Starting your own business will solve everything that’s wrong about your job, your life and more importantly, about how you feel. Becoming an entrepreneur will give you more flexibility, more freedom, more joy, more recognition, more meaning and hopefully on the long run, more money. Right?

The reality of being an entrepreneur is much harder than most people are willing to open up about. In a culture where successful entrepreneurs are idealised like rock stars it’s easy to feel like we’re not good enough when comparing ourselves to the picture that’s painted by social media.

Mark Leruste exposes the truth behind the life of the every-day entrepreneur and why it’s important that we talk openly and truthfully about the pressures and struggles associated with starting a business and what it actually feels like.

Finding your path isn’t always a straight line. It usually takes hits and misses and trying many things out. This is how it was for Mark, whose journey towards his dream career started when his video CV, ‘A dream job would be nice’, went viral on YouTube and helped him land a position as Country Manager at the Movember Foundation. There, Mark raised €2.8 million for men’s health and inspired 110,000 fundraisers to sign up at Movember.com, winning multiple awards along the way.

Four years into the job, it became clear that Mark couldn’t ignore his entrepreneurial itch anymore, which had been around since he was 12 years old. So, against conventional wisdom, he decided to turn his passion into his full-time job and took the plunge to found The Unconventionalists, a weekly podcast, talk show and coaching & training business helping organisations and individuals find their voice.

From making Nelson Mandela’s right hand man cry to asking Tim Ferris about his fear of failure, Mark is an expert at using his warm manner to tease out the truth & create moments of honesty.

To date, Mark has worked with hundreds of unfulfilled professionals and frustrated small business owners and has interviewed more than 200 world-class leaders, entrepreneurs, athletes, politicians, CEOs, authors and adventurers from around the world, providing him a ring side seat in understanding how ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things.

Visit www.markleruste.com or connect on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

When we help youth to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, we empower them to be successful in our rapidly changing world. Whether they own a business or work for someone else, young adults need the skills and confidence to identify opportunities, solve problems and sell their ideas. This skillset can be encouraged and developed in elementary schools, with the immediate benefit of increased success in school.

In this talk, Bill Roche shares stories of students that have created their own real business ventures with PowerPlay Young Entrepreneurs. He illustrates the power of enabling students to take charge of their learning with freedom to make mistakes, and challenging them to actively develop entrepreneurial skills. Bill also showcases the achievements of specific students and shares how a transformative experience for one student has been a source of inspiration for him over the years. Bill Roche specializes in designing curriculum-based resource packages related to entrepreneurship, financial literacy and social responsibility. Bill worked directly in Langley classrooms for over ten years and now supports teachers throughout the country in creating real-world learning experiences for their students. Over 40,000 students have participated in his PowerPlay Young Entrepreneurs program. The program’s impact has been captured in a documentary scheduled for release early in 2018. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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