Featuring Shaan Kooner : Young talent sharing his ideas on upcoming TEDx Abbotsford Talks
We’ve all felt ambitious and driven at some point in our lives. It’s practically impossible to go through life without feeling it at least once. Meet Shaan Kooner, a grade 12 student from Surrey who knows this feeling so well, he’s practically become addicted to it. From music to business to public speaking, Shaan has pursued his passions in a variety of fields. This fall, he will be sharing his ideas on the TEDx Abbotsford stage.
Born and raised in Surrey, BC, Shaan has experimented with creativity all his life. One of his earliest memories is of when he was six years old and he took all of the spoons from the kitchen to the side of the road, laid out a blanket, and attempted to sell them to passerbys. This failure has now become a funny story which he’ll remember forever. He considers it to be the beginnings of an entrepreneurial and creative mindset.
Being ambitious is something Shaan prides himself on. He has big goals for himself, and really wants to leave an impact on the world. By educating himself about social media marketing and building an Instagram following of over 11 thousand people, Shaan has been using using digital platforms to his advantage. As a passionate drummer, he wanted to share his music with the world. He used social media, specifically Instagram, to promote his drumming and create a digital portfolio for his music (@musicbyneo_). He researched social media marketing and learned about the many ways a brand can grow online. Today, his Instagram account has over ten thousand followers, and his drumming videos have been viewed all over the globe; his most popular video being viewed over 150,000 times and having over 26,000 likes.
He’s now just starting grade 12 and this November he’ll be delivering his first TEDx Talk at the University of the Fraser Valley on a topic he’s been captivated by for a while, creativity and the school system. For Shaan, school has never been his thing. He was inspired to give this TED talk while sitting in his science class.
Funnily enough, he had just failed a science test, and was ranting to his friend beside him. He was talking about the flaws in the education system, about the students that slip through the cracks, about how “out of the box thinking” isn’t promoted. After he finished his rambling, his friend jokingly told him that he should do a TED talk. Inspired, he rushed home, typed up an essay which was fueled by a combination of frustration, creativity, and the undying urge to prove to his teacher that he was not an idiot, and sent it off to TEDx.
For Shaan, it’s not about money, it’s about experiences. He sees life as a collection of memories and the more you have, the better your life will be. Learning to work outside of your comfort zone may seem daunting to some, but he firmly believes that however it works out, in the end you’ll always come out of it with a good story to tell. And who knows? You might be sharing it on a TEDx stage!
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