I was recently introduced to a website called TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. The idea of TED, which began as a conference in 1984 to bring people together from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment, and Design, hence the name, is that great information, great ideas, and great innovation, should be shared with as many people as possible in order to enlighten and inspire everyone who is subjected to it. In a lecture by Chris Anderson, the founder of TED, he explains the concept of crowd accelerated innovation. The basis of this concept is quite simple, yet if utilized properly, can be extremely revolutionary. People introduced to new information, anything from a science experiment to a dance move, get inspired to either recreate, adapt, or improve whatever they see and learn. Therefore, more people exposed to this information will result in more inspiration, and ultimately more innovation. With more people involved, there is greater opportunity to create bigger and better change, and at much faster speeds.
Anderson adapted crowd accelerated innovation into internet accelerated innovation, discussing how with the internet and online videos, it is now possible to share one’s knowledge and talent (and anything and everything else for that matter) with millions and millions of people worldwide instantaneously. People who would have never had the opportunity to be exposed to certain things due to their geographic location or any reason whatsoever can now watch and learn from whoever they want, whenever they want. When a video goes viral on Facebook or You Tube for instance, within a matter of hours, not only will an astronomical number of people have watched it, but a huge number of people will have most likely begun trying to imitate what they have seen, leading to more sharing, more inspiration, and more advancements. Everyone tries to outdo the person before. And once again, the cycle continues.
You can learn a lot from the TED website, not only about the ideas of the world’s most inspired thinkers, but also just from the speakers’ passion and they way they convey their stories to the audience. Don’t panic, if you have flashbacks of the most boring lectures you can remember back from your days in school, these lectures are nothing of the sort. These speeches last less than 20 minutes each and are actually interesting and entertaining. The time goes by in an instant. And speaking of passion, one of the highlighted “Best of the Web” talks (watch video below) is given by an entrepreneur named Gary Vaynerchuk. He’s an inspirational speaker and encourages listeners to do what they love; and passion is literally oozing out of this guy’s pores. He insists it’s the only way to succeed in one’s career. He says that in order to do well, it is essential to hustle- to work as hard as possible every chance you get. There are no excuses. They key is to stay up-to-date on everything and to take advantage of every opportunity possible. You have to figure out what you really love and carve a niche for yourself in the market, work to build brand equity, network, and just go for it. In order to position yourself to succeed, you have to use all of the social media tools out there in order to connect to your user base anywhere and everywhere you can. You have to get people to talk about you. If you are doing something noteworthy, then you are going to get recognized. And the more people you expose yourself to, the more people who will talk about you, which is a variation of Chris Anderson’s crowd accelerated innovation.
Vaynerchuk also discusses that they only way to truly succeed is to be completely transparent. You have to be authentic and be true to yourself. In order to make people believe in your product or your services, first they have to believe in you. He stresses that there is only one chance at life, so we better take advantage of it. We are going through the gold rush of branding and there is an infinite amount of potential for success. As long as you work for it and want it bad enough, you’ll achieve it. Just absolutely love what you do and working so hard won’t be so hard at all.
I came across a second video dedicated to the topic of personal branding, which also stresses the importance of transparency. In this video , found on the BNET website, the CBS Interactive Business Network, host Robert Gerrish interviews Australian author Ben Angel. Ben says that it’s okay to tell your own stories and that you can’t be afraid of hiding anything in the fear of not fitting in. You should put things you may normally have the tendency and desire to hide in the forefront. It’s okay to be controversial, mind you, as long as it’s in context. There is nothing that is better to educate your clients about how you utilize your services than if your personal stories are able to stimulate debate. Being more seductive and vulnerable to clients is going to take you a long way. And since this information is coming from an expert a half a world away, just as it is coming from Vaynerchuk, a New Yorker, it’s obviously a worldwide, accepted principle. Just be yourself.
Hopefully this simple information will be a motivating factor to get you to open up about yourself, to take a leap of faith, and to decide to take a chance to not only do what you love, but to put yourself out there while doing so. It may sound scary, but after opening up, you will feel completely liberated. The personal and professional rewards you reap for taking that chance will be more than worth it.
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