I guess for me, I'm just going to start by telling you I hope each one of you has a higher purpose.

That's my all reason of being in this world: having a higher purpose, that's beyond myself.

And what is that higher purpose of mine?

It is this vision that I have for Africa to do well and be well,

'cause I'm from Senegal, west coast of Africa.

What does it mean for me that Africa be well and does well?

Well, do well by becoming an economic power in the world,

and be well by being a cultural power in the world.

That's my vision and that's my goal for my continent.

Now, how do we do that? Some people think, you know, government to government aid is the solution.

I'm like "get back to me when you’re done smoking whatever it is you’re smoking."

Others think: Oh, well, you know, let's go for wild savage unconscious type of capitalism,

meaning to extract everything we can from anyone we can, we don't care who gets destroyed in the process.

Whether it's people, human rights, social rights or environment rights, we don't care.

Let me make a buck, and that's all I care about.

Well, I have no patience for that either.

So, in my quest of how can I help and be part of the correlation

of people who will ensure that Africa becomes an economic power as well as a cultural power?

I started wondering and I started opening my eyes and looking around me as to

what it is that the world was telling me.

You know, anywhere I go around the world, starting with my own country...

And, by the way, everything I say you can take it and apply it directly to your country,

to Guatemala, because all of us in the developing world, we do share some of the same issues,

and hopefully we share some of the same dreams to see our countries really rise to the top,

in a way that we can be proud of, when it's all done and said.

So, what I look and see in my country, in Senegal, what do I see? Most people have one dream, one goal:

it's to make it to the western world, and when you ask any Senegalese young person,

and pay attention guys "young person." I say: which passport would you rather have?

If I could put any European passport in your hands or the American passport, any other passport,

without one single hesitation, do you know which one they say?

I give it to you, which one do you think they say they want? I heard it: America. Absolutely.

We go to Rwanda. My husband and I were in Rwanda the August of last year, and I said...

we know, we had this young driver, and I told Michael, I said: "just watch."

And I asked the young driver, I said: "Where do you wanna go in this world?" He said: "America."

I said: "If you had the choice between going to France or America first, which one do you go to first?"

"America." Okay, that's true. Yesterday, we were having dinner at friends' homes.

And Valeria was talking to... Turns out they have four children, four grown children,

and I know that here when you turn fifteen there's a special party that happens for you, right?

To help you celebrate the turn.

And she said that her and her husband, they decided that they don't do that party; but instead,

her husband takes the kids anywhere in the world, of their choice, for one week.

And that is his way, their way, of celebrating the turn.

Four children, Guatemala City, she said: "Child number one, Chicago; child number three,

New York; child number three, New York; and child number three, New York." Right?

Can we deny it, guys? Quite frankly, America must be doing something right.

If America is at the bottom of all of our dreams,

to people who have never even gotten a chance to get in a bus, in the first place,

to even go the next city, left alone traveling half way across the world.

Where do you wanna go? I want to go to America.

So, what's this telling me is that America has a beautiful brand.

People really, really have a beautiful perception of America; otherwise, why would they want to go there?

Then, I started thinking and trying to find out why; why do they want to go to America so badly?

What has America done so well that the perception of its country is so powerful?

To the shallow observer, you're gonna think that it all has to do with America being "economically" strong.

Well, I have a different opinion.

I think the reason why America is winning is because America has invited itself in each one of our hearts.

America is in our lives day in and day out.

When I asked the same young people "why do you wanna go to America?" and then I asked them:

"Tell me about what are your favorite products, your favorite brands?"

I hear Levi's, I hear Nike, I hear Google, I hear Facebook; all types of brands, and again,

I focus on the young people.

So, if the youth, if your youth... wherever your youth is, that's where your country is going to go next.

So, when I had them talking to me about all of these brands, what did America do?

America has succeeded beautifully in exporting its culture. Culture, that word is so powerful.

The young kid that I'm talking to and who is talking to me about the fact he want to go to America,

he want to go to America because America is cool. He's not thinking about the richness or anything like that.

He is thinking it's cool.

Because thanks to Hollywood, thanks to all of these different brands...

and some of them are as young as only... some of them are less than ten years old.

Google is a the ten-year-old brand, but Facebook... I'm not... it's unbelievable. So, wow!

So, when I look around and because I always want to learn from the best, what did I tell you that I wanted to do?

I wanted for my continent to be an economic power and I wanted it to be a cultural power.

Who around the world has done that better than anyone else in the world? Them.

And, we just found out that the way they did it was through building powerful consumer brands,

to invite themselves into your living rooms; on your roads, through the cars you drive; in your bellies,

through the drinks you drink: Coca-Cola, Pepsi, all of that. You go into Google every day,

you facebook your friends every day, you don't even think about it.

So, I'm like wow! There goes my answer, right there, right there.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna try and make sure that I work at building brands,

but doing it in a certain way, in such a manner that we do contribute to what I call the global culture.

When I look at the top one hundred brands in the world, global consumer brands, guess what?

There is no African brand, whatsoever. We're talking about consumer brands,

we're talking about what people see day in and day out about the world.

And, for me, if you're not on that list, technically you do not exist,

and that's very much what's happening to many countries in Africa, to probably Guatemala,

and so on, and so forth.

So, we gotta make sure that we get on that list, that's my goal, 'cause once we start getting on that list,

that will be my proof that all of the sudden, you know, we are able to start...

we have succeeded at exporting a culture.

And, I just believe that once you get to that level,

it's getting into this virtuous circle of people having a different perception of you,

and then being able... trusting you, therefore, and doing more trade with you; and that trade,

actually, brings about more economic power.

You see how the virtuous circle works? So, that's where I wanna get myself to,

and that's where I'm trying to get people to go to.

So then, the idea becomes very simple, like I said,

use the power of brands to change perceptions via joining the global culture making.

There is a global culture that's happening right now, and I do not wanna be left out.

I do not wanna be left out.

So, because I'm one of these people who I believe in... I believe preaching is good,

it's nice to come in and talk to you, guys, but I'd like to go back in the kitchen and do things,

because at the end of the day what you see is what you believe, right?

So, I took it upon myself to start with what it is what I'm exactly talking about.

My first company, Adina, the way we decided to be part of the global discussion and also provide solutions

has been on the obesity problem, that a lot of Africa... a lot of America is having a problem with right now.

And, guess what? Whatever problem America has, because America is so pervasive in our lives,

we will have, all of us around the world.

Because, remember, our youth is listening, our youth wants to be just like America: good and bad.

So, I am completely selfish and motivated to make sure but by the time,

our young people are able to really behave on their desires, that they also have good models to modelize after.

So, it is a goal of mine to make sure that we do that properly.

So, with Adina, like I said, we joined the obesity discussion.

How can we help to make sure that people start consuming better, more nutritious,

better-for-you-type beverages?

And, any time I jump into those type of problem discussions, and try to bring solutions to them, guess what?

I try to bring a part of my culture, where I believe that my culture holds one of the answers to that problem.

In the case of Adina, we found out that traditional cultural drinks from my country,

primarily we started with that, was going to be a superb answer;

to bring these new beverages to the youth in America.

But make the brand build in such a cool way that the youth would want to join in,

and come in, and embrace the brand.

And, as they embrace it, they consume these products,

we hopefully give them an alternative option to drinking soda pops.

That's how Adina decided to be part of that discussion.

My now second company, called Tiossano, it's a skin care company; with that one, we went ambitious.

I wanted more fights. So, what we did is... on this one, because this is a problem that's very dear to me,

and that has to do with this very problematic issue of what we call the hookup culture in America.

If you, guys, don't know what the hookup culture means, it means that today a lot of young women in America,

in the name of gender equalities, decide to play the man's game of just going and sleeping with boys,

you know, in hopes of having a relationship in the process. Which... I'm like "are you idiots or what?"

So, the hookup culture, how is Tiossano addressing the problem?

Tiossano is saying: We believe that the solution to the hookup culture is this notion of the All Women,

meaning women can and should have it all: brains, beauty, huge soul heart, and be able to be with tremendous,

some of the most worthy best men that there are in this world... or mate, right?

That's what they have a right to. And they should not have to sacrifice their dignity

and their morals in the process, just so that men can pay attention to them.

So, of course, most mainstream is out there, dealing with the Kim Kardashians of the world;

you know, let's go and be crazy and, you know, all of that stuff.

Well, what you get in exchange is the type of wackos that they're dealing with.

I do not want that for myself.

My parents did not bring me up to this point for me to throw all out in the name of:

"I'm gonna meet boys where they are." It's always better when you drag boys to where you are,

because by that point, you've got all the cards.

But flashing sex all over the place is not going to be the answer.

Again, me going around and preaching to people

"Bad, bad ladies, don't do this, don't do that" guess what?

They're like "Lady, go home." Well, that's not I wanna hear.

When brands are super fancy and very powerful is, again, build a cool brand,

and build into that brand what it is that you want to address about your culture.

And so, with Tiossano, we turned it into something really cool where we are going for the notion,

like I said, of All Women, but also the notion of Hot Monogamy.

So, all of the sudden, you know, girls who think it's all about having sex all over the place

are like "wait a second, let's think this again; over there seem like this girls

are having it all: they have everything we want, plus they have their dignity, and respect,

and they have better than we do."

See, presented that way, you have van wagons of girls coming our way, and that's how we inted to build a new tribe.

And you see how the brand, then, this Tiossano brand is being part of a solution, and helping change,

change the DNA of the culture the way it is right now.

And, I'm being part of that conversation,

rather than all the Southern Africans always being the subject of how we're gonna fix things,

we become full participative actors of how are we going to fix problems for the Western world as well.

And, like I said, I'm very motivated because if I don't help things going on in America,

it's gonna come to my country. Do I want that? Heck, no. So, that's kind of what we work on.

And guys, I gave you just these two examples, but there are so many, many, many, many more.

So, all I want you to remember is that in your cultures, in your way of behaving from centuries ago to a year ago,

you are sitting on ways of doing things, you are sitting on ways of thinking about stuff,

that are part of the solution of some of our cultural problems that we are having in the West.

Join that and you will be part of it.

So, if we succeed, if I can convince enough people to join me on this journey,

what's gonna start happening, at least for Africa?