Richard Saul Wurman created the TED conference in 1984 as a onetime event. (As you may already know, TED refers to Technology, Education, and Design.) It became a four-day conference six years later. Chris Anderson purchased TED in 2001. Until 2005, it remained a once-a-year conference: four days of programs, 50 speakers, 18-minute presentations. Anderson added TEDGlobal to reach an international audience. TED.com was launched in 2006. Thus far, the website has attracted more than one [begin] billion [end] views, about two million day. The video programs have been translated into more than 90 languages. There are no charges to access any of the TED programs. After attending thde 2006 conference, documentary filmmaker Daphne Zuniga described it as “Cirque Du Soleil for the mind.” Oprah Winfrey later observed, “TED is where brilliant people go to hear other brilliant people.”

Over the next several weeks, I will be recommending the TED programs that are of greatest interest and value to me.

Why you should listen to Larry Smith

In this funny and blunt talk, he pulls no punches when he calls out the absurd excuses people invent when they fail to pursue their passions. (Filmed at TEDxUW.)

Larry Smith is a professor of economics at University of Waterloo. A well-known storyteller and advocate for youth leadership, he has also mentored many of his students on start-up business management and career development. The most notable start-up he advised in its infancy is Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the BlackBerry. “What you see in the TED Talk is essentially thirty years of Smith’s frustrations reaching a boiling point,” wrote Carmine Gallo in Forbes. “’Wasted talent is a waste I cannot stand,’ Smith told me.”

Read more about Larry Smith on the TED Blog by clicking here.

To watch one of his TED programs, “Why you will fail to have a great career,” please click here.