TED is a circuit of highly popular conferences that present "Ideas Worth Spreading" - which have quickly grown to become some of the most well known conferences around the world. TED has attracted presenters such as politicians, celebrities, scientists, advertisers, film makers, inventors amidst a large handful of Nobel Prize Winners.   Many of the presentations, known as TED Talks, present ideas that are particularly valuable to entrepreneurs. Here’s a collection of 12 TED Talks that all entrepreneurs should find interesting and worthwhile.

2. TED is a circuit of highly popular conferences that present "Ideas Worth Spreading" - which
have quickly grown to become some of the most well known conferences around the world.
TED has attracted presenters such as politicians, celebrities, scientists, advertisers, film
makers, inventors amidst a large handful of Nobel Prize Winners.
Many of the presentations, known as TED Talks, present ideas that are particularly valuable
to entrepreneurs. Here’s a collection of 12 TED Talks that all entrepreneurs should find
interesting and worthwhile.

3. 1 Rory Sutherland: Sweat the Small Stuff
It may seem that big problems require big solutions, but ad man Rory Sutherland says many
flashy, expensive fixes are just obscuring better, simpler answers. An entertaining argument to
put more focus on small details instead of big expensive problems.To illustrate, he uses
behavioral economics and hilarious examples.
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_sweat_the_small_stuff.html

4. 2 Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action
“People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Simon Sinek is an
author, motivational speaker, and strategic communications professor at Columbia University.
Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership and brand communication
that starts with his famous “golden circle of motivation” and the question "Why?"
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

5. 3 Dan Ariely: Are we in Control of our own Decisions?
The decisions we make are not only inevitable, but they're also extremely predictable. Dan
Ariely is a behavioural economist, professor, and author. He uses his own surprising research
findings to show how we're not as rational as we think when we make decisions.
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html

6. 4 Seth Godin: How to get your Ideas to Spread
“Be remarkable”. “Safe is risky”. “Being very good is one of the worst things you can do”.
Everyone has heard the expression "The best thing since sliced bread" but did you know that
for 15 years after sliced bread was invented it wasn't popular? The success of sliced bread,
like the success of anything, was less about the product and more about whether or not you
could get your idea to spread or not. Marketing guru and author Seth Godin spells out why,
when it comes to getting our attention, different ideas are more successful than boring ones.
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread.html

7. 5 Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce
The food industry used to determine what people want to eat by asking them - as you may
have seen in the focus groups portrayed on Mad Men. Fact is, people don't know what they
want. Ask people what kind of coffee they like and they'll say a "dark, rich, hearty roast" - in
fact, most people actually want milky weak coffee. Malcolm Galdwell, author, journalist, thinker,
gets inside the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce, and makes a larger
argument about the nature of choice and happiness.
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html

8. 6 Tim Harford: Trial, Error, and the God Complex
In this TED talk, economics writer Tim Harford studies complex systems and finds a surprising
link among the successful ones: they were built through trial and error. He asks entrepreneurs
to embrace our innate randomness and start making better mistakes.
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html

9. 7 Steven Johnson: Where Good Ideas Come From
Entrepreneurs often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. Steven Johnson talks
about why he doesn't think it's that simple and shows us how history tells a different story. In
this brilliantly insightful TED talk from coffee shops to evolution to space, he shares stories of
success, where the ideas were inspired by collaboration, cohesion and collision with other
people and their ideas.
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from.html

10. 8 Cameron Herold: Let's Raise Kids to be Entrepreneurs
Cameron Herold thinks weekly allowances teach kids the wrong habits - by nature, they teach
kids to expect a regular paycheque, something which entrepreneurs usually don't get. His two
kids don't get an allowance. He's taught them to walk around the yard looking for stuff that
needs to get done, then they negotiate a price. In his TED Talk above, Herold makes the case
for a new type of parenting and education that helps would-be entrepreneurs flourish.
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_herold_let_s_raise_kids_to_be_entrepreneurs.html

11. 9 Dan Cobley: What Physics Taught Me About Marketing
Physics and marketing don't seem to have much in common, but Dan Cobley (one of Google's
marketing directors) is passionate about both. Using Newton’s second law of motion,
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, the scientific method, and the second law of
thermodynamics , Cobley explains the fundamental theories of branding.
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_cobley_what_physics_taught_me_about_marketing.html

12. 10 Jason Fried: Why Work Doesn't Happen at Work
According to Jason Fried, for an entrepreneur, the office isn't a good place to work, meetings
are toxic, and ASAP is poison. In this TED Talk, he lays out the problems with "work" and
offers three suggestions to fix a broken office.
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work.html

13. 11 Daniel Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation
Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Daniel Pink shares a different point
of view that sometimes using money as motivation does more harm than good - and people
perform far worse when motivated with cash.
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

14. 12 Richard St. John: 8 Secrets of Success
Why do people succeed? Is it because they are smart? Or are they just lucky? The answer is
neither. Success Analyst, speaker, and author Richard St. John asked over 500 extraordinarily
successful people what helped them succeed. He analyzed their answers and discovered eight
traits successful people have in common.
Link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html