Riassunti dei Ted Talks per l'esame di Lettorato Inglese

Jane's Journey to Success

Jane had two dreams: being a doctor and have a husband to build a family. She focused on the second one, but shortly afterwards she was left alone with two children, no income and no skills. Her life changed when she heard about JamiiBora, an organization that lends money as long as you match a commensurate amount in savings. She took the opportunity, saved 50 dollars and bought a sewing machine, transforming second-hand ball gowns into beautiful dresses that she repurposes for Sweet 16s or first Holy Communions with frills and ribbons. And she does really good business, she no longer live like a poor or in slums, because she starts earning more than 4 dollars per day.

She uses the 4 hundred dollars to buy a low-cost house with a mortgage (built from some non-profit organization like Acumen and Jamii Bora) and every month she pays the mortgage in the same amount as she used to pay the rent for the shacks.

In the end, she understands that what she really wanted was a loving family and

notnecessarily a husband; she wanted to help others, not necessarily being a doctor.

Jane's story shows us how, especially in the most disastrous realities, innovation can improve a dignified life for those who can't have it, giving them the opportunity to choose. We have to create possibilities for everyone, regardless of the spectrum. They deserve it, and we owe it to ourselves.

UNIT 4

Joachim de Posada is a writer and motivational coach from Puerto Rico, in fact we can notice his foreign pronunciacion in his talk, which takes place in front of TedTalks' audience. He dwells on an episode in common with one of his books' theme: Don't eat the marshmallow...Yet.

He talks about an experiment by a psychology professor in Stanford, who puts four-years-old kids in a room, gives them a marshmallow and makes them wait 15 minutes to receive a second one. A very hard test for a child. As soon as the professor leaves theroom, the majority of children eat the marshmallow. Some of them wait for a long time, but then anyone could wait. Many years later, they verified that those who didn't eat the marshmallow, had a successful life: good grades, good relationships, they were happy; while those who did it, the opposite. Joachim repeats the experiment in Colombia; the results are pretty the same, except for a little girl: she ate the inside of the marshmallow to cheat psychologists and get another marshmallow. But psychologists know she will be successful in the future anyway and that she should not go into banking or work at a cash register. What we can learn from this experiment is that delay gratification, in other words self-control, is the key of success. At the end also the Koreans did this and made a marshmallow book for children that now is all over Korea. This principle has to be taught to every.

kid, in theStates they have a big debt, therefore nowadays we eat more marshmallows than we produce, instead of earning them. So they must learn by the story and learn to be more self-control.

UNIT 5

Tim Leberecht is Chief Marketing Officer (marketer) of firm frog, which has developed and marketed products and services for important companies. His career makes him know how can be built a stronger brand with a more loyal following just giving control to customers or employees.

Nowadays, reputations are volatile and loyalty are fickle; also, management teams are often disconnected from their staff. They believe that their employees are inspired by the firm, but in fact they are not. There are many ways to build a loyal and strong staff: companies can give more or less control, leaving that door half open half closed. The speaker gives us many examples that strengthen the theory; a part focus on giving more control, the other on giving less.

Companies can collaborate with their employees and

create a sense of delight and surprise. Here is the formatted text using HTML tags:

create new projects, together, making them happier and more productive:

• Radiohead sold more copies than previous releases just letting customers decide their album's price.
• The Danish chocolate company Anthon Berg opened a "generous-store" in Copenhagen, that purchases chocolate in exchange with generosity towards others.
• Outdoor clothier Patagonia is a company that fights consumerism, asking their customers not to buy, but to reuse; during the season they told customers not to buy a jacket; in fact, they resole used products. In this way, they prefer loyalty to sales.
• The Brazilian Company Semco Group lets employees set their own work schedules and even their salaries.

As we said, companies can give less control:

• The travel service Nexpedition doesn't tell the traveler where she's going until the very last minute, turning the trip into a surprising game.
• Similarly, Dutch airline KLM hands out small gifts to travelers, en route to create a sense of delight and surprise.

Their destination.

• Frog company itself, where the speaker works, organizes speed-meet sessions that connect old and new employees, to favour interactions and together increase the sense of overall productivity.

Companies should create hyperconnectivity with their staff, and put behaviours in broad daylight, staying true to their true selves and open to all possibilities.