WEBVTT

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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?

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

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And in so doing,

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I'm going to give you the skill necessary

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to become a world-class artist.

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

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But before I do that,

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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.

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"That's not real art,

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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

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by taking a look at
the career of Novak Djokovic.

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Back in 2004,

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when he first became
a professional tennis player,

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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

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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,

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in prize money alone,

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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,

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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.

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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,

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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

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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 -

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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:

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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

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even more than they wanted it for me,

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I just couldn't.

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

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I was a really consistent C, C- student.

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But then going into my junior year,

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I'd had enough.

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I thought I want to make a change.

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I'm going to make a marginal adjustment,

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

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and start becoming an active participant.

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And so, that year,

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instead of pretending, again,

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

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for more than five
or ten minutes at a time,

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I decided to assume I wouldn't.

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

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doing well in school -

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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,

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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.

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

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maybe play video games for a few minutes,

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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.

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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,

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you break them down
too much more manageable tasks,

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and then along the way,

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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

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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,

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it worked really well in school,

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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,

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and at the time my commute

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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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(Laughter)

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I mean they couldn't close their jaws.

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But you and I, we know,

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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.

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And so in that moment, I'm thinking,

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

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to learn a new language.

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

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And yet here I had done it.

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This marginal adjustment.

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So what other big ambitious goals
I've been holding onto,

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putting off until retirement,

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that I could potentially achieve

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if I just made a marginal
adjustment to my routine?

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So I started doing them.

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I earned my auto racing license.

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I learned how to fly a helicopter,

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did rock-climbing, skydiving.

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I learned how to fly planes aerobatically.

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Well, if you're like me, back in 2007,

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you might have the same goal I had.

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I was just moving back from London.

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I was about 25 pounds overweight
and out of shape,

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and I wanted to rectify that.

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So I could go to the typical route,

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you know, I could write a check
to a gym I'd never go to.

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Or I could swear to myself
that I will never again

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eat those foods that I love

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but are doing all the damage.

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And I knew that going that route
rarely results in the outcome you desire.

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So I decided to become
an active participant.

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I thought about the habits and passions
that I've developed in my life,

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and I thought, can I make just
a marginal adjustment to them

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so that they work in my favor
as opposed to against me?

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And so I did.

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I've got a habit

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where I've been walking an hour
and a half a day for the last seven years,

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and I've got this passion
for being in the outdoors.

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And so that year,

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I didn't actually set the new year's
resolution to lose 25 pounds.

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I set a resolution to hike all 33 trails

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in the front country
of Santa Barbara Mountains.

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And I'd never been on a hike
before in my life.

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(Laughter)

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But the truth of the matter is,
it's not about the 33 trails.

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You have to break this big ambitious goal

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down into these more
manageable decisions -

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the types of decisions that need
to be made correctly along the way

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in order to improve the odds of achieving
the type of outcome you desire.

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It's not about even one trail.

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It's about those tiny little decisions,

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you know, like when you
are sitting at your desk,

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putting in just a little extra time
at the end of a day.

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Or you're lying on your couch,

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clicking through the channels
on your remote control,

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or scrolling through your Facebook feed,

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and in that moment,
make the decision to put it down.

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You go put on your hiking clothes,

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you go walk outside your front door,
and you shut it behind you.

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You walk to your car, get in,
drive to the trailhead.

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You get out of the car at the trailhead,

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and you take one step,
you take two steps, three steps.

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Every one of those steps
that I have just described

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is a tiny little decision that needs
to be made correctly along the way

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in order to achieve the ultimate outcome.

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Now, when I say I want to hike
33 trails in the front country,

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people think about the decisions
at the top of the mountain.

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That's not what it's about.

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Because if you don't make
the right decision

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when you're on the couch,

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there is no decision that occurs
at the top of the mountain.

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So by the end of the year,

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I'd hiked all 33 trails
in the front country;

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I did them a couple of times each.

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I even did a few in the backcountry.

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I lost the 25 pounds,
and I capped the year off

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by doing the hardest
half marathon in the world -

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the Pier to Peak.

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In 2009, I got really ambitious,

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ambitious for a guy who still,
to this day, cannot settle down

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and focus on anything for more
than ten or ten minutes at a time,

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and that was to read 50 books.

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But again, it's not
about reading 50 books.

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It's not even about reading one book.

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It's not about reading a chapter,
a paragraph, a sentence.

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It's about that decision

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when you're sitting at your desk
at the end of the day,

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or when you're lying on the couch,

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or flicking through your Facebook feed,

00:12:10.308 --> 00:12:12.638
and you put down the phone.

00:12:12.638 --> 00:12:15.400
You pick up a book and you read one word.

00:12:16.509 --> 00:12:20.569
If you read one word,
you'll read two words, three words;

00:12:20.569 --> 00:12:24.873
you'll read a sentence, a paragraph,
a page, a chapter, a book;

00:12:24.873 --> 00:12:28.989
you'll read ten books, 30 books, 50 books.

00:12:29.579 --> 00:12:32.331
In 2012, I got really ambitious.

00:12:32.331 --> 00:12:34.710
I set 24 new year's resolutions.

00:12:35.630 --> 00:12:38.876
12 of them were
what I call giving resolutions,

00:12:38.876 --> 00:12:42.331
where I did 12 charitable things
that didn't involve writing a check.

00:12:43.051 --> 00:12:44.919
But it's not without its failures.

00:12:44.919 --> 00:12:46.204
I tried to donate blood,

00:12:46.204 --> 00:12:49.199
and they rejected me
because I'd lived in the UK.

00:12:49.199 --> 00:12:52.852
I tried to donate my sperm;
they rejected me because I was too old.

00:12:52.852 --> 00:12:54.290
I tried to donate my hair,

00:12:54.290 --> 00:12:56.890
and it turns out nobody wants grey hair.

00:12:56.890 --> 00:12:58.520
(Laughter)

00:12:58.520 --> 00:13:02.040
So, here I was trying to do something
to make myself feel good,

00:13:02.040 --> 00:13:04.301
and it was having the opposite effect.

00:13:04.301 --> 00:13:08.334
So anyway, I've also had
these 12 learning resolutions,

00:13:08.334 --> 00:13:10.451
to learn 12 new skills.

00:13:10.451 --> 00:13:14.811
And when I was done with unicycling,
parkour, slacklining,

00:13:14.811 --> 00:13:17.182
jumping stilts and drumming,

00:13:17.182 --> 00:13:19.592
my wife suggested
that I learned how to knit.

00:13:19.592 --> 00:13:21.422
(Laughter)

00:13:21.422 --> 00:13:24.909
And I'll be honest, I wasn't all
that passionate about knitting.

00:13:25.532 --> 00:13:29.041
But one day, I'm sitting
under this 40-foot tall eucalyptus tree

00:13:29.041 --> 00:13:32.062
that's 2.6 miles up the cold
spring trail in Santa Barbara,

00:13:32.062 --> 00:13:36.649
and I'm thinking, that tree would look
really cool if it were covered in yarn.

00:13:36.649 --> 00:13:37.839
(Laughter)

00:13:37.839 --> 00:13:39.722
And so I went home and Googled this,

00:13:39.722 --> 00:13:42.992
and it turns out it is a thing people do,
it's called yarnbombing:

00:13:42.992 --> 00:13:45.253
you wrap these public
structures with yarn.

00:13:45.803 --> 00:13:48.913
And, the second annual
international yarn bombing day

00:13:48.913 --> 00:13:50.923
was just 82 days away.

00:13:50.923 --> 00:13:52.104
(Laughter)

00:13:52.104 --> 00:13:55.672
So for the next 82 days,
no matter where I was -

00:13:55.672 --> 00:13:56.782
(Laughter)

00:13:56.782 --> 00:13:59.623
if I was in a board meeting,
on the trading floor,

00:13:59.623 --> 00:14:02.262
in an airplane or in the hospital,

00:14:02.262 --> 00:14:03.382
I was knitting.

00:14:03.382 --> 00:14:05.173
One stitch at a time.

00:14:05.173 --> 00:14:06.454
And 82 days later,

00:14:06.454 --> 00:14:09.054
I had done my first ever yarnbomb.

00:14:09.524 --> 00:14:12.822
(Applause)

00:14:17.224 --> 00:14:20.241
And the response to it blew me away.

00:14:20.241 --> 00:14:22.051
So I kept going ...

00:14:22.051 --> 00:14:23.195
(Laughter)

00:14:23.195 --> 00:14:25.625
with bigger, more ambitious projects

00:14:25.625 --> 00:14:28.332
that required more engineering skills.

00:14:28.932 --> 00:14:32.562
And in 2014, I set the goal
to wrap six massive boulders

00:14:32.562 --> 00:14:35.774
in Los Padres National Forest
at the top of the mountains.

00:14:35.774 --> 00:14:38.312
But if I was going to pull this off,
I'd need help.

00:14:38.312 --> 00:14:42.377
So at this point, I had a few
thousand followers on social media

00:14:42.377 --> 00:14:44.367
as "The Yarnbomber."

00:14:44.367 --> 00:14:46.314
(Laughter)

00:14:46.314 --> 00:14:50.243
And I started getting packages -
lots of packages -

00:14:50.243 --> 00:14:54.904
388 contributors
from 36 countries in all 50 states.

00:14:55.444 --> 00:14:58.365
In the end, I didn't wrap
one massive boulder,

00:14:58.925 --> 00:15:00.460
I wrapped 18.

00:15:02.213 --> 00:15:05.353
(Applause)

00:15:06.753 --> 00:15:08.303
So I kept going

00:15:08.303 --> 00:15:10.483
with bigger, more ambitious projects

00:15:10.483 --> 00:15:12.874
that would require me
to work with new materials,

00:15:12.874 --> 00:15:16.094
like fiberglass, and wood, and metals,

00:15:16.094 --> 00:15:21.015
which culminates in a project
that is currently at TMC, here in Tucson,

00:15:21.015 --> 00:15:23.336
where I wrapped the Children's Hospital.

00:15:23.336 --> 00:15:26.306
(Applause)

00:15:26.316 --> 00:15:28.395
Along the way, I stopped knitting.

00:15:28.395 --> 00:15:29.855
I never really liked it.

00:15:29.855 --> 00:15:31.074
(Laughter)

00:15:31.074 --> 00:15:32.114
But ...

00:15:32.994 --> 00:15:34.544
I like crocheting.

00:15:34.544 --> 00:15:37.534
(Laughter)

00:15:38.034 --> 00:15:41.076
So, I started making these
seven-inch granny squares -

00:15:41.076 --> 00:15:43.105
because that's
the standard granny square -

00:15:43.105 --> 00:15:46.435
and I thought along the way:
why am I stopping at seven inches?

00:15:46.435 --> 00:15:48.176
I need big stuff.

00:15:48.176 --> 00:15:51.225
So, I started making
bigger granny squares.

00:15:51.225 --> 00:15:53.434
So one day, I come home
from a business trip,

00:15:53.434 --> 00:15:55.565
and I've got this really large granny,

00:15:55.565 --> 00:15:58.155
and I went to the website of Guinness.

00:15:58.155 --> 00:16:01.478
I was curious what's the world's
largest granny square.

00:16:01.478 --> 00:16:04.075
And it turns out
there's no category for it.

00:16:04.075 --> 00:16:05.555
(Laughter)

00:16:05.555 --> 00:16:06.682
So I applied,

00:16:07.162 --> 00:16:09.256
and they rejected me.

00:16:09.736 --> 00:16:11.418
So I appealed,

00:16:11.418 --> 00:16:12.676
and they rejected me.

00:16:13.556 --> 00:16:15.873
I appealed again, and they said fine,

00:16:15.873 --> 00:16:19.536
if you make it ten meters by ten meters,
we'll create a new category,

00:16:19.536 --> 00:16:22.326
and you will be a Guinness
world record holder.

00:16:22.326 --> 00:16:24.666
So, for the next two years,

00:16:24.666 --> 00:16:28.162
seven months, 17 days,

00:16:28.162 --> 00:16:30.014
one stitch at a time,

00:16:30.014 --> 00:16:32.533
I finally reached more
than half a million stitches,

00:16:32.533 --> 00:16:35.305
incorporated more than 30 miles of yarn,

00:16:35.305 --> 00:16:38.057
and I am now the official
Guinness world record holder

00:16:38.057 --> 00:16:40.149
for the largest crocheted granny square.

00:16:40.149 --> 00:16:43.549
(Applause) (Cheering)

00:16:47.889 --> 00:16:52.095
Along the way, I've garnered an awful lot
of attention for my escapades.

00:16:52.095 --> 00:16:54.588
I've been featured in Newsweek magazine,

00:16:54.588 --> 00:16:57.408
Eric news, which is
kind of the Bible for artists.

00:16:57.408 --> 00:17:00.846
But what I want you to realize
when you hear these things:

00:17:01.456 --> 00:17:03.878
I'm still that C- student.

00:17:04.858 --> 00:17:07.518
I'm still that kid who can't settle down

00:17:07.518 --> 00:17:10.777
or focus for more than five
or ten minutes at a time.

00:17:10.777 --> 00:17:16.028
And I remain a guy who possesses
no special gift of talent or skill.

00:17:16.718 --> 00:17:19.518
All I do is take really big,
ambitious projects

00:17:19.518 --> 00:17:21.118
that people seem to marvel at,

00:17:21.118 --> 00:17:23.146
break them down to their simplest form

00:17:23.146 --> 00:17:25.759
and then just make
marginal improvements along the way

00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:28.184
to improve my odds of achieving them.

00:17:28.184 --> 00:17:30.418
And so the whole reason
I'm giving this talk is

00:17:30.418 --> 00:17:33.369
I'm hoping to inspire several of you

00:17:33.369 --> 00:17:36.789
to pull some of those ambitious dreams
that you have for yourself

00:17:36.789 --> 00:17:38.138
off the bookshelf

00:17:38.138 --> 00:17:42.558
and start pursuing them by making
that marginal adjustment to your routine.

00:17:42.558 --> 00:17:43.708
Thank you.

00:17:43.708 --> 00:17:46.748
(Applause)