Four helpful TED Talks for business owners – Foster Financial

In 1984 the famous TED conferences began, centered around the topics that created its acronym: Technology, Entertainment, and Design. Over thirty years later, these talks are held worldwide and cover nearly every imaginable topic. One of the most popular topics is financial management, and there are some quality talks that can be useful to small business owners.

1. Mellody Hobson, TEDxMidwest 2014. This is a talk on the most American of premises: pulling oneself up by force of will. Hobson discusses how her desire to get more out of her life than most who began where she did fueled her rise from an unstable family life to the highest levels of the economic world (a rise which continued after this talk; just this year she became the first African-American woman to lead the Economic Club of Chicago).

2. Alexa von Tobel, TEDxWallStreet 2012. von Tobel begins this talk by noting that most people make six to ten financial decisions every day, some of which we don’t realize are financial decisions. She then uses an example individual to reflect on the decisions we need to see that we’re making in order to maximize the strength of our finances.

3. Jihan Bowes-Little, TEDxASL 2013. Common wisdom holds that if you want to be better at what you do, you need experience. That’s true, but most people ignore that experience at one thing can often inform what you do with another. Bowes-Little made a move more dramatic than most people can comprehend, leaving the trading life to become a spoken word poet, and his talk highlights aspects of life as a trader that have helped both his financial and personal/artistic lives.

4. Daniel Goldstein, 2011. Everyone has to balance current wants with future ones. Although this is a concept usually centered on personal lives, there is a strong financial undercurrent to most decisions of this type, and business decisions are no less built around considerations of what’s needed now versus what’s needed later. Goldstein’s talk offers new ways to think about the importance of prioritizing current needs in order to best ensure security for us and our businesses later.

Like these speakers, Foster Financial is dedicated to offering top-notch assistance and advice. If you’re a small business owner who could use mentorship on financial matters, or simply peace of mind that a strong accounting firm has your best interests at heart, contact us to find out more.