TED Talks Daily
How do you take the right risks? A photographer and brand builder answer | David Suh and Molly Graham
31 May 2025
How do you find the courage to take risks — and succeed? Portrait photographer David Suh and brand builder Molly Graham explore the challenges of building confidence, navigating setbacks and learning to embrace the real "you." (This conversation is part of "TED Intersections," a series featuring thought-provoking conversations between experts navigating the ideas shaping our world.)For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: How do David Suh and Molly Graham define taking risks?
Tiesitkö, että joka neljäs yli 40-vuotias mies kokee virtsan karkailua? Se on todella yleistä, mutta siitä ei silti juuri puhuta. Tenamen suojat on suunniteltu erityisesti miehille. Huomaamattomat, varmat ja luotettavat. Ota tilanne haltuun Tenamenin avulla.
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu.
Our original series, TED Intersections, is back for a new season. This series features unscripted conversations between speakers and experts taking on subjects at the intersection of their expertise. In this conversation, David Suh, a portrait photographer and TikTok's king of poses, sits down with startup consultant Molly Graham to answer the question, how do you find the courage to take risks?
They touch on a lot of topics, including confidence, authenticity, success and how to find the real you.
I think I thrive on fear. The bad version of it is like I get bored easily. And the good version is that I love being on learning curves so steep that I'm terrified I'm going to fall off of them. I think I've learned to make it a trigger for like, oh, you got to like try this or you got to do this because you're going to learn something and you're going to learn what you're capable of sort of in spite of the fear.
Voinko saada sinulle kertoa rannasta? Voiko me kertoa rannasta? Ja sitten voit kysyä minulle kysymyksiä. Kyllä, kyllä, kyllä. Okei, eli kovidaan, luulen, että aloitit soittamaan sosiaalisessa mediassa. Ja sanoit, että laitit jotain online ja se tuli ulos. Voitko kertoa sitä kertoa? Kyllä, kyllä, kyllä. Eli kovidaan, en pystynyt ottelemaan enempää asiakkaita.
Yritin pysyä optimistisena. Paljon oppilaita olivat itse asiassa todella syvät. Sanoin, että katsotaan, mitä voin tehdä. Katsotaan, mitä voin tehdä. Katsotaan, mitä voin tehdä. Katsotaan, mitä voin tehdä. Katsotaan, mitä voin tehdä. Katsotaan, mitä voin tehdä.
Haluaisin kertoa transformaatiota, joka tapahtuu minun pienessä Sacramento-studioissani asiakkaiden kanssa. He tulevat sinne todella pysyvällä, käsittävällä ympäröivällä ja transformoivalla näin kauniilta ihmiseltä kamerasta.
Mutta minulla oli vain itse. Joten minä soittaisin kaksi henkilöä itseäni fotografiikassa. Ja myös asiakkaani. Vaikka asiakkaani soittaisi, minä ajattelin, että ehkä minun pitäisi mennä studioon, jossa meillä on rauhassa. Ja minä otin itselleen rauhan. Ja sitten hieman rauhassa. Ja sitten minä soittaisin rauhassa, mutta myös glamourisena samalla tavalla. Ja luulen, että ihmiset todella rakastavat sitä. Sinä sanoit, että se tuli ylös. Kyllä, se tuli ylös yöllä.
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Chapter 2: What challenges do they face in building confidence?
It was my first experience with something taking off. And taking on a life of its own to the point where I didn't understand what... I had people emailing me from big, old companies. Folks from Safeway and places that I had not intended it for. And little, tiny companies. I remember a founder in Nigeria emailed me and said, this was just so helpful to me. I can't tell you how powerful it was. And it really helped normalize the situation I was in. And for me...
It was eye-opening in terms of like sometimes the thing you intend or the thing that you put out in the world. You meant it one way, but it has this much broader audience and this much broader meaning to other people. But it also taught me like.
I think I had spent a long time building companies and thought that that was the main way that I was going to help, which is definitely a word in my career. And then I discovered that there was a way to connect with people that I would never meet and be able to help folks that were on the other side of the world that I was never going to encounter through my day-to-day work, you know.
Oletko saanut paljon enemmän kysymyksiä, jotka joutuivat tekemään asioita, joissa on enemmän kysymyksiä? Kyllä, se tekee sinut järjestykseen. Oletko saanut enemmän kysymyksiä? Minulle tuli paljon kysymyksiä, joista pystyn vastaamaan. Kyllä, sama asia.
now do these things called legos talks um companies will when they are going through hyper growth but honestly just when they're going through a lot of change they'll reach out and ask if i can come in and talk to their team and i always call them group therapy sessions because really what i'm doing is going in and just saying like hey everybody it's gonna be okay you know um everything you're going through is both like emotional and
It doesn't mean anything is wrong. But yeah, it led me to like connecting with all these different companies. And I think, you know, after many years, it's led me to what I do now, which is basically like coach and mentor startup founders and startup leaders. So but yeah, tell me, tell me about the kinds of questions you got after the red dress. I mean, as you talked about getting started.
vastaukset ja kysymyksiä eri puolilla maailmaa, minä olisin saanut hieman tuota myös. Ihmiset nauttivat sisältöä erilaisesti. Jotkut sanoisivat, että kuten sinun, kuten kokeilukseesi, muistaa minua, kuin yliopistostyötä. Se oli iso osa ihmisistä. Siinä he olivat huomattaneet.
Sanoin, että mitä koko transformaatiossa, jossa menen ylöspäin? Mitä mukaan taiteilijoiden kanssa? He sanoivat, että no, kuka se on? Sanoin, että he eivät tarvinneet poistua. Mutta muita ihmisiä sanoivat, että näytit poistua todella hyvin. Sanoin, että David, mitä minun kanssa? Koska en näytä kuin sinä.
Olen iso tai minulla on erilaista kokoa, olen suurempi tai pienempi ja niin edelleen. Aloin vastata niin paljon kuin pystyin. Olin myös oppinut niin paljon vastaamaan niistä, koska huomasin, etten tiedä vastauksia monille niille vastauksille. Minun piti tehdä monenlaista... monenlaista tradiittisen fotografian koulutusta.
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Chapter 3: How do they embrace authenticity in their work?
Tämä on erilaista. Oletko sinulla mitään huomioita siitä, että olet tuossa? Siinä on niin monta yksilöä tuossa työskentelyssä. Opetukset, yritykset, se on niin iso asia nyt. Oletko sinulla mitään huomioita seurauksesta tuosta yksilöstä, jotka ovat myös yksilön yksilöitä? Mutta myös tämä uusi demograafi, jotka katsovat sinua ja haluavat löytää uutta aamua.
Yeah. I would say, number one, I think I thrive on fear. I feel like my whole career, the bad version of it is I get bored easily. And the good version is that I love being on learning curves so steep that I'm terrified I'm going to fall off of them. And when the learning curve starts to slow down is when I get bored. And so I do...
Mielestäni olen oppinut tekemään sitä, että sinun täytyy yrittää jotain tai tehdä jotain, koska olet oppinut jotain ja olet oppinut sitä, mitä olet voimassa.
And I'm like a, I'm a people pleaser, you know, so judgment is hard for me. Like your world of online comments, like I do a little bit of publishing on like LinkedIn and Substack and, you know, I get a negative comment and it'll throw me for a loop. But part of it is because you can't be in a conversation with someone.
You know what I mean? Like online's not great for that. And when it's a real conversation with someone, like I can talk to anyone, right? I can have like a thoughtful, robust conversation with somebody I violently disagree with. But online, it's just people throwing grenades, you know, and running in the other direction, which is not anyone's best, you know, place. But yeah, I think for me, like I...
Where I've found my writing and publishing, I've just had to work really hard to just do it for me. And basically to publish...
When I'm like, this is something that needs to be shared and I just need to put it out there because I've repeated myself five times or I've said the same thing to three founders this week. That's when I put it online because I think, oh, that's going to help someone that I've never met. And so...
There's definitely fear. I mean, I think we both benefited from being risk takers. Were there moments that risk actually went south? For sure. Then you have to answer that. Yeah, I mean, I think went south is such an interesting thing, because what is failure and what is regret? You know, I...
I always say I don't really believe in regret because I wouldn't be where I am without everything I've been through.
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Chapter 4: What lessons have they learned from setbacks?
I think early in your career or work life, you're scared. You don't know who you are. To some extent, you're trying to define yourself by other people's versions of success or other people's versions of who you are. For me, risk-taking was such an important thing.
um tool for figuring out who i was and to some extent getting a confidence that like sort of like i can i know i'm good at stuff yeah and even if i fail like it's never going to take away that sort of like intrinsic knowledge that i'm good at things because i've now been through so many different like weird scenarios you know um this like belief this like
melkein luonnollista uskoa siitä, kuka me olemme, ja tuota tukea sitä henkilöä ja uskoamme. Kyllä, mutta minä myös ajattelen, että riski on osa siitä, miten tunnet itseäsi syvästi. Sinä et käy joku muun muassa. Sinä yrität ymmärtää sitä, mitä olet, ja myös sitä, mitä et ole, ja sen jälkeen.
Olet tavallaan kehittynyt sitä intressiivistä tunnetta siitä, että tämä on se, minä olen. Tämä on se, minä en ole. Ja sinun mainitsemasi näkökulmasta, se tulee paljon selkeämmin, että tämä on se, mitä minulle on tärkeää ja minä haluan mennä missä haluan mennä. Mutta kerro minulle, kerro minulle... Tämä on sinun kysymyksesi.
Sorry, the question that you asked me was about failure. And it was about sort of like trying things and it not working out. I'm curious like what role that has played for you in terms of like, have there been big failures? Have there been things that you look back on and you're like, I wish I hadn't done that? Let me think about this. I didn't know you're going to pull a Uno reverse card. I mean, I don't know if there's like,
I don't know if I really learned something from it, but I posted something like politics tangent.
Ja se oli yllättävää. Se oli yllättävää. Niin kyllä, se antoi minulle ison yllättäminen. Mitä sinulla oli tehty? Se oli vain Kamala Harrisin poistaminen. Pidäksemme hänen poistoaan. Katsokaa, mutta mitä sinulla oli tehty, kun se tuli sinuun? Mitä minulla oli tehty? Sanoitko? Minä vain otin sen takaisin. Sanoit.
I just took it down. It's interesting because you're saying this was authentically joyful for me. And I shared it. And then the world did what the world does these days. And what do you feel like you take away from that? Sorry. What do I take away from that? Oh man. I don't know. It was so like...
Ystäväni, joka on myös kontekstikäyttäjä, sanoi, että David, tämä on sinä. Tämä on itseasiassa sinä. Sinun pitäisi pysyä takaisin. Mutta tämän kohdalla, minä olin loppunut taistelun kohdalla. Sanoin, onko minä huono? Onko minä huono, David? Pitäisikö minä ole käynyt itselleni? Pitäisikö minä ole pysynyt itselleni? Mutta en tiedä. En tiedä.
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Chapter 5: How has their understanding of success evolved over time?
Se, mikä on kaunista, on se, että kaikki käsittelevät toisiamme ja me arvomme toisiamme paljon. Mutta se, mikä on vaikeaa siinä, on se yksityinen ääni. Ja onnistuminen on niin selkeästi perustettu koko yhteiskuntaan.
opetuksen, koulutuksen, saavuttaa hyvää työtä Samsungissa. Se on hyvin selkeä suunnitelma onnistumisessa. Luulen, että olen oltanut syntynyt siitä suurin osa elämästäni. Kun aloitin tuntelemaan hieman enemmän itseäni ja kysyä itseäni, mitä David nauttii ja tuottaa sitä
Finanssit, oikeat ihmiset, oikea yhteisö, oikeat arvioinnit ja validaatiot. Minusta tuntuu hienoa olla enemmän minä, mitä se tarkoittaa. Ja minusta se on minun... luulen, että suhteiden definiivinen on se, että mitä enemmän voin olla minä, jota löytän, sitä enemmän autan muita, sitä enemmän voin olla
Se voi olla jotain positiivista muille ihmisille. Minusta se on todella hyödyllistä. Ja mitä enemmän minä teen sitä, sitä enemmän opetan. Ja se on tällainen kaunis sykli. Aivan. Mutta mitä sinulla on mielestäsi? Mitä sinulla on mielestäsi suhteellisuudesta? Se tuli minulle jo pitkän aikaa. Suhteellisuus on järjestelmä.
um at least in my experiences like i think you often start out with your parents definition of success or someone maybe it's a cultural definition of success but i think for a lot of people it's some external uh force that's older than you telling you what good is you know and it takes time to figure out whether that
is true for you, you know, or if you have a different definition of success. I also think success changes as you get older, like what it means to you and what you value, like what I thought mattered when I was in my 20s and 30s, like is not what I value in my 40s. And for me, it's been this massive transformation. I think for I like when I turned 40, I really like leaned into it and was like, I'm thinking of this as halfway through my life, if I'm lucky.
And so I started to realize that time was just finite in a way that I think it just never feels like when you're in your 20s. You're like, I have infinite time. I'm going to travel to every country and become president. You know what I mean? Like, you're just like, it's all possible. Yeah.
And I think as you get older and as you watch friends die or different things happen in life, you realize that time is like the most valuable thing you have. And that being able to choose how you spend your time, for me, that's been just like a punch in the face of like, okay, like 40 years left, 40 years left, 40 years left, let's say.
Hopefully. And what do I want to do at that time? And it's led me to also realize that like, I think for a long time success was probably defined by some kind of programming or someone else's definition around title or fame or people thinking I was cool in some form or another. And there was a really abrupt moment where I just realized that is not what I care about. And that...
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Chapter 6: What advice do they give about navigating fear and judgment?
That was a conversation between David Suh and Molly Graham for our original series, TED Intersections. Visit TED.com to watch this conversation and others from the series.
If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar, and Tonsika Samarnivon. It was mixed by Christopher Faisy-Bogan. Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Balarezo.
I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.
Tiesitkö, että joka neljäs yli 40-vuotias mies kokee virtsan karkailua? Se on todella yleistä, mutta siitä ei silti juuri puhuta. Tenamen suojat on suunniteltu erityisesti miehille. Huomaamattomat, varmat ja luotettavat. Ota tilanne haltuun Tenamenin avulla.
On the TED Radio Hour. Don't you hate it when leftover cilantro rots in your fridge? I have to tell you, cilantro is like my nemesis. Food waste expert Dana Gunders says that's just a hint of a massive global problem. Food waste has about five times the greenhouse gas footprint of the entire aviation industry. Ideas about wasting less food. That's next time on the TED Radio Hour from NPR. Listen and subscribe to the TED Radio Hour wherever you get your podcasts.
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