As a follow up to my recent post sharing my Favorite TED talks, I wanted to share another great lecture I came across.

Tim Ferriss, author of the Four Hour Work Week, one of my Top 10 Book Choices, spoke at The Do Lectures (a conference designed to inspire people to DO exceptional things).

Here is the video, followed by my 10 observations from the lecture.

1. When perceived difficulty of a task is high; fewer people will try it, thus making it easier -  This is why Tim challenges people to set big goals that everyone else things is impossible.  If everyone thinks things are impossible or unattainable, that very perception will make the task easier.

2. Set big, world changing, goals – Because of point #1, you should set big goals that will allow you in some way to change the world.

3. Design clear actionable steps – Whatever goals you have, you need to create clear actionable steps around that goal.  This fits very closely with the Getting Things Done plan of defining the next action step for each project you are working on.  Break down your world changing goals into clear actionable steps.

4. Don’t believe people who say you can’t do it – If you are doing something that is perceived to be impossible, you will have lots of people who will say it is impossible.  Realize that they are wrong, and don’t listen to them.  Instead, surround your people who have already done it, or who will encourage you.

5. Only listen to people who have done it, who have accomplished the impossible – The people you should listen to are the ones who have already accomplished something impossible.  If someone has done the impossible thing that you want to do, then that person is first.  If no one has done the thing you want to do, look for people who have done similar impossible things.  Tim calls these people the “Dark Horse Role Models”.

6. You need to be able to recruit people to help you – If you set a big enough goal you will need to be able to recruit people to get your message out.  Interestingly, small goals will draw very few supporters, but big world-changing goals will be easier to recruit people to help you.

7. Think exponentially and not linearly – As you work towards achieving your big goals think about exponentially.  Think about big gains, not small gains.  Think about big growth that people can get excited about joining in on.

8. Convert lack of resources into strengths –  Tim suggests “writing down the positives about whatever you view as your negatives.”  Once you start to look at those areas as strengths you can capitalize on those areas.  Whatever your weaknesses are, there are strengths corresponding strengths in the marketplace.

9. Make your message really clear – This is an important principle in any type of communication. Tim says, “people can hate you or dislike you but they shouldn’t be confused by your message.”  The crux of a clear message is giving the audience a clear actionable next step.

10. Create fun competition – One way to encourage activity amongst the people you have recruited is to create fun competitions.  People like competition, and some people – particularly people who already get things done – will do far more simply because of a competition.

Here is Tim’s Post about the lecture.

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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