I want to take a moment to talk about practice and preparation. Preparation is absolutely key for the impact that you can have when you use words. In the words of Jim Collins, the signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change.
The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency. Jim Collins. The difference between amateur and professional is the way they approach preparation and practice.
If you look at a professional, the way they approach practice is they choose to suffer alone in practice. A professional golfer chooses to suffer more during practice than when he's playing the round. A professional actor chooses to suffer more in the rehearsals than when the audience is in and watching. And what will make you a great communicator is choosing to really prepare, to suffer, to do the hard work alone, so that when you are in front of the audience, you are really...
ready and you can enjoy you know the words are there there's a story I love that comes from a US pottery school ceramics and in the class the teacher for many many years had been teaching the same class and she was a little bored with the subject so one year she said to half of the class your grade will be given based on the one most finished piece But to the other half of the class, as an exercise, she said, your grade will be given based on the total weight of all of the production this year. So imagine if you're in the half of class that is told one single grade. piece. How would you live this year?
Well, they went to galleries, they went to coffee shops, they discussed, they talked, but the first time their hands were on clay making a pot, two weeks before the end of the year. If you imagine the group, that they're going to get their grade based on the sheer weight of production. Day one, straight down into the workshop, making anything. They see their kid playing with an elephant, they'll make an elephant-shaped pot. Day after day, hands touching clay, making pots.
At the end of the year, all of the most spectacular pots came from this group, the group measured by weight. In communication. It's much like pot making. The first time you share some words, it's not going to be as good as the hundredth time. In this course, what we want you to do is to begin to bring this attitude into this class.
Bring this attitude into your life. That on every computer and on every smartphone, you'll find there's a function called the webcam. And the webcam, if you take your mobile phone, just hold it out in front of you and hit record, and see. say what you're going to say, it's a powerful tool for practice. So every speech that you're going to give, every communication that you're going to prepare, we are going to ask you, have you made the video?
It is incredible the number of speakers that the first time they hear the words they intend to say out loud is in front of the decision-makers. You are turning yourself into Cassandra. What we want to begin in this course is a systematic approach to preparation.
to finding time each day to use the webcam, to practice the use of words. Malcolm Gladwell, years ago, wrote a book called Outliers. His question, what does it take to achieve world class? Is Leo Messi the greatest footballer in the world because of his physique? Is Gary Kasparov a world grand champion in chess because of his intelligence?
And the answer, as revealed by... Malcolm Gladwell. No.
It's 10,000 hours of practice. 10,000 hours of practice is what leads to world class. It's what Leo Messi was doing before school and after school that means he's the player he is today. It's what Kasparov was doing in his spare time that made him a grandmaster.
And it's what you choose to do in your spare time. It's what you choose to give yourself as homework when you don't need to do it that will lead you to be world class in the things that you want to do. you want.
If you only do the work that is required you will never achieve world class. The key is to develop an approach to practice much like a professional. A choice to suffer in the process of preparation so that when you get to the moment when the key decision-makers are around you, the people that really matter, you know the words and you can pay attention and focus on the person.