It's Not Where You Come From, It's Where You're Going...
Clayton Planter |
TEDxBristol
• November 2017
What if young people who’ve got caught up in illegal activities could also achieve greatness? What if we could show them the knowledge and confidence to apply what they’ve learned from the street, to learning the ‘legal hustle’ instead?
Clayton Planter founded Street2Boardroom (www.street2boardroom.com), to help people use their sometimes illegal 'street skills' to get off the street and excel in the corporate world and wider society instead.
Clayton started Street2Boardroom because some of his friends in the community were always getting on the wrong side of the law. “However I've seen genius in these people. My experience of working in the council and working in the corporate world, showed me that my friends were taking more risks on the streets that I was in the corporate world, but that it was the same skills, and often the same motivations (profit, making money) just different vocabulary and methods!”
Clayton's charming and raw TEDx talk challenges the unhelpful and damaging assumptions often made about men from the 'street' - to show that their talents, aspirations and capabilities can match or better any ‘legit’ person - if just channeled in the right way. He calls for community leaders and company directors to sit up and see the talent that is out there - beyond the traditional boardroom walls.
His message is already getting results. Bristol law firms have committed to learning from street crews and work with them to writing innovative business plans. He says. "We're working against the odds and we've achieved something great, creating our own lane. We lived the change that we wanted to see, rather than talking about it. It's not a course, it's a lifestyle. It's changing how people see themselves and how they see each other and creating opportunities that go beyond what people thought were possible.”
It's not where you come from, it's where you're going that's important.
This talk is from TEDxBristol 2017: Dare To Disrupt. In a world of constant change and uncertainty, these are the ‘positive disruptors’ ripping up the rule book to challenge received wisdom, demand better, and transform seemingly insurmountable problems into break-through possibilities and new beginnings.
From making a big splash on single-use plastics, to a global campaign to end unwanted hair-touching, or a revolutionary approach to combining robotics with human creativity, we hope you’ll enjoy and feel inspired by these talks.
Watch all our talks here https://tedxbristol.com/talks
Our talks were produced, filmed and edited by a brilliant team of talented volunteers and pro-bono partners:
Produced by:
Mel Rodrigues, Curator TEDxBristol
Daniel Edmund, Assistant Curator, TEDxBristol
Samuel Williams, Hodos Consultancy
Barney Grenfell, Hodos Consultancy
Filmed and edited by Floating Harbour Films:
Richard da Costa
Ben Scrase
Tom Young
Dan O’Connell
Gareth Croft
With camerawork and production support from:
Steve Webb
Giles Edwards
Bath Spa University
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx