TED Talk Tuesday: How YouTube is Driving Innovation

A fascinating TED talk on crowd accelerated innovation and how YouTube is fueling creativity.

The Power of Thank You

Have you ever wanted to say thank you to someone, but for some reason, held back?
I definitely have.
Part of it is not wanting to be embarrassed, part of it is not wanting to out myself out there.
Regardless of the reason, when I think about it now, it's pretty ridiculous.

In her 3-minute talk, Dr. Laura Trice suggests we say thank you, and she suggests that we asks for the things we need.

Today, why don't you thank someone sincerely?

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I wanted to take this chance to thank YOU for being the best blog audience ever!

What started out as a blog that I wasn't sure anyone would ever see, to hitting 20,000 page views today!
Thank you, sincerely, for checking out Inspiration Cupcake again and again and for your insightful comments and support.

TED Talk Tuesday: Why you will fail to have a great career.

In his funny and straight-forward talk, economist Larry Smith believes we will fail to have a great career.
Check out the video - let me know what you think.

TED Talk Tuesday: Neil Pasricha's 3 A's of Awesome

I love this TED Talk!

Neil Pasricha transformed personally challenging situations to a website called "1000 Awesome Things" as a way to remember the simple universal pleasures.

Pasricha talks about the 3 A's of awesome:

1.  Attitude

2.  Awareness

3.  Authenticity

Here's Pasricha's blog.
Which turned into this #1 international bestseller for 23 months.

And it's even now an app.

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What awesome thing have you experienced today?

TED Talk Tuesday: Dancing with Light

This is beyond cool.

TED Talk Tuesday: Seth Godin on Standing Out

Seth Godin is a marketing genius.  He's founded dozens of companies, written 13 best-selling books and writes the most popular marketing blog in the world.

In a nutshell, he knows his stuff about marketing.

I love this talk because it applies to so much more than just marketing a product.  In order to stand out, we must be remarkable.  Like a purple cow.  Remarkable means "neat" but it also means "worth making a remark about."  His talk postulates that the one single thing that determines if something is going to be talked about, if something is going to be bought, if something is going to be BIG is if it's remarkable or not.

Three Rules

1.  Design is free when it comes to scale.  

2.  The riskiest thing you can do now is to be safe.

3.  Being very good is one of the worst things you can do.  Very good is boring, very good is average.

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Dare to be remarkable! 

TED Talk Tuesday: Feats of Memory Anyone Can Do

Have you ever wished you could remember things better?  I definitely have. 

Joshua Foer shares a technique that can help us all do that.  It's an ancient technique used by Cicero to memorize his speeches called the memory palace. 

The best thing is that anyone can use this technique.

Foer chronicles his journey from someone with average memory who admittedly regularly forgot where he placed his keys to winning the U.S. Memory Championship in his book, Moonwalking with Einstein.  Beyond learning to place among the ranks of the memory athlete elites, he discovered that in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.

In what ways would remembering better improve your life?

TED Talk Tuesday: Try Something New for 30 Days

Stuck in a rut?  Matt Cutts proposes you should try something new for 30 days.

Taking a cue from Morgan Spurlock, creator of Supersize Me, Matt decided to do new things for 30 days, including taking a picture, biking to work, taking 10,000 steps and writing a novel.

Lessons learned from his 30-day experiments:

1. Time becomes much more memorable
2. Self-confidence grows
3. If you really want something bad enough, you can do anything for 30 days
4. Small sustainable changes are more likely to stick

The next 30 days are going to pass whether you like it or not, so why not think about something you have always wanted to try and give it a shot for the next 30 days?

 -Matt Cutts

Your turn.  What is something that you've always wanted to add to your life?
Why don't you try it for 30 days?

TED Talk Tuesday: John Wooden on True Success

John Wooden was college basketball's most successful coach, and the first person to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.  He left UCLA with a 620-146 record, with four of his teams finishing with 30-0 records.


John Wooden knew winning.  But he didn't put winning above everything.
In this simple and profound 2001 TED Talk, this American icon and treasure talks about winning, patience and his definition of true success.

Highlights from Coach Wooden's TED Talk

• Never try to be better than someone else, always learn from others.
• Never cease trying to be the best you can be.
• Wooden's definition of success- peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you've capable, to try and improve the situation that exists for you.
• You reputation is what you are perceived to be; your character is what you really are.
• Character is much more important than what you are perceived to be.
• Wooden's three rules: 
• 1.  Never be late. 
• 2.  Not one word of profanity.
• 3.  Never criticize a teammate.
• Whatever you're doing, you must be patient.
• You must have patience.  And I believe that we must have faith. 
• I believe that we must believe, truly believe.  Not just give it word service; believe that things will work out as they should, providing we do what we should.
• We win our lose within ourselves.  
• Never mention winning.  
• You can lose when you outscore somebody in a game.  And you can win when you're outscored.
• When a game is over, and you see somebody that didn't know the outcome, I hope they couldn't tell by your actions whether you outscored an opponent or the opponent outscored you.
• If you make effort to do the best you can regularly, the results will be about what they should be.  Not necessary to what you would want them to be, but they will be about what they should, and only you will know whether you can do that.

John Wooden's Pyramid of Success

The Annual No-Pants Subway Ride and Other Awesome Absurdities

This TEDx talk had me cracking up through the entire 12 minutes.

Charlie Todd is the creator of Improv Everywhere, a prank collective that creates absurd and simply awesome public scenes.  They've done crazy things including the annual "no-pants subway ride," getting 80 people to dress up in blue polo shirts and khaki's and stand around Best Buy and running through the New York Public Library in Ghostbusters costumes.  Like I said, simply awesome.  You seriously must watch this video.

http://improveverywhere.com/

One thing I love most about what this group does is that they make you realize that things don't have to have a reason, or make a point.  Sometimes things can be done just for fun.

When was the last time you did something "just for fun?"
When is the next time you will do something "just for fun?"

TED Talk Tuesday: Leading with Lollipops

Do you consider yourself a leader?
Chances are that you are, but are uncomfortable admitting it.


Drew Dudley, founder of Nuance Leadership Development Services, believes that this is because we've made the concept of leadership something monumental and unattainable; we've made it about changing the world, and reserved it for the extraordinary.


He says in his concise and funny 6-minute talk, "We spend so much time celebrating amazing things that hardly anybody can do, that we've convinced ourselves those are the only things worth celebrating.  And we start to devalue the things that we can do everyday.  We start to take moments where we truly are a leader and we don't let ourselves take credit for it and we don't let ourselves feel good about it."


He tells an incredibly funny story about how the simple act of giving a girl a lollipop changed her life immeasurably (you really have to watch his talk to hear the story), and the crazy part was that if she never told him about the impact he made on her life, he would't have even remembered the moment.


What a mind-blowing thought:  maybe the biggest impact you've ever had on someone else's life, was a moment that you don't even remember.


Drew's talk underscores the truth that we are THAT powerful.  Our actions can matter THAT much to others.  If we continue to make leadership this big thing reserved for those extraordinary people that are going to "change the world," we give ourselves an excuse not to expect it from ourselves and each other.


Drew's call to action is powerful, but most significant to me is that it's completely attainable.  He challenges us to get over our fear of how powerful we can be in each others' lives.   We need to redefine leadership about lollipop moments, about how many we create, how many we acknowledge, how many we pay forward and how many we say thank you for.

Have you had a lollipop moment?   
Have you told that person the impact they've had on your life?
What's stopping you?  

TED Talk Tuesday: The 12 Lessons I Learned from Steve Jobs by Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is just rad.  He's a venture capitalist who was born and raised right here in Hawaii (yay!).  He was Apple's chief evangelist for four years before starting his own business, Garage Technology Ventures.  He is the author of 10 books, and the co-founder of Alltop.com, an "online magazine rack."


He credits Steve Jobs as having a monumental impact on his life, and in this incredible TED talk, he talks about what he personally learned from Steve Jobs.

Here are the 12 lessons Guy Kawasaki learned from Steve Jobs:

1.  "Experts" are clueless.  If there's anything that Apple has proven is that experts are often wrong.  Learn to ignore experts.  Experts usually define things within established limits.  Break those limits.

2.  Customers cannot tell you what they need.  They can only describe things in terms of products or services they already have.  If you truly want to change the world, you need to ignore your customers.

3.  Jump to the next curve.  Don't stay on the same curve.   Great innovation occurs when you jump to the next curve.

4.  Biggest challenges beget the best work.  Steve Jobs had such great expectations of his people and his people tried to rise to his expectations.

5.  Design counts.  Many companies can say they care about design, but Apple is one of the few companies that truly cares about the design.  

6.  Use big graphics and big font.  When doing a presentation, If you just do this, your presentation will be better 9/10ths of those in the world.  The rule of thumb for font size:  find out who the oldest person in your audience, and then divide that number by 2.  That should be your font size.

7.  Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.  If you change your mind, if you change the way you do things in response to how customers actually consider you, it is a sign of intelligence and it will lead to success.

8.  "Value" is not the same as "price."  It's not that you need to have the lowest price, you have to have the best value.

9.  A-players hire A+ players.  When you are in the position of hiring, hire people who are better than you.

10.  Real CEO's demo.  Steve Jobs proved the CEO can do the demo.  Because to be a good demonstrator of your product or service, you truly have to understand your product or service, you also have to understand your audience.

11.  Real entrepreneurs ship.  You don't have to worry about getting to a state where things are perfect, you have to ship.

12.  Marketing = unique value.  Marketing is all about finding unique value.

BONUS:  Some things need to be believed to be seen.  If you want to change the world, you have to believe in things before you'll see them.

TED Talk Tuesday: Draw Your Future!

How often do we say we're going to make a change in our life?

I'm going to get a new job.
I'm going to lose 10 pounds
I'm going to kick a bad habit.

Then how often do we go right back to what we've always done, and we never make that change?


Research shows that the odds against us making a real change in our lives are 9 to 1.
So how do we beat those odds?


Patti Dobrowolski, founder of Up Your Creative Genius and author of Drawing Solutions believes we need to draw a picture.

1. Draw your current state.
2. Draw your desired new reality.
3. Then let your brain fill in the three BOLD steps to get from your current state to your desired new reality.

Watch her 10 minute TEDx Talk and start drawing your future!

See it

Believe it

Act on it.

TED Talk Tuesday: Brené Brown on Shame

Last Tuesday, I featured one of my favorite TED Talks by Brené Brown on vulnerability.  Three days ago, her follow-up TED Talk on shame posted online.  I really, really love this talk.  Maybe even more than her first one.


Shame is the root of so many issues, yet it's the dirty little secret that no one wants to talk about.  Ever.  Dr. Brown defines shame is the voice in our head that says, "you're not good enough," and "who do you think you are?"


Do yourself a favor and watch this talk.  Bookmark it if you don't have time right now.  It's powerful and so worth watching.

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On another note, this post is my 100th post!  This blog has been such an amazing journey for me.  Whether this is the first time you've stopped by my blog, or the 100th, I just wanted to send a humungous THANK YOU to you for reading it.  It really does mean a lot to me.  I hope in some small way, it hopes to inspire your day!

TED Talk Tuesday: Brené Brown on the Power of Vulnerability

Brené Brown is a researcher who has extensively studied vulnerability, shame, connection and authenticity.  In her funny and sage TED talk, she shares what she's learned about the "wholehearted:" people who have a sense of worthiness, a strong sense of love and belonging, including these highlights:

What do the wholehearted have in common?

1. Courage to be imperfect.
2. Compassion to be kind to themselves first, then others.
3. Connection as a result of authenticity.
4. Fully embraced vulnerability.

Vulnerability is the core of shame, fear and the struggle for worthiness.

It is also the birthplace of joy, creativity, belonging and love.

Why do we struggle with vulnerability so much?

1. We numb vulnerability.  
2. We make everything uncertain, certain.  
3. We perfect.
4. We pretend that what we do does not have an effect on other people.

Advice to live like the wholehearted:

1. Let yourself be seen.
2. Love with your whole heart.
3. Practice gratitude and joy.
4. Believe that you are ENOUGH.

Do yourself a favor and take the time to watch her TED talk.  

It is genuinely a impactful and awakening video.

TED Talk Tuesday: Keep Your Goals to Yourself

This seriously goes against everything I've ever learned.

You always hear:

"Write down your goals, and then tell them to someone.  Tell them to lots of people.  The more people you tell, the more accountability you'll have."

Derek Silvers believes this is wrong.  That it's actually better to keep our goals secret.  He presents evidence in his short (3-minute) TED Talk that shows that telling someone your goal actually makes it less likely to happen. Interestingly, when you tell someone your goal, your mind is tricked into feeling it's already done.  Because it feels the satisfaction, you're less likely to get it done.

What do you think about his theory?  Is it better to tell others our goals, or to keep them to ourselves?

TED Talk Tuesday: Nigel Marsh: How to Make Work-Life Balance Work

I don't know about you, but I've had a long-standing struggle with work-life balance since my very first job.  I tend to be an all or nothing kind of person, and this generally leads to me either working like a crazy person at the expense of my health, my sleep, my relationships and my mental well-being; or completely burning out and completely mentally disengaging with work and frantically trying to catch up with all the things I've neglected.

Which is why I was so drawn to this TED Talk.

Nigel Marsh, the author of Fat, Forty, and Fired and Overworked and Underlaid, was the epitome of the corporate warrior.  He worked too much, ate like crap, drank too much, and didn't spend nearly as much time as he should with his family (sound at all familiar?).  He had a life-changing moment that prompted him to take a year off of work.  During this year and after he returned to the workforce, he studied the paradox of work-life balance.

In his funny TED Talk, he offers realistic suggestions on how to try to genuinely achieve work-life balance.

Some awesome quotes from his talk:

“There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.”

“All the discussions about flexi-time or dress-down Fridays or paternity leave only serve to mask the core issue, which is that certain job and career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningfully engaged on a day-to-day basis with a young family.”

TED Talk Tuesday: The Happy Secret to Better Work

Today's TED Talk was recommended to me by not one, but two people (thanks Steph and Dr. Phil!).  Shawn Achor studies and teaches Positive Psychology, and is the CEO of Good Think, Inc.  In his funny and fast-paced talk, he argues that being positive can make us more productive.

Some pearls from his talk:

• "If we study what is merely average, we will remain merely average."
• Only 10% of our long-term happiness is predicted by our external world.
• 90% of our long-term happiness is how our brain processes the world.
• If we change the formula for happiness and success, we can change the way we affect reality.
• 25% of job successes are determined by IQ.
• 75% of job successes are determined by optimism levels, social support and the ability to see stress as a challenge instead of a threat.
• Your brain at positive performs significantly better than it does in negative, neutral or stressed.
• Every business outcome improves when your brain is in positive.

Here's his talk.  Enjoy!

TED Talk Tuesday: Cupid's Chemistry

Happy Valentine's Day!

In honor of the holiday dedicated to love, today's TED Talk is Helen Fisher's research on the brain in love.

TED Talk Tuesday: Ken Robinson says Schools Kill Creativity

Today's TED Talk Tuesday by Sir Ken Robinson is easily one of my favorite TED Talks.  It is witty, insightful and focuses on rethinking education to nurture rather than stifle creativity.  He believes that creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.

During one of my summer semesters at college, I worked as a teacher's assistant at a preschool and also took a 5-credit hour intensive Chinese language class.  It was simultaneously one of the most wonderful and horrible experiences of my college career.

I adored working at the preschool.  There's nothing quite like the feeling of a dozen three and four year olds running as fast as they can at you with open arms and huge smiles, screaming your name.  One of my favorite parts of that job was watching them during free play.  I was constantly amazed at the level of imagination and creativity these kids possessed.  They weren't afraid to be wrong or make a mistake and they had no fear of completely expressing their authentic selves.

Contrast that with my Chinese language class.  Learning Chinese can be pretty daunting to start with.  But cramming five credit hours into a couple months in an "intensive" format class is straight-up masochistic.  I highly recommend NOT learning Chinese that way.  At the beginning of every class, the professor would make us stand in front of the class and recite a reading.  If you made a mistake, she made you start all over again until you recited it all perfectly.  You could smell the fear in the classroom every single day.  I remember one kid running out of the room and throwing up from the pressure.

It was such an intriguing contrast to watch young kids at the beginning of their educational experiences just ooze creativity and joy, compared to college sophomores and junior in my Chinese class that had become completely one-dimensional, reciting and memorizing out of fear of failure.

That summer taught me what Sir Ken Robinson talks about in this talk.  Schools (and sometimes parents and workplaces too) slowly wring out every last drop of what makes a child magical, what makes our souls sparkle.

Sir Ken ends his talk saying, "The only way we'll do it [use the gift of the human imagination wisely] is by seeing our creating capacities for the richness they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are.  Our task is to educate their whole being so they can face this future."

Do you agree?