I suppose that each one of us has had, at one point or another, the seeds of what potentially could have been a life-changing idea. I also suppose that what differentiates the ones that fly from the ones that forever remain on the drawing board is how long we hold on to these ideas, how far we run with them, for it is just as easy to dismiss all these table napkin sketches we come up with.
I believe that it’s in the spirit of nurturing these seeds that avenues like TED Talks or Why Not Forum were born from. TED, which stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design” started out as a conference bringing together people of different backgrounds to share diverse ideas ranging from A-Z. Their website, TED.com allows users to free access to this knowledge. The organization even offers a $100,000 grant for selected projects with the potential of being “One Wish to Change the World”.
Why Not Forum (http://www.whynotforum.com/) , on the other hand is a TED-inspired Filipino version, with just as much desire to nurture our own ingenuity.
I don’t think we all will have the chance to participate in TED or Why Not as speakers or contributors. But the very act of attending a talk or plugging in the website, the act of listening in itself can do wonders for our own creative engines. Immersing one’s self in such an environment can increase one’s confidence & belief that his own seemingly trivial idea can be grown and is worth sharing. One may not necessarily have to buy into everything he hears, but one’s horizon still expands through the tension of evaluating an opposing thesis statement.
Think big. Think different. Why not, right?
