What's holding you back? | Wael Al Masri | TEDxNKUA

At the age of 16, Wael Al Masri began his first project in which he produced electricity from the soil. He devoted four years to this project, and in 2016, the project took third place out of the 1,600 companies in the Web Summit 2016 competition. But later on, things took an unexpected turn.

At the age of 19, he gathered a group of 17 people from different backgrounds, winning the NASA Space Apps Challenge 2017 global contest. Since then he has received multiple awards and recognition in various parts of the world. Now he is the leader of many projects in the fields of health technology and drones.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Let me ask you something.

When you were young kids,

what was your plan,

the dream, the path
that you wanted to follow?

Becoming an astronaut,
a doctor, a scientist?

Well the plan goes like this:

you go to school, study hard,
go to university, get good grades,

then a master's, a PhD possibly,

and then a good job somewhere big.

I don't know, Microsoft,
Google, NASA, whatever.

That was my plan too.

But let me take you back in time.

Six years ago, I was 16 years old,
and I loved technology.

I wanted to experiment a lot
and try many, many, many things.

So I created my own "lab."

That's it.

(Laughter)

So, ah, when I was in high school,

I had a friend who also loved
experimenting with technology,

and he was just like me,
so one day while we were at class,

a physics teacher of him
comes to me, and he tells us both,

"Hey guys!

There are some people
trying to experiment with me,

and I would like you to join us."

So I went there, we started working
with him in his lab on different projects.

It was super boring at the beginning,
until one day he came to us and he said,

"Hey guys!

In the old days, there were some guys
trying to produce electricity from soil.

So why don't you try this out?

Maybe it will open doors for you."

And without a second guess,

we decided that
that was a fun thing to do.

So we started working on it,

and in three months, both of them,
they stopped working with me.

We had literally no results,

and, you know, I felt like

there was something
pulling me towards this,

so I kept on trying a little bit more.

To be specific, one year later,
I had my first proof of concept,

which was a huge table full of soil

that was barely enough
to light a small very, very tiny light.

That was just a very first step,

but it was enough to convince
some people to help me more.

My first investment they got
was 100 euros from another teacher,

that he wanted me to join
a national school competition.

So, I did as he told me.

I went to the competition,
and I realized something very important.

People actually like my idea.

They don't think anymore that I'm crazy.

Well, they actually think
because of my plans,

but they are convinced now that maybe
there's something in that technology.

One year more passed,

and then a night before
my final national school exams,

which is, by the way,

one of the most important things
defining my career,

I decided that "Hey,

I don't want to study anymore.
Let's leave this,"

and I wanted to do
something about my project.

So I started searching on Google
for anything that has to do with research,

innovation, banking -

I don't know, anything that might
give me money or advice.

Back then we didn't have the term
"startup" that much in Cyprus,

so it was something new for me.

I sent over 50 emails,

and from those 50 emails,
I got back five replies.

Two were a "no" in a nice way,

and three were,
"Yes maybe, let's hear more."

One of those companies was -
luckily enough it was from Cyprus.

So I decided that
"Hey, why not try this out?"

I sent them an email,
we arranged a meeting,

and then I went there
with a much better prototype.

And I managed to convince them

to work together for the next
one and a half year.

By the end of that time,
we participated in Web Summit.

Now, Web Summit is a huge conference,

especially when it comes to startups,

maybe it's one of the best in the world.

There were more than
60 thousand participants

and companies from all over the world.

All the top names: Google, Microsoft,
Instagram, Facebook, Gary Vee,

whatever you can imagine.

Everybody was there.

On day one,

I had some prototypes and a small booth,

and I was presenting to some investors,

and it didn't go that well, to be honest.

I don't know, it was my first time
talking to real investors.

The second day was a pitch competition.

That pitch competition,
you start from 1,500 companies,

and then you manage, after
three rounds, to get to the finals.

I don't know how or why
or what happened exactly,

I don't remember,
but I made it to the finals.

The finals was actually
pitching in the arena,

this one you see in the picture.

That was actually
in front of 15,000 people,

global media coverage,

so it was something really scary for me.

I never dreamed of talking
in front of people,

especially my first time
being in front of a judging panel.

Anyway, I remember
a few hours before the pitch,

they gave me a wristband
that said "Speaker Guest,"

and that wristband,
well, it had magic powers.

You go to the backstage,
you raise your hand like this,

and security personnel go like this,

and you enter to the celebrities,
and you see something huge there.

All the big names.

I remember seeing Gary Vee there.

Oh! Me and Gary Vee in the same room!
That was something I never expected.

So, as you can imagine,
I used this magic power wisely,

so I went in and out, in and out,
in and out, and I feel like this.

(Laughter)

It was fun, to be honest,
being a celebrity even for a while.

So, long story short,
the pitch went better than expected,

and by the end of that pitch,
my life was changed.

The day before, I was begging
investors to listen to me,

the day after, investors
were knocking at my door.

Not the average ones, big ones.

Big companies were discussing
millions of dollars in deals with me,

and it was something huge.

I mean, I was 19 years old,
and I never imagined this.

Now, you might think -

yeah, there's the picture.

Now, you might think that after this

I had the happiest life,

making millions and millions,

and living happily as ever
an entrepreneur did,

but the truth is that I overestimated
my abilities, my experience in business,

and my trust in people.

And that had a huge, huge cost to me.

Long story short, the project got paused.

I lost four years of my work for nothing.

The only thing that was left for me
was the knowledge I got from there,

and nothing more.

You can imagine
how depressing that was:

being 19 years old,

having to deal with such big failure,

and knowing that it's not your project
that was not good enough

but the circumstances around you.

It was terrible.

For a few months, I had no energy
to do anything, literally.

I was like skipping school,
skipping actually university,

not meeting my friends,
not doing anything specific.

So a few months later,
I heard about a competition

called "NASA Space Apps Hackathon."

It's a global hackathon,
organized by NASA,

and they give you some problems
that you need to solve,

and if you solve them good enough,

you go to the globals,
and then if you win ...

you get an invitation
to Cape Canaveral for a rocket launch.

I was like, "Whoa! That's nice!"

So, to be honest, I never -

I thought that, okay,
winning is impossible, it's a big thing,

but why not try to get on my feet again
and see what I'm capable of?

Until that time, everyone was doubting
my skills as a team leader,

or as CEO, or anything like that,

so I was like, "Hey! Let's try
and see what happens!"

I mean, what's the worst case scenario?
Losing a competition.

So I organized a team of 17 people.

From solo entrepreneur to 17-people team;

it was a huge difference.

And they were from different ages,

different backgrounds,
different mentalities.

It was ... a mess.

I remember, one of the local
competition organizers,

he came to me, and he gave me
his hand and he says,

"I bet that with such a team,
there are only two options:

You will either do something great,
or you're going to be a big failure.

And I bet on the second."

I was like, "Whoa! What a motivation!"

(Laughter)

I mean, come on!

You don't go out and say this thing
to somebody who is just starting,

especially after a kind of
a depressing moment, so yeah.

The challenge was on, again.

Long story short,
it was a huge, huge thing.

Those 48 hours, we were
having like lots of trouble,

fighting with other teammates,
some of them, they still hate me for this,

but at the end of these 48 hours,

we managed to get
only the third place locally.

I mean, come on, out of 10 teams,
third place, that's disappointing.

That's not something that I wanted.

But anyway, we got the ticket
to the global competition,

so there was a chance.

So next, we had five weeks of huge,
troubling, I don't know how to call it,

but it was something weird.

I had to deal with so many
problems at the same time.

Fighting with this one,
fighting with that one.

Everybody used to hate me at that moment.

Even my friends, they didn't have
energy to deal with me

when I was like super angry all the time,

waking up, making phone calls,
and all these things.

So, anyway, by the end of that,
again I don't know how or why,

maybe, hard work, some people call it
hard work, some people call it luck,

we were the global winners,
something we never expected.

And we got a really nice
invitation from NASA.

That was something amazing. I mean,
come on! Seeing an invitation from NASA?

And I'm an engineer, so I was like
"Whoa! This is quicker than I thought."

But here the problem, the big problem,
actually, had just begun

because we had only three weeks

to raise almost 80,000 euros
of sponsorship from Cyprus

to cover the expenses of 17 people

flying to Cape Canaveral for a week
to experience the rocket launch,

so it wasn't something easy at all.

I mean, I don't know what happens
in other parts of the world,

but in Cyprus, it's next to impossible.

Again, many lost and won battles
and by the end of the day, we made it.

The big adventure, NASA!

I can keep talking about this
for hours and hours and hours:

the people we've met,
the things we've seen,

the mentality of us that changed,

the way we see life after that.

Everything was changing

because maybe for some people
it's a small thing,

but for us, it was a huge,
huge achievement.

So, right after that, I decided that now
it was time to execute my bigger plan.

Doing something really
in the field of startups,

or, I don't know, doing
some innovation on my own.

So, currently, I'm 22.

I have two startups:
one in the space of mechanobiology

and the other one in the space of drones,

and things, I can say, are going well.

We still have many failures,
over and over again,

but who knows what time holds for us.

The truth is

there's always something
standing in your way.

Be it a person, a relationship,
a lifestyle choice, a roadblock,

a belief, a doubt, anything.

There's always something
standing in your way.

Our brains are hardwired to believe
that success and fulfillment

come from following
a path defined by society.

Go to school, then college, then master's,
then PhD, then a good job

that pays you enough so you can afford
most of the things you like in life,

and then put your kids on the same path.

But your purpose is more than that.

Your purpose is to step out,
stand up, and rewrite that story.

Make it count.

Make that story more fulfilling to you;

not to the person next to you.

Stop putting your dreams on hold,

thinking that "It's not the time,

I don't feel well prepared,
I don't feel good enough."

Those are all lies,

those are all excuses that you make
just because you fear trying.

You're belittling yourself
whenever you say,

"I'm not smart enough,
I'm not good enough,

I'm not old enough,
I haven't graduated,

I haven't done this,
I haven't done that."

There's nothing like a good timing.

Today is a good timing,
tomorrow is a good timing.

As soon as you start,
you'll get into that path,

and you'll fail again and again and again.

And that's what I do, and I keep doing it.

And until today, I can not say
that everything is perfect in my life.

I have many troubles
with all of those startups,

with my personal life,
with everything like that.

Everybody has this,
but it's up to you to change it,

it's up to you to make
something out of it.

And from every failure,
get some knowledge and move on.

And there's one advice
I would like you to keep from me:

whenever you think
about the reasons, the excuses,

try breaking them down into small pieces.

When you do so, you realize
that everything becomes clearer,

easier, and much better for you.

And you realize that there's really
nothing holding you back.

So, what's holding you back?

Thank you.

(Applause)

(Cheers)