The TEDx SFU Dialogue Event was a smaller, more intimate affair than the day of speakers and entertainment that preceded it. Around 20 people from all walks of life, with various degrees of connection to the university, sat in one of SFU Harbour Centre’s conference rooms. The organizers had us pull up our chairs in a circle, and after a round of introductions, something between a Q&A session and a round-table talk took off. The discussion ran with a mind of its own, but centered around issues such as entrepreneurship, discovery, innovation, self-awareness, immigration, trial and error, and growth. Here are seven standout quotes from the speakers of TEDx SFU:
“What I find really important is to build in humility.”
– Milena Droumeva, assistant professor of communication at SFU
“I welcome that sense of fear because it tells me that I’m not playing it safe.”
– Dr Alexandra T. Greenhill, physician and entrepreneur
“I feel like you can’t even give space [to your doubts] . . . There’s no time.”
– Anita Cheung, yoga therapist, meditation teacher, and freelancer
“If you’re dealing with doubt and those what-if scenarios, you also have to wonder the opposite, which is: after all of that work and effort, what if I’m really good?”
– Roshan Noronha, SFU student and founder of EnTomorrow
“The basic misconception of what I do, and of what a lot of people do, is that talent equals success. And . . . I believe part of that is true, but it’s all perseverance . . . It’s following your dreams, but it’s working your tail off.”
– Greg Durrell, designer and documentarian
“Education . . . can also result, I think, in people, citizens, who know how to also inform themselves and participate in crafting the solutions to our shares of problems . . . ”
-Milena Droumeva
“The biggest misconception, perhaps, is that career is linear.”
-Dr Alexandra T. Greenhill
