Utilizing TED

TED.com is a great resource that links users with speeches and presentations conducted around the world. The website has videos on several industry related topics including technology, business, science, and entertainment. The speakers are often incredibly resourceful when it comes to passing on ideas, lessons, and knowledge pertaining to a specific topic.

Adam Sadowsky used his speech to tell the story of how his team had to overcome several obstacles in order to design and build the Rube Goldberg machine used in OK Go’s music video. The band had set forth several requests for requirements of the machine. For example, the machine had to start the music, go along with the mood of the song, synch with beats of the song, and be in filmed in one shot. Other requirements were set forth but it was these specific ones that seemed to make Adam Sadowsky’s task impossible to complete.

During his speech, the speaker describes how his team had to overcome obstacles when things didn’t hit directly on time with music or when the smaller pieces of the machine would get stuck. Although the main focus of this speech was the music video, the lessons his team learned could be related to other real life situations. The first life lesson Adam Sadowsky goes over is “small stuff stinks… but it’s essential.” Often times small tasks like defining target markets and marketing strategies, can seem really tedious and pointless at times but without these tasks, artists have no focus or direction. An artist must know their target market in order to decide the best way to reach potential fans so they are not wasting time and resources.

Yet another lesson taken from the video is, “put reliable stuff last.” Adam Sadowsky describes how they used a real car towards the end because it was almost guaranteed to do the job they wanted it to do. The smaller car they used towards the beginning didn’t always work according to plan so more time was dedicated towards the car in the beginning so that when they got to the end, the machine was less trivial and more likely to work. This lesson can be related to the music industry because it makes more sense to spend an increased amount of time on the smaller things that are uncertain such as building relationships and maintaining connections. Spending time on something reliable or certain is a waste.

The last lesson the speaker offers is that, “life can be messy.” Plans and events might not go as well as forecasted, mistakes can (and will) be made, and although it might not be what you had envisioned, “this too shall pass.” Every perceived failure is a learning opportunity that can be taken and learned from for the next time.