TED is a non-profit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Sharing (TED.com). It has a wonderful website that has many features, one including speeches to watch from some of the TED members. It focused on bringing people together to share ideas from three different worlds: Technology, Entertainment, and Design (Ted.com). I listed to a relatively short speech that had a big message. Terry Moore is the director of the Radius Foundation in New York (TED.com). The Radius Foundation is a nonprofit organization, which uses a forum to help generate communication (Radiusfoundation.org). He spoke a very short, less than three-minuet, speech on incorrectly tying our shoelaces. Mr. Moore spoke about how most TED audiences are very smart and intelligent but most likely most of them tie their shoelaces incorrectly. He then proceeded to demonstrate how to correctly do it, and why it was the correct way. As simple as the demonstration was, it solved a big problem of knots getting too loose and getting loose often. How could so many educated people overlook this?
Relating this to the entertainment industry was easy for me. There are so many artists out in the world wanting to make it big that they would do almost anything for it. Likewise, there are so many managers and agents out there that will do whatever it takes to make the most money; even skipping steps. If a manager gets their first big deal for a client but the response is needed within four hours but there is no way to read all of the documentation within the four hours, the manager and client may just sign the contract. Once they see they are under a major time restraint, plus seeing how much money the deal was offering, they signed quickly without a second glance.
In doing this like this, it puts everyone’s career at stake. There are plenty of contracts out in the industry that are ripping people off, daily. This is all because some artists are desperate for anything and will sign the first deal they are offered. Take the time to figure out the right way to go about things. Look at the fine print and don’t skip the baby steps; they make solve a big problem. That is what this speech personally means to me. I know what I want to accomplish in the entertainment industry but I'm not going to skip anything and make sure I know how to tie my shoelaces correctly to save all the little headaches down the road.
Click here to watch the video, Terry More: How to tie your shoes
(photos courtesy of http://www.secularstudents.org/visuals & http://thenewdirection.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/web-gems-ted-com-the-most-inspiring-jaw-dropping-fascinating-and-informative-speakers-on-the-web/)
