Punching Above Your Weight: Who Decides Where Excellence Lives

“Punching above our weight” sounds like praise, but it carries conditions. It implies that world-class work belongs elsewhere, and that excellence from here is an exception rather than the standard. This talk challenges the underdog narrative and the quiet assumptions about who gets to define quality, relevance, and scale.

Drawing from lived experience and cultural perspective, the speakers question who decided where the centre is, who assigned the “weight,” and why success is framed as something earned through comparison rather than confidence. Instead of asking for permission or recognition, the talk interrogates the systems that position some voices as default and others as surprising.

By reframing what “world-class” can mean when it is authored locally rather than measured externally, this session invites a shift in mindset. It is not about proving worth within inherited frameworks, but about dismantling them altogether, and designing work that stands on its own terms, grounded in place, culture, and conviction.