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00:00:10,134 --> 00:00:11,454
By a show of hands.

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How many of you believe you
could replicate this image of Brad Pitt

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with just a pencil and piece of paper?

4
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Well, I'm going to show you
how to do this.

5
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And in so doing,

6
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I'm going to give you the skill necessary

7
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to become a world-class artist.

8
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And it shouldn't take
more than about 15 seconds.

9
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But before I do that,

10
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how many of you believe
you could replicate this image

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of a solid gray square?

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(Laughter)

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Every one of us.

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And if you can make one gray square,

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you can make two, three, nine ...

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Truth of the matter is,

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if you could made just one gray square,

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it'd be very difficult to argue

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that you couldn't make
every gray square necessary

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to replicate the image in its entirety.

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And there you have it.

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I've just given you the skills necessary
to become a world-class artist.

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(Laughter)

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I know what you're thinking.

25
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"That's not real art,

26
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certainly wouldn't make me
a world-class artist."

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So let me introduce you to Chuck Close.

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He's one of the highest-earning artists
in the entire world, for decades,

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he creates his art
using this exact technique.

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You see, what stands between us

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and achieving even
our most ambitious dreams

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has far less to do with possessing
some magical skill or talent,

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and far more to do with
how we approach problems

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and make decisions to solve them.

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And because of the continuous
and compounding nature

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of all those millions of decisions

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that we face on a regular basis,

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even a marginal improvement in our process

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can have a huge impact on our end results.

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And I'll prove this to you

41
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by taking a look at
the career of Novak Djokovic.

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Back in 2004,

43
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when he first became
a professional tennis player,

44
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he was ranked 680th in the world.

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It wasn't until the end of his third year

46
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that he jumped up
to be ranked third in the world.

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He went from making 250,000 a year
to 5 million a year,

48
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in prize money alone,

49
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and of course, he did this
by winning more matches.

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In 2011, he became the number one
ranked men's tennis player in the world,

51
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started earning an average
of 14 million a year in prize money alone

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and winning a dominating
90% of his matches.

53
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Now, here's what's really interesting

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about all of these very
impressive statistics.

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Novak doesn't control any of them.

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What he does control
are all the tiny little decisions

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that he needs to make
correctly along the way

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in order to move the probability

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in favor of him achieving
these types of results.

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And we can quantify and track
his progress in this area

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by taking a look at the percentage
of points that he wins.

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Because in tennis

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the typical point involves
one to maybe three decisions,

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I like to refer to this
as his decision success rate.

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So, back when he was winning
about 49% of the matches he was playing,

66
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he was winning about 49%
of the points he played.

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Then to jump up,
become number three in the world,

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and actually earn
five million dollars a year

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for swinging a racquet,

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he had to improve
his decision success rate

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to just 52 percent.

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Then to become not just number one

73
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but maybe one of the greatest players
to ever play the game,

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he had to improve
his decision success rate

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to just 55 percent.

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And I keep using this word "just."

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I don't want to imply this is easy to do,

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clearly, it's not.

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But the type of marginal improvements
that I'm talking about

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are easily achievable
by every single one of us in this room.

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And I'll show you what I mean.

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From kindergarten, all the way
through to my high school graduation -

83
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yes, that's high school
graduation for me -

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(Laughter)

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every one of my report cards
basically said the same thing:

86
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Steven is a very bright young boy,

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if only he would just
settle down and focus.

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What they didn't realize was I wanted that

89
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even more than they wanted it for me,

90
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I just couldn't.

91
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And so, from kindergarten
straight through the 2nd year of college,

92
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I was a really consistent C, C- student.

93
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But then going into my junior year,

94
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I'd had enough.

95
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I thought I want to make a change.

96
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I'm going to make a marginal adjustment,

97
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and I'm going to stop being a spectator
of my decision-making

98
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and start becoming an active participant.

99
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And so, that year,

100
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instead of pretending, again,

101
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that I would suddenly be able
to settle down and focus on things

102
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for more than five
or ten minutes at a time,

103
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I decided to assume I wouldn't.

104
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And so, if I wanted to achieve
the type of outcome that I desire -

105
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doing well in school -

106
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I was going to actually
have to change my approach.

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And so I made a marginal adjustment.

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If I would get an assignment,
let's say, read five chapters in a book,

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I wouldn't think of it as five chapters,

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I wouldn't even think of it
as one chapter.

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I would break it down into these tasks
that I could achieve,

112
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that would require me to focus
for just five or ten minutes at a time.

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So, maybe three or four paragraphs.

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That's it.

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I would do that and when I was done
with those five or ten minutes,

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I would get up.

117
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I'd go shoot some hoops,
do a little drawing,

118
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maybe play video games for a few minutes,

119
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and then I come back.

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Not necessarily to the same assignment,

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not even necessarily to the same subject,

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but just to another task that required
just five to ten minutes of my attention.

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From that point forward,

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all the way through to graduation,

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I was a straight-A student, Dean's List,

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President's Honor Roll, every semester.

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I then went on to one of the top
graduate programs in the world

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for finance and economics.

129
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Same approach, same results.

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So then, I graduate.

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I start my career and I'm thinking,

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this worked really well for me.

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You know, you take these big concepts,

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these complex ideas,
these big assignments,

135
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you break them down
too much more manageable tasks,

136
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and then along the way,

137
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you make a marginal
improvement to the process

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that ups the odds
of success in your favor.

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I'm going to try and do this in my career.

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So I did.

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I started out as an exotic
derivatives trader for credit Swiss.

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It then led me to be global head
of currency option trading

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for Bank of America,

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global head of emerging markets
for AIG international.

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It helped me deliver top-tier returns

146
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as a global macro hedge fund
manager for 12 years

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and to become founder and CIO
of two award-winning hedge funds.

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So it gets to 2001,

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and I'm thinking, this whole idea,

150
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it worked really well in school,

151
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it's been serving me well
as a professional,

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why aren't I applying this
in my personal life,

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like to all those big ambitious goals
I have for myself?

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So one day, I'm walking to work,

155
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and at the time my commute

156
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was a walk from one end
of Hyde Park to the other, in London.

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It took me about 45 minutes each way,

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an hour and a half a day,
seven and a half hours a week,

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30 hours a month, 360 hours a year,

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when I was awake, aware,
basically wasting time,

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listening to music on my iPod.

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So on my way home from work that day
I stopped at the store.

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I picked up the first 33 CDs
in the Pimsleur German language program,

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ripped them and put them onto my iPod.

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But I didn't stop there.

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Because the truth of the matter is,
I'm an undisciplined person.

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And I knew that at some point,

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I'd switch away from the language
and go back to the music.

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So I removed that temptation
by removing all of the music.

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That left me with just one option:

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listen to the language tapes.

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So ten months later,
I'd listened to all 99 CDs

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in the German language program,

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listened to each one three times each.

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And I went to Berlin for a 16-day
intensive German course.

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When I was done, I invited my wife
and kids to meet me.

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We walked around the city.

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I spoke German to the Germans,
they spoke German back to me.

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My kids were amazed.

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00:08:04,799 --> 00:08:06,069
(Laughter)

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00:08:06,069 --> 00:08:08,988
I mean they couldn't close their jaws.

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But you and I, we know,

183
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there is actually nothing amazing
about what I've just done.

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I made this marginal adjustment
to my daily routine.

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This marginal adjustment to my process.

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(German) Und jetzt, ich spreche
ein bisschen Deutsch.

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And now I could speak some German.

188
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And so in that moment, I'm thinking,

189
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it's not supposed to be this easy
for a guy like me - an old guy -

190
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to learn a new language.

191
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You're supposed to do that
when you're a kid.

192
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And yet here I had done it.

193
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This marginal adjustment.

194
00:08:40,943 --> 00:08:44,061
So what other big ambitious goals
I've been holding onto,

195
00:08:44,061 --> 00:08:46,599
putting off until retirement,

196
00:08:46,599 --> 00:08:48,742
that I could potentially achieve

197
00:08:48,742 --> 00:08:51,593
if I just made a marginal
adjustment to my routine?

198
00:08:51,593 --> 00:08:53,279
So I started doing them.

199
00:08:53,279 --> 00:08:55,547
I earned my auto racing license.

200
00:08:56,417 --> 00:08:59,012
I learned how to fly a helicopter,

201
00:08:59,012 --> 00:09:01,691
did rock-climbing, skydiving.

202
00:09:01,691 --> 00:09:04,188
I learned how to fly planes aerobatically.

203
00:09:04,188 --> 00:09:07,523
Well, if you're like me, back in 2007,

204
00:09:07,523 --> 00:09:09,492
you might have the same goal I had.

205
00:09:09,492 --> 00:09:11,777
I was just moving back from London.

206
00:09:11,777 --> 00:09:15,023
I was about 25 pounds overweight
and out of shape,

207
00:09:15,023 --> 00:09:16,801
and I wanted to rectify that.

208
00:09:17,211 --> 00:09:18,892
So I could go to the typical route,

209
00:09:18,892 --> 00:09:22,225
you know, I could write a check
to a gym I'd never go to.

210
00:09:22,225 --> 00:09:25,294
Or I could swear to myself
that I will never again

211
00:09:25,294 --> 00:09:27,092
eat those foods that I love

212
00:09:27,092 --> 00:09:29,282
but are doing all the damage.

213
00:09:29,282 --> 00:09:34,149
And I knew that going that route
rarely results in the outcome you desire.

214
00:09:34,149 --> 00:09:36,635
So I decided to become
an active participant.

215
00:09:36,635 --> 00:09:40,611
I thought about the habits and passions
that I've developed in my life,

216
00:09:40,611 --> 00:09:43,414
and I thought, can I make just
a marginal adjustment to them

217
00:09:43,414 --> 00:09:46,579
so that they work in my favor
as opposed to against me?

218
00:09:46,579 --> 00:09:47,581
And so I did.

219
00:09:47,581 --> 00:09:48,604
I've got a habit

220
00:09:48,604 --> 00:09:52,077
where I've been walking an hour
and a half a day for the last seven years,

221
00:09:52,077 --> 00:09:55,234
and I've got this passion
for being in the outdoors.

222
00:09:55,934 --> 00:09:57,347
And so that year,

223
00:09:57,347 --> 00:10:00,966
I didn't actually set the new year's
resolution to lose 25 pounds.

224
00:10:00,966 --> 00:10:03,507
I set a resolution to hike all 33 trails

225
00:10:03,507 --> 00:10:06,435
in the front country
of Santa Barbara Mountains.

226
00:10:06,435 --> 00:10:08,965
And I'd never been on a hike
before in my life.

227
00:10:08,965 --> 00:10:10,503
(Laughter)

228
00:10:10,503 --> 00:10:13,793
But the truth of the matter is,
it's not about the 33 trails.

229
00:10:14,543 --> 00:10:16,605
You have to break this big ambitious goal

230
00:10:16,605 --> 00:10:19,138
down into these more
manageable decisions -

231
00:10:19,138 --> 00:10:22,948
the types of decisions that need
to be made correctly along the way

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00:10:22,948 --> 00:10:27,136
in order to improve the odds of achieving
the type of outcome you desire.

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00:10:27,556 --> 00:10:29,708
It's not about even one trail.

234
00:10:29,708 --> 00:10:31,787
It's about those tiny little decisions,

235
00:10:31,787 --> 00:10:34,076
you know, like when you
are sitting at your desk,

236
00:10:34,076 --> 00:10:36,708
putting in just a little extra time
at the end of a day.

237
00:10:36,708 --> 00:10:38,297
Or you're lying on your couch,

238
00:10:38,297 --> 00:10:40,888
clicking through the channels
on your remote control,

239
00:10:40,888 --> 00:10:42,844
or scrolling through your Facebook feed,

240
00:10:42,844 --> 00:10:46,207
and in that moment,
make the decision to put it down.

241
00:10:46,207 --> 00:10:48,127
You go put on your hiking clothes,

242
00:10:48,127 --> 00:10:51,127
you go walk outside your front door,
and you shut it behind you.

243
00:10:51,127 --> 00:10:54,458
You walk to your car, get in,
drive to the trailhead.

244
00:10:54,458 --> 00:10:56,468
You get out of the car at the trailhead,

245
00:10:56,468 --> 00:11:00,377
and you take one step,
you take two steps, three steps.

246
00:11:00,377 --> 00:11:03,447
Every one of those steps
that I have just described

247
00:11:03,447 --> 00:11:07,397
is a tiny little decision that needs
to be made correctly along the way

248
00:11:07,397 --> 00:11:09,818
in order to achieve the ultimate outcome.

249
00:11:10,508 --> 00:11:13,648
Now, when I say I want to hike
33 trails in the front country,

250
00:11:13,648 --> 00:11:16,506
people think about the decisions
at the top of the mountain.

251
00:11:16,506 --> 00:11:18,236
That's not what it's about.

252
00:11:18,236 --> 00:11:20,318
Because if you don't make
the right decision

253
00:11:20,318 --> 00:11:21,679
when you're on the couch,

254
00:11:21,679 --> 00:11:24,819
there is no decision that occurs
at the top of the mountain.

255
00:11:24,819 --> 00:11:26,088
So by the end of the year,

256
00:11:26,088 --> 00:11:28,457
I'd hiked all 33 trails
in the front country;

257
00:11:28,457 --> 00:11:30,467
I did them a couple of times each.

258
00:11:30,467 --> 00:11:32,329
I even did a few in the backcountry.

259
00:11:32,339 --> 00:11:35,099
I lost the 25 pounds,
and I capped the year off

260
00:11:35,099 --> 00:11:37,668
by doing the hardest
half marathon in the world -

261
00:11:37,668 --> 00:11:39,528
the Pier to Peak.

262
00:11:39,528 --> 00:11:42,528
In 2009, I got really ambitious,

263
00:11:43,554 --> 00:11:46,488
ambitious for a guy who still,
to this day, cannot settle down

264
00:11:46,488 --> 00:11:49,560
and focus on anything for more
than ten or ten minutes at a time,

265
00:11:49,560 --> 00:11:51,718
and that was to read 50 books.

266
00:11:52,288 --> 00:11:54,929
But again, it's not
about reading 50 books.

267
00:11:54,929 --> 00:11:57,123
It's not even about reading one book.

268
00:11:57,123 --> 00:12:01,250
It's not about reading a chapter,
a paragraph, a sentence.

269
00:12:01,750 --> 00:12:03,429
It's about that decision

270
00:12:03,429 --> 00:12:06,401
when you're sitting at your desk
at the end of the day,

271
00:12:06,401 --> 00:12:08,339
or when you're lying on the couch,

272
00:12:08,339 --> 00:12:10,308
or flicking through your Facebook feed,

273
00:12:10,308 --> 00:12:12,638
and you put down the phone.

274
00:12:12,638 --> 00:12:15,400
You pick up a book and you read one word.

275
00:12:16,509 --> 00:12:20,569
If you read one word,
you'll read two words, three words;

276
00:12:20,569 --> 00:12:24,873
you'll read a sentence, a paragraph,
a page, a chapter, a book;

277
00:12:24,873 --> 00:12:28,989
you'll read ten books, 30 books, 50 books.

278
00:12:29,579 --> 00:12:32,331
In 2012, I got really ambitious.

279
00:12:32,331 --> 00:12:34,710
I set 24 new year's resolutions.

280
00:12:35,630 --> 00:12:38,876
12 of them were
what I call giving resolutions,

281
00:12:38,876 --> 00:12:42,331
where I did 12 charitable things
that didn't involve writing a check.

282
00:12:43,051 --> 00:12:44,919
But it's not without its failures.

283
00:12:44,919 --> 00:12:46,204
I tried to donate blood,

284
00:12:46,204 --> 00:12:49,199
and they rejected me
because I'd lived in the UK.

285
00:12:49,199 --> 00:12:52,852
I tried to donate my sperm;
they rejected me because I was too old.

286
00:12:52,852 --> 00:12:54,290
I tried to donate my hair,

287
00:12:54,290 --> 00:12:56,890
and it turns out nobody wants grey hair.

288
00:12:56,890 --> 00:12:58,520
(Laughter)

289
00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:02,040
So, here I was trying to do something
to make myself feel good,

290
00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:04,301
and it was having the opposite effect.

291
00:13:04,301 --> 00:13:08,334
So anyway, I've also had
these 12 learning resolutions,

292
00:13:08,334 --> 00:13:10,451
to learn 12 new skills.

293
00:13:10,451 --> 00:13:14,811
And when I was done with unicycling,
parkour, slacklining,

294
00:13:14,811 --> 00:13:17,182
jumping stilts and drumming,

295
00:13:17,182 --> 00:13:19,592
my wife suggested
that I learned how to knit.

296
00:13:19,592 --> 00:13:21,422
(Laughter)

297
00:13:21,422 --> 00:13:24,909
And I'll be honest, I wasn't all
that passionate about knitting.

298
00:13:25,532 --> 00:13:29,041
But one day, I'm sitting
under this 40-foot tall eucalyptus tree

299
00:13:29,041 --> 00:13:32,062
that's 2.6 miles up the cold
spring trail in Santa Barbara,

300
00:13:32,062 --> 00:13:36,649
and I'm thinking, that tree would look
really cool if it were covered in yarn.

301
00:13:36,649 --> 00:13:37,839
(Laughter)

302
00:13:37,839 --> 00:13:39,722
And so I went home and Googled this,

303
00:13:39,722 --> 00:13:42,992
and it turns out it is a thing people do,
it's called yarnbombing:

304
00:13:42,992 --> 00:13:45,253
you wrap these public
structures with yarn.

305
00:13:45,803 --> 00:13:48,913
And, the second annual
international yarn bombing day

306
00:13:48,913 --> 00:13:50,923
was just 82 days away.

307
00:13:50,923 --> 00:13:52,104
(Laughter)

308
00:13:52,104 --> 00:13:55,672
So for the next 82 days,
no matter where I was -

309
00:13:55,672 --> 00:13:56,782
(Laughter)

310
00:13:56,782 --> 00:13:59,623
if I was in a board meeting,
on the trading floor,

311
00:13:59,623 --> 00:14:02,262
in an airplane or in the hospital,

312
00:14:02,262 --> 00:14:03,382
I was knitting.

313
00:14:03,382 --> 00:14:05,173
One stitch at a time.

314
00:14:05,173 --> 00:14:06,454
And 82 days later,

315
00:14:06,454 --> 00:14:09,054
I had done my first ever yarnbomb.

316
00:14:09,524 --> 00:14:12,822
(Applause)

317
00:14:17,224 --> 00:14:20,241
And the response to it blew me away.

318
00:14:20,241 --> 00:14:22,051
So I kept going ...

319
00:14:22,051 --> 00:14:23,195
(Laughter)

320
00:14:23,195 --> 00:14:25,625
with bigger, more ambitious projects

321
00:14:25,625 --> 00:14:28,332
that required more engineering skills.

322
00:14:28,932 --> 00:14:32,562
And in 2014, I set the goal
to wrap six massive boulders

323
00:14:32,562 --> 00:14:35,774
in Los Padres National Forest
at the top of the mountains.

324
00:14:35,774 --> 00:14:38,312
But if I was going to pull this off,
I'd need help.

325
00:14:38,312 --> 00:14:42,377
So at this point, I had a few
thousand followers on social media

326
00:14:42,377 --> 00:14:44,367
as "The Yarnbomber."

327
00:14:44,367 --> 00:14:46,314
(Laughter)

328
00:14:46,314 --> 00:14:50,243
And I started getting packages -
lots of packages -

329
00:14:50,243 --> 00:14:54,904
388 contributors
from 36 countries in all 50 states.

330
00:14:55,444 --> 00:14:58,365
In the end, I didn't wrap
one massive boulder,

331
00:14:58,925 --> 00:15:00,460
I wrapped 18.

332
00:15:02,213 --> 00:15:05,353
(Applause)

333
00:15:06,753 --> 00:15:08,303
So I kept going

334
00:15:08,303 --> 00:15:10,483
with bigger, more ambitious projects

335
00:15:10,483 --> 00:15:12,874
that would require me
to work with new materials,

336
00:15:12,874 --> 00:15:16,094
like fiberglass, and wood, and metals,

337
00:15:16,094 --> 00:15:21,015
which culminates in a project
that is currently at TMC, here in Tucson,

338
00:15:21,015 --> 00:15:23,336
where I wrapped the Children's Hospital.

339
00:15:23,336 --> 00:15:26,306
(Applause)

340
00:15:26,316 --> 00:15:28,395
Along the way, I stopped knitting.

341
00:15:28,395 --> 00:15:29,855
I never really liked it.

342
00:15:29,855 --> 00:15:31,074
(Laughter)

343
00:15:31,074 --> 00:15:32,114
But ...

344
00:15:32,994 --> 00:15:34,544
I like crocheting.

345
00:15:34,544 --> 00:15:37,534
(Laughter)

346
00:15:38,034 --> 00:15:41,076
So, I started making these
seven-inch granny squares -

347
00:15:41,076 --> 00:15:43,105
because that's
the standard granny square -

348
00:15:43,105 --> 00:15:46,435
and I thought along the way:
why am I stopping at seven inches?

349
00:15:46,435 --> 00:15:48,176
I need big stuff.

350
00:15:48,176 --> 00:15:51,225
So, I started making
bigger granny squares.

351
00:15:51,225 --> 00:15:53,434
So one day, I come home
from a business trip,

352
00:15:53,434 --> 00:15:55,565
and I've got this really large granny,

353
00:15:55,565 --> 00:15:58,155
and I went to the website of Guinness.

354
00:15:58,155 --> 00:16:01,478
I was curious what's the world's
largest granny square.

355
00:16:01,478 --> 00:16:04,075
And it turns out
there's no category for it.

356
00:16:04,075 --> 00:16:05,555
(Laughter)

357
00:16:05,555 --> 00:16:06,682
So I applied,

358
00:16:07,162 --> 00:16:09,256
and they rejected me.

359
00:16:09,736 --> 00:16:11,418
So I appealed,

360
00:16:11,418 --> 00:16:12,676
and they rejected me.

361
00:16:13,556 --> 00:16:15,873
I appealed again, and they said fine,

362
00:16:15,873 --> 00:16:19,536
if you make it ten meters by ten meters,
we'll create a new category,

363
00:16:19,536 --> 00:16:22,326
and you will be a Guinness
world record holder.

364
00:16:22,326 --> 00:16:24,666
So, for the next two years,

365
00:16:24,666 --> 00:16:28,162
seven months, 17 days,

366
00:16:28,162 --> 00:16:30,014
one stitch at a time,

367
00:16:30,014 --> 00:16:32,533
I finally reached more
than half a million stitches,

368
00:16:32,533 --> 00:16:35,305
incorporated more than 30 miles of yarn,

369
00:16:35,305 --> 00:16:38,057
and I am now the official
Guinness world record holder

370
00:16:38,057 --> 00:16:40,149
for the largest crocheted granny square.

371
00:16:40,149 --> 00:16:43,549
(Applause) (Cheering)

372
00:16:47,889 --> 00:16:52,095
Along the way, I've garnered an awful lot
of attention for my escapades.

373
00:16:52,095 --> 00:16:54,588
I've been featured in Newsweek magazine,

374
00:16:54,588 --> 00:16:57,408
Eric news, which is
kind of the Bible for artists.

375
00:16:57,408 --> 00:17:00,846
But what I want you to realize
when you hear these things:

376
00:17:01,456 --> 00:17:03,878
I'm still that C- student.

377
00:17:04,858 --> 00:17:07,518
I'm still that kid who can't settle down

378
00:17:07,518 --> 00:17:10,777
or focus for more than five
or ten minutes at a time.

379
00:17:10,777 --> 00:17:16,028
And I remain a guy who possesses
no special gift of talent or skill.

380
00:17:16,718 --> 00:17:19,518
All I do is take really big,
ambitious projects

381
00:17:19,518 --> 00:17:21,118
that people seem to marvel at,

382
00:17:21,118 --> 00:17:23,146
break them down to their simplest form

383
00:17:23,146 --> 00:17:25,759
and then just make
marginal improvements along the way

384
00:17:25,759 --> 00:17:28,184
to improve my odds of achieving them.

385
00:17:28,184 --> 00:17:30,418
And so the whole reason
I'm giving this talk is

386
00:17:30,418 --> 00:17:33,369
I'm hoping to inspire several of you

387
00:17:33,369 --> 00:17:36,789
to pull some of those ambitious dreams
that you have for yourself

388
00:17:36,789 --> 00:17:38,138
off the bookshelf

389
00:17:38,138 --> 00:17:42,558
and start pursuing them by making
that marginal adjustment to your routine.

390
00:17:42,558 --> 00:17:43,708
Thank you.

391
00:17:43,708 --> 00:17:46,748
(Applause)