I finally figured out what people want
from me took me my whole professional
career and one piece of information I
found out last September let me start
with my job about 10 years ago I started
a private tutoring company and since
then we’ve had 20 employees about a
thousand students
I’ve taught about 200 of them on my own
all one on one typical work week for me
will be 30 hours a week of tutor on
school nights I’ll go from about 3 to
midnight on Sunday maybe I’ll do 12
hours and I’ll do anything from European
in a lot of those subjects my company
has been able to develop some pretty
good curriculum but I’ll tell you a
secret
I don’t know European history any better
than any history teacher does my skill
set isn’t necessarily academic my job is
to find charisma to find it somewhere it
doesn’t matter if you’re a theater geek
or a jock
I’ve got 18 year-olds trading Bitcoin it
doesn’t matter my job is to find a
connection and to make sure that that
one-on-one interaction is special
because that’s when students find their
own confidence on any given day I’ll go
to five or six locations
student-to-student I take uber I didn’t
know until recently that uber drivers
get to rate their passengers on a one to
most of the ratings and the writing
about ratings has to do with why some
scores are lower than others what else
your average passenger has about a 4.8
if you’re getting low scores you
probably deserve them you’re doing
things like making physical contact with
the driver or believe it or not bringing
firearms into the vehicle yeah I don’t
have any of those things I don’t hug my
driver when it comes to getting high
scores that’s all about one-on-one
interaction which is my specialty so
what is that when I found out my score
in September I was so triggered and
that’s over the course of hundreds and
hundreds of rides so I am solidly a 4.0
9 apparently there’s something worse
than bringing firearms into someone
else’s car so what was I like as a
passenger I’d get in I’d say hello then
I go back to writing an email
I never asked the driver to change his
route I never turned on the music or
just the AC it’s pretty much hello and
20 blocks later thank you but that’s
where I went wrong hello and thank you
that became my default interaction it’s
polite
you know bare minimum sort of way sure
but it was also my way of saying I want
to interact with you as little as
kind of like saying well I don’t want to
engage I don’t want to engage with you
and that’s one of the biggest
temptations that our generation faces
right now how many of you are on
Facebook everybody how many of you see
posts on Facebook and you find it so
offensive that all you want to do is
just block that person yeah it’d be so
easy right to just read
inspirational quotes on Instagram all
day let’s just put up walls and live in
our own shells that’s what I did for a
small fraction of my life and that’s
[Laughter]
ever since then I’ve made it a point to
engage with my drivers I did everything
I did in a one-on-one environment with
my students I did those things as a
passenger I thought I asked follow-up
questions I made detailed comments I
reserved judgment and most importantly I
demonstrated the desire to learn about
somebody else and to learn with them and
if I was tired I was honest about it man
I’ve just been tutoring for five hours
I’m gonna take the next ten minutes to
just zone out I may even get horizontal
I’m sorry and thank you and that’s all
it took and I’m not saying that my score
is a measure of my self-worth in any
kind of way now my score is a reminder
to me we’re so focused on automation and
convenience right now I want to remind
myself that there’s no substitute for
one-on-one interaction that’s what
people want from you now more than ever
let’s have the talk let’s tweet less and
listen more connect just connect thank
you
[Applause] [Music]
from me took me my whole professional
career and one piece of information I
found out last September let me start
with my job about 10 years ago I started
a private tutoring company and since
then we’ve had 20 employees about a
thousand students
I’ve taught about 200 of them on my own
all one on one typical work week for me
will be 30 hours a week of tutor on
school nights I’ll go from about 3 to
midnight on Sunday maybe I’ll do 12
hours and I’ll do anything from European
in a lot of those subjects my company
has been able to develop some pretty
good curriculum but I’ll tell you a
secret
I don’t know European history any better
than any history teacher does my skill
set isn’t necessarily academic my job is
to find charisma to find it somewhere it
doesn’t matter if you’re a theater geek
or a jock
I’ve got 18 year-olds trading Bitcoin it
doesn’t matter my job is to find a
connection and to make sure that that
one-on-one interaction is special
because that’s when students find their
own confidence on any given day I’ll go
to five or six locations
student-to-student I take uber I didn’t
know until recently that uber drivers
get to rate their passengers on a one to
most of the ratings and the writing
about ratings has to do with why some
scores are lower than others what else
your average passenger has about a 4.8
if you’re getting low scores you
probably deserve them you’re doing
things like making physical contact with
the driver or believe it or not bringing
firearms into the vehicle yeah I don’t
have any of those things I don’t hug my
driver when it comes to getting high
scores that’s all about one-on-one
interaction which is my specialty so
what is that when I found out my score
in September I was so triggered and
that’s over the course of hundreds and
hundreds of rides so I am solidly a 4.0
9 apparently there’s something worse
than bringing firearms into someone
else’s car so what was I like as a
passenger I’d get in I’d say hello then
I go back to writing an email
I never asked the driver to change his
route I never turned on the music or
just the AC it’s pretty much hello and
20 blocks later thank you but that’s
where I went wrong hello and thank you
that became my default interaction it’s
polite
you know bare minimum sort of way sure
but it was also my way of saying I want
to interact with you as little as
kind of like saying well I don’t want to
engage I don’t want to engage with you
and that’s one of the biggest
temptations that our generation faces
right now how many of you are on
Facebook everybody how many of you see
posts on Facebook and you find it so
offensive that all you want to do is
just block that person yeah it’d be so
easy right to just read
inspirational quotes on Instagram all
day let’s just put up walls and live in
our own shells that’s what I did for a
small fraction of my life and that’s
[Laughter]
ever since then I’ve made it a point to
engage with my drivers I did everything
I did in a one-on-one environment with
my students I did those things as a
passenger I thought I asked follow-up
questions I made detailed comments I
reserved judgment and most importantly I
demonstrated the desire to learn about
somebody else and to learn with them and
if I was tired I was honest about it man
I’ve just been tutoring for five hours
I’m gonna take the next ten minutes to
just zone out I may even get horizontal
I’m sorry and thank you and that’s all
it took and I’m not saying that my score
is a measure of my self-worth in any
kind of way now my score is a reminder
to me we’re so focused on automation and
convenience right now I want to remind
myself that there’s no substitute for
one-on-one interaction that’s what
people want from you now more than ever
let’s have the talk let’s tweet less and
listen more connect just connect thank
you
[Applause] [Music]
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