TV Trivia: Soundtrack Montage

30 Shows in 57 Seconds. Can YOU get them all?

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Colossal Failures

Link for RSS subscribers: MythBuster Adam Savage's talk on Colossal Failures.

Adam said his failures on the baseball pitching machine and the film set were part of what made him who he is today. Though I can't seem to recall "colossal failures" (what seemed like "colossal failures" at the moment now appear rather mild in retrospect), when I thought about my failures, I saw how they shaped me into who I am today.

Back when I was in secondary school (equivalent of junior high school), I was asked to do a speech during assembly in front of the entire school. Being "shameless" and willing to have a go at almost anything, I agreed! I don't remember what the talk was about anymore - but I remembered how I did it.

At that time, I was reading a book about mind maps and thought it was "perfect" for everything! So I drew a mind map and spoke off it - bad idea. My speech floated from branch-to-branch on the mind map and lacked a clear storyline. I managed to cover all the points I wanted to make, but without a clear structure or a memorable story to back it up, I doubt any of them stuck in the audience's mind.

Luckily, the shame factor wasn't high because I was only one of many selected to speak during the hour-long assembly. But after that speech, I thought, for a while, that maybe I wasn't made for public speaking.

I didn't give up, though. Over time, through trial-and-error, by listening to other people's speeches, and by reading articles and books on speaking, I developed a satisfactory level of competency in public speaking. I don't claim to be a great speaker or story teller, but now, I can confidently accept a public speaking opportunity and know that I'll be able to deliver it.

That said... perhaps the fact that I can't recall big, colossal failures means I haven't taken enough risks and done as much things as I could or should have! Perhaps it's time to take more risks and do more!

10,000 Hours to Becoming a Master, Expert, and World-Class Performer

I watched Charlie Rose's interview of Malcolm Gladwell and Geoff Colvin. Malcolm Gladwell is a writer for the New Yorker and the author of Outliers: The Story of Success. Geoff Colvin is a senior editor at Fortune and the author of Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else.

Both Malcolm and Geoff talked about what it takes to become a master, an expert, or a world-class performer at a particular skill. A study on great, good, and average musicians says that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of deliberate practice become a great performer. They assume that mastering any skill will take the same 10,000 hours of deliberate practice and hard work. That is equivalent to 10 years of daily hard work and deliberate practice, 3 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Spending the time to becoming a world-class expert at a skill doesn't guarantee success. You also need an incredible amount of luck - being at the right place, at the right time, with the right skills, with the right people. But you need to master the skills before luck can bring you to great success.

Picking a skill to master
When I was watching the show, I realized (or at least think that) I don't have any particular skill that I've put in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master. The only skill I think I'm good at is being curious and learning - I can get intensely curious about a lot of things (almost any subject), and I'm a fast learner if I'm curious enough about the subject.

The problem, though, is that being curious and learning things aren't "productive" - they are "consuming" skills. I think I will need to master writing or speaking to allow something to come out the other end from the information I've consumed. Or perhaps I should spend my time mastering skills that would probably bring in more income - security analysis, value investing, and financial planning.

What skills have you mastered? What skills should you spend time mastering now? What skills does the world need the most? What skills do you need to have to take advantage of the luck that will come your way?

I can't predict what the future will bring to me, but I know I don't really have much time (at least not as much time as a newborn child). I've lived for almost a quarter of a century, and I probably have less than half a century of "productive time" left in me. Whatever I want to master, I must start practicing now and putting in the hard work now. I just hope that the skills I master will be useful in taking advantage of my lucks in the future!