Mahmoud Khedr, who emigrated from Egypt to New York City as a child, is the co-founder and CEO of FloraMind, a social-impact driven company that partners with schools to provide mental health and well-being programs. He also holds a degree in Social Entrepreneurship at the City College of New York and is a Forbes Under-30 Scholar. But he faced personal crises before success.


At one point, Khedr’s despair was so great that he attempted suicide; in his talk, he showed excerpts of his suicide note. Khedr’s topic: “toxic positivity,” a forced optimism that many in distress are encouraged to adopt, masking their deep depression. Calling out to an audience member in the second row, he said, “Imagine if, God forbid, you broke your arm and instead of taking you to the hospital to treat your pain, I told you.. Just be happy!!” For Mahmoud, that’s toxic positivity. Instead, he posted a list of ways to start constructive discussions with people to show true empathy.


Mental health has increasingly become an important topic of discussion in today’s society. We live in a world where countless things fight for our attention and anxiety can become paralyzing in our success-oriented culture. Mahmoud Khedr shares how toxic positivity causes more suffering than good. Fueled by his own personal struggles and experiences with mental health he built FloriaMind to not only help teenagers academically but most importantly with their personal health and wellbeing.


Mahmoud is a Colin Powell Fellow, Clinton Global Initiative Fellow, Forbes Under 30 Scholar, Stanford University Innovation Fellow and LinkedIn Campus Editor. Mahmoud has previously worked at Facebook, Google, the NYC Mayor’s Office of Tech & Innovation and Echoing Green.


This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx