This is what I submitted for my Ted X Talk today

So I wrote this bio about myself……

Bio:

Hassan J EL-Saddique is a professional dream supporter & American social
entrepreneur. Born in Buffalo, NY. Hassan’s love and dream to play professional basketball took him to South America signing with a professional basketball team in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The opportunity was short lived and after being cut during the season Hassan found himself back in the same low opportunity zoned neighborhoods where he grew up in Buffalo. Within three years Hassan went from being a professional basketball player to being a federal inmate for 14 months. In 2010 his life was again changed when he picked up a camera and documented meeting 5 disadvantaged kids and went on a journey to tell their story and help each kid achieve a dream. This turned out an 11-year compiled footage documentary entitled We All Have Dreams. In 2021 Hassan founded ALL Dreams with the mission to support 1,000,000 dreamers worldwide. The initiative aims to positively influence long term development of young people globally who live in poverty. In January 2023 Hassan relocated to Cartagena, Colombia to build ALL Dreams and to prove his idea in Latin America. After working with 10 dreamers and supporting their dreams for 8 months, the system for supporting dreamers worldwide was born. It was simply to connect Dreamers around the world to Dream Supporters.

Ted X Asked about my unique Idea I want to share and this is what I wrote……I went over a few sentences and I added to this after I sent in the submission.

What is the unique idea that I want to share? In a few sentences, please describe the core of the talk idea.

How supporting dreams can change the world. Only 6% of people ever reach their goals and dreams, that means 94% of people in the world will not achieve their goals and dreams. When I say dreams it’s not about being Beyonce type dreams it’s the dream to become a police officer like my friend Jhon from Cartagena dreams to be or to play college baseball in the US like Miguel dreams to do. We are talking about tangible dreams.

For the past 8 months I have lived in Cartagena, Colombia. I decided to move from the US because I had an idea to try ALL Dreams Internationally after meeting a teenager on the beach while on a short vacation in Cartagena in May 2022. The teens name is Jhon, and Jhon told me he gave up on his dream of playing soccer because he needed to work to support his family. After filming a short interview, Jhon wanted me to meet his mother, so me a gringo first time in Colombia accepted the adventure to go into the unknown of a dangerous barrio to meet Jhon’s mother. She fed me dinner and while in Jhon’s barrio we went to the park where I met 5 more dreamers that shared their dreams. Although I was in a foreign country these kids were no different from me at the same age as I had a dream to play basketball. There wasn’t a guy that came to my neighborhood to ask me about my dream or a guy to support me in going after my dream. With asking these kids their dream and my intent to support them I was solving my childhood problem which was needing support.

I Knew this wasn’t an accident. I came back to the US and sold everything and moved to Colombia to support the dreams of these kids. For 8 months I lived in a Barrio. What I found is that We ALL Have Dreams and we all need some support. To watch 10 kids in poverty be transformed over an 8-month period because they knew they had someone to support them was life changing and it didn’t take much their support dream.

The idea of ALL Dreams showed me that if we could make a system for supporting dreams worldwide, we could change the world. The system is simply connecting Dreamers with Dream Supporters. How this system works: Dreamers from around the world that need support apply to become members of Support ALL Dreams and we connect them with Dream Supporters. Dream Supporters sign up for a monthly or yearly subscription where each month they receive a Dream Box. In the Dream Box the DS receives a physical item inspired by the dreamer they are supporting that month, they receive a postcard from whatever country the dreamer is from, they receive a Dreamer Note Card which is a picture of the dreamer, with their age, their dream, and fun facts about the dreamer, and lastly the DS gets access to the Dreamer Vault: where they will be able to watch a video series documented by the dreamer showing the Dreamer in his or her daily life going after their dream. The DS can send and receive messages from the Dreamer. Each month the DS gets a new Dreamer to engage with and still has access to support the other Dreamers they have supported throughout the year.

The irony to this story is when I came to Colombia to support dreamers what I was building was a t-shirt company that sold inspired t-shirts of dreamers to support them and we made videos showing that. I didn’t know what I was really building is a community where people could experience what I was experiencing by becoming a dream supporter. The fact that I could impact a strangers life and watch them and connect with them as they work hard going after their dream is amazing to say the least. I’m actually apart of their dreams and I imagine when they reach that dream how it will feel to have supported them on this journey. I was the first Dream Supporter and the fulfillment that I continue to have by being a dream supporter others need to have this feeling!

The mission is to support 1,000,000 dreamers worldwide. 

My first thoughts…..when asked this question……

In one sentence, what is the key takeaway that you want the audience to know or feel after hearing this talk?

Just hopes and dreams alone will not change the world, doing our part of supporting the hopes and dreams of the next generation will.

While in Colombia this is what I built ALL Dreams HQ Colombia