Sal: Well I just wanted
to introduce everyone
to Angela Ahrendts.
Just as a little bit of background
on how all of this happened.
You all know I was just
in England two weeks ago
and as part of that you came to the talk
at the London School of Economics
and then the next day we
met at Heathrow Airport.
Angela: Yup.
Sal: I had my $6 Old Navy
shirt feeling very insecure
the entire time.
(Angela laughs)
Both Esther and I were
there and you inspired us.
When you said you're
going to be in this area
we're like well we would love you to do
the same thing with the team
just talk about what you're
doing etcetera, etcetera.
If you could talk a little
bit about just how you ...
I mean fashion, the world
of fashion is this world,
I mean it's not obvious to most people
how does someone get in to it
and especially get to the
level that you've gotten.
How did you start and what kind of,
at least at the early stages
allowed you to get here?
Angela: I mean honestly
it's not a dissimilar story
to yours, right?
My thing is you ...
I think the greatest
thing that anybody can do
when they're young is
discover their passion
and what they love.
I know it sounds really, really terrible
but I love stuff and I love to shop
and I love fashion magazines
and I love to sow and create.
It was the only industry
I had to get in to
but I went to university
and signed up for all these design classes
and realized I really
wasn't that creative.
I had a really strong opinion
on what everybody else was doing.
I had a professor say that
we call you a merchant.
I'm like "Okay" and so then I signed up
for a lot of merchandising
and marketing courses.
My university degree is in
merchandising and marketing.
In the world of what we do I always say
I'm the monkey in the middle.
We have Christopher Bailey
who's the Chief Creative Officer
and he is so creative and so brilliant
and his whole creative
team does all those videos
but then, so that's on my right
and on my left we have the
chief financial officer,
we have our chief operating officer,
we have a number of our teams
that have just arrived as well.
You have this balance so
I will say I'm a 50, 50.
I am half left brain analytical,
I am half right brain creative
and that was actually one of the reasons
that I wanted to chat with Sal.
Because I said someday as you guys
start to take over the world,
you're going to have to also
start to introduce some
right brain curriculum
and the Burberry
Foundation would be honored
to help you start creating
some of those things
when you're already down
the road [unintelligible].
Sal: Yeah, and no we're
already starting a little bit
and we could talk more about that.
No, absolutely and I think ...
I mean say you're not creative,
I mean that I think you're
really underselling your …
Angela: Yeah, the design creative.
Sal: You obviously had
a very strong aesthetic,
you had a sense for what connective …
Angela: Yeah, again I'm
absolutely a merchant
and I will tell you the
reason Christopher and I
created the foundation is this,
because we are both creative thinkers.
Sal: Right.
Angela: We feel very
strongly that the curriculum
specifically in America
has become so left brain,
so much of the arts and
things have been cut out.
It is I think for where the world's going
we need creative thinkers.
We need and so many times
they're getting lost
out of the system, so we
created the Burberry Foundation.
We give 1% of our profits
into the Burberry Foundation
and what we do is, we
try and pick up the youth
that is starting to fall out of the system
because they think they're
dumb because they don't.
Hopefully we can help
turn them on to you guys
to help them.
If they're still just not left brain
but they're incredibly creative thinking.
We bring as many of them as we can.
We show them a whole another world
that companies like us need
and that's been our calling.
Sal: Yeah, I know it's incredible.
I mean you yourself you said,
“Okay I'll be a merchant”.
A professor tells you this
and you just go to New York
and then you're not even 30
and you're the president of Donna Karan?
(Angela laughs)
Is that right?
Angela: Yeah.
Sal: How does that happen?
Is that normal?
Are there a lot of 20 something's
running a major fashion
houses in the world?
Angela: Probably not and I
will tell you I'm really guilty
because I'm not great
talking about myself,
I'm just not because
I'm only as good always
as the great teams that are around me
and no different than you guys.
Yes, I think what happens always
is when you discover who you are
and you discover your passion
and then it's not work at your life
and so you just get in to that zone.
I was so fortunate that
met the right people,
things fell into place,
absolutely worked my butt
off because I was single,
alone in New York and why not.
It's all I did was, but I
found my zone, I found …
Sal: Was there a moment where …
I just find if a member
of my family says "Hey,"
"I'm going to go to New York"
"and I'm going to go work in fashion,"
like "Okay, I'll see if
I can help support you"
"at some point or …"
Just the left brain, the
left brain side of me.
I mean how did you break in
and then obviously left
such a big mark with people
that by the time you weren't even 30
you're a president of a
major fashion organization?
Angela: It's funny, I don't
think of any different
than a great athlete or a musician or a …
I think that what happens
is this is all what I've ever done.
I've always just stayed in my lane
and then you become ...
Whether you're a footballer
or whether you're ...
I didn't jump around,
this is all that I've done
and I have always been
so passionate about it.
I think when you direct your energy
and you become so passionate
and you unite people, right?
You lead people all around
believing in something
and then things just fall into place.
I know that, and when I say things,
the revenue, the profit, right?
I never went in saying,
"I'm going to do this".
I went in saying, "What if we did this?"
I've always been a dreamer.
My father used to always say,
"Take off your rose-colored glasses"
and I would always say "No".
Now I don't have to, I can keep dreaming
but the important thing
I've learned is though
I have to get enough people, right?
I have to surround
myself with enough people
that can help execute that dream now
and that's all that I've ever done.
I don't want to over simplify it
but I found my zone,
I absolutely love what I do,
it is not work at all.
I have never once woke
up in the morning said,
"Oh God, I got to go to work".
It's not work, this is my life.
Everywhere that I've been
because it's not work
and the Monterey at Burberry
or anywhere that I've been
because the stronger companies get
then the more they can do
and the bigger influence they have.
At Burberry we've always said
that we have the power to
touch and transform lives
through the power of our performance.
The bigger and the stronger we get,
the more we can do
and that's just always been ...
I'm from the heart of Midwest,
real strong family faith up bringing
and I have been raised to give.
That's how I was raised
and so why wouldn't you
apply that back in business
and so it just ...
Sal: I think you are underselling
yourself a little bit
Angela: Thank you.
I do want because the
interesting about this
and why we video them is I think
just the Khan Academy user base,
there's a lot of young people out there
who would say "How do I do that?"
If you had advice for
someone who's 16 years old
or 20 years old and they
find this world intriguing,
what should they develop in themselves?
How should they think about the world
and what should they do?
Angela: Well, and I always say
to the fashion industry is deceiving
because everybody just thinks
it's only this creative part
where in a company like Burberry
there are 18 different departments
that comprise the company.
We need, we hire a lot of
people from Silicon Valley.
We need great, we have 130 people
just in the IT department in the company.
People don't realize that
so we need extreme right
and we need extreme left.
I think sometimes the fashion
industry gets a short,
it's the short stick
sometimes when they think
"It's just fashion, it's just ..."
In order to create and here's my thing
I always say that what we're doing
is we're creating a great
brand and a great company
and we happen to the
in business of fashion.
We didn't set out to create
a really great fashion,
we set out to create a great brand.
I say that because there's
a part of me that says
that is your mission as well.
Sal: I mean following on that
but I do want to think about,
well what in your mind is,
what does a brand mean?
I've heard multiple definitions of a brand
and how would you view Burberry's brand
and how would you view
our brand in the same,
they're very similar.
(Angela laughing)
Exploring a line of overcoats.
Angela: To me a great
brand and here's my thing,
think of yourself and when
you interact with products.
What coffee do you drink every morning
or you might walk into Starbucks
or you might walk in the ...
You might have Apple
products, you might ...
How do you feel about
and so you want to be a part of that brand
because you're proud to
be a part of that brand
because that brand makes
you feel a certain way.
You trust that brand and it's authentic
and it doesn't ever let you down.
It exceeds your expectations
so you want to engage with it, right?
Those are all of the
attributes of a great brand,
honesty, integrity, authenticity, quality
but always doing what you …
To have a great engagement
or what's the word ...
Great brand presence,
there has to be a very
trusting relationship
with your constituency.
In that way we are absolutely
because your users
they have to trust what
you're telling them.
I mean and if you're wrong … (laughs)
Sal: Yes, happens every now and then.
(Angela laughing)
Angela: To me it's a part
of what a great brand is
and in Burberry's case and
that's how we measure it.
Sal: How do you think about these things?
You joined Burberry in 2006.
I guess in the previous five or 10 years
Burberry had been rejuvenated.
If you could talk a little bit about that
rejuvenation before you got there
and then when you took over the job
and what do you tell yourself?
How are you going to steer the ship?
Angela: What I think happens
and again we're 158 years
old and you guys are ...
What you're building right now ...
No but so we had gone through a lot
and so we got the whole
management team together.
You're starting out that way
but we got the team together
and said, "What is our core?"
"What is our core product proposition"
"and what's our core purpose?"
We realized that 158, it's 150 years then
but 158 years ago now,
we were born from a coat.
We had our own weaving facility
in the North of England,
we had our own factory to
produce all of those coats.
It's interesting we were driving
innovation everywhere else
but in our core product.
Whenever we talked about global warming
and they gave me all the reasons
why we couldn't do that.
It was like “No, no, no”,
every great brand ...
What would Starbucks be without coffee?
I mean every great
brand has to have a core
and I think people get bored with that.
As you grow bigger and
bigger what is your core
products proposition
and don't ever lose it.
Keep innovating that core
because people get bored really easy.
Then also what is your core purpose
and because I don't believe
people just want to work,
I think people all want
deeper meaning in their lives.
It was hard for us, people
don't just want to make stuff.
People want to make stuff that has meaning
and has a purpose and so
we created our core values
which are to protect,
explore, and inspire.
We didn't come up with those,
we took those out of a book
that Thomas Burberry wrote
158 years ago when he was 21 years old
and he founded the company.
We always say his spirit
lives on and it should
because it was his
company, it was his vision
and he created that
waterproof gabardine fabric
to protect the military in the trenches
that's why he created the
trench coat, etcetera.
We said that is our core,
that's what he founded the company on.
How do we make the trench coat
the most cool, relevant,
hip thing in the world?
That's what we are born from.
Nobody else can say that but us.
To revitalize and transform the company
we simply went back to the basics.
We went back and revitalized our core
and we took that category
which was about 22% of the business,
seven and a half, eight years ago
today it's half of the business.
When you watch a runway show,
nearly every item that goes down
has some type of a trench
coat or some type of.
The innovation that
we've driven in that core
and that has single-handedly ...
Harvard Business reviewed
the great article on
just that topic revitalizing the core.
Sal: I mean how do you decide on that?
Is that just a gut instinct,
I mean or do you ...
Is there some data that you look ...
We look at all the brands that have a core
versus don't have a core.
On that and then as you move
and continue to innovate
and get new products,
I'm sure everyday someone comes to you
"Hey, we should have a line
of whatever it might be",
how do you decide?
How much of it is analytically driven
and how much of it is gut
or whatever else driven?
Angela: It's a great question.
I'm going to answer it three ways.
One is we always say that we
are a creative thinking company
and everything we do
is driven by intuition.
Then we can fuse ourselves with facts
but we always lead with intuition.
Because we always say that we do value
feeling over knowing
because if we only focused on knowing,
we'd never move forward
because you can't prove something
that hasn't been done before.
We are and that is a part
of being a creative thinking culture.
I forgot my other two
because I told you
there were three and I …
Sal: Well you say you
confuse yourself with facts,
I mean what does that mean?
Does that mean that you feel
or collectively not just you,
the whole organization
feels like something
is the right direction
but what if someone says, "Hey, but look"
"everyone who's gone in
to this phase before"
"has failed or there's 800
players already in that market"
"that they got zero margin
on what they're doing."
It's a commodity, do you ignore that?
Do you sometimes ignore that?
Do you say, “No, we
still feel good about it"
and you move ahead?
Angela: Seven years ago,
came up with all the hard,
we call them hard strategies.
Those are all the ones
that are very fact based.
When we talked about retail led growth
brought in the consultant company
told that, I said, "Tell me
every key market in the world"
"that has, where are peers
have at least two stores"
"and we have none."
Then tell me their
productivity per square foot
so we had a strategy, put all
the hard metrics behind it
and but the gut …
Our instincts were, and
we were 75% wholesale
when I started, today we are 75% retail,
our own stores direct to consumer.
Our instincts said, we had
to go direct to consumer,
we had to control the brand,
the environment, everything.
Again brought in the firm
but we did that on every strategy
and they would reaffirm etcetera.
Then I put them in front of the board.
Very first been in the company
six months strategies are done,
everything's outlined, we know
exactly where we're going.
At the very end they told the board
and we said that that point in time
we would double the revenue
and the profits in five years.
They, the guy, that I won't
mention the company on video
but the guy sense up at
the end of the meeting
and the board says, "Well how do you feel"
"about this going through it?"
He says, "There's about a 5% probability"
"that they will do this".
Sal: Who's this guy?
Angela: Well he works for
a huge consulting firm
and I'm not going to mention the firm.
Sal: Okay, all right.
Angela: We had them come
in and for six months
we had them work with us on
validating these strategies.
Sal: Right, and so the
strategy was based through
as a number strategy
where you're looking at the retail density
in different geographies
and how productive those stores are.
That is what you used to decide
where you're going to go?
Angela: Yeah, again there's always both.
There's always the …
Well and that was the other
part of the thing I just forgot
so one was intuition but
the other is balance.
Sal: Right.
Angela: Right?
We talk a lot about the
right and the left, a lot.
When we had five hard strategies
and we had five soft strategies.
The foundation was a soft strategy,
the culture was the soft,
all of the [company] had been, free lunch,
the benefits for all of these stuff,
or all the soft strategies
and we said that these will enable those.
Just focusing on these, we
may not get the job done.
The consulting firm didn't work
with us on the soft things,
they only worked with us on the hard.
When they told the board
there's only 5% probability,
the board kind of like we're nuts
but we actually achieved
the plan a year early.
Sal: They thought it was a 5% probability
because they've advised
on lot of the fact part
Angela: They thought
we were being far too aggressive.
Sal: On the aggressive, when you said
you're going to double
your revenues, you said?
Angela: And profit in five years.
Sal: And profit
in five years, that was the
part that they were giving you
Angela: Absolutely.
Sal: They said, "I'm sure
you'll grow etcetera, etcetera."
But to really …
The soft things are just
stuff that felt right?
Angela: The soft things were that we knew,
I knew that we would be
as good as our people.
That we had to build a team,
we had to unite and connect this culture
and they had to believe
in the dream, right?
This is leadership
and they had to lead everybody.
We were 3,200 people then
and some of them, we had people then
with the 30 years, 40 years right?
How do you get everybody
united around a new vision,
a new dream?
The thing is this they have to believe,
every single person has to
believe you can do this.
That's the positive energy
that comes around something
when you are breaking new ground
or trying to do something
transformative like you are.
If they don't believe,
and I told them upfront
after that six months I
said, "If you do not believe"
"that we're going to do this,"
"then maybe you should go now."
Because we knew we wanted to do something
really big and transformative.
We used our instincts, we
confused our self to the facts
and then we build a
very balanced strategy,
hard and soft, very balance teams.
We need creative's but we
need operational excellence
and the strategies were built that way.
I always say in every
single store we have,
we need left brain and we need right.
in every country, in every region
because I don't think
you'll build a great brand
that resonates and touches
people without both.
You need the engagement
but you need the reach
and they're very different.
Sal: The projection of doubling
and there's no precedent for this?
I mean that's why it was,
that's probably why …
Angela: Well the precedent
was, they had done it before.
Sal: I see.
Angela: The probability of
a company doing it twice
was what really took the odds down.
Sal: Right, I mean through that process
were there moments where
you yourself were like
"Gee, I don't know if
this is going to happen."
I've got …
Angela: Never.
Never.
Sal: That's why I am too, I never doubt.
Angela: Never.
Sal: I'm always doubting.
Angela: You are not.
Sal: Not really.
Angela: No, you're not.
No, I think he's a
bigger dreamer than I am.
Sal: Maybe, we can compete.
Angela: Yeah but you have
to because you are on,
you are disrupting a
sector that is so overdue
to be disrupted, it is so overdue.
The next generation is in your hands
and they need you to do this,
the country needs you
to do what you're doing.
You got to do it and you got to keep going
and you got to get your reach out there,
you are engaging.
I mean the fact that 30,000 teachers
are using your content in schools.
I son't know, it's unbelievable.
Get it to 100, get it to
200, I mean just don't stop.
Sal: Can you Skype in
to our company updates,
it would be very … 
(people laughing)
Let's do this.
Angela: That's how I feel.
Sal: Yeah.
Angela: I mean that is how I feel
and if you, and it's not going
to be easy but don't stop.
Sal: Yeah.
Well that by itself is really
powerful advice if you'd ...
I mean what would you tell us as we go,
I mean you're 158 years
old, we're 158 weeks old.
(people laughing)
How do we …
Any advice for …
I mean beyond that just
kind of alter focus,
believe, power through.
Angela: Definitely focus
and we still do the same thing today.
We always say that every year
we only do three new things.
That's it,
because they take ...
We call them big brand moments
whether it was launching burberry.com.
I mean it took us a year to
unite thousands of people
around the world.
We said that we had to do this
and we had one chance to
change 150 years of perception.
We knew that and this year
they'll be pretty close
to 100 million people
that go into burberry.com
and you guys we're up to, a lot
but for a luxury brand that's a lot.
Sal: Well that's pretty good.
Angela: It's a lot and not all buying
but engaging and spreading
what the brand's about, etcetera.
Three things a year
and we still hold on to that
no matter how big we are.
Sal: That's not individual products,
that is new initiatives like burberry.com.
Angela: Exactly three big brand things
that we unite 10,000 people
around the world to do.
Sal: Right, and what's next in the queue?
What are the three
things you are doing now?
Angela: It's probably no surprise
that we are aggressively
working on our ...
Continuing to work on our digital platform
and specifically when it comes to mobile.
I mean the whole world is becoming mobile
and it's crazy all the
metrics of the consumers
that are engaging
and that's probably a
challenge to you guys too.
Because that is where you'll get your kid,
that is where, on the mobile device.
Not just a phone but any mobile device,
I mean the whole world ...
It's just so heavy investment,
lot of focus going there,
so digital mobile etcetera.
We always have operational or
internal initiatives as well.
We do as we get big, areas get sloppy
so we still have to drive
a lot of efficiencies
out of the business.
We call it commercial
procurement we're building,
we build tons of stores a year
so we've hired some additional expertise
to make sure we're doing that
in the most efficient way in.
I mean right now if you
ask any of our executives
around the world,
they know those are the three things
that we're focused on this year.
If we do those right, we
will put up the results
that we budgeted, etcetera.
Sal: Wow and you're all growing fast.
I mean for a large company,
you all grew 24, 25% last year?
Angela: Yeah.
Sal: That's fairly dramatic.
Angela: We just put up
this year's results.
We just did our trading
update a couple weeks ago
and our retail business was up 13%
on a really, really big base and …
Sal: That's not what global
retail is doing today?
Angela: No, no, our largest competitor
put up a 3% retail business
and they're the biggest in the sector.
Now we're absolutely
continuing to out perform
but I will tell you
because it's the people.
Because there are 10,000
people around the world
that are so passionate about this company
and so passionate about our performance
and creating again a great brand,
a really great company
but they also know that every time
we open a flagship store ...
Because again it's shallow
luxury retail, right?
That always bothered Christopher and I
because it's not where
we came from, right?
We love what we're doing
and that's what we've been focus on,
a great company.
Every time we open a flagship store,
we partner with a local institution.
In Chicago we partnered with [Hype]
and we gifted them a million dollars.
We created a program to help the youth
in the Chicago area
with our programs
Burberry Beyond, etcetera.
We've done it in New York,
we've done it in Beijing,
we're getting ready to do it in Shanghai.
Anytime we open up this huge luxury store
which could come across a
little, elitist if you will,
we always make sure that the company also,
like in New York we said
we're lighting up Manhattan with a store.
Well we're also going to
light up people's lives
when we gave the million dollars
to the Robin Hood Foundation
and put our program in place
for the chartered schools, etcetera.
That's a big part of the balance
and that's a part of
being a great company.
Sal: When you look at the organization,
you must be looking at people
"Oh, look at him, look at her."
"She's got some potential,
he's got some potential."
"Hey, that could be the next CEO."
What are you looking at?
What are the traits that
you're seeing in those people
that are really striking you
as someone who might be able to one day
step into your shoes?
Angela: It's a great question.
We look at it honestly in
all levels of the company
and I would even say probably
less my shoes, right?
Because that would mostly be
a lot of my [direct report], etcetera
so I would tell you at
every level of the company
and we hire for it as well.
It sounds terrible but
we culturally compatible.
We always say we don't
want tissue rejection
because it's tough to bring
people into your culture.
Sal: Tissue rejection
like skin grafting or ...
Angela: Yeah.
Sal: Yes, yes
Angela: We just don't want that.
People go to such rigor
before we bring them into the company.
We always said, "Are they
culturally compatible?"
"Do we trust them?"
Do we like them obviously
but do we trust them?
Do we believe them?
Do they believe in our mission,
in what we're doing?
Because we can't afford to make a mistake.
I would tell you with anybody
going to the next level,
there is transparency,
trust, our core values,
all those soft things we talked about.
When they reach a certain
level it's a given their smart.
It's a given they have high IQ
but we need high EQ.
I always say that everybody in the company
needs a little right
and left brain, right?
Two extremes because then they don't feel.
We always say that we
can teach people anything
but we can't teach them to care,
we can't teach them to feel
and when you're in a human business
and you're communicating
like we're communicating,
they have to be authentic.
We have a leadership council
which is the next generation talent.
We spend hours just
helping them understand
who they are.
Who are they, right?
Because then only if they
really know who they are,
can they build very
balance teams around them
and it's a real self-reflective phase
that they go through
but they will become better leaders
having peace and confidence
with who they are
and to thy self be true.
That is a part of our talent plan.
I always say no different than me.
I tell investors you would be so surprised
at every decision I don't make everyday.
(Sal laughs)
But you can't.
I have to try trust the
people we brought in
and I have to give them
very simple clear messages.
The three things we're
going to do this year
and all the metrics behind it
and uniting everyone
but it is trust, intuition,
great communication,
authenticity, people have to feel them
or they will never rise as
a leader in the company.
Sal: Right.
I mean is it something
that you think you can ...
I mean you talk about
personality fit and cultural fit,
do you trust them,
but is there some way that
you can screen for that?
For that balance of the whole brain.
I read the whole book now.
Angela: Fascinating.
Sal: Very good book.
Angela: Did you really read it?
Sal: I did, I read it on
plane, it's a long flight.
Angela: I gave him a copy
of Daniel Pink's book.
It's called the Whole Mind,
Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the World?
Sal: One thing that I pointed out to you
because one thing that I
did react to that book.
It's funny because in that book it says,
"Oh, we don't need programmers anymore,"
"we need inventors."
I said, "What's a programmer?
It's an inventor."
It is a fundamentally a
right-brained activity.
I actually most strong ...
When people say, "Khan Academy stem ..."
I was like stem is, it should
be a right-brained activity.
I mean in my mind the learning
to factor a polynomial
or to do the basics of algorithm,
that's like a painter
learning how to paint.
The real expression is when
you actually create something
so I actually think we're more similar
Angela: I think so too
but I think that's what you've unlocked.
I think that's your
unique brand positioning.
Sal: Right, the creative …
Angela: You're taking what
most people would take
as a traditional left-brain
and you're adding fun to it,
you're adding energy to it.
You're making it, you're combining,
you're making it more of a
right, left brain exercise
not just an analytical exercise.
Sal: Yeah, no and how
are we doing on time now?
Voiceover: I think we only
have, like three more minutes.
Sal: Okay, three more minutes.
I will ask you again
because it was so inspiring
in the Dopamine, just start,
we're talking about Dopamine earlier
and you got us all very excited.
Angela: (laughs) I won't ask.
Sal: Yeah, we were talking
about, well and other things.
I mean, just parting words,
advice for the team here
and people look good greater
Khan Academy community.
Thoughts on just what we should be doing
and how we should approach life.
Angela: Yeah, you are …
It's funny because I had the honor
right before the Olympics.
Mr. Bill Gates was in London
and had a wonderful luncheon.
We'd met a couple of different times
and I had the honor of sitting next to him
at the luncheon table.
He was talking about all of his
different philanthropic efforts etcetera
and to the who's who
of the UK if you will.
He had mentioned the Khan Academy
and I was so excited, why ...
At the very end he simply
said, "Is there anything else?"
I said, "Well what are you
plans for the Khan Academy?”
He looked at me like how
did I know about this
and nobody in the room knew about it
and these are huge big
executives running Glaxo
and every big company in the UK.
He then went on to share with them
what you were doing
and why that he felt strongly
and his foundation was
investing, etcetera.
Then the luncheon broke
and then he looked at me
and he goes, "What would you do?"
I said, "You created"
"the greatest brand in
the world, Microsoft."
"You were so laser and
you had such a vision.”
I said, "It is absolutely"
"no different with the Khan Academy."
"I believe you have the ability to create"
"one of the greatest brands"
"and one of the greatest
companies in the world."
I told him, I said, "When
you did it, there was a need"
"and you filled that need."
There is a tremendous need
and you are filling that need
and it's in a different way
but you're using and you're
leveraging the technology
that exist today, as he did.
He then sent a follow up
note afterwards saying,
"Could we continue the conversation,"
"I found it fascinating, etcetera."
I shared this with you
because at this young age that you are,
to have someone of his
vision and his caliber
believe in you, you know
you're on the right track.
I just think that I am absolutely nothing
in comparison to the people
that are watching you,
the people that are following you,
the lives that you're impacting.
You're impacting teachers lives,
you're impacting the next generation.
You are actually impacting people
who didn't finish their education.
Who are going on and learning now.
You will create a phenomenal brand,
you will create an amazing company
and you are in the mist
of disrupting a sector
that is so desperately
in need of being fixed.
You're doing it in such a modern way,
leveraging everything that exist today
and my counsel to you is just don't stop
and don't slow down.
Stay focused, keep the right pace
but do truly understand
that what you're doing
has far greater meaning
than anything you've ever
done in your lives before.
Not just that America need you to do this,
the world needs you to do this.
Education is the biggest issue
that inhibiting future
economies all over the world.
I am so honored to be
here to chat with you
and just I am so thankful
for what you're doing,
I really am.
Sal: Well I feel like
going back to work now.
(people laughing)
No, thank you so much.
I mean this was, I mean for me personally
when we met in Heathrow
with my $6 shirt on,
that by itself was a really powerful.
I mean Esther was there
too and we were like
“She’s amazing!”
Esther is the number search resultant
Olympic attitude on Google.
(people laughing)
She has authority here
but we were transfixed
and blown away by meeting you then
and this I think I
could speak for everyone
where this was incredibly
inspiring and motivating
for all of us so thank you so much.
Angela: No, you are more than welcome.
Keep up the great work.
(clapping)
