Going Faster — How to apply the Andretti factor to your life
This speech is not the one I thought I’d be giving.
This speech is still #4, it’s about using words, words carefully chosen, words that matter.
Madam Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters, Most Welcome Guests,
This speech is about YOU, because you are amazing!
You’re amazing because you are here tonight trying to change and to grow. Some of you are facing your greatest fear. That makes you better and braver than most other people in the world.
The race car driver, Mario Andretti said “If everything seems under control — You’re just not going fast enough!”
So let’s see whether we can accelerate your growth by asking a couple of questions.
First Question.
How long does it take to become an expert?
I read recently that it takes five years. I couldn’t find his quote, but he wrote that you can become an expert, in a field of your choice, by studying just one hour each day, for only five years.
Think about that. He was writing before the interweb, and he was writing to an audience of Americans. The United States has a population of about five times that of the UK, so actually, I think:
You can become a leading international expert in the field of your choice in just five years.
Pick a topic, preferably one you’re already passionate about, read some books — say one book every week. Sit in Borders or your local library. Read, and think about what you’re reading.
You’ve got email and the interweb — find some experts, write to them for advice and with questions. Find out what they know. Find out what they don’t know.
Within a month you will be the local expert among your friends and colleagues, and in six months you’ll know more about your topic than 99% of the people you meet on a day-to-day basis.
If you read a book a week for five years, that’s 260 books on a particular topic. How many of you, as professionals, in your day jobs right now, keep up with your subject to the tune of a book a week? Not very many.
So yes, absolutely you can become an expert in five years. Mastery might take a lifetime, but expertise is quicker.
You’ve got five years — starting … now
Second Question.
If it takes five years to become an expert, how long does it take to become Excellent?
I’ll give you a hint - it’s not five years. It’s not even five minutes. According to Thomas J Watson of IBM, it takes just one minute to become excellent.
Here’s how: You sit down, reflect on your life as it is, and as you’d like it to be, and you vow to yourself, your god, and the universe, never again to do anything that is not excellent.
That’s it. So simple and so hard. Just stop letting yourself do substandard work. You’ll feel better, and it will get easier. Put some WOW! into everything you do.
My challenge to you is this: Go home, tonight, and write out a list of 25 things that describe WORK THAT MATTERS. Work that matters to you.
Choose five. Over the next week, in your current job, with your current projects, do them. Find some way of incorporating these five things that will make your work so much more meaningful. And just do it.
Which of you is going to resolve to be excellent, starting right now? Which of you is going to shine?
You are amazing and you are brave. I know this because you’ve come here tonight, and I know that you’ll keep coming back until you’ve mastered what you need to.
What about Mario? Mario Andretti — Does everything seem under control, are you just not going fast enough?
Has it become comfortable for you to come here week after week, to sit in that chair, to watch other people give speeches, to watch other people play the roles?
Listen to Mario — Go faster!
Pick a topic — become an expert.
Resolve to Be Excellent — in everything you do.
Do work that matters.
Acknowledgements
This will be my #4 speech to the City of London Toastmasters. It was heavily inspired by Tom Peters and the Brand You 50. Mixed in bits of Joe Vitale’s Missing Instruction Manual. It’s about time I gave a speech with some WOW!