Our TEDx team is full of interesting and intelligent students dedicated to ideas worth spreading. This year we have added an aspect to our weekly meetings where a member gives an informal TED talk of their own. These talks are a great stepping stone to sharing ideas and introducing our team members through our blog!
Our first TEDxOhioStateUniversity member feature is Greg Nagy. Greg is a member of the Marketing Committee. He became involved with TEDx after attending The Human Narrative event last February. After feeling an intense clarity about important issues in life as a result of the event, he sought out an environment where he could collaborate with others who also enjoyed conversations beyond the mundane that we often have with people around us. We asked Greg a few questions after giving his talk.
How did you chose the topic of your interTEDx talk?
I (like most college students) have thought a lot about what I want my career to be and what kind of impact I would like to have with my career. After I arrived at Ohio State, I started to feel that my Pre-Medicine track was boxing me into a life that was written for me, and I wanted to take back control over my life’s path. I felt that the only way to truly have the control over my career was to be an entrepreneur. I knew that I could apply my healthcare interests to entrepreneurship, so I could have this nice mix of passions to combine into one career. I think this topic is important because it is so common for us to fall into the trap of ‘I need to get good grades, then I need to have a good career, then I need to retire, etc.’ that we don’t actually analyze whether or not that is a good path for us, and if we could do better for ourselves and those around us by choosing a different path.
How did you present your ideas as a talk?
In my summer job, I noticed that some employees would frequently take breaks and mentally go into sleep mode, while other employees would constantly go the extra mile and do everything that needed to be done, even the small tasks. The thing was, both groups of employees were getting paid the same amount. This led me to conclude that in most jobs, we do not trade our work for money, but we actually trade our time for money. If we traded our work for money, then the employees that did different amounts of work would be paid different amounts, but we know that this is not the case. Trading time for money encourages people to work at a minimum engagement and productivity level. The resulting thought process is: “As long as I am putting my time in and I don’t get fired, it doesn’t matter how hard I work, so I’m going to work as little as I have to”. The way to get people to work above the minimum is to entice employees with a bonus system. This could be associated with product sales, efficiency and productivity in the workplace, or lack of work-related mistakes. This system allows both the business and the employee to make more money, which in turn allows both the business and the employee to exert more influence on their environment, whether that be buying nicer material things for themselves, feeding their family, or giving back to the community. Only when we have this financial influence to positively affect the community will we have groundbreaking impact. The best way to achieve this groundbreaking impact and betterment is to become an entrepreneur and be completely in charge of how much money you can make, and therefore how much influence you can have.
What inspires you?
I am inspired by people who understand why they believe what they believe. I am inspired by talking with people about the way our society is run and analyzing whether it is run that way because it is the best way to run it, or simply because that is how it has always been done. I am inspired by listening to music and hearing people’s unique expression of their feelings and history (among my favorite musical acts are Rage Against the Machine, J. Cole, and Diplo). I am inspired by collaborating as a planet to benefit the human race and nature, rather than benefiting one specific group, country, etc. I am inspired by stories of people positively affecting the world through something that they truly love, rather than what they thought society wanted them to do. I am inspired by young entrepreneurs who are fed up with the status quo and want to take the future of the industry into their own hands.