Awakin Call
Awakin Calls is a weekly podcast by ServiceSpace featuring intimate conversations with remarkable changemakers – weaving inner transformation with outer impact. Explore →
Featured Speaker
Ali Mahlodji
Life is a zigzag: Leaning Into Uncertainty
August 12, 2023
How does it feel to see yourself as an "error" in the system? When you try out over 40 jobs and you fit into none? From system error to futurist, Ali Mahlodji discovered his sense of purpose in the midst of his life's difficulties. Having zigzagged his way from refugee to technology entrepreneur and CEO to global thought leader, he helps children and at-risk persons navigate the multiple paths to a sense of purpose in an uncertain world and often amid ... Read full bio
Five Questions with Ali
What makes you come alive?
When a person suddenly sees his own light through my work and is touched by himself and realizes that we can create much more in life than we thought, that touches me. There is nothing better than when a person believes in their own future again through my work.
A pivotal turning point in your life?
I finally had the corporate job I always wanted. I was 27 years old, had my great company car and stock options, and thought, now I've made it. And then I had a crisis of purpose that led to a burnout lasting several months. I was no longer able to work, had to take strong antidepressants and lost everything that was important to me at the time: my relationship, my job and supposed friends. Through therapy, I was confronted with the meaning of my life and realized that I didn't know what I really wanted. It was the worst phase of my life, because I didn't want to live anymore either. Only the confrontation with the innermost, what wanted through me into this world, I realized that I want to help children who have gone through the same as me. I became a teacher and then an entrepreneur. But without this burnout, I would never have become the person I always was inside.
An act of kindness you'll never forget?
There are two stories, that literally changed my life:1. How my stuttering became my superpower:I was thirteen years old when my parents divorced. For me it was such a great shock that I stopped talking. It got better with time, but I stuttered a lot. At first I couldn't even say my own name. At school it was a very bad time. It was a technical school for construction and 90% of the students were boys. They had nothing better to do than to make life difficult for the only stutterer in the school. Whenever we had to read aloud in class, I would go out with my asthma inhaler and say I couldn't breathe. I had very quickly developed asthma and the spray became my best friend, taking me out of harm's way if I embarrassed myself by reading aloud.One day we got a new teacher, Gerhard. Right in the first lesson we had to read aloud and he saw that I couldn't get a word out. After the lesson he asked me to come in and when I was about to say that I stuttered, he just said "Ali, I used to stutter too". I was completely perplexed. He was a teacher and could talk well, how could he have been a stutterer?"Ali, the only reason you stutter is because you have so much energy in you and your young body can't handle it yet. You'll see, someday as an adult you'll have more energy than anyone else and no one can stop you." Suddenly the stuttering that characterized my life had a good explanation.He lied to me that day, of course, and he also asked my parents to tell me this story, but he did something no one had done before: he made me the hero of my own life and transformed my greatest obstacle into my greatest learning experience. I still stutter from time to time today, but at the same time I have truly become the person who has more power than anyone else today.2. how I realized potential thanks to my mistakesI had quit school because stuttering made me afraid of the last final oral exams. And because I was afraid of having to speak in front of the class as a student, I also became the student with the most absences. Therefore, my grades in school were a disaster. I was negative everywhere except in IT. However, everyone told me what I couldn't do. My consequence was that I quit school because I couldn't imagine what my future should look like. I started to clean floors in a pharmacy. I earned badly, was treated even worse and slowly despaired of life. One day I met a former teacher, Klaus Weber, who asked me about my situation. I told him that as a former refugee, school dropout and stutterer with my name, it was not always easy. He asked me why I didn't want to learn something that I was comfortable with and my answer was "they knew my grades, I was the bad student and not the most intelligent." "Ali, do you really think you're not intelligent? You had a lot of bad grades, okay. But there was one thing in which you were better than everyone else in the class. In IT, you were even better than your teacher. Get an education in that field, but do it for yourself because you enjoy it." I followed his advice and did an IT apprenticeship part-time and graduated with honors. I then studied Distributed Computer Systems - also part-time - and again I succeeded very easily. This was the foundation for me not only to believe in myself, but also to realize that as long as I do things for the joy of it, I will always go my way. My former teacher showed me my light and shows me that there can be a beautiful future for my life.
One thing on your bucket list?
Having a conversation with Chris Martin, singer of coldplay :)
One-line message for the world?
Enjoy the journey and try to achieve everything you want in life, but never at the expense of other people and nature.
About Awakin Calls
Awakin Calls is a weekly global series featuring intimate conversations with remarkable people – scientists, activists, artists, and everyday heroes – hosted by volunteers at ServiceSpace. Subscribe to join live.