ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rebeca Hwang - Investor
Rebeca Hwang is co-founder and managing director of Rivet Ventures, investing in solutions for women and empowering their choices.

Why you should listen

Rebeca Hwang is co-founder and managing director of Rivet Ventures, which invests in companies in women-led markets where female usage, decision-making and purchasing are crucial to company growth. Hwang is also co-founder of the San Francisco-based startup YouNoodle, which connects top startups with opportunities for growth. She also co-founded Kalei Ventures, a venture fund focused in Latin American startups.

With a background in chemical and civil and environmental engineering from MIT and Stanford, Hwang's work has garnered three US patents, and she has 17 pending patent applications in her portfolio. She has been recognized as one of MIT Tech Review's "Top 35 Global Innovators under 35" and as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Hwang serves in the Board of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, which annually runs GEW in 170 countries and gathers 10 million participants. As the co-founder of Cleantech Open, she has helped more than 1,000 cleantech startups raise in excess of $1 billion in external funding. In addition, Hwang is a lecturer at Stanford University and teaches technology entrepreneurship.

More profile about the speaker
Rebeca Hwang | Speaker | TED.com
TED2018

Rebeca Hwang: The power of diversity within yourself

Rebeca Hwang: O poder da diversidade dentro de você

Filmed:
1,747,140 views

Rebeca Hwang passou a vida lidando com identidades: herança coreana, criação argentina, educação nos Estados Unidos. Por muito tempo, teve dificuldade em encontrar um lugar no mundo para chamar de lar. No entanto, juntamente com esses desafios, veio uma compreensão fundamental: que uma formação diversificada é uma vantagem distinta no mundo globalizado de hoje. Nesta palestra pessoal, Hwang revela os benefícios infinitos de abraçar nossas identidades complexas e compartilha suas esperanças de criar um mundo onde as identidades não sejam usadas para afastar, mas para unir as pessoas.
- Investor
Rebeca Hwang is co-founder and managing director of Rivet Ventures, investing in solutions for women and empowering their choices. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
We're holding hands,
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Estamos de mãos dadas,
olhando para a porta.
00:14
staring at the door.
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00:16
My siblings and I were waiting
for my mother to come back
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Meus irmãos e eu estávamos esperando
minha mãe voltar do hospital.
00:19
from the hospital.
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00:20
She was there because my grandmother
had cancer surgery that day.
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Ela estava lá porque minha avó teve
uma cirurgia de câncer naquele dia.
00:26
Finally, the doors opened,
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Finalmente, as portas se abriram,
00:29
and she said,
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e ela disse:
00:30
"She's gone.
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"Ela se foi.
00:31
She's gone."
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Ela se foi".
00:33
She started sobbing and immediately said,
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Ela começou a soluçar
e imediatamente disse:
00:36
"We must make arrangements.
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"Devemos fazer os preparativos.
00:38
Your grandmother's dying wish
was to be buried back home in Korea."
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O desejo de sua avó
era ser enterrada na Coreia".
00:46
I was barely 12 years old,
and when the shock wore off,
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Eu tinha apenas 12 anos
e, quando o choque passou,
00:50
my mother's words were ringing in my ears.
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as palavras de minha mãe
ecoavam em meus ouvidos.
00:53
My grandmother wanted
to be buried back home.
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Minha avó queria ser enterrada em casa.
00:58
We had moved from Korea
to Argentina six years prior,
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Havíamos nos mudado da Coreia
para a Argentina seis anos antes,
01:04
without knowing any Spanish,
or how we were going to make a living.
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sem saber espanhol,
ou como iríamos ganhar a vida.
01:09
And upon arrival, we were immigrants
who had lost everything,
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Na chegada, éramos imigrantes
que haviam perdido tudo.
01:13
so we had to work really hard
to rebuild our lives.
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Tivemos que trabalhar muito
para reconstruir nossas vidas.
01:16
So it hadn't occurred to me
that after all these years,
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Então, não me ocorreu
que, depois de todos esses anos,
01:20
back home was still in Korea.
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de volta para casa ainda era na Coreia.
01:24
It made me ponder where I would want
to be buried someday,
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Isso me fez pensar onde eu gostaria
de ser enterrada algum dia,
01:28
where home was for me,
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onde era o lar para mim.
01:30
and the answer was not obvious.
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A resposta não era óbvia,
e isso realmente me incomodou.
01:33
And this really bothered me.
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01:36
So this episode launched
a lifelong quest for my identity.
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Esse episódio lançou uma busca
constante pela minha identidade.
01:43
I was born in Korea -- the land of kimchi;
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Nasci na Coreia, a terra do kimchi;
01:46
raised in Argentina,
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fui criada na Argentina,
01:48
where I ate so much steak
that I'm probably 80 percent cow by now;
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onde comi tanto bife que já sou,
provavelmente, 80% vaca;
01:54
and I was educated in the US,
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e fui educada nos EUA,
01:56
where I became addicted to peanut butter.
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onde fiquei viciada
em manteiga de amendoim.
01:59
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
02:00
During my childhood,
I felt very much Argentinian,
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Durante a minha infância,
eu me sentia muito argentina,
02:04
but my looks betrayed me at times.
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mas minha aparência me traía às vezes.
02:07
I remember on the first day
of middle school,
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Eu me lembro do primeiro dia
no ensino médio.
02:10
my Spanish literature teacher
came into the room.
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Minha professora de literatura
espanhola entrou na sala.
02:13
She scanned all of my classmates,
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Ela deu uma olhada em todos
os meus colegas e disse:
02:15
and she said,
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02:16
"You -- you have to get a tutor,
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"Você, você tem que arranjar um tutor,
02:18
otherwise, you won't pass this class."
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caso contrário, não passará nesta aula".
02:21
But by then I was fluent
in Spanish already,
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Mas, até então, eu já era
fluente em espanhol.
02:25
so it felt as though I could be
either Korean or Argentinian,
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Parecia que eu poderia ser
coreana ou argentina,
02:31
but not both.
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mas não ambos.
02:33
It felt like a zero-sum game,
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Parecia um jogo de um ganha
e o outro perde,
02:35
where I had to give up my old identity
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onde eu tinha que desistir
de minha antiga identidade
02:38
to be able to gain or earn a new one.
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para poder ganhar ou merecer uma nova.
02:43
So when I was 18,
I decided to go to Korea,
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Quando eu tinha 18 anos,
decidi ir para a Coreia,
02:47
hoping that finally I could find
a place to call home.
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com a esperança de finalmente poder
encontrar um lugar para chamar de lar.
02:51
But there people asked me,
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Mas as pessoas me perguntavam:
02:53
"Why do you speak Korean
with a Spanish accent?"
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"Por que você fala coreano
com sotaque espanhol?"
02:56
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
02:57
And, "You must be Japanese
because of your big eyes
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e: "Você deve ser japonesa
por causa de seus grandes olhos
03:01
and your foreign body language."
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e sua linguagem corporal estrangeira".
03:04
And so it turns out that I was
too Korean to be Argentinian,
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Acontece que eu era
muito coreana para ser argentina,
03:08
but too Argentinian to be Korean.
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mas muito argentina para ser coreana.
03:11
And this was a pivotal realization to me.
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Isso me deu uma compreensão fundamental.
03:15
I had failed to find that place
in the world to call home.
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Não consegui encontrar aquele lugar
no mundo para chamar de lar.
03:20
But how many Japanese-looking Koreans
who speak with a Spanish accent --
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Mas quantos coreanos de aparência japonesa
que falam com sotaque espanhol,
03:26
or even more specific,
Argentinian accent --
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ou ainda mais específico,
sotaque argentino,
03:29
do you think are out there?
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vocês acham que têm por aí?
03:31
Perhaps this could be an advantage.
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Talvez isso pudesse ser uma vantagem.
03:34
It was easy for me to stand out,
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Foi fácil para eu me destacar,
03:36
which couldn't hurt in a world
that was rapidly changing,
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o que não poderia fazer mal em um mundo
que estava mudando rapidamente,
03:40
where skills could become
obsolete overnight.
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onde as habilidades podem se tornar
obsoletas da noite para o dia.
03:43
So I stopped looking
for that 100 percent commonality
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Então, parei de procurar por aquele
100% de atributos comuns
03:50
with the people that I met.
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com as pessoas que eu conhecia.
03:51
Instead, I realized that oftentimes,
I was the only overlap
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Em vez disso, percebi que, muitas vezes,
eu era a única sobreposição
03:58
between groups of people that were
usually in conflict with each other.
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entre grupos de pessoas que geralmente
estavam em conflito entre si.
04:03
So with this realization in mind,
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Com essa compreensão em mente,
04:06
I decided to embrace all
of the different versions of myself --
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decidi abraçar todas as diferentes
versões de mim mesma.
04:10
even allow myself
to reinvent myself at times.
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Até me permito me reinventar às vezes.
04:15
So for example, in high school,
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No ensino médio, por exemplo,
04:18
I have to confess I was a mega-nerd.
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tenho que confessar que eu era "meganerd";
04:20
I had no sense of fashion --
thick glasses, simple hairstyle --
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não tinha noção de moda:
óculos grossos, penteado simples.
04:24
you can get the idea.
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Vocês conseguem entender.
04:25
I think, actually, I only had friends
because I shared my homework.
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Acho que, na verdade, só tinha amigos
porque eu compartilhava meu dever de casa.
04:30
That's the truth.
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Essa é a verdade.
04:31
But once at university,
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Mas, uma vez na universidade,
04:33
I was able to find
a new identity for myself,
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consegui encontrar uma nova
identidade para mim,
04:37
and the nerd became a popular girl.
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e a nerd tornou-se uma garota popular.
04:42
But it was MIT,
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Mas era o MIT,
04:43
so I don't know if I can take
too much credit for that.
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então, não sei se posso receber
muito crédito por isso.
04:45
As they say over there,
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Como dizem lá:
04:47
"The odds are good,
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"As chances são boas,
04:49
but the goods are odd."
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mas as mercadorias são estranhas".
(Risos)
04:52
(Laughter)
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04:55
I switched majors so many times
that my advisors joked
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Troquei tantas vezes de matéria
que meus orientadores brincavam
04:58
that I should get a degree
in "random studies."
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que eu deveria ganhar um diploma
de "estudos aleatórios".
(Risos)
05:02
(Laughter)
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05:03
I told this to my kids.
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Contei isso a meus filhos.
05:05
And then over the years, I have gained
a lot of different identities.
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Depois, ao longo dos anos,
ganhei muitas identidades diferentes.
05:10
I started as an inventor,
entrepreneur, social innovator.
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Comecei como inventora,
empreendedora, inovadora social.
05:14
Then I became an investor,
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Depois, eu me tornei investidora,
05:17
a woman in tech,
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mulher na tecnologia, professora.
05:18
a teacher.
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05:20
And most recently, I became a mom,
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Mais recentemente, eu me tornei mãe,
05:23
or as my toddler says repeatedly,
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ou, como meu bebê diz, muitas vezes:
05:26
"Mom!" day and night.
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"Mãããããããe!!",
dia e noite.
05:30
Even my accent was so confused --
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Até meu sotaque era muito confuso.
05:35
its origin was so obscure,
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Sua origem era tão obscura
05:38
that my friends called it, "Rebecanese."
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que meus amigos chamavam de "rebecanês".
05:41
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
05:43
But reinventing yourself can be very hard.
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Mas se reinventar pode ser muito difícil.
05:46
You can face a lot of resistance at times.
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Pode-se enfrentar
muita resistência às vezes.
05:49
When I was nearly done with my PhD,
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Quando eu estava quase
terminando meu doutorado,
05:52
I got bitten by that entrepreneurial bug.
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fui picada pelo inseto
do empreendedorismo.
05:55
I was in Silicon Valley,
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Eu estava no Vale do Silício.
05:57
and so writing a thesis in the basement
didn't seem as interesting
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Escrever uma tese no subsolo
não parecia tão interessante
06:02
as starting my own company.
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quanto começar minha própria empresa.
06:04
So I went to my very
traditional Korean parents,
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Então, fui até meus pais
coreanos muito tradicionais,
06:07
who are here today,
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que estão aqui hoje,
06:09
with the task of letting them know
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com a tarefa de deixá-los saber
06:10
that I was going to drop out
from my PhD program.
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que eu iria desistir
de meu programa de doutorado.
06:14
You see, my siblings and I are the first
generation to go to university,
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Sabe, meus irmãos e eu somos a primeira
geração a ir para a universidade.
06:18
so for a family of immigrants,
this was kind of a big deal.
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Assim, para uma família de imigrantes,
isso era muito importante.
06:22
You can imagine how
this conversation was going to go.
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Vocês podem imaginar
o rumo dessa conversa.
06:26
But fortunately, I had
a secret weapon with me,
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Mas, felizmente, eu tinha
uma arma secreta comigo,
06:30
which was a chart that had
the average income of all of the graduates
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que era um gráfico com a renda média
de todos os formados dos programas
de doutorado de Stanford,
06:36
from Stanford PhD programs,
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06:39
and then the average income
of all the dropouts
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e, em seguida, a renda média
de todos os que abandonaram
os programas de pós-graduação de Stanford.
06:42
from Stanford graduate programs.
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06:44
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
06:45
I must tell you -- this chart
was definitely skewed
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Devo lhes dizer que esse gráfico
foi claramente distorcido
pelos fundadores do Google.
06:48
by the founders of Google.
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06:49
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
06:50
But my mom looked at the chart,
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Mas minha mãe olhou
para o gráfico e disse:
06:52
and she said,
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06:54
"Oh, for you -- follow your passion."
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"Ah, pra você: siga sua paixão".
06:57
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
06:59
Hi, Mom.
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Oi, mãe.
07:02
Now, today my identity quest
is no longer to find my tribe.
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Hoje minha busca de identidade
não é mais encontrar minha tribo.
07:08
It's more about allowing myself
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Tem mais a ver com me permitir
abraçar todas as possíveis
transformações de mim mesma
07:11
to embrace all of the possible
permutations of myself
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07:15
and cultivating diversity within me
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e cultivar a diversidade dentro de mim
07:20
and not just around me.
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e não apenas ao meu redor.
07:23
My boys now are three years
and five months old today,
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Meus meninos têm agora
três anos e cinco meses
e já nasceram com três nacionalidades
07:27
and they were already born
with three nationalities
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07:30
and four languages.
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e quatro idiomas.
07:32
I should mention now that my husband
is actually from Denmark --
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Devo mencionar agora que meu marido
é, na verdade, da Dinamarca.
07:37
just in case I don't have enough
culture shocks in my life,
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No caso de não ter choques culturais
o bastante em minha vida,
07:40
I decided to marry a Danish guy.
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decidi me casar com um cara dinamarquês.
07:42
In fact, I think my kids
will be the first Vikings
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Na verdade, acho que meus filhos
serão os primeiros vikings
07:45
who will have a hard time
growing a beard when they become older.
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que terão dificuldade em deixar a barba
crescer quando ficarem mais velhos.
07:48
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
07:50
Yeah, we'll have to work on that.
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Sim, teremos que trabalhar nisso.
07:51
But I really hope that they will find
that their multiplicity
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Mas realmente espero que eles percebam
que sua multiplicidade irá abrir
e criar muitas portas para eles na vida,
07:58
is going to open and create a lot of doors
for them in their lives,
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08:01
and that they can use this as a way
to find commonality
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e que possam usar isso como uma forma
de encontrar atributos comuns
08:05
in a world that's
increasingly global today.
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em um mundo cada vez mais global hoje.
08:10
I hope that instead of feeling
anxious and worried
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Espero que, em vez de se sentirem
ansiosos e preocupados
08:14
that they don't fit in that one box
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com o fato de não se adaptarem,
08:16
or that their identity will become
irrelevant someday,
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ou de sua identidade se tornar
irrelevante algum dia,
08:20
that they can feel free to experiment
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eles possam se sentir livres
para experimentar
08:23
and to take control of their personal
narrative and identity.
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e assumir o controle de sua identidade
e narrativa pessoal.
08:29
I also hope that they will use
their unique combination
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Também espero que usem
sua combinação única
08:32
of values and languages
and cultures and skills
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de valores, idiomas,
culturas e habilidades
08:37
to help create a world
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para ajudar a criar um mundo
08:39
where identities are no longer used
to alienate what looks different,
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onde as identidades não sejam mais usadas
para afastar o que parece diferente,
08:45
but rather, to bring together people.
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mas sim para unir as pessoas.
08:49
And most importantly, I really hope
that they find tremendous joy
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O mais importante: espero realmente
que encontrem uma tremenda alegria
08:53
in going through these
uncharted territories,
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passando por esses
territórios inexplorados,
08:57
because I know I have.
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porque sei que eu encontrei.
09:01
Now, as for my grandmother,
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Agora, quanto a minha avó,
09:04
her last wish was also
her last lesson to me.
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seu último desejo também foi
sua última lição para mim.
09:09
It turns out that it was never
about going back to Korea
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Acontece que nunca se tratou
de voltar para a Coreia
09:13
and being buried there.
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e ser enterrada lá.
09:15
It was about resting next to her son,
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Tratava-se de descansar
ao lado de seu filho,
09:19
who had died long before
she moved to Argentina.
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que havia morrido muito antes
de ela se mudar para a Argentina.
09:23
What mattered to her was not the ocean
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O que importava para ela não era o mar
09:27
that divided her past and new world;
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que dividia seu passado e seu novo mundo.
09:32
it was about finding common ground.
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Tratava-se de encontrar um consenso.
Obrigada.
09:37
Thank you.
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(Aplausos)
09:39
(Applause)
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Translated by Maurício Kakuei Tanaka
Reviewed by Leonardo Silva

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rebeca Hwang - Investor
Rebeca Hwang is co-founder and managing director of Rivet Ventures, investing in solutions for women and empowering their choices.

Why you should listen

Rebeca Hwang is co-founder and managing director of Rivet Ventures, which invests in companies in women-led markets where female usage, decision-making and purchasing are crucial to company growth. Hwang is also co-founder of the San Francisco-based startup YouNoodle, which connects top startups with opportunities for growth. She also co-founded Kalei Ventures, a venture fund focused in Latin American startups.

With a background in chemical and civil and environmental engineering from MIT and Stanford, Hwang's work has garnered three US patents, and she has 17 pending patent applications in her portfolio. She has been recognized as one of MIT Tech Review's "Top 35 Global Innovators under 35" and as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Hwang serves in the Board of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, which annually runs GEW in 170 countries and gathers 10 million participants. As the co-founder of Cleantech Open, she has helped more than 1,000 cleantech startups raise in excess of $1 billion in external funding. In addition, Hwang is a lecturer at Stanford University and teaches technology entrepreneurship.

More profile about the speaker
Rebeca Hwang | Speaker | TED.com