If you know anything about me, you know that I LOVE to discover common denominators in successful people, then figure out how to put that into practice with my own kids, to improve their chances of reaching their full potential.
This isn’t just something I do randomly. I like to look into different fields of interest, and different professions and find out if high achievers in those professions share certain character traits that other professions do not. This is something I do constantly, and suggest you do to… especially if you are starting to notice your kids showing an affinity for something.
Here’s some examples of what I mean:
- Even though less than 1 out of every ten people are left handed, there are just as many left handed hitters in professional baseball as right handed hitters (roughly). So left handed hitters have better odds of making it to professional baseball than do righties.
- World class talented people have never spent less than 10,000 hours of dedicated practice. Often starting at incredibly young ages due to a father or close relative being a professional coach in that child’s eventual field of interest; this was the case with Mozart or Tiger Woods.
- When at a dinner I had with a half a dozen millionaires a few years ago, I asked the question, “what do all of our childhoods have in common?”, I was surprised that every single person at the table’s family had experience BOTH poverty (or heavy burdens of debt on the family) & also a period of their youth where their family experienced incredibly wealth… interesting, no?
Being that as I run websites, I spend a lot of time studying the commonalities of people who do VERY well selling products and services via the internet and websites.
I’ve always been very intrigued by one of the commonalities that a high percentage of the really successful founders of websites have…
Many Of These Successful People Had “Cold Call/Door to Door/Face To Face” Sales Experience
I always thought this was incredibly weird until I realized something while delivering my first “Stage Presentation” to nearly 400 people.
I won’t bore you with the details of the presentation, except to say that it was a 75 minute presentation on a topic I thoroughly enjoy; and that I have very little experience giving live presentations.
Now I don’t know if you have experience giving presentations or not, but what you quickly realize while giving a talk is that not all of your “off the cuff” jokes and humor works.
Some comments that you think are funny get no reactions, and other comments cause the audience to roll in the isles.
This is EXACTLY what happened to me. I found myself realizing that if I ever wanted to give this presentation again it would actually be incredibly easy to make a better presentation.
All I would have to do is keep all the great jokes that made people laugh, and not tell the other jokes.
Come to find out, as I was reading in the great book, Talent Is Overrated, this is exactly how the very successful comedian, Chris Rock, creates his stand up commedy skits. He comes up with some ideas, and practices them on small audiences away from the press; taking note of what jokes work and what don’t. After pruning and refining his act on several small audiences, he then is able to step up onto the stage in sold out arenas and auditoriums and look like a comedic genius.
But the process that created the comedy was anything but genius. And it certainly applies to more than just practicing comedy.
The Role Feedback Mechanism’s Play In Practice
The real mechanism I started to appreciate up on that stage giving my presentation, was the role that “Feedback Mechanisms” play in drastically improving the results you get from practice.
There is an old business saying that says, “You Can’t Improve What You Don’t Measure”.
This then becomes an indredibly important principle to pay attention to as soon as you notice your kids practicing things.
When a kid is able to practice in a way where they get instant feedback on whether that repetition was slightly better or slightly worse than their last repetition, that is where the fastest development comes.
As I started thinking about it, I realized that I had been accidentally using this concept my whole life and it has been tremendously advantageous.
Here one GREAT example that I started using when I was about 18, and would have been even more helpful if I’d started at the age of 12.
This Baseball Training Device Gave Me GREAT Feedback As A Kid
I bought this device and others like it from a company called SetPro. I tried to find it for sale, but it looks like the company is no longer selling the product, or you’d at least have to look for more than 5 minutes like I did.
The genius part of this product (there were many) was that every repetition was to be performed in front of a radar detector. Their theory, which I quickly came to be a devout believer in, was that it was impossible to throw a baseball harder, or swing a bat faster by using WORSE mechanics. Because of this theory, getting better was very simple…
… just measure the speed of every swing or every throw; and if the radar detector showed a larger number then your last repetition you did that repetition better. Even more important, was that if you started to lose focus or started having poor mechanics, the number on the radar gun would get slower, INSTANTLY notifying you to NOT swing or throw like that again.
To me, this is the perfect example of how Feedback Mechansims can make practice for your kids much more effective.
I would also be remiss not to tell you that this product helped me improve how fast I could swing a baseball bat by 21 mph. within a two week period of time. To put that in perspective with a quick physics lesson… swinging a baseball bat 21 mph faster, meant I could hit the ball well over 100ft. further than before I started practicing with this device as a kid.
But I’m getting ahead of myself…
What Does All This Have To Do With Commonalities Of People?
Once I realized just how much better a person can become when they use great feedback mechanisms during practice, I finally started to understand why successful business people often had a background in face to face, door to door or cold call selling…
What do those types of sales environments have in common?
Tons and tons, of instant feedback on YOUR affectiveness at pusuading a nother human being to do something.
What I realized is that these salesmen could not have possibly put them into a better practice environment for working on sales and pursuasion. Because in that type of sales environment, you will quickly get, hung-up on, the door slammed in your face, or see the eyes glaze over in your prospects head.
It’s the perfect pass fail feedback mechanism that tells you if you got better or worse.
So is it any surprise that kids who grow up practicing that type of selling go onto become more likely to run a successful business?
How Can You Improve Your Kids Practice With “Feedback Mechanisms”?
I briefly mentioned the SetPro product I used to help me practice baseball as a kid. And giving your child sales practice would be a good idea too. But here are 5 other ways you can improve your kids practice by adding Feedback Mechanisms:
- Hire a coach – A good coach will break down your child’s goals into small parts, and through critiquing each repetition will tell your child if each rep is better or worse.
- Video Critique Themself – As a young athlete I would video tape my baseball swing and compare it to the swings of other great players. Did my balance look like theirs? Was my front leg bent or straight?
- Pay For Expert Critiques – I can remember my brother, who is now a professional magician, videotaping his act and sending it off to professional magicians for their opinions. He did have to pay for this.
- Chart Performance In Excel – There are many different metrics to track. But if it’s measurable, like improving how quickly you can complete a task, have an observer chart the performance of every rep, and let you see the results, gives your child the objective feedback. This tends to be very motivating when they can look back and see their improvement
- Seek Out Training Software w/Feedback Mechanisms – There are many programs that chart feedback. Heck, my xbox360 charts how well I can carry a tune on Guitar Hero. There are lots of programs that chart feedback, by telling how how much faster you’re reading, or typing or any number of things. Seek out programs that track the metrics your kid needs to track to have better practice sessions. While personally I am more familiar with the athletic feedback training aids, others are out there as well. And if you can’t find one… make one! Maybe it could turn into a business.
Does Your Child Use A Practice Device That Gives Great Feedback?
If so, please leave a comment below letting me know about it. I’m always adding to my list of resources, and if you know a good one, please do tell.
Until Next Time… Happy Parenting!
