Talent

I Probably Type Faster Than You

I Probably Type Faster Than You

Garth Beyer

Fast Typing

In high school computer class, I was recorded typing 149 guam (words per minute). The average is 40. The average for an actual data processing job is 70. When I was last tested for speed typing, about, say, 2 years ago, I rocked a 104. The hiring manager at the agency said the highest he had seen was 80. My excuse for a low speed? I was used to a laptop keyboard (flat keys). I tested on a traditional keyboard.

I don’t really love typing. I’d rather be conversing with clients and mentors, strategizing media plans, going out in the field doing product-interaction research. I could type a lot of things at 150 guam that I would rather do than typing.

How do your employees feel?

They may be remarkable at something, but is it what they love to do? Don’t you think they will be more successful doing what they love rather than what they are merely great at? Don’t we owe it to them, the business, ourselves to find out?

 

Stay Positive & I Believe Learned Talent Trumps Natural Talent. Am I Wrong?

Photo credit

 

Building A Winning Team

Garth Beyer

I was ignorant when I began building teams. I didn’t necessarily make a big mistake, I simply wasn’t as efficient in my gathering of team members as I could have been. Early on I thought the best team members were the ones who were extroverted, spoke up in classes, sought extra work out and openly challenged things often. (Yes, basically people like myself.)

Doing so left out two extremely important categories of team members.

1) People who are extroverted and speak up, but only when called upon.

2) People who are introverted in the environment you see them in, but who are extroverted when on their own turf.

I don’t believe there are people who are introverted 24/7. I don’t buy into the idea that those who are extremely intelligent and passionate about something can do so quietly. They may put on a decent illusion, but if you get to the heart of what they love, there’s no stillness, quietness or introveredtness.

There’s talent all around you. What makes you a good leader (and gets you a winning team) is when you’re willing to actively call on people to join you as well as meet them on their own turf.

There’s a regularly held belief that if manager’s employees don’t see their managers doing tasks that they (the employees) are set to do, then the manager misses out on important respect. For example, a store manager needs to stock, run the register and reorganize the decor section (it’s one of the worst kept sections) in order to earn the trust of their employees as well as inspire them.

The same goes for those wanting to build a winning team. You’ve got to meet people on their level, ask to learn from them and show them what you already know. You’ve got to connect.

You might be able to gain a following sitting behind a computer screen, but you’ll never build a winning team.

 

Stay Positive & Go Build A Winning Team

Don’t Be The Best

Garth Beyer

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The problem with Ivy league schools or the problem with any Grade A school is the same problem as top, Grade A businesses. When you go into them, naturally you want to excel, to be the best, to have others in the school or business look up to you.

The problem with enrolling in an Ivy league school or any Grade A school is that once you’re in, it’s damn difficult to be the leader of the school, the smartest, the best or even part of the top ten percent of students. In an environment where genius is the norm, there’s seldom ways to get past that.

Do you see the complexity behind this? Let’s look at it from the business angle.

Perhaps someone knocks at your door right now and tells you that you are to start working with Apple’s design team tomorrow morning. You might be an extremely talented designer, but when you meet the team tomorrow, everyone will be extremely talented. You will all be gray. (Well, according to Ive, you will all be colorful. Alas, still the same.)

There’s a misperception between the school/business relationship I’m presenting.

Let me suggest you reject the Ivy league school and not work for Apple’s design team. Don’t be the best. Create the best.

Harvard doesn’t need you. Nor does Apple’s design team. But, Drexel University does. But, that Startup in town does. But, students at Purdue do. Microsoft does (ha).

It’s irrational and much less satisfying to be a big fish in a pond of equally big fish. What matters – and you might not realize this yet, but you will – is that to feel the happiness we all habitually seek in life we must make small fish into big fish, small ponds into big ponds.

Holding hands is great. I’ll kumbaya any night of the week. But extending my hand out to pull someone up – I’ll do that any hour of any day, all hours of every day.

There’s an ol’ saying: the only time you should look down at someone is if you’re reaching out to help them up.

Perhaps that was meant to be a motivator, a goal, a call to action.

 

Stay Positive & Are You There To Answer(?)

Photo credit and HT to Jesse Jackson for the saying

They Are All Lies

Garth Beyer

Lies that you tell yourself after seeing someone being successful or remarkable:

They were born with more talent than me

They are fearless

I can’t make the same committment that they make

They have more time than me

They don’t have to worry about x, y, or z like I do

I would have to get into Harvard if I wanted to end up like them

It’s so easy for them

They’ve had all the support from the beginning

They never fail

 

Stay Positive & Quit Lying To Yourself

Garth E. Beyer

Talent, Finishing, Conversing, And Starting

Garth Beyer

You have no clue just how talented you are.

The two best things you could be doing with your talent is finishing and conversing. These two actions not only compliment you by expressing how talented you are, but they precede growth.

You learn best from finishing. When you finish something, you have the choice to keep it quiet, stick it in the drawer, erase it entirely… or share it, talk with people about it and get feedback. (Both are positive, but you know which produces the greater result.)

The tragedy is that you may also not know how untalented you are. The fear this ignites when faced with being part of a group is enough for you to stop considering it all together.  So, you finish and that’s it.

That was okay to do prior to the connection economy we are in now. 25 years ago, you could stockpile your art and still leave a legacy. Now you never hear of a person who kept everything to herself and became a legend.

I encourage you to get together with someone or a group of people.

In a world that demands you to finish, don’t forget to start something incredible along the way. Eight people getting together to converse about what they have finished. That in and of itself is incredible.

 

Stay Positive & Go

Garth E. Beyer

A Decrease In Critics

Garth Beyer

Let me note real quick, there’s a heavy difference between a critic and a hyena. The critic has lived life to understand all aspects of a subject. The hyena just yelps at everything until the creator backs away.

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Criticism used to be about showing that someone is wrong. Now, because everyone can be right, criticism is about guiding a person to become even more right – and to show others that they are right. This is tough work for the critic, extremely tough. The critic takes partial responsibility in making something work – so the critic sees it as this – if they don’t fully believe in the idea, they don’t criticize it.

In more simple terms. To critique means to discover a way to improve. Creators gather so much input before they launch products that it takes extreme talent to come up with a successful idea for improvement. Thus, there has been a serious decrease in those willing to critique any piece of work.

The reason to understand what a critic is and does is so you don’t confuse hyenas with critics. When creators do that, well, that’s when they get in trouble and the hyenas fill their stomachs.

 

Stay Positive & Keep Searching, There’s A Critic In The Group Of Hyenas

Garth E. Beyer

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People Die Standing Still

Garth Beyer

You may be on standby, but death isn’t.

Nor are opportunities or priceless moments to demonstrate your talents or your art.

 

If a rock is left in a strong stream of water unmoving, naturally the stream will grind down the rock into a pebble. Ultimately defeated it will either be piled on with more rocks meeting the same fate or get taken by the stream and tossed out.

Like the pebble, standing still in life will lead you to be grinded down to non-existence, except it occurs much quicker. When a person creates a stream of their own success, by starting to move, starting to push, starting to lean forward, their stream continues to gain momentum and power. They (their stream) strong with creativity, toils anything standing still. (you?)

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Stop Improving

Garth E. Beyer