TED's To Get Ahead

Want a free pep talk from the stars of business and beyond? Step this way...

- Clare Thorp

THEY’VE LAUNCHED HUNDREDS of careers, landed unknowns lucrative book deals and notched up billions of views on YouTube. Ted Talks are a phenomenon – we started ‘leaning in’ thanks to Sheryl Sandberg’s Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders, we upped our sleep game because of Arianna Huffington’s rallying cry, and we know a good chunk of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists after Beyoncé sampled it on Flawless. But finding new talks can be tough – each one is supposed to be on an ‘idea worth spreading’, but often it’s a trope you’ve heard before. We’ve gone through hours of footage to find the talks that will actually inspire you.

THE TALK

GET COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE

THE IDEA: Be the domino.

WHO: Luvvie Ajayi – a writer and activist who calls herself a ‘professional shade thrower’, and whose fans include Bono and Shonda Rhimes.

WHAT? Ajayi believes troublemakers make real change – just by stating the controversial opinion. She talks about times when she’s said something she assumed would be unpopular (like criticising a well-known author), only to realise others not only felt the same way, but were thankful she’d started the conversation.

QUOTE: ‘For a line of dominoes to fall, one has to fall first, which then leaves the others choiceless to do the same.’