I love TED talks and I had the pleasure today of reliving some special talks I watched by Adam Grant several years ago. Adam is an organisational psychologist studying what he calls “originals”: thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world.

The surprising habits of original thinkers

His first talk gives a summary of original thinkers and how and why they achieve their success. It is important because it explains why some of the established dogma about getting to market is not right for everyone and many have done the complete opposite with great sucess.

Are you a giver or a taker?

I am primarily a giver or a matcher when it comes to Adams premise and the second talk helped me see why this has been so good for me. I can often feel that my self less efforts go unnoticed but I was taught to view the bigger picture and true enough I have found that long term people want me on their team because I contribute more than I take so the team benefits overall.

Though I am weak at asking for help and Adam has a nice way of pointing out that asking for help is a way of giving someone else the opportunity to do something they really enjoy which is helping others. I have heard this before and I like the way it creates a circular process where you have to ask for help to allow others to give it. This is a really empowering approach.

Personal profile

Because I liked these presentations I had to dig further viewed his TED speaker bio. I am interested to see the books he has written and I am logging this here for reference later as I would like to read at least one of his books.

Adams work can also be found at his site adamgrant.net

If anyone has read his books or attended at talk then let me know in the comments how you found it.