Recently I spoke at TEDx Manchester about the (many) mistakes I’ve made…

It would have been a very long talk if it had been a comprehensive look at my errors, but thankfully I managed to keep in my allocated time and present a look back at my Urban Splash story (which you can see here).

The subject matter made me think that its actually quite easy to go through life without ever making a mistake by never making a decision… But if you did, life wouldn’t be very interesting.

Fortunately for me, I’ve been lucky enough to make lots of decisions; be it investing my first student grant in records which I’d then resell (unsuccessfully), to doing the same with posters, to opening a bar, a night club and a radio station through to what I do now - developing old buildings. I’ve been lucky enough to have worked on some fantastic developments in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Plymouth, Leeds, Bradford and Morecambe.

I’ve had my fair share of luck and hopefully the projects we’ve built to date bear testament to our getting out there and making a difference.

I’ve made many mistakes in all of this but what I’ve learnt is if you have a passion or project that you believe in don’t worry too much about waiting until you can do everything perfectly otherwise you’ll do nothing, don’t be afraid of making the odd mistake and in the words of ‘Nike’ “Just do it…”

I hope you enjoy watching this TEDx talk…

2 comments to “My afternoon at TEDx Manchester”

1. Maurice Conroy says:

   April 16, 2012 at 1:44 pm

   Dear Mr Bloxham,

   Great! Mistakes are definitely what make us.
   There is too much emphasis on so-called
   success these days whereas more exploration
   of how failing can propel us down different
   avenues should be encouraged.

   Best wishes, kind regards,

   Maurice
2. RalfLippold says:

   April 21, 2012 at 8:54 am

   Excellent TEDx speech Tom. Most encouraging to bring http://dresdenlabs.de in Dresden to life as an innovation accelerator & citizen hub into being. The presentation of your colleague back in spring 2009 here in Dresden at Deutsches Hygienemuseum was not just thrilling, it sparked a fire inside me

   Cheers from Dresden, Germany
   Ralf