3 Ted Talk Ideas
In this article, I share my 3 ideas that I have for a TED Talk. These are some of the ideas that I would want to be known for as a thought leader, and the core idea of self-improvement is the prevalent theme stemming from all three. This reflects my leadership style because as a leader, I always strive to do better, and improve the qualities of people in whom I lead.
1. If you don’t fail, you won’t learn:
As quoted from Albert Einstein, “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” Through my journey at UC Berkeley, I perhaps made more mistakes every year in school than I did in the four years prior in high school. But I also grew far more every year, in many ways I didn’t expect to. Whenever I’d try something new and fail at it in high school, I would push it off as I wasn’t willing to try it again. Coming to college, I made many mistakes where I took classes out of my own interest that were far more challenging than I anticipated; sometimes classes would get the better of me and I would struggle, but many times I succeeded where I had once doubted myself. Where I succeeded, I realized that I was capable of doing something that I once doubted I would actually be good at, and was ultimately able to develop a set of strengths from these classes to help advance my career.
2. Set a Daily Goal:
Setting goals for oneself can be one of the most constructive tasks someone can do to help themselves. While long term goals are often great to improve oneself, I also find that making daily goals helps to improve productivity and motivation on a more consistent basis. This can help make sure that you are on your way to accomplishing a new goal, or making progress on a current one every single day. If you wake up with the attitude everyday, saying “I am going to accomplish this,” it ultimately sets the tone for the day where you can be more productive and be in a better mood to do so.
3. Dominate Your Weaknesses:
Kind of an interesting saying — you always want to own your strengths, but how do you dominate your weaknesses? The answer is tackling this issue head on. When you have an opportunity to improve upon something, take it. Throughout most of my life, a general weakness of mine were my soft skills and while they gradually improved to an extent, the most substantial improvement came in a Business Development role for a startup I started working for a couple months ago. Although most of my work experience prior had been in more technical positions, I accepted this role as I wanted to force myself into a position where in order to succeed, I would have to be better at owning this weakness. This role involved talking with clients every single week, negotiating various agendas with them, and even forcing myself to be assertive at times. Because of this role, my weakness rapidly got stronger over the next several weeks. While we acknowledge we have our weaknesses, sometimes the necessary attitude is “Why can’t I make a strength,” and setting out to improve these weaknesses ultimately can be one of the best ways that one can improve themselves.
