The 7 Pillars of Unlocking Potential | Anirudh Krishna | TED

8,648 views ・ 2025-03-17

TED


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00:04
So everything changed for me after I met Chandru about 15 years ago
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in a village in Andhra Pradesh, India.
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I was there with a research team.
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I went for a walk in the village.
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Suddenly, I heard a shout from behind
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and turned around to see a young boy pushing himself forward
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with a big wooden stick,
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his right leg twisted by childhood polio.
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Chandru was then about 13 years old,
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studied in the eighth standard in the village school,
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and his favorite subject, he told me, was mathematics.
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Mathematics, I thought.
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I know some mathematics.
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I pulled out my notebook
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and wrote three math questions for him.
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Very quickly and accurately, he answered them.
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I wrote three more questions and then another three, harder still.
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Each time he answered them deftly and correctly.
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And then, with an impish grin,
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he flips the notebook around and writes three questions for me.
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I struggled with the first of his questions.
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His second question stumped me.
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Luckily for me, his father wandered in at that time and rescued me.
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I commented on the boy's mathematical brilliance
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and asked the father what he hoped the son would become.
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To my surprise, he laughed.
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"Ha, ha, ha," he said, "He wants to be an engineer.
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Ha, ha, ha!"
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"Why do you laugh?" I cried.
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"No one around here has ever become an engineer,"
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the father told me.
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"No one ever will be."
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That shocked me.
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Over the next few days, I went around the 10 neighboring villages
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and asked about the positions
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people had achieved over the last 10 years.
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It turned out that the father was dead right.
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Not only had no one ever become an engineer,
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no one had become an architect, an accountant,
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an airline pilot or anything better.
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The highest positions were those of schoolteacher and local official.
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What was I doing in that village?
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I started my career in the Indian Administrative Service,
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implementing development programs for the government.
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I learned a great deal,
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but after 15 years realized I needed to study more,
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and went to Cornell University and later became a professor.
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Over the last 20-some years I have done grassroots research
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in many different countries
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but with the same basic question.
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Why are people poor,
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and how can they be given a fair deal?
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I found many, many people like Chandru around the globe.
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Individuals who have boundless talent
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but little to no opportunity to discover it
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and realize their full potential.
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Bottom line, talent is everywhere,
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but not opportunity.
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Thousands, millions of talents
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routinely go undiscovered and unrewarded.
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To make equality of opportunity a reality
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and to achieve world class excellence,
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societies need to invest in talent ladders.
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What is the talent ladder, and how did I come upon the idea?
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It began with a random conversation in class.
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How could Jamaica, a small country of three million people,
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have produced such an impressive flow of world-beating sprinters?
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How could Usain Bolt,
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whose parents ran a village grocery store,
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rise from there to world class competition?
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Why did his talents not go unrecognized and unrewarded,
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like those of the thousands of individuals I had met in different countries?
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To find out, I went to Jamaica.
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The first thing I noticed
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was that not everybody is built like Usain Bolt.
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There are tall Jamaicans and short ones, thin ones and fat ones,
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slow ones and fast ones,
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as there are in other places.
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It's not about genetics or geography.
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What is special is the system they have developed,
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which tags a fast Jamaican at a young age
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and takes her or him up the steps of a talent ladder:
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an easy to access sequence of steps
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that begins at the grassroots
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and goes to the highest levels.
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Every child can compete.
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Those who perform better move higher up the ladder.
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But Jamaica is hardly alone in this regard.
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Once you look around, you see many other examples.
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Wrestlers in Haryana, a small state in India,
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have won more international medals than any other kind of sportsperson.
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The talent ladder in this case begins with akharas and academies
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at the grassroots.
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Those who do well in dangals and competitions
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move up to higher-level academies,
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to government training centers
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and to the Pro Wrestling League, a newish rung in this talent ladder.
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Other examples of world-class excellence and talent ladders that I have studied
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include marathon runners in Kenya,
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tech entrepreneurs in Estonia,
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writers in Nigeria,
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classical musicians from Sistema,
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which began in Venezuela, and has spread around the world,
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women golf players from South Korea,
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hackers from North Korea.
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You probably know of other examples.
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Here's the key.
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They can support different kinds of endeavors,
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but at root,
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all talent ladders are built to the same core design principles,
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the seven principles or seven pillars of talent ladders.
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First and foremost,
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open access with transparent and objective standards.
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Everyone has a realistic opportunity to participate.
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Barriers to entry are systematically removed.
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In Sistema, for example,
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the grassroots music rooms, or nucleus,
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are set up in the poorest neighborhoods
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so that these children also can easily participate.
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Transparent and objective standards are required in parallel
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to weed out influence and nepotism.
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In Jamaica, local athletics meets might be taking place on dirt tracks
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with many barefoot runners,
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but the timing equipment will be world-class,
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and that's the only thing that matters.
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Second pillar: unbroken ladder.
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All the steps in place.
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South Korea came from nowhere to capture women's golf
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by building a hierarchy of golf tours from the amateur
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to the intermediate to the international levels.
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It shouldn't be a broken ladder or a dangling ladder.
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Third pillar: role models.
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Ethiopians used to be soccer-mad
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and not a nation of runners
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until Abebe Bikila won the Olympic marathon in 1960
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and again in 1964,
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and hundreds of young Ethiopians took to running.
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If he or she can do it,
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I can do it, too.
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Role models motivate, inspire, show the way forward.
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Fourth pillar: soft landings.
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Not everyone who starts on a talent ladder
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is going to make it all the way to the top.
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But if the hundreds of others
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who plateau at intermediate levels are simply let go,
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that sends the wrong signal and demotivates new beginners.
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In Jamaica, for example,
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elite runners in training are required to take university classes.
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Those who don't make it to champion runner
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have become sports journalists
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and administrators and therapists, etc.
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Fifth pillar: society-wide project with multiple actors.
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Big role for civil society.
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Lots of volunteers.
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In Estonia, the country's government,
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NGOs, tech startups,
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parents, teachers, ordinary citizens
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have all played big roles
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and the mix of roles has changed over time.
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The system is protected by having multiple anchors.
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Sixth pillar: mix of motivations.
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Yes, it's very competitive,
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but collaboration is equally important.
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In Kenya, in the training groups that run together,
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one or two runners might be winning prize money at a particular time,
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but they are required to support the well-being
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of other runners in their group,
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while knowing these are their future competitors.
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Seventh principle: adaptation.
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The world doesn't stay still.
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To remain world-class, a system has to be adaptive.
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Building world-class excellence requires talent ladders.
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Giving a fair deal to millions requires talent ladders.
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Forward-looking societies have started investing in building talent ladders.
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How do we implement the seven pillars?
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There are a few basic steps.
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Organize local competitions,
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initially in a small number of grassroots locations,
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widely advertised, open to all.
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Engage with multiple stakeholders.
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Commit to at least three to five years.
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Kids who know the competition will be held year after year
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will train more seriously.
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Summer camps, year-long mentoring for the high performers.
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Those who keep doing consistently well
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move up to higher and higher levels in the ladder.
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Others who reach only intermediate levels
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can exit with viable alternative careers.
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Learn from these pilots.
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Refine and extend the model.
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It is possible. It is necessary.
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Imagine if a math ladder had existed in Andhra Pradesh.
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Where might Chandru be now?
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And how much better would India be performing
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at the International Math Olympiad?
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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