Formula for Personal Growth

My personal formula for success:

Success = (Knowledge + Talent) x Sticky Attitude

Chip and Dan Heath have given us a great recipe for a sticky attitude. In their book Made to Stick, they give us a check-off list of six qualities our ideas and presentations should have to make them memorable to our audience. They are:
1. Simple (keep it simple stupid!)
2. Unexpected (Surprise)
3. Concrete (quickly discernable)
4. Credible (not a stretch)
5. Emotional (relevant to the heart)
6. Stories (told with a great story)

Made to Stick explains the “sticky attitude”
part of the above formula…the stories we
tell the world. However, I’d like to pull back
the curtain a bit to look at two principles
that I believe are required before projecting
a brand that sticks. “Knowledge” and
“talent” together are the underpinnings of
great brand building. Knowledge and talent
in the right combination will determine
our ability to create sticky ideas.

Knowledge
I used to find it difficult to organize the
vast amounts of information I learned
in professional development. Profound
concepts for personal growth seemed
to fly out of my head as fast as they flew
in! How do we access this vast wealth
of information when we need it?! I’ve
developed the above formula that works.
We import knowledge into our heads four
different ways: a) by hearing,
(like at RAC!) b) by reading books,
c) through our experiences and d) through
observation. Stephen Covey teaches us
that being human requires us to teach
knowledge to others before we can fully
learn it ourselves. This means that in order
to fully grasp information and make it stick
in our minds, we must export it…we must
teach at the same time that we learn. It’s
called mentoring. Stephen Covey calls it the
“Eighth Habit of Highly Effective People.”
I then discovered the secret to organizing
knowledge for easy access; kind of like a
library management system in your head.
I do this with a concept map. When I learn
something, I link that knowledge to a concept
or even a feeling. Then, when I’m introduced
to a similar concept in the future, the
knowledge appears in my mind automatically.
This works for me, and is particularly useful
for recalling information needed in impromptu
meetings or speaking engagements. It works
for me much like Martin Lindstrom showed
us last year, that our sense of smell recalls
vivid memories that were originally linked to
a particular smell. (By the way, I was the guy
in the audience last year who remembered
the design of the Play-Doh logo simply from
the smell of Play-Doh!) Maybe I’ve stumbled
on a similar intellectual sense that has the
cataloging power to organize knowledge?!

Talent
It’s one thing to have knowledge, but to use
it in the right situation with the right attitude
under fire requires talent. While knowledge
is static and mostly learned from the outside,
talent is active and is honed through practice
and constant application. We think of talent
as public speaking, interpersonal skills,
memorization or quick-thinking. While these
are talents, I suggest that they are really only
symptoms of a personal commitment to the
principles of humanity within our soul. Similar
to the way the Equal Rights Amendment
is a symptom of the principles of humanity
recorded in the Declaration of Independence.
Our soul’s commitment is known only to us
through a deeper, more intrusive index of
our hearts. What others see as talent in our
public lives, is sprung and governed from the
principles of the truth that we stand for in our
secret lives. Therefore, talents are a natural
result of inward excellence. Lastly, while
knowledge mingled with talent work hand
in hand in our personal interactions, both
should be indistinguishable from the other
when we project them in our public lives.
This (Knowledge + Talent) factor is at the
basis of all great brands. It gives power to
create stories that stick…which is where
Chip and Dan Heath’s book begins. There
is a naturally created energy that resonates
with our humanity when we are smitten
with a brand that we love. Maybe it’s
because as humans, we want to be like
great brands: simple, surprising, concrete,
credible, emotionally engaging with the
ability to tell a compelling story. We can do
all of these, but to sustain a sticky attitude,
we need our foundation to be strong.

Your Sticky Attitude
I once heard of someone characterized
as having a thirst for knowledge and an
infectious zeal…a sticky attitude. I can’t think
of two better qualities for either people as
individuals or brands as entities. What do we
know? How do we project that knowledge?
Are we living in the realm of constraints or
possibilities? Are we true to the integrity of
our soul or someone else’s idea of it? What
story are we telling and how enthusiastic
are we in its telling? Are people following
us or our brand with a religious fervor? Are
we giving them something to believe in? A
sticky attitude, a zeal for what we know and
what we do will infect others with our ideas.

Success = (Knowledge + Talent) x Sticky Attitude
Building a brand or a reputation is achievable
with this formula. To be successful do this:
import knowledge, mingle it with your talent
and multiply those two together by projecting
a sticky, memorable attitude. You cannot
effectively apply knowledge without the right
talent. And you must be just as concerned
about developing your talents as you are
about gathering knowledge…without either,
the other is empty. From there, your attitude
must be memorable and it must be sticky.