If you do a quick google search for “John Bates TED, Fail,“ I’ll pop right up. What you’ll see isn’t my talk – that never got to see the light of day. Instead, you’ll find my mea culpa, apology, and lessons learned in an article I wrote for Inc.com.
It still makes my face flush and my stomach turn when I think about it. Yet this incredibly painful disaster turned into a wildly valuable set of lessons learned that utterly transformed the course of my life. So, I offer them to you here, freely.
If you’d like to read the Inc.com article, you can find it here: https://www.inc.com/john-bates/how-failing-on-the-ted-stage-changed-my-life.html
And, if you are interested in the TED Commandments mentioned above, here’s a link to a short video series I created to break them down:
I Crashed and Burned Onstage During a TED Talk. What I Learned Proved More Valuable Than Success.
