Is being an entrepreneur just creating/designing/working on a product? I for one think it is also a way of life of doing more and learning more – staying ahead of the curve.
‘Entrepreneur’ just denotes that you recognize that you’re doing things across disciplines and that you’re blazing your own path. – Pharrell Williams
My favorite way to “blaze” my path is by seeking to educate myself, with a good old-fashioned TED Talk. Stop, pause, and take less than an hour to find your missing link with a few educational TED talks.
1. Kirby Ferguson: Embrace the Remix
- Copy, transform, and combine – basic elements of all creativity.
- We have so much around us, success in entrepreneurship doesn’t necessarily mean creating something new from scratch, rather combining existing separate elements to create something “new”. Think about it, are WhatsApp, SnapChat, or Air BnB really 100% creativity that came from nothing?
2. Arianna Huffington: How to Succeed? Get More Sleep
- Rediscovering the value of sleep – it’s what’s best for the world.
- A life of more production, inspiration, and joy are all attained through sleeping the right amount. The essence of leadership is seeing the iceberg before the Titanic hits it.
3. Shawn Achor: The Happy Secret to Better Work
- Positive Psychology – if we study what is average, we will stay average.
- The assumption that most, or at least many people make is that it is the external world defines our happiness; however that is only 10% of our long-term happiness. If happiness is on the opposite side of the spectrum from success, then you’ll never be happy. Success or how it is defined can always change when one goal is attained.
4. Julian Treasure: How to Speak so that People Want to Listen
- Do Not: gossip, judge, be negative, complain (viral misery), excuses,lying, and dogmatism.
- Do: HAIL – Honestly, authenticity, integrity, love (wishing people well).
5. Seth Godin: How to Get your Ideas to Spread
- The thing that is going to decide what spreads is “remarkable” – worth making a remark about.
- Very good is boring – and it is not going to work because it is not remarkable. It is just average.
