Before almost any blueprint workshop I host, I send out a video to the participants encouraging them to adopt a ‘Growth Mindset’, do some pre-work, and watch Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk ‘Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action’.

Why would I start these forward-looking sessions with a video of presentation made in 2009? Because it is a timeless place to start… at the beginning. If you don’t know why you are taking a workshop, how likely will you be to learn something? If you don’t know why you are selling something, how likely will you be to convince someone to buy? Whether you are establishing corporate or commercial strategy, making as sales pitch or heading to the negotiating table, the journey to ‘What’ and ‘How’ is far less painful if you have first established ‘Why’.

Below are some other timeless Ted Talks that keep me grounded in first principles of personal and professional success.