TED Talks have in the recent decade become an insanely effective means of getting capsule sized jolts of wisdom and inspiration. You know how your school would often bring these personalities to teach you how to be successful or what you should be doing? Basically it was always a whole lot of gyaan without any personal investment on the part of the audience, mostly because no one could possibly know who that person was or what his credentials were. This is something that you won’t face with TED Talks. Every one they call to speak and give a session is extremely accomplished in their fields and they generally come with a lot of valuable advise that we’d be foolish not to listen to.
Your Greatest Icons Are Here To Teach You
One of the most common complaints that kids in classrooms have is that their teacher isn’t good enough. It’s always the teacher’s fault for not being dynamic enough, for not teaching well enough, for not being cool enough. Of course this is just a case of projection, something kids and teenagers often do. But in this case, it is like you are privy to a private tutoring session with your favorite entrepreneurial icons. They’ve made something of their lives, and they’re here to tell you how. So listen up!
Why do People or Startups Succeed
A common theme that is explored in TED talks is that of startups and entrepreneurs. This is natural because the bulk of their viewers are people like you and I, who’ve either just started a business or hope to start one, and are just voraciously trying to devour any bits of information that might show us the key to success. Well, if you go through enough talks you’ll realize that there is no key of success, there is no one secret. You can’t just will something into happening. Instead of that feel-good nonsense, you’ll actually receive a lot of actual, tangible advice.
You’ll be given multiple perspectives into success and failure, so that we may see which glove fits the best for us personally. For example, if you watch a talk by Bill Gross, you’ll see a scientific exploration of the different factors related to businesses, and he charts an exploration of why mediocre businesses might succeed whereas great ones fail. His conclusion is that one of the most important factors in this seemingly arbitrary happenstance is timing. TED talks gives you practical advice that you can actually use.
Knowledge should be Shared
The thing is, every entrepreneur is bound to make mistakes. As an entrepreneur either established or just starting out you’re bound to trip, fail, fall and stub your toe. But you’ll rise up so much stronger because of that setback. You would have learned something. And this something could in turn help others. Knowledge and experience should be shared. And that is the basic idea behind TED talks. Within 15 minutes you are hit with a super dose of wisdom, insight, inspiration and are forced to be a better person and professional as a result. You get to experience things you haven’t yet, see from different perspectives, forced to question your assumptions, and avoid making mistakes. All of this would help you in your professional career, whether you know it or not.
To gain Success you have to be Success
What this means is that if you want to eventually achieve your dreams and be successful in life, you have to step into the shoes and the psyche of someone who is successful. You have to ask yourself what would your — insert name of the role-model — do. Of course this doesn’t imply that you have to become a different person, but start taking decisions in a more informed manner. You don’t have access to future experiences, there’s a lot of unchartered territory in your life. But if you learn to imbibe others’ experiences you’ll be able to scale terrains in a more organized manner.
Success isn’t all Money
Finally, one of the most used words in this article has been ‘success’, however I should probably let you know, for fear of misinterpretation, that success here doesn’t only mean money. TED talks isn’t a Get-Rich-Quick session. Success here can mean a multitude of things. For example, Gary Vaynerchuk sees success as just being able to do something he loves, monetary success should follow in its footsteps. Money for the sake of money isn’t sustainable, nor is it healthy. Alternatively, for Bill and Melinda Gates success lay in the satisfaction of giving away their wealth. TED talks show you how to be successful, in the truest sense of the word possible.
So these are just some of the reasons every Entrepreneur should start following or watching TED talks, or if you’re too busy to go through all of them, find out about the people on TED talks and listen in to the ones whose stories inspire you. Though in that case you might be missing out because inspiration often comes from unexpected avenues.
