Rahaf Harfoush

Welcome to the first ever Ted Tuesday! I have been a huge fan of TED for a long time, and I’m happy the response to discussing various presentations on The Foush was so positive- thank you for your tweets and emails! Looks like I’m not the only one craving some idea juice. I wanted to pick my favorites because some of them go back to 2006 and I wanted to make sure that you knew about these videos. I’m hoping that this will be a two way exchange, that you will in turn share with me your favorite Ted Talks and we can put them up here and talk about them too!

Why don’t we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies — far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity — are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. “We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson says. It’s a message with deep resonance. Robinson’s TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006.

My Favorite Part:

When describing the conversation between a doctor and the mother of a girl who been brought in because she was having trouble paying attention in school.

Doctor: Mrs. Lynn, Gillian isn’t sick - she’s a dancer.

My Take:

I loved that line. I always wonder how many kids were medicated out of their true talents because they didn’t quite fit into the system? How many employees fall through the cracks in an organization because they are stifled by boxy job descriptions. How many of us know or feel what are calling is, but get talked out of it? I remember talking to my guidance counselor about post-secondary options. I wanted to be a writer, I said. I want to write novels, movies, poems, plays, anything with words and I wanted to be a part of it. Do you know what his response was?

“Do you know how hard it is to get published? It’s nearly impossible. Writers don’t make a good living, you’ll be poor for the rest of your life. You’re better off going into something else. Something more useful.”

I never forgot that conversation. It was part of the reason I applied to business school in the first place, that unspoken shame that by wanting to pursue a creative avenue, I would somehow be committing myself to a life of poverty.

Why is it that the arts aren’t as respected as other institutions?  The Arts are the backbone of culture, the lense through which we express the joys and hardships of our times. It is the Arts that endure to tell our stories when business is nothing more then a paragraph in a history text.

I truly believe that each of us are born with a calling, and that unfortunately by the time we get through the educational system we have been so systematically programmed to regurgitate information on command that we forget what it’s like to listen to our hearts and do the things that truly bring us joy. The irony being that often time, by following our joy we actually enjoy a greater prosperity. (As in the case of Gillian Lynn, but you have to watch the video to hear how she thrived!)

Your Turn:

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? What was your favorite part?