TED Talks: ‘8 Secrets of Success’

TED Talks: ‘8 Secrets of Success’

November 16, 2016 / TED /

Richard St. John, marketer and success analyst, has dedicated several years to researching the nuts and bolts of achievement. It all started with one big question: What leads to success? It came from a neighboring passenger during a flight to a TED conference, and at the time he didn’t have a good answer.
Related: 12 Simple Habits That Set Ultra-Successful People Apart
Prompted by the question, he decided to conduct 500 interviews on the subject, pulling wisdom from successful TEDsters along the way. After absorbing as much as he could, St. John compiled eight powerful secrets of successful people. In this TED Talk, he shares those important success habits.
1. Passion
“Freeman Thomas says, ‘I"m driven by my passion.’ TEDsters do it for love; they don"t do it for money.”
2. Work
“Rupert Murdoch said to me, ‘It"s all hard work. Nothing comes easily. But I have a lot of fun.’ Did he say fun? Rupert? Yes!”
3. Get Good
“Alex Garden says, ‘To be successful, put your nose down in something and get damn good at it.’ There"s no magic; it"s practice, practice, practice.”
4. Push
David Gallo says, ‘Push yourself. Physically, mentally, you"ve got to push, push, push.’ You"ve got to push through shyness and self-doubt.”
5. Support (aka moms)
“Frank Gehry said to me, ‘My mother pushed me.’ ”
6. Serve
“A lot of kids want to be millionaires. The first thing I say is: ‘OK, well you can"t serve yourself; you"ve got to serve others something of value. Because that"s the way people really get rich.’ “
7. Ideas
St. John says there’s no magical secret to coming up with ideas, only a process of thinking. A few simple exercises will do the trick, such as:
Listening
Observing
Being curious
Asking questions
Solving problems
Making connections
8. Persistence
“Persist! Joe Kraus says, ‘Persistence is the number one reason for our success.’ You"ve got to persist through failure.”
Related: 5 Characteristics of Highly Successful People

5 Deliberate Steps to Master a Skill

5 Deliberate Steps to Master a Skill

By Mel Robbins |

I grew up cheering for the Detroit Pistons, but even I can admit Kobe Bryant was one of the greatest NBA players of all time. The fascinating part? He wasn’t born gifted. He’s an exceptionally hard worker. One trainer recounted how Bryant would exercise from 4:15 to 7 a.m. and then play basketball until the team’s practice at 11 a.m. Yes, Bryant trained for seven hours before practice even began.
Once he had five NBA championships under his belt, Bryant would still engage in grueling four-hour workouts on game days.
It’s easy to look at the masters in any field—be it Bryant, Mozart or Oprah—and credit their skills to genetics, innate abilities and hours of practice. But research on the science of peak performance has shown that it’s not just talent and hours of practice that lead to expertise. Instead it’s the type of practice one does. We can all reach mastery-level greatness through hard work, discipline and something called deliberate practice , or the process of understanding your weaknesses and then making considerable efforts to learn the skills you lack.
Related: Are You Willing to Do Whatever It Takes?
To improve at anything, you must push yourself beyond your comfort zone. When you put sustained effort toward improving your weaknesses, you will grow. This is the logic behind deliberate practice, a research-backed tool introduced by researcher Anders Ericsson.
For the past 30 years, Ericsson has studied the masters. His research has shown that how you practice matters much more than how much you practice. Experts become great by focusing on improving their weaknesses. Many people focus only on practicing things they can do effortlessly, but this never leads to improvement. Working hard just to work hard will exhaust you. Working hard for the purpose of improving is the secret to success.
Related: ‘8 Secrets of Success’
Another important factor of deliberate practice is constant feedback. You must monitor your progress so you can make adjustments. Without feedback, you won’t know how to improve. Reach out to others in your field and ask for criticism and advice.
Measuring your progress is also a key component of deliberate practice. Bryant measured his progress in many ways, such as counting the number of baskets he made daily. Every single day, he forced himself to make 400 shots. He never allowed himself to stop improving, even as his fame increased. You can measure anything: the number of cold calls you make, the pace you run or the amount of times you pitch your business.
Just like Bryant, you can incorporate deliberate practice into your own life with these steps.
1. Identify your goals and write them down. Research shows writing down your goals will help you complete 33 percent more of them.
2. Identify your weakest link and what is keeping you from achieving your goals.
3. Purposely and deliberately work on improving this skill.
4. Seek feedback from others.
5. Push yourself to show up and do it again and again.
Bryant wasn’t born a great NBA player. But by using deliberate practice, he became a master. And you know what? You can, too.
Related: How to Push Yourself to Greatness
This article originally appeared in the January 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine .
Mel Robbins
Mel Robbins is a contributing editor to
SUCCESS magazine, best-selling author, CNN commentator, creator of the “5 Second Rule” and the busiest female motivational speaker in the world. To find out more, visit her website: MelRobbins.com . To follow her on Twitter: Twitter.com/melrobbins

WHEN PROBLEMS PERSIST

WHEN PROBLEMS PERSIST

Some problems are short term, such as a bout of flu or a temporary falling out with someone at work. Others may last much longer: a chronic illness, a disability or an addiction, the loss of someone dear, or an ongoing battle to overcome a personal weakness such as anger or moodiness. You may have to struggle with such difficulties for weeks, months, or even years.

Sometimes problems persist even when you feel you’ve already done all you could: You’ve been praying, reading and following God’s Word, claiming His promises, and trying to trust Him. Still you see no answer, which can be discouraging.

In cases like that, God may be testing you to see whether you will continue to trust and believe and thank Him for all the other good things He sends your way, even when it seems He is not answering your prayers about a certain thing. “We walk by faith, not by sight. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” God loves to see His children’s faith manifested, and He promises to greatly reward those who bravely endure the trying of their faith.

If God is working in your life to bring out a special quality, the process may take some time. Lumps of coal aren’t turned to diamonds overnight; so it is with our lives.
When you think you’ve reached the end of your rope, just hold on a little longer. Patience is often the key that opens the door to God’s blessings, and sometimes we must be content to wait for His answer. While we may expect God to put an end to our problems right now, He may know that later is a better time. God’s timing is impeccable. “He has done all things well.” Trust Him!

Faith is believing. Faith is trusting. Faith doesn’t quit. Faith refuses to call anything impossible. Faith refuses to be robbed of its joy and peace by circumstances or battles.
If we refuse to concede defeat, but rather hold on to God no matter what, if we determine to believe His promises, even though we may not see the fulfillment immediately, victory will be ours in the end. Such faith cannot be defeated. God will always come through for us.

What is defeat? Nothing but education, nothing but the first step to something better.—Wendell Phillips

—

2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV) For we live by faith, not by sight.

John 20:29 (NIV) Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Mark 7:37 (NIV) People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Onyedikachi Kingsley Ogbonna (Surv.)

ON THE REBOUND

ON THE REBOUND

(A FRIEND STORY)

It had been a satisfying day.
The world was a wonderful place, I thought, as I made my way to the office where my computer sat. Its keyboard beckoned my fingers to make contact.
As soon as the screen lit up, I knew something was terribly wrong. My hard drive had crashed.
It took a moment for the scope of the disaster to register in my slow-computing brain, but then it hit me. No, it slammed into me with the force of a bulldozer on a razing mission. My stomach did a back flip.

 

 My vision went hazy. My mind became clouded. The room spun.
The last six months of hard work—articles, graphic design, all that precious mental energy that had been stored on the computer’s hard drive for safekeeping—was gone.
Forever.

My worst fear, like a meteor falling from the sky, came crashing down on me. Frustration, confusion, tragedy, and loss engulfed me.
Why, oh why, hadn’t I copied all that stuff onto a backup device? Now bits and pieces of creativity were lost, floating somewhere in cyberspace, far, far from home. And I couldn’t get them back.
But then I remembered the story of when Thomas Edison met a similar tragedy. His workshop caught fire, and months, years, even decades of hard work on numerous unfinished inventions went up in smoke.

“There go all my mistakes!” he said with amazing cheerfulness. And then he went right back to work.
I wondered if there was enough positive energy left in me to start again as bravely as Edison had. Contemplating these things somehow eased the pain and melted away that woozy feeling of defeat. I struggled to stand up from where I had fallen to my knees in frustration, and I forced the corners of my mouth into a smile.
Oh, some things in life seem totally unfair! But I refused to let defeat overcome me in that moment or have any bearing on my future efforts. I decided to see this situation not as the tragic end to all the projects that were lost, but rather as a new beginning for each of them in a future that was yet to unfold.

This is the first I’ve written since Demolition Day. “There go all my mistakes,” I’m saying. And I’m not going to quit. I’m on the rebound, back at my computer and ready to start again. With backup files.

—

Luke 16:13 ESV / No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Mark 16:18 ESV / They will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Matthew 23:1-4 ESV / Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,

#TGIF

Onyedikachi Kingsley Ogbonna (Surv.)