This is one of the most vulnerable things I’ve ever shared, and I hope you don’t read it, but if you would please don’t keep this to yourself.

My dad once asked me what I wanted out of life and I said, “I want to be really wise and knowledgeable so I can create value and make money.” He smiled, but I knew he expected more.

Recently, I thought about his question again and my answer has changed…

I want to die empty. I want to gather all the knowledge I can in my lifetime and then pour it all out before I leave this world.

But there are 2 problems with this:

1. I must be humble enough to accept that I don’t know a lot, and curious enough to keep asking questions so I can learn. 2. I don’t know when I will die. So I must keep pouring out everything I know. If I want to die empty, then at every point, I must be empty.

This thought pushed me into one of the most vulnerable decisions I’ve ever made. After graduating with a first class, on my very first day at home, I sat down and asked myself: “What is the best way to give back?”

I tried many ideas, but none of them felt meaningful, they all just felt novel. So I reached out to my mentor from my internship @cih. After a deep conversation, I asked if I could attend the Wednesday Case Study Class.

I attended for 3 weeks. Every week, I saw myself helping young confused teenagers trying to navigate the tech and career world and It gave me joy — the kind I can’t explain.

Then one day, I was asked to teach a class. The topic was Leadership. I promised myself I would give 100%.

I was scared. Very scared. But I remembered my goal: To learn everything I can. And to die empty.

So I started preparing, I gathered everything I had learnt — from the hub, from school, from books (I read an unhealthy amount). My co-teacher @titi and I stayed up many nights merging ideas and shaping the class.

When Wednesday came, we stepped on stage. The spotlight hit us. But somehow, it felt normal — like we had been preparing for this for years. We turned that spotlight into flashlights and used it to guide each Native.

We taught everything we knew about Leadership, sharing stories from Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, Steve Jobs and others. It was the best teaching experience of my life.

The following week, we were invited again to teach on Capacity Building. We shared stories of people who changed our lives — Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Jordan, the monks, and many others.

My favourite moment was when the Natives went on a self-discovery journey and wrote letters to their 7-year-old selves and their 70-year-old selves.

At the end of that class, something happened that made me cry.

One of the Natives was so inspired that he made a billboard design for me.

Every Wednesday, I am reminded of my big task in life:

To put something back. And as long as I am alive, I will keep doing that.

God is helping us.