Future Talent 2016: Martine Wright full presentation — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:16well thank you
2. 0:18that's a very nice applause i haven't
3. 0:20even said anything yet so that's a good
4. 0:22start
5. 0:23uh good morning ladies and gentlemen um
6. 0:26as you've heard my name is martin wright
7. 0:28and i'm proud to say that i'm captain
8. 0:30now of the great britain sitting
9. 0:32volleyball team
10. 0:34and
11. 0:34thank you
12. 0:38and i did have the huge honor of taking
13. 0:40part in the
14. 0:42london paralympics
15. 0:44um a dream i've been working towards
16. 0:46over the past few years but that hasn't
17. 0:49always been my dream
18. 0:51and uh 10 years ago now quite quite
19. 0:53believe it's 10 years ago
20. 0:55but 10 years ago
21. 0:57i was on the way to work as a
22. 0:58international marketing manager and
23. 1:01i got on a circle line tube
24. 1:03and it changed my life forever
25. 1:06i was sat just four foot away from one
26. 1:08of the suicide bombers that decided to
27. 1:10hit london that morning
28. 1:13my family frantically searched me for
29. 1:15two days
30. 1:17and they finally found me at the royal
31. 1:19london hospital
32. 1:21completely unrecognizable i lost both my
33. 1:23legs above the knee
34. 1:25lost 80 percent of my blood
35. 1:27been resuscitated several times and was
36. 1:30in a deep coma
37. 1:32and uh after 11 days
38. 1:34i came out this coma
39. 1:36to look down in my bed
40. 1:38and see that my legs were gone
41. 1:42um i can't really describe to you how i
42. 1:45felt at that moment but i
43. 1:47pretty much felt like my world had ended
44. 1:50i just couldn't believe that out of the
45. 1:52millions of people every day that get on
46. 1:54the tube
47. 1:55i was the most injured survivor
48. 1:58it it seemed so unfair
49. 2:01now i'm sure with all of you here today
50. 2:03i'm sure there's many of you that have
51. 2:04either been through something equally
52. 2:07traumatic
53. 2:08or know of someone that has been through
54. 2:10something like that and i'm sure there's
55. 2:12one thing that they would tell you that
56. 2:14there was a turning point that they were
57. 2:16faced with
58. 2:18my turning point came on a day when i
59. 2:20was supposed to be bridesmaid for my
60. 2:22best friend
61. 2:23but instead i was strong enough for the
62. 2:25first time to go to the gym physio at
63. 2:27royal london
64. 2:29and i remember looking around this room
65. 2:31and seeing all manner of different
66. 2:32people
67. 2:34i saw a girl who had lost
68. 2:37she's a very good friend of mine now
69. 2:38who'd lost both her legs but also both
70. 2:41her arms through meningitis
71. 2:44i met other victims of the bombings who
72. 2:46might not have been as physically
73. 2:47injured as me but psychologically they
74. 2:50were completely traumatized
75. 2:52and this was the day that i found out
76. 2:54how many people died that day
77. 2:5652 people
78. 2:58innocent people on the way to work had
79. 3:00been killed and i had no idea at all
80. 3:04before this point
81. 3:06so for me i believe this was my turning
82. 3:08point and i this was the day that i
83. 3:10think i said to myself martine pull
84. 3:13yourself together
85. 3:15you got two choices
86. 3:18either you can sit there you feel sorry
87. 3:20for yourself and keep asking that
88. 3:22question why me why me
89. 3:24and decide never to walk again
90. 3:26or decide that life carries on
91. 3:29and yes it was an awful thing worse than
92. 3:31anything i could have ever imagined
93. 3:34but there were always people worse off
94. 3:36knew
95. 3:37i didn't die that day and i had a choice
96. 3:40i had a choice to live my life
97. 3:43whatever it may hold
98. 3:45so that's when i did start to learn to
99. 3:48um
100. 3:48to walk again i'm just reaching out for
101. 3:50the clicker
102. 3:52and as you can see
103. 3:54from this picture here
104. 3:56i'm not saying it was the easiest thing
105. 3:57in the world it actually was the hardest
106. 3:59thing out of everything
107. 4:01um
108. 4:02but after a year i finally got my c legs
109. 4:06and
110. 4:07i think this was the hardest time out of
111. 4:09all of it
112. 4:11i was suddenly back to normal life but
113. 4:13not normal as i knew it so um
114. 4:16you know not being able to live in my
115. 4:18flat in london
116. 4:20not being able to go back to my work
117. 4:22having to live with my mum
118. 4:24and i i remember this one day
119. 4:27where i just couldn't stop crying
120. 4:29and my sister my older sister come to me
121. 4:31she said my team what's wrong
122. 4:33and all i kept saying was all i want to
123. 4:35do is walk out this house and go home
124. 4:38all i want to do is walk out this house
125. 4:40and go home and i think when you go
126. 4:42through something traumatic but for me
127. 4:45the hardest thing to deal with was the
128. 4:47memories
129. 4:48the memories of how i used to do things
130. 4:51before
131. 4:52you know suddenly you're one person one
132. 4:54day
133. 4:55and then you wake up
134. 4:5611 days later for me and you find out
135. 4:58that you're someone else
136. 5:01so
137. 5:02i mean see the thing about change is
138. 5:04that
139. 5:06a lot of the time we don't know when
140. 5:07it's going to happen we don't plan for
141. 5:10it and it takes us by surprise and as a
142. 5:13result it's really hard to deal with
143. 5:16sometimes
144. 5:17but i truly believe now that 7-7 was not
145. 5:21a matter of
146. 5:23the wrong place at the wrong time for me
147. 5:26um and i believe it's taken me on a
148. 5:28journey that i was always meant to make
149. 5:32and
150. 5:33i was and i still am determined to make
151. 5:35number seven a positive in my life
152. 5:38as well as the testimony to to the 52
153. 5:41people that died
154. 5:43and maybe
155. 5:44just maybe
156. 5:46that number seven could actually make my
157. 5:48life better and more improved
158. 5:51and i believe all of us every single one
159. 5:53of us need some i suppose some
160. 5:56strategies and techniques that we need
161. 5:58to rely on
162. 5:59in order to get us through this change
163. 6:02this tragedy sometimes and funny enough
164. 6:05i have seven of them and i that's what i
165. 6:08call my power of seven
166. 6:11and uh the first one of these
167. 6:14is choices as i said before we all have
168. 6:16choices whatever happens to us in life
169. 6:18we have choices we have two choices a
170. 6:20lot of the time
171. 6:22number two
172. 6:23is maximizing every opportunity it's all
173. 6:27about your personal growth so in order
174. 6:29for me to find that resilience that
175. 6:31strength after what happened
176. 6:33i knew i had to grab every opportunity i
177. 6:36could
178. 6:37so again from
179. 6:39learning to fly to
180. 6:41skiing to
181. 6:43jumping out a plane that wasn't popular
182. 6:45with my mum and dad i tell you
183. 6:47um to uh being awarded the helen
184. 6:50rollerson award which was amazing to
185. 6:53learning to dance again uh which that
186. 6:55was a highlight
187. 6:56who wouldn't like being completely
188. 6:58strictified and then being swung around
189. 7:00by the lovely weight for six weeks
190. 7:03um
191. 7:04but what i'm trying to say is that
192. 7:06good can come out of bad and all these
193. 7:09things i've done i would never have done
194. 7:11if it weren't for going through the
195. 7:12worst time in my life
196. 7:14and we all have choices as i said we can
197. 7:17sit there and feel sorry for ourselves
198. 7:18or we can get up and say no
199. 7:20i'm not standing for this and be
200. 7:22determined to get something positive out
201. 7:25of it
202. 7:26i believe anything is possible as long
203. 7:29as you believe
204. 7:31so number three of my power of seven
205. 7:34is embracing change or change management
206. 7:37as you might want to call it
207. 7:39and if we're all honest every single one
208. 7:41of us in this room
209. 7:43is scared of change
210. 7:45but what we need to realize
211. 7:47is that change brings opportunity it
212. 7:50stretches us it challenges us and it
213. 7:52makes us stronger
214. 7:54and i knew i had to accept these changes
215. 7:56in order to to get something
216. 7:59good out of it and i knew i had to do
217. 8:01something as a result of losing my legs
218. 8:05so i was invited to go to a paralympic
219. 8:07potential day
220. 8:08where you can try all different sports
221. 8:10pretty much tried everything but fell in
222. 8:12love with sitting volleyball
223. 8:14and as you can see i'm there with my
224. 8:16lucky number seven on my shirt
225. 8:20and what i love about sitting volleyball
226. 8:22is number one you don't play in a
227. 8:23wheelchair so it's a great sport we
228. 8:26moved constantly round on the floors on
229. 8:28our bums
230. 8:30it was actually first called bum ball
231. 8:34quite an unfortunate name i believe
232. 8:36you imagine that
233. 8:38world championships in bombay
234. 8:41um but no they they changed it
235. 8:43thankfully they changed it to sitting
236. 8:46volleyball although because we do move
237. 8:48constantly round on the floor we've now
238. 8:50adopted the name floor cleaners
239. 8:53which isn't a lot better than mumble um
240. 8:55but they're right by the time that we
241. 8:57finished a match the floor is absolutely
242. 9:00gleaming
243. 9:01and uh not surprisingly not surprisingly
244. 9:04number four in my power of seven is
245. 9:07sport and the power of sport and it's
246. 9:10become so important in my life as well
247. 9:13as the opportunity to obviously
248. 9:14represent my country in a sport i love
249. 9:16in my hometown hometown of london it's
250. 9:19also given me so much more on a physical
251. 9:22level you know it's got me fit again and
252. 9:23i've discovered muscles in places that i
253. 9:26never ever thought existed
254. 9:28emotionally you know it it gave me my
255. 9:31confidence back
256. 9:32it improved my self-esteem and it got me
257. 9:34out meeting like-minded people
258. 9:37and psychologically for me
259. 9:39i think this was the most important and
260. 9:41still is
261. 9:43number one it gave me that ambition and
262. 9:44drive back that i used to feel at work
263. 9:47but number two
264. 9:48it gave me a new dream to work towards
265. 9:50and i believe as i said has taken me on
266. 9:53a journey that i was always meant to
267. 9:55make
268. 9:56and this takes me on
269. 9:58to number five
270. 10:00and my number five is teamwork i have
271. 10:04learned so much from being involved in
272. 10:07in sport again
273. 10:09and being being kept into a bunch of
274. 10:12very strong independent people
275. 10:15see the thing about us like many teams
276. 10:18like many of the teams that you're in or
277. 10:20you lead or develop is we were all
278. 10:23completely different
279. 10:25different backgrounds different cultures
280. 10:27different values just different walks of
281. 10:29life
282. 10:30and we were also a squad of very
283. 10:31different ages not sure whether you can
284. 10:33see from the photo but from 13 years old
285. 10:36to 43 years old
286. 10:39so we knew that we were going to be
287. 10:40facing some pretty difficult situations
288. 10:43in order to embark on our journey
289. 10:46our dream journey of get getting to
290. 10:48london 2012.
291. 10:50so we realized that we were only going
292. 10:51to get there
293. 10:52if we stuck together if we worked as a
294. 10:55team and if we agreed on some clear
295. 10:57concise goals and values and i truly
296. 11:00believe that these values here if we
297. 11:03hadn't have had them
298. 11:04we would never ever have got to the
299. 11:06london paralympics
300. 11:08um so the first one of these was respect
301. 11:11and we needed to respect people's
302. 11:13ability
303. 11:14to make the right decisions
304. 11:16allowing everyone to have their own
305. 11:18views
306. 11:20we needed to respect the position that
307. 11:22we now found ourselves in we were
308. 11:23representing our country in a sport that
309. 11:26we loved the second one
310. 11:29was trust
311. 11:30we needed to allow people to be
312. 11:33themselves this was a huge one for us um
313. 11:36as i said we were all very different
314. 11:38people and we needed to trust and
315. 11:40believe that everyone was doing
316. 11:42everything they could for the good of
317. 11:44the team even though it might not be the
318. 11:46same as you
319. 11:47and we needed to rely on each other and
320. 11:50be honest and accountable to each other
321. 11:54so we had respect trust third one
322. 11:56commitment
323. 11:57that we were all committing to investing
324. 11:59as much time as we could
325. 12:02we needed to make everyone feel
326. 12:04empowered
327. 12:05with a specific role and a purpose
328. 12:08within the team we needed to commit to
329. 12:11being one team as i said we were never
330. 12:13going to get there if we didn't commit
331. 12:15to be a dedicated determined disciplined
332. 12:18professed professional and resilient
333. 12:21team
334. 12:22and we needed to commit
335. 12:24i suppose to the greater good for not
336. 12:26our individual values but for our team
337. 12:29values
338. 12:30so the fourth one for us this was a huge
339. 12:32one for us and i'm sure it is in in your
340. 12:35lives in in the careers that you lead
341. 12:37and that is communication
342. 12:39and we needed to
343. 12:41agree and follow these values we know
344. 12:43it's all quite
345. 12:44easy sometimes to sit around a nice
346. 12:46round table with some sparkling water
347. 12:48and going we need to come up with some
348. 12:50values there's another thing actually
349. 12:51getting people to
350. 12:53to follow them and agree with them and
351. 12:54believe in them
352. 12:56um and we needed to
353. 12:58listen and reflect
354. 13:00on what was being said by who now this
355. 13:03was a huge one for us and this is what
356. 13:05we called agreed preferences
357. 13:08and um
358. 13:09i think we've we've all been
359. 13:11bought up in the world with these
360. 13:12sayings which is you know
361. 13:14speak to people the way that you would
362. 13:16like to be spoken to
363. 13:18treat people the way that you would like
364. 13:20to be treated
365. 13:21well i think this is wrong
366. 13:24because we're all different people and
367. 13:26we all react in different ways in the
368. 13:29way that people communicate to us
369. 13:31so these agreed preferences were really
370. 13:34looking at who you were talking to
371. 13:36and how they wanted to be communicated
372. 13:39with
373. 13:41so respect trust commitment
374. 13:42communication
375. 13:43and obviously running across all of them
376. 13:46was diversity we were all very different
377. 13:49as we all know it's very rare for the
378. 13:52for teams to have the same sorts of
379. 13:53people in them and actually it's those
380. 13:55teams that fail a lot of the time so we
381. 13:58realized that our differences brought a
382. 14:00uniqueness to us something that we would
383. 14:02rely on going forward to the paralympics
384. 14:06and i'm not i'm not saying it was easy
385. 14:07you know we were we were training
386. 14:09ridiculous amount of hours before london
387. 14:11not being paid for it and um
388. 14:14i had those days where i just felt like
389. 14:16i was hitting my head against a brick
390. 14:18wall and again i imagine all of you with
391. 14:20the demanding careers that you have
392. 14:22must feel like that sometimes and um
393. 14:26i had a very easy coping mechanism to to
394. 14:29deal with those days
395. 14:31and it was just an image an image that i
396. 14:34used to store in my head
397. 14:36and it was of my son
398. 14:37oscar
399. 14:38at the paralympics um
400. 14:41holding up a banner in the crowd no idea
401. 14:42what was going to say on it but
402. 14:45you know that image really got me
403. 14:46through those tough times and gave me a
404. 14:48coping mechanism that that i felt like i
405. 14:51could wake up the next day and and carry
406. 14:53on
407. 14:54so we worked and worked and worked and
408. 14:57we we finally got there to london
409. 15:00and we didn't come back with a medal um
410. 15:02but we achieved so much and we we had to
411. 15:05balance our expectation with our
412. 15:08experience
413. 15:10you know the short-term goal was to get
414. 15:12to london was to pick up as much
415. 15:13experience as we could but the long-term
416. 15:16goal for us was rio in 2016.
417. 15:20and there have been so many amazing
418. 15:22memories from that time
419. 15:24i'm sure many of you have them um as
420. 15:27well have your own
421. 15:28but for me one of the best memories was
422. 15:31the opening ceremony
423. 15:33and this sums up my number six in my
424. 15:35power of seven and that is t me
425. 15:39we all have a teammate and we're part of
426. 15:41someone else's teaming
427. 15:43my tv is made up of my family my friends
428. 15:47my teammates my managers all those
429. 15:49healthcare professionals emergency
430. 15:51services liz
431. 15:53for saving my life for putting me back
432. 15:55together again and
433. 15:57when i was was walking around in front
434. 15:59of 80 000 people going mad
435. 16:01i was doing it for them but also doing
436. 16:04it for me i suppose so that was that was
437. 16:06a a very special night and this is some
438. 16:09of my
439. 16:10team me here
440. 16:11and i do need to just share this with
441. 16:13you that this was taken well the two of
442. 16:15these pictures were taken um after the
443. 16:18first game the first paralympic game
444. 16:21um i was walking out
445. 16:24of a tunnel in exile arena in front of 9
446. 16:26000 people you know before this point
447. 16:28the biggest crowd we'd ever played to
448. 16:29was about 300.
449. 16:31so you can imagine emotions were running
450. 16:34high um but i came out this tunnel and i
451. 16:36looked over to my left
452. 16:38and i saw that image i had in my head
453. 16:42of my son oscar
454. 16:44with a banner saying go mummy go and i
455. 16:46knew at that point that all the blood
456. 16:48sweat and tears literally
457. 16:50had all been worth it
458. 16:52um again interestingly enough the top
459. 16:54left photo
460. 16:56i had friends saying to me that's my dad
461. 16:58right behind his banner can't see my dad
462. 17:01i had friends saying to me after the
463. 17:03first game
464. 17:04we made the mistake of sitting behind
465. 17:05your family i was like oh no
466. 17:09are they really loud as i know i just
467. 17:11couldn't see anything through the size
468. 17:13of your dad's banner
469. 17:16so that was a that was a great a great
470. 17:18morning
471. 17:19uh but my seventh and my last um and i
472. 17:22believe the most important out of my
473. 17:25power of seven
474. 17:27is belief
475. 17:28and i'm i'm not saying the last ten
476. 17:30years have been easy
477. 17:32it's been a roller coaster of a ride but
478. 17:35it's made me who i am today and it
479. 17:38shaped my team me
480. 17:40and we've all become stronger and more
481. 17:42resilient from it and actually
482. 17:45we've all had positives out of it so for
483. 17:48instance
484. 17:49you know my husband
485. 17:51pursued his dream of running his own
486. 17:52photography business my my family
487. 17:55discovered a strength in each other as a
488. 17:57result of that that awful time and my
489. 18:00nephew well he was he was well chuffed i
490. 18:03took him to walton towers and he
491. 18:05realized he didn't have to queue up for
492. 18:06any of the rides because i'm in a
493. 18:08wheelchair
494. 18:10so you know that belief
495. 18:13that strength has all got us through and
496. 18:16and we've got good things from it um
497. 18:19and as i said i truly believe that i was
498. 18:22always meant to make this journey there
499. 18:23are too many coincidences connections
500. 18:26that
501. 18:27that connect the 7th of july and the
502. 18:29paralympics in the olympics um whole
503. 18:32reason why i was late that morning is
504. 18:33that i've been out the night before
505. 18:35having a few sherbets with with work
506. 18:37friends
507. 18:38um the last thing i was reading on the
508. 18:40tube that morning was my paper and you
509. 18:43literally could not turn the page
510. 18:45without without reading something on the
511. 18:47olympics or paralympics and i remember
512. 18:49thinking just before the explosions
513. 18:51happened
514. 18:52i'll get tickets to this
515. 18:54i'm a londoner i've got get tickets to
516. 18:55this
517. 18:56and now you know i've just come back
518. 18:59from taking part
519. 19:00um some people say things happen for a
520. 19:02reason
521. 19:03and i can only believe that that is true
522. 19:06so i suppose
523. 19:08we all either believe that we don't have
524. 19:10a path
525. 19:11a certain path that is mapped out for us
526. 19:13or the other end of the scale is that we
527. 19:15do have a path a fate that we can never
528. 19:18change
529. 19:19we obviously can question this forever
530. 19:22and never really know but what we do
531. 19:24know
532. 19:26is
533. 19:27it's not you know the path
534. 19:29it's the the it's not the path that's
535. 19:31the important thing we may never know
536. 19:34our path and it's the way you deal with
537. 19:36it that's the important thing
538. 19:38so
539. 19:40i suppose it's it's not what happens to
540. 19:42you that makes the difference it's what
541. 19:44you do with what happens to you
542. 19:47and
543. 19:47life changes doesn't it
544. 19:49things happen in our lives good and bad
545. 19:51and we need to
546. 19:53accept those changes and adapt and
547. 19:55become stronger from it and there is no
548. 19:58doubt at all that my power of seven has
549. 20:01got me through the last 10 years and
550. 20:03will hopefully get me through the next
551. 20:0650 or 60 years
552. 20:08so i suppose do you have a power of
553. 20:12seven
554. 20:13where and when does your own journey
555. 20:14start and what differences can you make
556. 20:18so make today the day you choose to be
557. 20:20the best you can
558. 20:21make today the day you choose to work
559. 20:24together to try to look at things
560. 20:26differently i suppose and inspire
561. 20:29inspire your employees and talent to do
562. 20:31the same
563. 20:32and please if you get one thing from
564. 20:34this presentation it is
565. 20:37please believe that anything absolutely
566. 20:40anything is possible as long as you
567. 20:43believe
568. 20:44thank you ever smudge ladies and
569. 20:46gentlemen