Young Leaders of the
Americas Initiative

By Ashley Hoye

Nervous about getting out of your comfort zone for your organization or business? We know in order to succeed you have to take risks. It is one of the perks of being an entrepreneur! You get to enjoy the rush of adrenaline and chance to do something different. However, it isn’t always easy to find the courage to take that chance.

We gathered for you some of our favorite TED Talks to help you motivate yourself or even others to not only be OK with failure and rejection — but to welcome it. Once the possibility of failure does not scare you, you will be unstoppable. Check it out.

The unexpected benefit of celebrating failure

“‘Great dreams aren’t just visions,’ says Astro Teller. ‘They’re visions coupled to strategies for making them real.’ The head of X (formerly Google X), Teller takes us inside the ‘moonshot factory,’ as it’s called, where his team seeks to solve the world’s biggest problems through experimental projects like balloon-powered Internet and wind turbines that sail through the air. Find out X’s secret to creating an organization where people feel comfortable working on big, risky projects and exploring audacious ideas.” [Description from TED Talk]

What I learned from 100 days of rejection

“Jia Jiang adventures boldly into a territory so many of us fear: rejection. By seeking out rejection for 100 days — from asking a stranger to borrow $100 to requesting a ‘burger refill’ at a restaurant — Jiang desensitized himself to the pain and shame that rejection often brings and, in the process, discovered that simply asking for what you want can open up possibilities where you expect to find dead ends.” [Description from TED Talk]

The beauty of being a misfit

“To those who feel like they don’t belong: there is beauty in being a misfit. Author Lidia Yuknavitch shares her own wayward journey in an intimate recollection of patchwork stories about loss, shame and the slow process of self-acceptance. ‘Even at the moment of your failure, you are beautiful,’ she says. ‘You don’t know it yet, but you have the ability to reinvent yourself endlessly. That’s your beauty.’” [Description from TED Talk]

You have the capability to do great things and accomplish what you want for your business. Great risks can bring great success.

Be strong, work hard, and remember: You got this.

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