Every new entrepreneur finds inspiration everywhere. Whether it’s something you spot on the street, saw on Instagram or picked up while watching a 90s cartoon (that would be me).
Finding inspiration everywhere is one of the best things about being an entrepreneur, and it can give you a huge boost of positive energy. Every entrepreneur is a sponge, soaking up as much information as fast as possible to blast it back into the startup the next day. From posters to commercials, everything an entrepreneur sees gets translated into what it could mean for us and how it fits into, say, our online marketing strategy.
And as luck would have it, TED once had the idea to film the ideas of other entrepreneurs and share them with the rest of the world. Nice of them, right?
TED’s motto isn’t “ideas worth spreading” for nothing. And you can bet there are ideas worth spreading in there that you can pass on to your partners and fellow entrepreneurs. No joke: TED talks, and you know this too, inspire a lot of entrepreneurs. New ideas, fresh insights, you name it. As a team, we think these 6 talks are the most inspiring for all the young entrepreneurs out there. Of course there are plenty more videos to watch. Our goal with this blog is to make you fall in love with the platform and go find your own inspiration everywhere. Here are 6 talks we think are worth spreading.
Take your time, keep your Moleskine next to you and bingewatch the shit out of it.
1. Simon Sinek - How great leaders inspire action
On the advice of my coach Aline from Quik, I had to watch this TED talk one more time. Admittedly, all those “Whys” that so many ad agencies try to dig out of you were starting to wear on me a bit. But as with so many things, Aline was right and you need to look past that. Then you realise how incredibly important it is why the F you’re doing all this again. And trust me, once you’ve found that why, you cycle to the office a lot happier every morning.
Sure, some people love his words and others go mad from them and can’t do a thing with them. But the fact is, every entrepreneur should hear his story once. In this TED Talk he explains his simple but strong model for leaders to inspire their people and move them to action. His model covers the why, how and what of an organisation. Even for an entrepreneur without staff, it’s a lovely video to draw inspiration from. It really gets you thinking. And that’s what we want.
According to Sinek, it’s not about your product or service, but about why you as an entrepreneur do what you do. Phew, yes, that’s a tough one. “Why on earth am I doing this again?” I hear you think, on those days when everything in your business seems to go the wrong way. Even harder for some: that “why” goes beyond just making money. Once your ‘Why’ is clear, you can inspire others (read: customers / partners / friends / your boyfriend or girlfriend (not unimportant) / employees / sponsors / investors), bring them along and turn them into ambassadors. ‘They have to believe what you believe,’ says the “why-God” Sinek.
Plenty of brands back his words and model. In his story Sinek mentions Apple, Martin Luther King and the Wright brothers as examples, but in the Netherlands Tony’s Chocolonely is one of the best-known examples of a company with a strong, clear ‘Why’. Enough talk, check it out and go! Go find your Why!
PS it’s fine if you don’t find it right away. It cost me 5 years of my life too ;)
2. Emily Esfahani Smith - There’s more to life than being happy
Besides a beautiful name, Emily Esfahani Smith also has the idea that we’re all chasing the wrong goal. Well, I never. Because everyone wants to be happy (duh). ‘Our society is obsessed with happiness,’ says Smith. According to her, a meaningful life should be our goal. ‘Searching for meaning is far more fulfilling than chasing happiness,’ says the Iranian-American writer. ‘Happiness comes and goes, but having meaning in life gives you something to hold on to.’
She went looking for happiness herself. It didn’t leave her feeling content. On the contrary, it made her anxious and depressed. We have huge amounts of time and resources to become happier, yet depression is becoming more common and suicide rates are rising worldwide.
Chasing and overrating success can make people unhappy. And giving meaning to life, doing things that go beyond yourself, certainly doesn’t. Her TED Talk followed her successful book “The Power of Meaning”, in which she uses four pillars to show how we can lead a meaningful life. Why we want to share this TED Talk with you might have to do with the talk by our friend Simon above. Sooner or later you have to go looking for the purpose of running a business. Why am I doing this? What’s my goal? And when is it good enough? That last one especially matters a lot. That’s how you enjoy being an entrepreneur: not just hunting for success, but enjoying the road there too.
3. Seth Godin - How to get your ideas to spread
My dad always used to say that a good idea sells itself. If the idea is right, success follows. Me, back then right in the middle of Mad Men and a marketing man in the making, obviously disagreed. And luckily I came across a TED talk by Seth Godin who completely agreed with me. Or I with him. Doesn’t matter.
Seth Godin says that if you really want your idea to succeed, it’s not so much about the idea itself. No, according to him it’s about the way the idea is presented. Hallelujah (I thought at the time). Advertising on television? ‘Doesn’t work anymore,’ says Godin. People have too many choices and too little time to really do anything with it. The way to get noticed is to be remarkable and different from the ordinary stuff everyone does. It’s that easy (haha).
All jokes aside, Godin digs into the originality of ideas and why some ideas succeed and others don’t. Pitching your idea at random to anyone who’ll listen won’t get you anywhere. Telling it to a niche will: early adopters, or the so-called nerds. They really want to listen, love trying something new and telling their friends about it. So when you share your idea with them, there’s a chance they’ll spread it. Go find your niche! Tell them. Tell them why your idea is so good and it’ll spread by itself.
Now all you need is a good idea…
4. Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
As a creative ad agency, we think it’s incredibly important to keep your creativity going. But a good education matters a lot too. In his TED Talk, Sir Ken Robinson says today’s education systems are out of balance. According to him, the current systems undermine children’s creativity. While we should be embracing and cherishing it.
He gives the example of a little schoolgirl drawing God. When her teacher says nobody knows what God looks like, the girl says: ‘They will in a minute.’
A short example, but it says a lot. Children aren’t afraid of making mistakes. They try everything. Then, over the course of their school years, they’re educated, as he puts it, into non-artists.
His story reaches further. Not just the education system, but our whole system seems set up in a way that doesn’t encourage creativity. Robinson says we don’t get the best out of people, because we’re trained to be good employees instead of creative thinkers.
A Talk that makes entrepreneurs think too. Creativity matters for entrepreneurs. How about you? And how do you get the best out of people? Take a look at your own system, at the system of your organisation. And do you give yourself the room to keep your creative mind going? #staycreative
5. Anjan Chatterjee - how your brain decides what is beautiful.
We, and all the partners we work with, always have 1 thing in common. We want to make beautiful things. If you’ve been on our site before and read the content, you know that what matters most to us is making something, or sending something out into the world, that moves us. That we think is beautiful. Whenever I go over a quote for a new custom website with Joost, our regular developer, we agree on things very quickly. If we both feel we get to make something beautiful, we usually agree fast on the quote and on whether we take the job. And so far, every regular partner who sticks around at Omelette Du Fromage shares this view. We want to make something beautiful and choose that above everything else.
Yes, but what is beautiful? I can hear you think it. I don’t have the answer myself, but Anjan Chatterjee made a wonderful TED talk to define “beauty”. A fascinating story about why our brain finds one thing beautiful and another thing not. And afterwards you’ll understand again why we want to make beautiful things ;)
6. Steve jobs - how to live life before you die.
And last but not least, a wonderful story by Steve Jobs. Think what you like about Apple or about the man. I started out on an Apple computer once too, because it looked nice in the office and because every marketing agency works on an Apple, so I did too (and now of course I wouldn’t have it any other way). His story, in which he reflects at length on the chances and setbacks in life, is incredibly inspiring and still very relevant. And before you wonder whether it was filmed with a carton of milk: yes, it’s an oldie, but still incredibly inspiring!
Key takeaways
- Know your own why as an entrepreneur: it inspires and connects others
- Meaning brings more fulfilment than chasing happiness
- How you present an idea often decides whether it succeeds
- Creativity deserves as much attention as a good education
- Take time for the things that really matter to you
