Ten Steps Ahead (How To Become A Visionary)
May 24th, 2011
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Why is it that visionaries such as Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Walt Disney seem to have extraordinary powers of ESP? Are they just born that way, or can vision be learned?
In Ten Steps Ahead: What Separates Successful Business Visionaries from the Rest of Us
One of my favorite examples is Richard Wiseman’s luck experiment. Using questionnaires and interviews, he determined whether his subjects considered themselves lucky or unlucky. He then gave them all a newspaper, and asked them to count the photographs. The “unlucky” people took two minutes to count them, while the “lucky” people took only a few seconds. Why?
Because the “unlucky” people missed the huge message on page 2 that said, “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.” They didn’t see the half-page message in 2-inch high type because they were too busy counting.
His explanation: “Unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner, and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and as a result miss other types of jobs. Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.”
Anyway, if you want to learn why visionaries have an uncanny ability to see and shape where the world is heading, read this book.
May 24th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Perhaps this as a personal flaw, or I’d be considered a statistical abnormality… I’d likely notice the directive and still count the photos…
I put this experiment in the same category as the one that purportedly teaches kids how to follow instructions by having a set of numbered instructions where 1 says “Read every instruction first” and then the 19th say “Do only instructions 1 and 2 and then turn over your paper.”
The flaw being that one should read all of the instructions and then complete all of the instructions – in what world should instruction 19 be completed before instructions 1-18?
After reading the luck article, I remain unconvinced;-)
I might have continued counting photographs, but I wasn’t faced with the experiment (And I also wouldn’t self select myself for an experiment by deciding that I was lucky or unlucky…) But – If I saw “Stop counting. Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win £250.”, I would have done that;-)
Of course I don’t consider myself average either…
Thanks for the review!
steve
May 26th, 2011 at 1:27 am
@ Steve, we had something like that in sixth grade. Step 1, read all the instructions before doing anything…Step 19, ignore the other steps and just enjoy the summer. We didn’t argue with the logic back then. We were just thrilled that we didn’t have to do all those things!