does it educate its girls, and how does it treat its women. And typically, those countries that do a bad job on that, are backwards and behind economically. So, and it makes sense, because, by the way, even though this shouldn't necessarily be the case, women are still doing most of the child-rearing. So, if you are not teaching a woman to read, it's less likely that that child is going to read. And if you have an educated mother, then those children are gonna be educated. I have young staff who either have just gotten married, or have been thinking about getting married. I always tell them, "You better think about, "that's gonna be the mother of your kids." If they're cute, but stupid, (audience laughing) you know, that's gonna be a problem later. You know, I'm just letting you know. That's, you know, that's not, (audience applauding) (chuckles) that's not a good trade-off. - I'm sure none of your staff are interested in Cupid Stupid women, are they? - You know what? I'm not gonna get in their business on the stage, but (laughs). So, we know this is true. I think it starts obviously with education. For the young women leaders, who are in the audience though, even if you've had a great education, even if you've had some good role models, something Michelle talks about is that there are probably some still, some internal things that you're dealing with, that you have to overcome. 'Cause the culture is a powerful thing, and it's transmitting a bunch of messages, even when you don't know you're getting them. So, when I was in the White House, for example, I started noticing about six months in, that, we'd have these conferences around the Situation Room or in the Cabinet Room, or trying to debate these very important policies, and, the women, who are my senior staff, oftentimes they weren't talking in meetings. - Hmm. - And I knew they actually knew more than the men, but the men, they'd be like, "Well, let me, Mr. President, let me." You know, they'd just have all the opinions, and the women just sit there, and so, after a while, I would have to call, I'd say I have to say, "Christy, what do you think about that?" Or, "Melanie, you worked on this issue, "what's your perspective?" And then, when they spoke, they had, you know, amazing insights. But just the small habits of being a little less assertive in meetings or a little more deferential, oftentimes meant that they weren't heard as much. And, in fact, you know, we joke about this sometimes. Sometimes, a woman would make a point, and then, like, 10 minutes later a guy would make the same point. (audience laughing) - That is so annoying, yeah. - And it was like, I'm sorry, she just said that. What do you? (audience laughing) So, I make that point, because I think it is important then for women leaders themselves to monitor, are you censoring yourself? Or shrinking your own perspective or influence. And if you are, then you have to, you don't have to be suddenly rude and talking all the time, it just means that you're mindful that you need to make room for yourself and space. And for the men in the room, if your organization has no women leadership in your organization, then you're probably part of the problem, and you need to be part of the solution. So you need to also check yourself and monitor what you're doing in terms of the areas that you control. - Thank you so much. I have been trying to talk rapidly, but we're almost out of time. I have one-- - No, no, no, I'm gonna take questions from these guys. - Yes, yes, yes. - This is just the low-- - Sorry. - This is like the appetizer. - It is. (audience laughing) - It's the pu-pu platter. For those of you who know Hawaiian food. - Yes. - I wanna talk to you guys too, go ahead. - So, I'm gonna leave him in your capable hands, and you in his. But I just have one last question if you can speak rapidly. But I wanted to ask you, a lot of these communities here are facing, you know, flooding and environmental instability and other environmental hazards. And I wanted to ask you that outside of the framework of the Paris Accords, are there ways that you think are especially effective for them to protect their environment and work towards a more secure future? - Look, the climate change issue is gonna be one that all of us are gonna have to deal with. This region, by the way, is probably as vulnerable as any to climate change, because there's so many low-lying areas, where, as you see, oceans rise or temperatures rise, that there's gonna be an acceleration of storms, typhoons, displacement. Obviously forest fires, just across the way. Just a few years ago, if you all recall, people could barely breathe for months on end in the region, because partly fires induced by the palm oil industry and the deforestation that's taking place. This is going to be a generational project. Unfortunately, the previous generation has not handled this the way it should have. Many of you are already working on these issues. I don't think there's gonna be a silver bullet. Rather in each of your countries, you're going to have to make common cause with other leaders to find the best solutions that contribute to moving us in a better direction. So, those of you who live in countries where there are still a lot of forests, finding out how you and your organization can help preserve forests, that's gonna be critical. For those of you who are islanders, and are experiencing the effects immediately, right now, there are gonna be some hard questions in terms of adaptation versus mitigation, but as I mentioned earlier, your voice, your witness to what's happening right here and now, is a moral call to the rest of the world. And figuring out how thus tell the stories of what you're seeing and the losses that are already taking place, that's gonna be important. If you live in a big industrialized country, like the United States or Australia, our carbon footprint is bigger than everybody's. And so, how are we trying to influence policy to reduce our carbon footprint? If you're an entrepreneur, are there ways in which you're actively participating or supporting finding solutions? Because climate change, by the way, is a good example, of, remember I said earlier, sometimes your values are gonna contradict each other. When I was trying to put the Paris Accords together, once we got China, I needed to get India. I talked to the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister says to me, "Well, I've got 300 million people "who still don't have electricity, "who are deeply impoverished. "And coal is the cheapest way for me "to provide them electricity that will improve their lives." So, the only way I was able to get India involved, was to work with companies like Tesla and Bill Gates' philanthropists to transfer technologies to help accelerate clean energy. Because you can't expect political leaders to say, "Okay, we're gonna sacrifice development, "and we're gonna leave our people poor, "in order to save the planet. "The political pressures won't allow for that." So, each of us are gonna have our own role to play in this process. I am still optimistic that we can slow the advancement of a warming planet. It's too late for us not to have some impacts. And so, there's gonna have to be some adaptation that's gonna take place. The oceans will be rising. And that is going to displace people. And so, we're gonna have to anticipate and care for some of the consequences of that, including large scale migration and disruptions, that are gonna be very costly. But there's a big difference between the ocean rising three feet and rising six feet. You know, there's a big difference between two centigrade increase in temperature and four. So, even though we are going to have some problems and disruptions, because of what we've already done, that shouldn't be a cause for us to then suddenly feel hopeless and not do more. And I think that there's gonna be a generational element to this. Old people are not going to worry about this, as much as young people, because they're gonna be gone when the full effects of this are felt. So, you're gonna have to have more urgency and educate your communities in ways that right now people don't think about. And that's not always gonna be easy to do. All right, you gotta get outta here? - I gotta get out of here. Well, I'm so-- - Give Maya a big round of applause. (audience applauding and cheering) (Maya speaking foreign language) (Barack Obama speaks a foreign language) Those of you who haven't had a chance to meet Maya, by the way, she is really cool. (audience laughing) And has been doing work on conflict resolution and, you know, women's development, and peace education. I could not be prouder of her. And she's a really good mom too. So, I've got 45 minutes left, and I figured I just want to hear from you. So you can ask any questions you want. Or you can make a comment. And the only thing is I would ask that if I call on you, that you stand up and introduce yourself first, tell me your name and what organization you're working with. And keep the questions relatively brief, because I've got a hard stop at 45 minutes, and I probably won't get to every single question. All right, so let me take a look. And right here. Yeah. - Thank you President Obama. My name is Noelle, I'm from Australia. I work for the Australian Federal Police. My question to you is how mentors have influenced your life. Whether you found them in expected places, or whether it's more organic and not so much that dreaded networking word we hear about. Thank you. - Yeah, that's a great question. Did everybody hear the question? So, I'll repeat the questions. The question was what role did mentoring play in my life, and did it happen naturally or did I go around networking, handing out business cards or whatever people now do. Back then it was business cards. I have to confess that I wasn't somebody who had like one single mentor. What I found though, was that there was a collective set of people who I learned from. And I tried to be open to learning from different people and different circumstances. I think sometimes we try to have that one person who's gonna teach us everything, and that's usually not how people are. I think people have strengths and weaknesses. So, there was, there was a guy in the Illinois Legislature, when I got elected to the state legislature, the local legislature, before I went nationally. His name was Emil Jones. He was the Democratic leader in the Senate, when I got elected to the Senate. And, he was a wonderful teacher of how politics worked in that body. And he took a liking to me, I'm not sure why. Partly, because, in fact, I had first met him when I was a community organizer, and I'd gone to his office with the group of leaders and said, "You have to do some things", and had kinda, not quite a protest, but had pushed him on some stuff. I think he liked the fact that I was, there weren't that many young African American leaders at the time in the area, who were involved in political life, so he showed me the ropes. But his politics were somewhat different than mine. Right, so, he was one of these guys who was very connected and he made a lot of deals, and he, you know, did some things that maybe I would not have done. But I could learn from him about just how to get a law passed. And so, he wouldn't have been my overall leader or mentor, but he was somebody wHo I had a relationship with, and he could teach me about certain narrow things, right? And in the same way that I've had teachers in my life. Professors, who sparked my interest in an understanding in a subject. But, yeah, maybe they didn't teach me much about how I should be a good husband, for example. I've gotta learn that from somebody else, right? So, for me, at least, it's been more piecing together, being open and seeing where I can learn. And it's usually from different people, because different people are good at different things. And not expecting everybody just to be the repository of all wisdom. And it has probably happened more organically, although I do think that the more open you are to more people, and new experiences, the more likely you are to meet people who can teach you. Right? So, one good principle of growth and learning is you have to seek out people who are not like you, and you should not be afraid of people who know more than you do about something. When people ask me what was one of the most important leadership lessons I learned as president, I told them one of the things I was really good at, is making sure that I had people who were smarter than me in my government. And I wasn't threatened by that, because my job was to make sure that I put the smartest possible people, who knew more than me about various subjects, in positions where they could do the best good, and to make sure that I was setting the agenda, setting the course, setting the vision, but not thinking that I was gonna end up being an expert on everything. And what you find, I think it's a mistake that some people make in leadership, is they think, "If it's not coming out of my mouth, then, "somehow it makes me less of a leader." No, you don't have to be the person who's solving every problem, you have to be the person who says, "Oh, that person "really knows how to solve the problem. "Let me have them teach me what we should be doing on this." All right? 'Cause sometimes, it turns out the people who can teach you something are the ones you don't expect. My daughters teach me things. You know. But you have to be open to that. And it requires a certain amount of confidence. One of the interesting things is humility and confidence aren't contradictory. Oftentimes they should be one and the same. If you're confident enough in who you are, then you should be able to humble yourself and be open to other people's power and wisdom and experience. That's how you will grow and learn. All right. See, I told you, this is gonna be a tough one. Here, that gentleman right on the aisle there. Yeah, you, yeah, no, no, a little further up. Right there, yeah. - Sorry. Hi, President Obama, thank you. - Speak up a little bit. - Sorry, I'm checking. My name is, (audience laughing) sorry, guys. My name is Adi Pradana. I work for environmental think tank in Indonesia. Thank you so much for being here and giving us space for alternate leaders here to connect. And thank you, Maya, for asking about the climate crisis issues, that's something I also work on. So, my question is for the people who work in the climate crisis issues. It feels like we're hitting a wall. It feels like we're losing a battle. And we just shared this yesterday. And my question to you is what advice would you give to leaders who feel that they're losing the battle, who feel that there's no light in the end of the tunnel. Thank you. - Well. I'd say a couple of things. Number one, is, we have gone through in human history really bad times. Every country that you're from has history that is painful, even recent history that is painful. And I think that should be useful in giving you some sense of perspective. You know, I've often said to groups that I meet with, particularly young people, I say, "If you could choose any moment in history, "in which to be born, and you didn't know "ahead of time who you were." So you didn't know what country you were from, what gender you were, what religion, what your circumstances. Were you rich, poor? You just had to kinda choose the average person. When am I gonna be born? Any time in human history, you choose right now. Because the truth is, the world's never been, and this sounds crazy, because of all the problems that we have. But the world, truthfully, has never been as well educated, as wealthy, as healthy, as tolerant. It's probably less violent than it's ever been. I mean, it's hard to remember the degrees of violence that have happened just in your parents' lifetimes, much less your grandparents' lifetimes, much less in the course of human history. I mean, we've got a strong Mongolian contingent here, right? The Mongolian president, when I was president, a wonderful guy, gave me a small book about Genghis Khan. (audience cheering) Yeah. Now, Genghis Khan, you know, he ruled pretty much half the world, but you know, you read Genghis, he didn't have a lot of politically correct tactics. (audience laughing) You know. I mean, there wasn't like a negotiation. You look at the history of my country, the United States. There's slavery, the removal of Indigenous Peoples. Treaties broken. And so, all of us in our recent history, terrible things have happened. And yet, people overcame, worked through it, struggled, persevered and created, over time, better and better and better circumstances. And then, sometimes, you'd go backwards, and then you'd go forwards again, right? The same thing that's true in our own lives, is true for societies and is true for the planet as a whole, and that is we take two steps forward, we take one step back, sometimes it's one step forward, and two steps back. But the trajectory has been positive. And the best we can then do, is just do our work and try to advance it as best we can. Understanding that we will not finish the job. We essentially run the race, we carry the baton, then we pass it to the next runner and the next runner goes, and they have to carry it forward. And I think it's important, when you're young, to feel a sense of urgency, but also to understand that's gonna be, you have to feel comfortable with the fact that you're not gonna solve a problem like climate change by yourself, on your own. Maybe not in your lifetime. I was the President of United States, which you can debate is that the most powerful person on Earth, is it, you know, top 10. You know. (audience laughing) I had some clout, some juice. (audience laughing) I cared about this issue deeply. We got a Paris Accord done. The first international framework to solve this problem over time. Even at the height of my optimism finally getting it done, we finally signed it and everybody celebrating, I knew that the standards that had been set by each country weren't sufficient. But I took satisfaction knowing that just by setting up the mechanism, we had created the ability to, over time, turn up the standards, turn up the demands, send a signal to businesses, so that they started investing in more clean energy, because they saw change coming. If I had just looked at the science at the moment I signed the Paris Accords, I would have still been despairing, because it wasn't enough. But I understood, okay, we've advanced the cause, and now we're gonna have to take the next step. And that's how change's gonna happen. And it's not just true for climate change. If you're concerned about poverty in your country, your country's not gonna be not poor overnight. If you're concerned about women's equality. Women won't be equal in every society over night. If you're concerned about disability rights, or, you know, anti-corruption, or whatever it is, you will have more setbacks and, times when you feel, as if you're not making progress. Then, those big highs when you have this big success. You just keep on going. And that's why I say you've gotta be in it for the long haul, and be practical and understanding where can we take some wins. Because one of the biggest dangers that happens, I saw this in my own staff, when I was in the White House. Sometimes people felt, if we didn't get 100% of what we wanted, ugh, why bother. And they'd get very frustrated in this. "You can't compromise on this, we've gotta get 100%." And the problem is that very rarely do you get 100% of what you want, because the world's too complicated. There are too many countervailing forces. So, I used to say to my staff, I said, "Will this make things better?" and if they said yes, then I'd say, okay, let's do it. Because better is good. Most of the time the way the world's gotten to where we are now, is small, incremental victories, not big, sweeping victories all at once. It's been the steady application of effort, innovation, new ideas, tested out, worked on a local level, a few people are helped, the ideas spread. Every once in a while you get a big jump forward. But, you know, the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, everybody thinks that somehow there was Rosa Parks and then, King made a speech, and then, that was it, and we signed the law. And the people, even setting aside slavery and the Civil War, people have been working for decades filing lawsuits and they trained Rosa Park, so that when the time came, she knew she should be sitting on the bus, and there were lawyers already prepared with the case to test it out, right? I mean, that was the work of generations. And it's still not complete. So you can't be discouraged. You should take a day off, if you feel too discouraged. (audience laughing) You know? All right, relax. (audience applauding) All right. Let's see. I know this is so difficult. So many, so many important faces here. Young lady back there who's almost standing up, that's you, yeah, yeah. 'Cause, you were like (groans). - Hi, Mr. President, my name is Aisha, I'm from Malaysia. I would like to ask you a question. When was the last time you had an ego check? And can you please share it with us, the story about it? Thank you. (audience laughing) - Ego checks? (audience applauding) I get one every day. I mean, didn't Michelle said she wanted to push me out of window? (audience laughing) I mean. (audience applauding) And let me tell you something. You know, I've been up here defending the women, but, guys, I just want you to know, if I had said that, man! (audience laughing) I would've been in so much trouble. (audience laughing) Look, the truth is that, you know, partly, because I have a strong wife and two strong daughters, who are not impressed with me at all. (audience laughing) I mean, they love me, but they think, you know, I'm just another dad, right? Who embarrasses them and makes bad jokes, and you know, if I start dancing, they're just like, "Oh my god." And so, so I'm often checked by them. But also, one of the things, this is another leadership lesson. I was good at surrounding myself with people, who were willing to tell me when I was wrong or to question my assumptions, or to say that I hadn't thought something through. And if you don't have people in your organizations, your associates, who you respect enough, that they will tell you when they disagree with you, then you're doing yourself a disservice. If all you have is people who are yes people around all the time, who laugh at all your jokes and, you know, say, "Oh, yes, Mr. President, "what a brilliant insight, you were fantastic", you know, you're not gonna, not only will you not grow and improve, but you're gonna make big mistakes. So, that goes with what I was saying earlier about combining confidence with humility. You have to be confident enough to know that you don't know everything, and you're going to make mistakes, and you have to have people around you who don't feel like they're gonna lose their job, if they tell you the truth, right? Everybody here may have had the experience of, I mean there are different versions of it, but, you know, you're about to take a photograph, it turns out you had something in your teeth, but nobody told you. Gentlemen sometimes, your zipper, you forget. (audience laughing) Nobody tells you. (chuckles) Ladies, you know, something's on your show, whatever. You always appreciate it, I hope, when somebody says, "Hey, psst." Right? (audience laughing) Well, you know, that's a small version of what we all have in our work and in our lives. So, I don't know, it just happens so frequently, it was hard for me to find one particular ego check. (Barack Obama chuckles) The good news is that when you have a partner like Michelle, who checks your ego, you also know that when, when she goes to bat for you, she says, you know, "You done good." You know she's telling you the truth. And that means a lot. By the way, it's-- (audience applauding) It is important to note thought, that it is not a two-way street. Michelle's rule, very early, we had been married, we weren't even married, we were dating. And she would, like, tease me all the time about my ears and my bad car, and you know, how I walk too slow, and I talk too slow, and she's teasing me all the time. And one time I teased her about something, and I don't even know what it was. (audience laughing) She got all. (audience laughing) She wasn't talking to me. It's very lonely. I said, "Well, why you all mad? "You've been teasing me for months! "This is my first little joke." She said, "Listen. "There's a rule. (audience laughing) "I can tease you, you can't tease me." (audience laughing) And we've been living by that rule for like 27 years. That's the rule. (audience cheering and applauding) So, that's okay. I don't mind. All right. Let's see. Man, there's so many interesting people. Young guy in the white shirt there, right there. Yeah. - Thank you, President Obama. My name is Tim, I'm from Australia. And when you were in office, you mentioned a few times that you really tried hard to be home for family dinners and for moments with your children. And it's a question that often gets thrown at women and at moms, but I wanna put it to you, it's something that we've been discussing a fair bit in our community groups. How you managed to balance being arguably one of the 10 most powerful people in the world? And raising a family, how you balanced the idea that you wanted to change the world, like a lot of us here, as well as just enjoy time with people you loved? - Look, it's a great question. I think we all have to deal with it. I don't think there's a perfect formula. I think it starts, though, with recognizing that, on your deathbed, or let's just say for me, on my deathbed I am confident that I will not remember any bill I passed, I will not remember any speech I gave, any big crowds, I won't be thinking about the inauguration. I will be thinking about holding hands with my daughters and taking them to a park, or seeing them laugh, while they're playing in the water, right? That is gonna be the thing that lasts. That's gonna be the thing that sticks. That's gonna be the thing that will give my life meaning, is the unbounded love I feel for them. And, conversely, I don't care how successful you are, if your children, or the people you love, are in pain and are suffering, and are having problems, that will overcome you. I remember when Sasha was three months old. Middle of the night she started crying. Michelle and I, we were fortunate to have a good healthcare, so we could call a pediatrician. This doesn't sound like the usual crying. He asked us to check the top of her head. It turned out she had meningitis. We rushed her to the hospital. Because if it's not treated quickly, you can have permanent disabilities. She had to get a spinal tap, a needle in her spine. She's three months old. I have no idea what was happening during that period of time, other than that, right? Your world narrows to that. That's all you care about. I don't care about climate change, I don't care about poverty, I want this baby to feel better. Right? So if you know, if you understand that, if you have that sense, then you have to ahead of time, kinda organize your life to think about, "How do I make sure that these people, "who I love so much, are taken care of." That doesn't mean that you're gonna be perfect. And it doesn't mean that aren't gonna be sacrifices, but it does mean that you have some sense of prioritization. So, with me, I'll be honest with you. The reason that I was able to run for president, was because I hadn't married somebody who was jute cute, but stupid, I had this incredibly strong partner. As much as I was going to miss them, during the two years I was running for president, I had confidence that they were gonna be okay. Partly because they were in a community, right? My mother-in-law, Michelle had all these friends and neighbors and people who could support and make sure that those kids were gonna be fine during those periods of time that I was gone. I felt an enormous loss, but I knew that there wasn't gonna be a permanent impact on them partly, 'cause they were so young. One of the reasons we decided I'd run for president that early, was frankly because we thought it'd be easier for them to make an adjustment at that age, than if, you know, they'd been teenagers, and ugh, then your dad's really embarrassing you. Being on TV all the time, saying stupid things. So I think that's part of it. Part of it is recognizing that it goes back to what I was saying earlier with Maya. There will be phases in your life, where you have to prioritize different things. There are times where it will be okay for you to just throw yourself into work, because everything's in a pretty good place. There are gonna be times where you have to maybe make some sacrifices on the work side, because things aren't all okay at home. Right? If your child's having some emotional issues, that have to be dealt with. You might have to say, "You know what, "I can't go to this conference or do this project right now. "I have to take care of this." Right? And I do think you're right that generally men feel more comfortable not even giving that thought. I think that those arrangements are increasingly gonna change, as women say, "I've got ambitions too. "And I've got work I've gotta do." And so, you know, there's gotta be some trade-offs for both parties, not just one party. But at the end of the day, it's a privilege to love somebody that much and to make sacrifices for them, right? It's not a burden, it's a great gift, and you just have to figure out how to manage it in a way that. And last thing I will say, this applies maybe more to, modern societies, big cities, etc. Michelle and I always joke. Like, when we were kids, our parents didn't pay that much attention to us all the time, you know what I mean? And I do think that part of, this may not be as true, but certainly in the United States, probably in places like Australia, there's this parenting that is like, I've gotta handle everything and schedule everything for my child, and if they don't get into the right school, or if they don't get the best grade or something, then I'm somehow failing as a parent. Like, the child, instead of just being a child, becomes like a project, right? And there's just like this, you know. That's not good either, right? That's not what kids need. They need some space. So you shouldn't feel like you've just gotta be with them every minute, or else you're a bad dad. There will come a point where they don't wanna to really see you, anyway. But they've gotta have room. And that is part of what you should understand. All right, next, let's see. I've just got to keep on going here. Look down here. (chuckles) That's cheating! (audience laughing) Okay, I'm gonna look down here right next to you over here. (audience laughing and applauding) That's a fellow islander. Aw. (laughs) - I feel so good! (audience applauding) - No, you got, you know, you got your girlfriend, that's called on, that's good. - (laughs) Half a day, President Obama. My name is Sheila Jack Bobasa. I'm from the Mariana Islands. - Mm-hmm. (woman squeals) (Barack Obama laughs) (audience laughing) - My question for you is regarding the military presence in the Pacific islands. With the relocation of troops from Okinawa to Guam, there is major impact to come for the Mariana Islands, and it is very serious. Although we are very patriotic community, with one of the highest per capita of enlisted servicemen and women, we have died and fought in US wars. We also value our culture, our community and our natural resources. But we feel like we're at the table with Goliath. How does one prepare to negotiate and encourage Goliath to come to the table, where we can foster cooperation and coexistence to support national security while preserving our culture and conserving our natural resources? - Yeah, look it's a great question. (audience cheering and applauding) You know, it's a great question. You know, since I'm no longer commander in chief, I can't just say, "Come on, let's go talk." (audience laughing) And I'm now out of date in terms of all the processes and procedures that are taking place. What I think is true, and this is not unique to the United States, I think this is true for a lot of countries that have a large military infrastructure, is that the military often is not as mindful as it needs to be about its impacts on the surrounding community. Look, in Hawaii, we still have a whole set of issues around the military presence and training, and how does that affect surrounding communities. A general rule, when dealing with organizations or institutions that are bigger and more powerful than you, is, you've gotta bring attention to the issues so that you get allies, all right? I think the average person in the United States is not aware of some of the impacts that base relocations may have on local communities. So one of your first jobs is to raise awareness. And, hopefully, some of the tools that you've been learning in these workshops have taught you how to do that. If not, then, we'll get some stuff online, but, the power of the underdog in society, first and foremost is to be able to mobilize public opinion. Since you don't have the ability to just impose your will on someone, you have to get allies, right? I mean, that's what happened in the Civil Rights movement. You had TV cameras showing people with dogs, fire hoses, directed at peaceful marchers, which started changing attitudes, which, in turn, led the federal government to start taking different steps. I think as you are raising awareness, I think it's important also, and, again, I assume that some of this has been covered in some of the workshops, if not we're gotta get it online. You have to know what it is that you want, and what's realistic. And you also have to make sure that your own group, you've worked out your differences in terms of what you want. 'Cause my suspicion would be that even among islanders there are some different views. Some people would say, "Come on, because we think "there's gonna be more business, "or there's gonna be more economic development", or what have you. And the others who say, "We don't want this." And if you have those divisions, and your agenda is unclear, then it will be harder for you to be able, in a unified voice, to project and tell a story that gives you some allies and gives you leverage. So, your primary tool's gonna be initially to raise awareness, but that means you also have to have done some work internally, so that you know both what your basic stand is. And by the way, when I say unity, it doesn't mean you're gonna get 100%. There's always gonna be somebody who's hustling somewhere. But it does mean, you know, if you got your basic group agreeing to a basic set of demands, you have to know what those are, going into it. And they have to probably be realistic enough that they're achievable, right? Because if you just say no to everything, even, by the way, you presented yourself just now, I can tell that you've been thinking about this. So, hopefully, that gives you a little bit of guidance or encouragement. All right. (audience applauding) I've got, now. I've got a hard stop in five minutes. Because I've gotta get to Singapore, and apparently the airport is only giving us a little window. So, I'm gonna try to be quicker. And I'm gonna try to get in three question in six minutes. So. Number one right there, the young lady in the back. Yes, right there, you, you, yeah, you. Within the, no, yeah. Well, it's all right. Sorry, she got it. She intercepted. Go ahead. - I'm so excited. Hello, Mr. President Obama. My question is quick. - What's your name? - This is first-- (audience laughing) - What's your name? - Oh, sorry, I'm so excited. My name is Yu Men from China. I work for girls empowerment and gender equality. So, my question to you is, this is the first in asia-pacific leaders, and what is your hope to all of us? Thank you. - Well, my hope is that, A, you've been encouraged, inspired, motivated to go back and continue to do great things in your communities. B, that you've recognized that you're not alone in your efforts. That there are people throughout this region, and by the way people throughout the world, who share your values. And are going through the same struggles and have the same questions. So that now you can learn and support each other. Learn from and support each other. You now are a part of a network that can mobilize each other for change. We'll try to formalize that and create platforms that make it easier for you to work together. We're gonna try to create subgroups around different issues and concerns that people have, so that they can work jointly on various projects. And then, my hope is that as a consequence of being alumni to this, you're then out there also recruiting and energizing and encouraging the next generation, and passing on whatever it is that you've learned, so that in wider and wider circles we have more and more young people like yourselves on every continent who are working together and supporting each other. And in that way, you start building a movement for change that can last, because it's built on a sturdy foundation. So that's my theory, anyway, we'll see if it works. (audience laughing) We'll see, all right. (audience applauding) Right here in the front. - Hi, President Obama. - Hello. - My name is Amalina. I'm the Wesley coordinator from Malaysia and I love you. (chuckles) - Thank you, I love you too. - My question is, I feel like the world is getting more polarizing. And how do we get here, and how can we go from here? - The world's, as I said before, remember the world's been polarized, just not as polarized in our lifetimes. In some ways you all were born, and this is not true, obviously, everywhere, right? I mean, some of you come from countries that have had recent violent conflict. But most of you were born and came of age during what is probably the most unusually peaceful, optimistic period right before 9/11, the Berlin Wall had come down, Mandela's released from prison, there's a sense of optimism. 9/11 changes it and the Iraq war, but there's still a lot of economic growth and globalization, and standards of living in a lot of countries that hadn't experienced growth before, they're seeing it suddenly. And then, you have the financial crisis, and it reveals all these contradictions between all the growth and expansion, right? You have greater inequality, you have climate change, and what's happening is more and more countries grow at an accelerated rate with higher carbon footprint. You have cultural displacement, where people suddenly, because of the internet and social media. You know, if you used to live in a rural village in Indonesia, you didn't see things that violated your ideas of the world. And now, just through your phone, your children might be looking at things that you can't believe, right? And that you consider a threat to you. And the same is, by the way, it's not just in a rural village in Indonesia, it's a rural farm in Kentucky, in America. They're seeing things that suddenly feeling as if it's an affront to them. And then, you have politicians who exploit that, right? So, the way out of it, I think, is to deal with some of the underlying problems. When people feel more economically secure, they're less likely to feel polarized. Social science shows that typically, voters are more generous with other people, when they feel as if they're doing well. No surprise. When they feel stressed, pressed, insecure, they lash out, and they're more vulnerable to messages of polarization and hatred. Number two is, young people had to participate in fighting back against messages of hate and polarization, wherever you find them. And it's especially important for those who are in majority groups to speak out when they see minority groups being threatened. So, if you are an Indonesian, then you have to be mindful of what's happening to people in East Timor. If you're Javanese, then you have to be able to say something about that. If you are from Myanmar, especially if you are not Rohingya, if you're part of the Burmese majority, then you have to be able to speak out when you see Rohingya being threatened, right? So, if you are-- (audience applauding) Which isn't to say that those communities don't have their own voice, it just means that you also have an obligation, because they're gonna need allies, just like we all do. All right, I'm not gonna get to three. I only have time for one more, or I'm gonna get in trouble. So, this is the last question. You know, it's really tough when it's the last one. I'm tempted to call on the guy with the Obama hat, but that's probably, but that's too self-serving. (audience laughing) I shouldn't do that. (laughs and mumbles) No, no, right there, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, right there. No, no, no, the young lady, right there, yeah. - Hi, thank you so much for this opportunity. I think leaders here make difficult decisions all the time. - Yeah. - My question to you is what has been the most difficult decision you ever made in your life, and how did you make that? Could you share that with us? Thank you. - Oh, that's a great question. (audience applauding) Look, I would distinguish between the most difficult question and the most important questions, right? I already told you what the most important question or decision I had to make, was who to marry, but that wasn't that hard. I will tell you, I think probably, as difficult a question, as I had to answer was whether I should run for president. We had a young family. I had taken Michelle through a series of races. I had lost one, I had won one. We had just kinda stabilized financially, because my books started selling after I was elected to the Senate, and I spoke at the Democratic Convention. It was a good time for everybody to catch our breath, the girls were happy, we were in a new house. Frankly, there were some other strong candidates. It wasn't as if I had to run in order for, necessarily, Democrats to be successful. So I struggled with that. And I had asked myself why me, how is it gonna affect my family, and then, could I actually win. And, I concluded I could win. I concluded that in conversation with Michelle, the family would be okay. And then, the hardest question to ask is why you, other than just your ego, right, to the ego check question. And I concluded that given the time, the moment, it might be that if I was successful, as someone from historically discriminated against group, that was able to rise to the most powerful office in the world, that in addition to me advancing a policy agenda, that I might send a signal to people about what was possible. And to young people, and to children, and to help people we imagined themselves and their societies, and that that might be worth it, if this was probably the best window for me to do that. But it was still hard, because it was still gonna involve a lot of sacrifice. You know, the decisions I made during the presidency, they were just a series of decisions, they were really tough. Because, as I said before, usually, the rule was, if you're a president, the only questions that actually come to you for a decision, are the ones nobody else can solve. So when I came into office, and the financial crisis had happened, and we had to make a series of decisions about how we're gonna save the banks, and how are we going to stabilize the financial system, and how are we going to save the auto industry. Each of those questions you were dealing with percentages and probabilities, 'cause there was no guarantee that any one answer would work. So, you'd had to make decisions about these issues based on getting the best information possible. To your question, how do you do it? Being open to all points of view, getting good information, discussing it with the team that's willing to challenge your assumptions and challenge each other's assumptions, but then, at the end of the day, you have to feel comfortable that you set up a process, so that when you make the decision, you know whether it works or not, at least you did it the right way. And I was, I think, good throughout my presidency, whether it was dealing with the financial crisis, or dealing with you know, how do we deal with Bin Laden or in terrorism, or, and by the way, some decisions that were painful, and I still, to this day, I'm not absolutely positive I was right. Like my decision not to launch another military intervention to stop the bloodshed in Syria is an example of just a hard question. We had been involved in the Middle East in some war for over a decade by that point. And, I didn't think that us intervening again and occupying again another Muslim country in the Middle East was going to lead to a better outcome. And yet, there were children who were being slaughtered. And you had a government that didn't care about displacing millions of people. And the question what responsibility did we have for that? To this day, I can't tell you for certain the decisions I made around that issue were the optimal ones. All I can say is that I set up a process that I believed in. Where I asked all the hard questions and was willing to face hard truths and looked at the data and the information. And that's, you know, I guess it's a good place to conclude just by saying this. 'Cause it goes to a lot of the questions earlier about how do you not be discouraged, and how do you deal with when you feel like you're dealing with Goliath, and how do you find balance. To all these questions. If you set up a way of being in the world and interacting with the world in which you are honest and truthful not just with others, but with yourself, if you're willing to ask yourself hard questions and to challenge your own assumptions, and, if you're willing to continually say to yourself, "Okay, I say I believe this, "but is this what I'm actually doing? "Is this what I actually believe? "Am I living up to my ideals?" If you're doing that, and you're trying, and you're working hard, and you get up when you make mistakes, and you sustain effort, and you also forgive yourself, when you make mistakes, or sometimes when you're just tired, and you've gotta take a break. And if you're surrounded by people who are honest with you and support you and share those values, then you should just rejoice in this opportunity to change the world. It's a great privilege to be alive and have the possibility of helping somebody or making things a little bit better. I have so much confidence that if you just stay with it, even if you sometimes can't see it, you will have made things better. All right? (audience applauding) So I'll see you out there, everybody. Love you, thank you. Stay with it. (audience applauding) (gentle music)
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Channel: Obama Foundation
Views: 120,745
Rating: 4.7723579 out of 5
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Id: KO2lsVu3Ye4
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Length: 99min 9sec (5949 seconds)
Published: Thu Dec 12 2019
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