Finding a purpose in work we do or the way that we spend our time,

which resonates deeply with who we think we are,

is an essential part of knowing who we are.

In a way, if you don't know what you can do,

you don't really know what you might be.

The human talent, human ability, like the world's natural resources,

is often buried deep.

It's not just lying on the surface. You have to go looking for it.

That's why so many people don't know what their talents are.

They've never actually come upon them yet.

One of the things that stops us doing what we might want to do

is our own self-censorship, a fear that we'll fall flat on our face.

"Me? I'm not even entitled to it."

A second, I think, is other people's attitudes -

friends and family, often well-intentioned.

There are forms of tacit disapproval that prevent us moving forward.

It can be the raised eyebrow of a friend, or a group culture.

"What? You? Seriously? You would do that? OK."

Or cultural constraints about the roles of women or the communities.

So I'm not trying to say that this is easy,

but I'm saying it's essential and that there are things we CAN do,

particularly in the systematic process we put forward

through education and organization of communities, that can assist it.

The old model is predicated on a particular view of intelligence

and talent.

I think, for the future, we need to evolve systems of education

and of organizational planning and community development

which are based on a model of diversity,

rather than of conformity.

We still run our education systems as if life is linear,

as if it's mechanistic.

This is one reason so many things get phased out of education.

People say, "You'll never get a job if you do that."

Education is not a mechanistic process

and organizations are not mechanisms.

The management charter of most organizations

looks like a wiring diagram.

It kind of suggests that these are like mechanisms and they're not.

Human life and communities are much more like organisms,

in the sense that we flourish under certain conditions

and we fade under certain conditions.

Our success is always synergistic with our environment.

It IS about human flourishing.

It's also about recognizing that education and our communities

are part of cultures and are not independent and insulated from them.

But at the heart of it, the elemental bit of it,

is a different conception of human possibility -

finding your passion does change everything.