just turned 24 today so depending on how
the next 15 minutes go
this is either going to be the best
birthday ever or the worst birthday ever
so sometimes we want to do things and we
want to learn skills that we have no
form of training or experience in so
when you try and do something new you
might be told you have enough experience
to do this to which you might reply well
how am I meant to get experience if
nobody gives me a chance so that’s what
I’ve come to talk about today I’ve been
writing about news music and sports for
four years now but when I started
writing I was only getting fifty views
an article and that was on a good day
nowadays haven’t been able to check some
of the analytics pages of some of the
platforms that I’ve written before I can
see that my work has had a few million
views now to me these millions of views
they don’t represent some big flashy
number but they represent being able to
teach myself a new skill and then find
an experience with that so I hope that
by explaining how I managed to do that
that it might encourage somebody to do
the same with what they want to do so
how I learnt to teach myself a new skill
and then find experience with it was by
subscribing to these two principles the
first is perseverance now it’s one thing
to be good at something but you also
have to be good at that thing on a
regular basis basically as I went
through school I found that business was
always one of my best subjects so I
ended up studying business management at
university but about halfway through my
degree I’d realized that I’d lost
interest in it and I didn’t want to
pursue it as much as I did when I first
started but I felt like I’d come too far
to quit plus I’m Indian so dropping out
of a university degree probably wouldn’t
have gone down well with my Asian family
so I continued with the degree I took
steps to try and set myself up to do the
things that I actually wanted to do
after university it
so for me that thing was writing so what
I did was I set up a blog now I’ve done
I’ve done a few small bits of write and
work before this but it was never
anything serious and the reason it
wasn’t serious is because I was lazy so
how it used to work was I’d write one
article maybe take like a three week
break and it would just go like that I
was lazy so I didn’t really get anywhere
but with this blog it was time to be
serious so I had this blog for at least
a year and in the whole time of having
this blog the record I got for the most
number of views on any one particular
day was 237 views which if you’re not
sure what that number represents it’s a
rubbish total it’s nothing to scream and
shout about but I had to I couldn’t beat
it I had this blog for a year and I set
that record on day two so in this whole
time of persistent with this blog for
over a year
never once beat this measly total that I
set for myself on day two but I still
stuck with it another thing I found was
the articles I was writing
they weren’t quick or easy to write
either sometimes I would spend a good
few hours researching and writing
something I knew was only gonna get 20
views but again I persisted with it so
why bother persist them with things that
provide such low returns when you start
enough on your journey of trying to
teach yourself a new thing it’s likely
that you will be operating on small
levels so whilst you see different cases
of maybe a person does one particular
bit of work and in in two days they’re
suddenly their careers taken off that’s
some people but I found that for most
people it doesn’t really work like that
so when you’re at these small levels and
these small platforms what helped me was
trying to replicate the quality that
might be expected of me on a bigger
platform so with this tiny tiny blog I’d
look at good writers and good
publications and I’d think what skills
do you have that I currently don’t
have what are you doing that’s got you
to this place that I need to add to my
bag of tricks so then get me to where I
needed to go and once I got a good
enough understanding of what those
skills were I was able to make a gradual
improvement so I started off with a tiny
blog and then I moved to a blog that was
slightly less tiny and once I got there
I learned new skills I brushed up on
this I brushed up on that and then I was
able to move to a small blog and then
from there brush or touch up on your
skills and prove again and then you make
improvement like that so what I found
drives improvement and the thing that
kind of got me experience was
perseverance so when I was at university
I had an idea to set up some kind of
business for students so how it works is
at university you’re always recommended
to buy the most expensive version of a
textbook and that will cost around fifty
pounds but what I would use was by last
year’s version of a textbook and that
would cost like 20 pound and I’d save
money another thing I found was it’s not
always easy to buy all of these
textbooks in one place so I already
don’t want to buy these textbooks it’s
too much money and now you have to
you’re making me go to this website that
website this bookstore and it was just
inconvenient so I thought I could solve
this problem by introducing a
marketplace for almost like ebay for
student textbooks I could solve that by
introducing a marketplace where students
could buy and sell textbooks among
themselves so you’d have the higher
option for fifty-pound but then you’d
also have plenty of second and up second
hand options for 20-pound and they would
be providing students this service would
also allow students to sell their old
textbooks so once you’re done with one
semester at university I found that all
my old textbooks left still under my bed
today just collecting dust I wasn’t able
to resell them or find value from them
so you could do that with this supposed
service another thing I thought I could
take it further than this why for as
well as textbooks what else the students
I thought they needed a discussion space
so if you’ve got a query or you’re
unsure about something in your course
and you perhaps don’t want to go to your
lecturer you might post on a relevant
Facebook group related to your course so
I studied a management called a module
called strategic management let’s say
that I was struggling with that I might
then go on to the Facebook group for
third-year business management students
and maybe I’ll post something like hi
guys struggling with strategic
management could someone help
if someone then comes back to me with an
explanation but that explanation doesn’t
resonate with me and I don’t really
still understand I’m not then likely to
comment on that Facebook post say and
still don’t get this I feel even more
stupid now could you please help because
online we never really want to look too
stupid and that’s true for students as
well as if you’re not sure there wasn’t
really a space where you could ask a
question and still not be sure and
continue to ask questions without
worrying about your social perception so
I thought as well as this fantastic
textbook business you could introduce a
discussion space for students to answer
their own queries or exchange revision
notes and all of this kind of stuff and
it would be great I thought I take a
small cut from every cell maybe we make
a little money from advertisements as
well and yeah great idea but then when I
thought about what I’d have to do to
persevere with it and bring that idea to
life
I couldn’t commit to it so if anybody
out there wants a business idea please
take down my email so we can discuss
payment and percentages so yeah you
can’t just you can’t just persevere with
with any old thing because you have to
go through a period of what I would call
low returns so again when I started out
on this blog I was getting barely any
views barely anything it was it was
tough it was long it wasn’t fun but I
had to go through that knowing that if I
just see this period out now
I’ll come out on the other side with the
skills that I need to get to our I need
to go but like I said that period of
low returns it’s not fun so it can be
fun but it wasn’t really fun for me so
when I was writing these articles and
getting like ten views
I had to text I say text it was more
like shamelessly spam I had to
shamelessly spam all of my friends
begging them to share my work because
otherwise where am I getting my views
from but thankfully some of them did
that for me and it helped me get to
where I need to go saying that I’m
pretty sure that some people blocked me
as well because I haven’t heard from
them in a while but that’s neither here
nor there so you have to go through a
period or I believe most people do again
there will be some people that can just
do one thing and ask them they fly and
off you go that’s great but I found that
I fell into the bow of I don’t have that
luxury so I’ve just got to be ready to
work and put in that kind of lower time
period if you’re all sitting there
thinking well I’ve got a few things I
could possibly persevere with I could
committee but I’m not sure what what I
would say with regards to that is I
don’t believe that any skill so I don’t
believe that you could just teach
yourself any skill there is gonna be
loads of jobs those are past loads of
careers where you can’t do that thing
unless you’ve been taught unless you’ve
been taught something or you’ve gone
through some form of training so if I go
to the doctor’s tomorrow and the GP
turns around and says oh by the way have
an actually study medicine just taught
myself
I’m leaving straightaway I’m not staying
so you can’t just teach yourself any old
thing and whilst the internet and social
media it’s great for things like
providing us with a space to learn
providing us with great contacts and
that kind of stuff I still don’t believe
that you can just rock up and say yep
I’m gonna do that and off I go but what
I would say is you can find things that
are lying closely with your skills and
your interests and pursue those and a
lot of the time we have skills in
interest that are a bit hidden to us
they’re below the surface level but they
exist you just have to dig a bit and
find out
what those things are but on this note
of perseverance you could commit to
something but it doesn’t necessarily
mean you’ll improve just because you put
a lot of time into something or you’re
really committed to it again you’re not
going to improve which brings me to my
second point which you guess might be
improvement so let’s suppose that every
activity we do can be divided into units
of work so when I started in I could
only produce two units of work in a set
time frame and then as I moved on to
bigger platforms it became four units of
work in that same time frame and then
eight units of work in the same time
frame and then sixteen so basically I
had the same time but I had to find a
way to do more in that time I don’t have
more than 24 hours in a day so the time
I am spending has to be more productive
and how you kind of do more is by either
increasing the quantity or the quality
but what I found is we always want to
increase the quantity without paying too
much attention to the quality so we
always want more views more followers
more hits more this more that but you
can’t just pluck more from Finnair more
doesn’t just grow on trees you have to
go out there and find more yourself so
whilst you’re trying to find exploring
how you can make those improvements then
it’s really important to remember that
when you’re teaching yourself something
you’re both the student and the teacher
so when you get taught something back in
school for at university there was
always a teacher there to guide me on
that journey to lead me to the next step
but when I had to teach myself something
I didn’t have that luxury I had to work
out essentially what my teacher might
tell me and then go and do those things
as the student so yeah what helped me to
improve them with this new skill was for
me it was right in for you I imagine
it’s probably something different but
what helped me was viewing the task at
hand through what I would call a role in
job description
so if I pursued a job closely related to
my degree at university it’s likely that
I could load up Google now find a job
description and probably be able to tick
off most of the points as long as it was
related to the thing I would study why
because I’ve been taught those skills
but when I started writing I couldn’t
take off any points I didn’t even know
what points I had to tick off all I had
was just a blank piece of paper and a
desire to become a writer so it was that
square one so what I did what you should
do is square one is break down this task
into its core fundamental things what
are the absolutely most important things
that you must do to ensure the
continuation of this idea once you get
good at the bread and butter of what
you’re trying to do and you’ve got those
three or four core points nailed down
you can then start adding more and more
points your job description and as you
add more points your job description you
improve so let’s suppose that I pursued
this fantastic textbook business the
three core things that I would
absolutely have to do to ensure that
that business survives from year one to
year two would be number one ensure that
I have enough students using my service
number to ensure that I have enough
products on that service to attract the
students I need and number three would
be ensuring that I have a website that
can not only process transactions
quickly but also serve as this intended
discussion space once I get good at
those three or four things I can then
start adding more and more points to
that job description and find more
improvement so yeah it comes back down
again like I said self evaluation when
you’re trying to improve is is key and
what also helped me with self evaluation
was being open to criticism now the
reality is not everyone is going to have
something useful to say you might think
that everything you’ve heard from me so
far is a load of garbage I mean it’s
definitely not but it’s possible that
you could think that so what it’s about
then with criticism is understanding
that
not everyone you come across is going to
have something worthwhile to say but
that doesn’t mean that you should just
dismiss criticism and advice as a whole
so let’s suppose that you come across
five different people and you already
know that four of them are going to talk
rubbish so you think to yourself well
why bother listening to any of them
they’re all just not no one’s going to
help me from this so it’s all pointless
but if you neglect that because there’s
four people there that can’t offer you
advice you could miss out on that what
that one person has to say and what that
one person has to say could be crucial
to your development so don’t close off
your mind to criticism and advice
welcome it but know how to assess good
advice from bad advice if in the event
that you don’t have somebody there to
offer you a form of criticism or some
kind of guidance then what I found to be
useful was learning to critique myself
so along this journey of trying to
become a right arm every single point
every little activity I did every little
article every little sentence email
whatever word so that’s where writing if
you’re a musician it might be every
little song every little this whatever
it is at every point on your journey
imagine that your work is going to be
checked by what I would call an annoying
and demanding boss now why I would
describe this person as annoying and
demanding is because naturally we don’t
always want to put we don’t always want
to seek
criticism we might listen to it but it’s
not our natural thought to seek
improvement at first especially when
we’ve done something good if we’ve done
something good I mean I’m looking to
have my little 10 moments in the Sun I’m
not looking for your immediate feedback
but if you can welcome that kind of
feedback and that mentality where you
say okay I’ve done something good but I
could maybe improve this I could maybe
improve that it helps a lot so if this
metaphorical boss would say to you yeah
good job that that pass is well done
let’s move on to the next task
Dania you’ve done
job but if your boss would say to you
you know what between me and you we both
know this isn’t your best work then go
out there and do your best work because
like I said when you get taught
something you have a teacher there to
make those decisions for you so your
lecturer might say improve this improve
that your teacher in school might offer
you some advice but when you teach
yourself something you’re both the
teacher and the student so self
evaluation is the thing I found what
kind of underpinned improvement the more
aware you are of the process the more
you’ll improve so bringing all of this
together this idea of perseverance and
improvement I decided to launch my own
writing platform last year called plugs
ville now having written for quite a few
smaller sites and a few bigger ones
that’s what I believed to be a gap or a
niche for the content that I’m bringing
so I’m still a writer just like I was
four years ago but the only difference
is now with plugs ville and my other
work I don’t have to shamelessly spam up
my friends every time I do something new
even though I still do because I enjoy
doing that so if I had to go back to
what I originally said about teaching
yourself something new and then get an
experience with it the general gist of
everything I’ve just said comes down to
this so point one perseverance
understand what needs to be done break
down the task at hand to know what
skills you need at what point don’t just
think because you worked it out at level
one and you went from level one to level
two that you automatically know what to
do to get from level two to level three
and then from level three to level for
every new level every new experience
point out every new thing you do take a
bit of time to assess what you need to
now do to reach the next point and then
once you have an idea of the process and
exactly the things you need to do commit
to it persevere with it be ready to go
through that period where you’re not
seeing the validation you want
you’re not seeing followers you’re not
seeing whatever feedback you’re not
seeing anything but you’re getting
better and that
that’s important because once you get
better you can reach the levels you want
to reach that’s point number one
persevere point number two would be once
you know what you’re trying to do once
you know what these steps involve once
you know what skills you have to go out
and get then just make it your business
to never stop trying to improve at those
things but on that note you don’t want
to get caught in a chase where you’re
always going after the next thing and
you’re just moving like a headless
chicken just chasing the next thing and
never enjoying anything
so if you do something good enjoy it
celebrate it I often find that I know
I’m guilty of this but we don’t take
time to celebrate our good moments but
when we do something wrong we’re very
quick to give ourselves a hard time I’m
very guilty of that so when you do
something good enjoy it celebrate it let
yourself feel happy party it up do what
you need to do once your celebrations
done always remember to refocus and get
back on that journey again of trying to
achieve the next goal so how I’d like to
end is by saying if there’s something
out there that you kind of want to do or
there’s like an idea or a passion or
something in your mind that you want to
pursue all do more of then what’s up and
you thank you [Applause]
the next 15 minutes go
this is either going to be the best
birthday ever or the worst birthday ever
so sometimes we want to do things and we
want to learn skills that we have no
form of training or experience in so
when you try and do something new you
might be told you have enough experience
to do this to which you might reply well
how am I meant to get experience if
nobody gives me a chance so that’s what
I’ve come to talk about today I’ve been
writing about news music and sports for
four years now but when I started
writing I was only getting fifty views
an article and that was on a good day
nowadays haven’t been able to check some
of the analytics pages of some of the
platforms that I’ve written before I can
see that my work has had a few million
views now to me these millions of views
they don’t represent some big flashy
number but they represent being able to
teach myself a new skill and then find
an experience with that so I hope that
by explaining how I managed to do that
that it might encourage somebody to do
the same with what they want to do so
how I learnt to teach myself a new skill
and then find experience with it was by
subscribing to these two principles the
first is perseverance now it’s one thing
to be good at something but you also
have to be good at that thing on a
regular basis basically as I went
through school I found that business was
always one of my best subjects so I
ended up studying business management at
university but about halfway through my
degree I’d realized that I’d lost
interest in it and I didn’t want to
pursue it as much as I did when I first
started but I felt like I’d come too far
to quit plus I’m Indian so dropping out
of a university degree probably wouldn’t
have gone down well with my Asian family
so I continued with the degree I took
steps to try and set myself up to do the
things that I actually wanted to do
after university it
so for me that thing was writing so what
I did was I set up a blog now I’ve done
I’ve done a few small bits of write and
work before this but it was never
anything serious and the reason it
wasn’t serious is because I was lazy so
how it used to work was I’d write one
article maybe take like a three week
break and it would just go like that I
was lazy so I didn’t really get anywhere
but with this blog it was time to be
serious so I had this blog for at least
a year and in the whole time of having
this blog the record I got for the most
number of views on any one particular
day was 237 views which if you’re not
sure what that number represents it’s a
rubbish total it’s nothing to scream and
shout about but I had to I couldn’t beat
it I had this blog for a year and I set
that record on day two so in this whole
time of persistent with this blog for
over a year
never once beat this measly total that I
set for myself on day two but I still
stuck with it another thing I found was
the articles I was writing
they weren’t quick or easy to write
either sometimes I would spend a good
few hours researching and writing
something I knew was only gonna get 20
views but again I persisted with it so
why bother persist them with things that
provide such low returns when you start
enough on your journey of trying to
teach yourself a new thing it’s likely
that you will be operating on small
levels so whilst you see different cases
of maybe a person does one particular
bit of work and in in two days they’re
suddenly their careers taken off that’s
some people but I found that for most
people it doesn’t really work like that
so when you’re at these small levels and
these small platforms what helped me was
trying to replicate the quality that
might be expected of me on a bigger
platform so with this tiny tiny blog I’d
look at good writers and good
publications and I’d think what skills
do you have that I currently don’t
have what are you doing that’s got you
to this place that I need to add to my
bag of tricks so then get me to where I
needed to go and once I got a good
enough understanding of what those
skills were I was able to make a gradual
improvement so I started off with a tiny
blog and then I moved to a blog that was
slightly less tiny and once I got there
I learned new skills I brushed up on
this I brushed up on that and then I was
able to move to a small blog and then
from there brush or touch up on your
skills and prove again and then you make
improvement like that so what I found
drives improvement and the thing that
kind of got me experience was
perseverance so when I was at university
I had an idea to set up some kind of
business for students so how it works is
at university you’re always recommended
to buy the most expensive version of a
textbook and that will cost around fifty
pounds but what I would use was by last
year’s version of a textbook and that
would cost like 20 pound and I’d save
money another thing I found was it’s not
always easy to buy all of these
textbooks in one place so I already
don’t want to buy these textbooks it’s
too much money and now you have to
you’re making me go to this website that
website this bookstore and it was just
inconvenient so I thought I could solve
this problem by introducing a
marketplace for almost like ebay for
student textbooks I could solve that by
introducing a marketplace where students
could buy and sell textbooks among
themselves so you’d have the higher
option for fifty-pound but then you’d
also have plenty of second and up second
hand options for 20-pound and they would
be providing students this service would
also allow students to sell their old
textbooks so once you’re done with one
semester at university I found that all
my old textbooks left still under my bed
today just collecting dust I wasn’t able
to resell them or find value from them
so you could do that with this supposed
service another thing I thought I could
take it further than this why for as
well as textbooks what else the students
I thought they needed a discussion space
so if you’ve got a query or you’re
unsure about something in your course
and you perhaps don’t want to go to your
lecturer you might post on a relevant
Facebook group related to your course so
I studied a management called a module
called strategic management let’s say
that I was struggling with that I might
then go on to the Facebook group for
third-year business management students
and maybe I’ll post something like hi
guys struggling with strategic
management could someone help
if someone then comes back to me with an
explanation but that explanation doesn’t
resonate with me and I don’t really
still understand I’m not then likely to
comment on that Facebook post say and
still don’t get this I feel even more
stupid now could you please help because
online we never really want to look too
stupid and that’s true for students as
well as if you’re not sure there wasn’t
really a space where you could ask a
question and still not be sure and
continue to ask questions without
worrying about your social perception so
I thought as well as this fantastic
textbook business you could introduce a
discussion space for students to answer
their own queries or exchange revision
notes and all of this kind of stuff and
it would be great I thought I take a
small cut from every cell maybe we make
a little money from advertisements as
well and yeah great idea but then when I
thought about what I’d have to do to
persevere with it and bring that idea to
life
I couldn’t commit to it so if anybody
out there wants a business idea please
take down my email so we can discuss
payment and percentages so yeah you
can’t just you can’t just persevere with
with any old thing because you have to
go through a period of what I would call
low returns so again when I started out
on this blog I was getting barely any
views barely anything it was it was
tough it was long it wasn’t fun but I
had to go through that knowing that if I
just see this period out now
I’ll come out on the other side with the
skills that I need to get to our I need
to go but like I said that period of
low returns it’s not fun so it can be
fun but it wasn’t really fun for me so
when I was writing these articles and
getting like ten views
I had to text I say text it was more
like shamelessly spam I had to
shamelessly spam all of my friends
begging them to share my work because
otherwise where am I getting my views
from but thankfully some of them did
that for me and it helped me get to
where I need to go saying that I’m
pretty sure that some people blocked me
as well because I haven’t heard from
them in a while but that’s neither here
nor there so you have to go through a
period or I believe most people do again
there will be some people that can just
do one thing and ask them they fly and
off you go that’s great but I found that
I fell into the bow of I don’t have that
luxury so I’ve just got to be ready to
work and put in that kind of lower time
period if you’re all sitting there
thinking well I’ve got a few things I
could possibly persevere with I could
committee but I’m not sure what what I
would say with regards to that is I
don’t believe that any skill so I don’t
believe that you could just teach
yourself any skill there is gonna be
loads of jobs those are past loads of
careers where you can’t do that thing
unless you’ve been taught unless you’ve
been taught something or you’ve gone
through some form of training so if I go
to the doctor’s tomorrow and the GP
turns around and says oh by the way have
an actually study medicine just taught
myself
I’m leaving straightaway I’m not staying
so you can’t just teach yourself any old
thing and whilst the internet and social
media it’s great for things like
providing us with a space to learn
providing us with great contacts and
that kind of stuff I still don’t believe
that you can just rock up and say yep
I’m gonna do that and off I go but what
I would say is you can find things that
are lying closely with your skills and
your interests and pursue those and a
lot of the time we have skills in
interest that are a bit hidden to us
they’re below the surface level but they
exist you just have to dig a bit and
find out
what those things are but on this note
of perseverance you could commit to
something but it doesn’t necessarily
mean you’ll improve just because you put
a lot of time into something or you’re
really committed to it again you’re not
going to improve which brings me to my
second point which you guess might be
improvement so let’s suppose that every
activity we do can be divided into units
of work so when I started in I could
only produce two units of work in a set
time frame and then as I moved on to
bigger platforms it became four units of
work in that same time frame and then
eight units of work in the same time
frame and then sixteen so basically I
had the same time but I had to find a
way to do more in that time I don’t have
more than 24 hours in a day so the time
I am spending has to be more productive
and how you kind of do more is by either
increasing the quantity or the quality
but what I found is we always want to
increase the quantity without paying too
much attention to the quality so we
always want more views more followers
more hits more this more that but you
can’t just pluck more from Finnair more
doesn’t just grow on trees you have to
go out there and find more yourself so
whilst you’re trying to find exploring
how you can make those improvements then
it’s really important to remember that
when you’re teaching yourself something
you’re both the student and the teacher
so when you get taught something back in
school for at university there was
always a teacher there to guide me on
that journey to lead me to the next step
but when I had to teach myself something
I didn’t have that luxury I had to work
out essentially what my teacher might
tell me and then go and do those things
as the student so yeah what helped me to
improve them with this new skill was for
me it was right in for you I imagine
it’s probably something different but
what helped me was viewing the task at
hand through what I would call a role in
job description
so if I pursued a job closely related to
my degree at university it’s likely that
I could load up Google now find a job
description and probably be able to tick
off most of the points as long as it was
related to the thing I would study why
because I’ve been taught those skills
but when I started writing I couldn’t
take off any points I didn’t even know
what points I had to tick off all I had
was just a blank piece of paper and a
desire to become a writer so it was that
square one so what I did what you should
do is square one is break down this task
into its core fundamental things what
are the absolutely most important things
that you must do to ensure the
continuation of this idea once you get
good at the bread and butter of what
you’re trying to do and you’ve got those
three or four core points nailed down
you can then start adding more and more
points your job description and as you
add more points your job description you
improve so let’s suppose that I pursued
this fantastic textbook business the
three core things that I would
absolutely have to do to ensure that
that business survives from year one to
year two would be number one ensure that
I have enough students using my service
number to ensure that I have enough
products on that service to attract the
students I need and number three would
be ensuring that I have a website that
can not only process transactions
quickly but also serve as this intended
discussion space once I get good at
those three or four things I can then
start adding more and more points to
that job description and find more
improvement so yeah it comes back down
again like I said self evaluation when
you’re trying to improve is is key and
what also helped me with self evaluation
was being open to criticism now the
reality is not everyone is going to have
something useful to say you might think
that everything you’ve heard from me so
far is a load of garbage I mean it’s
definitely not but it’s possible that
you could think that so what it’s about
then with criticism is understanding
that
not everyone you come across is going to
have something worthwhile to say but
that doesn’t mean that you should just
dismiss criticism and advice as a whole
so let’s suppose that you come across
five different people and you already
know that four of them are going to talk
rubbish so you think to yourself well
why bother listening to any of them
they’re all just not no one’s going to
help me from this so it’s all pointless
but if you neglect that because there’s
four people there that can’t offer you
advice you could miss out on that what
that one person has to say and what that
one person has to say could be crucial
to your development so don’t close off
your mind to criticism and advice
welcome it but know how to assess good
advice from bad advice if in the event
that you don’t have somebody there to
offer you a form of criticism or some
kind of guidance then what I found to be
useful was learning to critique myself
so along this journey of trying to
become a right arm every single point
every little activity I did every little
article every little sentence email
whatever word so that’s where writing if
you’re a musician it might be every
little song every little this whatever
it is at every point on your journey
imagine that your work is going to be
checked by what I would call an annoying
and demanding boss now why I would
describe this person as annoying and
demanding is because naturally we don’t
always want to put we don’t always want
to seek
criticism we might listen to it but it’s
not our natural thought to seek
improvement at first especially when
we’ve done something good if we’ve done
something good I mean I’m looking to
have my little 10 moments in the Sun I’m
not looking for your immediate feedback
but if you can welcome that kind of
feedback and that mentality where you
say okay I’ve done something good but I
could maybe improve this I could maybe
improve that it helps a lot so if this
metaphorical boss would say to you yeah
good job that that pass is well done
let’s move on to the next task
Dania you’ve done
job but if your boss would say to you
you know what between me and you we both
know this isn’t your best work then go
out there and do your best work because
like I said when you get taught
something you have a teacher there to
make those decisions for you so your
lecturer might say improve this improve
that your teacher in school might offer
you some advice but when you teach
yourself something you’re both the
teacher and the student so self
evaluation is the thing I found what
kind of underpinned improvement the more
aware you are of the process the more
you’ll improve so bringing all of this
together this idea of perseverance and
improvement I decided to launch my own
writing platform last year called plugs
ville now having written for quite a few
smaller sites and a few bigger ones
that’s what I believed to be a gap or a
niche for the content that I’m bringing
so I’m still a writer just like I was
four years ago but the only difference
is now with plugs ville and my other
work I don’t have to shamelessly spam up
my friends every time I do something new
even though I still do because I enjoy
doing that so if I had to go back to
what I originally said about teaching
yourself something new and then get an
experience with it the general gist of
everything I’ve just said comes down to
this so point one perseverance
understand what needs to be done break
down the task at hand to know what
skills you need at what point don’t just
think because you worked it out at level
one and you went from level one to level
two that you automatically know what to
do to get from level two to level three
and then from level three to level for
every new level every new experience
point out every new thing you do take a
bit of time to assess what you need to
now do to reach the next point and then
once you have an idea of the process and
exactly the things you need to do commit
to it persevere with it be ready to go
through that period where you’re not
seeing the validation you want
you’re not seeing followers you’re not
seeing whatever feedback you’re not
seeing anything but you’re getting
better and that
that’s important because once you get
better you can reach the levels you want
to reach that’s point number one
persevere point number two would be once
you know what you’re trying to do once
you know what these steps involve once
you know what skills you have to go out
and get then just make it your business
to never stop trying to improve at those
things but on that note you don’t want
to get caught in a chase where you’re
always going after the next thing and
you’re just moving like a headless
chicken just chasing the next thing and
never enjoying anything
so if you do something good enjoy it
celebrate it I often find that I know
I’m guilty of this but we don’t take
time to celebrate our good moments but
when we do something wrong we’re very
quick to give ourselves a hard time I’m
very guilty of that so when you do
something good enjoy it celebrate it let
yourself feel happy party it up do what
you need to do once your celebrations
done always remember to refocus and get
back on that journey again of trying to
achieve the next goal so how I’d like to
end is by saying if there’s something
out there that you kind of want to do or
there’s like an idea or a passion or
something in your mind that you want to
pursue all do more of then what’s up and
you thank you [Applause]
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