Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure — and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure?

In this TEDtalk, he makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work.

He’s also the inventor of the CamCar (a racing simulator with camera equiped radio controlled cars and drivers with head mounted displays).

In this video (in two parts) Jonathan Mildenhall, Vice-President, Global Advertising Strategy and Creative Excellence at The Coca-Cola Company is the person responsible for leading global creative vision and strategy for the Company’s portfolio of global brands.

Jonathan Mildenhall explains how Coke will leverage the opportunities in the new media landscape and transform one-way storytelling into dynamic storytelling hoping to add value and significance to peoples lives. Jonathan describes the challenge of content creation in an enlightening way, reminding us that “every contact point with a customer should tell an emotional story”.

Source: TheCognitiveMedia

I was drawn into disbelief from what I heard. Not in a negative way, but I was just amazed by the optimism and faith the man sitting before me expressed. I realized that faith is a tricky word to use. But it certainly was faith that I had witnessed. Not the religious kind, but the sheer belief in one-self, the sincere conviction that life was fair if one fought for it.

The man spoke again; I was looking at him, smiling and deeply touched by the sincerity and honesty that came through his words…

“I once watched a program on TV. There was a man who had no legs and no arms. He fell flat on his face, on purpose. He wanted to show that it was next to impossible for him to stand back up. Slowly after a few minutes he managed to get back on his own feet. When I watched it, I was a broke, my business went busted…I was a failure. But that very moment changed my life. So I asked myself, if a man who had no legs and no hands could stand back up on his feet, why couldn’t I?”

He put his arms forward, held his legs while telling the story, displaying how much that brief program transformed him…

That moment was a tipping point for him. He was enlightened and then his despair was history. This man claimed back his confidence from that moment. He borrowed money to restart a business, brick by brick he rebuilt everything from scratch, and now his small business has been steadily expanding.

The emerging middle-class in Indonesia believed in the wonders of small things in life. Progress came from every step made. Giant leaps did not exist, if they ever did, they were not for them. They were “small people”, and hence small steps to progression were sufficient.

“I almost could feel the pain if I went back to that period of my life… My husband was just a driver and money was never enough. I felt sad for many years, did not know what to do. I wanted to help as I wife, but I never knew how. One day I visited my sister for help. That was the turning point for me. I was not supposed to only come for help but help that could make me independent one day. So I borrowed money from her to take a course as a beautician. When I passed, I worked for her. After a few years, I co-owned a beauty parlour with her, until now. In the next few years, my ambition was to own my own…”

Another despair turned hope, and further grew into a big dream. This lady impressed me with her strength. She did not let misery take over her life, but went above it. She somehow saw a path that could bring her to a bright end. She took responsibility for her life and changed it.

I thought to myself: if they could change hunger to hunger for success, what could we not do? We, who were blessed with intelligence and privileges, surely we could change the world, or at least our worlds. Let’s dream big, that’s the least we could do.

The movie contains 94 minutes and 57 seconds of scenes selected from 4,500 hours of footage in 80,000 submissions from 140 nations. ‘Life in a Day’ is directed by the Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald. The movie is made possible by LG. But they don’t brag about it.