TEDxYouth@Singapore

Attended a great event (http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/5544) today, so much so that it has implored me to start a new blog and post about it.

Today was the first time i attended a TED event , after having seen much of the TED videos online (one of which i liked best was Daphne Koller's speech on Coursera and online education)(http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education.html). It was an enriching, inspiring and thought provoking TED experience for me. All the speakers are truly extraordinary people in their own right, and it was great of them to share their life experiences with us through an event like this.

The event started off with Jon Lee, a young boy who has aspirations of becoming a F1 driver, which is also mine when i was younger (and certainly for many other boys too). However, the difference is that he has made a concrete plan towards achieving his dream, starting with Go-karting, then aiming to proceed to  GP3, GP2 and ultimately F1, and also working towards obtaining sponsors. An assured and confident speaker despite his tender age of 13.

One of the speeches that resonated with me quite a bit was by Kuik Shiao-Yin, founding partner of The Thought Collective. I remember reading the magazine Present Perfect when i was in upper secondary. It was such a unique magazine, with striking info-graphics and relevant content specially catered to help prepare students for the O level English components (eg. comprehension skills, summary skills). It was only today that i realised that Present Perfect is created her company! A person's action or initiative can truly have an impact on others, such is the interconnected-ness of our world today. Her gung-ho attitude is pretty remarkable and she is certainly not afraid to make difficult decisions in her life, something a decision-paralysis-stricken guy like me really admire.

Another speaker was Daniel Wong (author of The Happy Student), whose book i remember seeing at Popular sometime back. One thing that stuck with me was that he said we should surround ourselves with the right people and make your dream people centered. He also introduced the 18-40-60 rule; 18 year olds think of how other people think of them, 40 year olds don't care how others think of them, 60 year olds don't have anyone who think of them. I thought i might have been too self-conscious all the while, maybe it is a common problem prevalent among teenagers.

The valuable and enlightening lessons garnered from TEDxYouth can be life changing. I applaud the creation of a platform as remarkable as TED and I await eagerly for the next TEDx Singapore event.