The Discipline of Finishing: Conor Neill at TEDxUniversidaddeNavarra

Summary

In this compelling speech, the speaker explores the idea of investing in people by assessing their long-term potential. He draws on Warren Buffett’s criteria—integrity, energy, and intelligence—as key factors for success. The speaker uses the Marshmallow Test to illustrate the importance of self-control and strategic decision-making. He emphasizes the significance of aligning one's actions with their values, documenting life experiences, and taking incremental steps towards goals. The core message is to invest in oneself, cultivate these qualities, and live a life true to one's values to achieve success and fulfillment.

Takeaways

• 🤔 The importance of choosing wisely: The speaker emphasizes the significance of selecting the right person to invest in, using the metaphor of Warren Buffett's investment strategy.
• 🎯 The power of decision-making: Warren Buffett's success is attributed to his daily decision-making process, specifically his ability to choose whom to 'bet on'.
• 📚 The Marshmallow Test: Introduced as a psychological test that predicts future success in various aspects of life, including wealth and relationships.
• 👶 Self-control at a young age: The Marshmallow Test highlights the ability of children to delay gratification as a strong indicator of their future success.
• 🚫 The lesson of willpower: The speaker suggests that willpower is not about avoiding temptation but about not putting oneself in a position where willpower is tested.
• 💪 Warren Buffett's criteria: The speaker outlines three criteria used by Warren Buffett for making decisions about whom to invest in: integrity, energy, and intelligence.
• 🔑 Integrity as the foundation: Integrity is highlighted as the most important criterion, with the speaker suggesting that without it, energy and intelligence can be dangerous.
• 🏃‍♂️ Energy as health and action: The second criterion, energy, is described as a combination of good health and a propensity for taking action rather than overthinking.
• 🧠 Adaptive intelligence: The third criterion, intelligence, is not about academic smarts but about the ability to adapt and make quick decisions in various situations.
• ✍️ The tool of writing: Writing down ideas and experiences is presented as a method to accumulate and reflect on one's intelligence over time.
• 🏋️‍♂️ High-performance mindset: The speaker shares insights from high-performance athletes, suggesting that focusing on small, achievable goals can lead to greater success.
• ⏰ Time as a measure of love and integrity: Allocating time to what truly matters is identified as a way to live with integrity and align actions with values.
• 🔄 The accumulation of small decisions: Success and failure are not determined by single actions but by the consistent pattern of decisions made over time.
• 🌟 Living fully in the present: The speaker concludes by encouraging the audience to live fully in the moment, align their actions with their values, and make the most of their lives.

Q & A

What is the central theme of the speech?

The central theme of the speech is about making a wise bet on a person's future success based on certain criteria, focusing on personal development and the importance of integrity, energy, and intelligence.

Who is the man in the picture mentioned in the script?

The man in the picture mentioned is Warren Buffett, who is known for his wealth and investment strategies.

What does Warren Buffett do on a daily basis according to the script?

According to the script, Warren Buffett makes one decision every day: whether or not to bet on a person, which has contributed to his success.

What is the Marshmallow Test and what does it measure?

The Marshmallow Test is a psychological experiment conducted on young children to measure their ability to delay gratification, which has been found to predict future success in various aspects of life.

What are Warren Buffett's three criteria for deciding to bet on a person?

Warren Buffett's three criteria are integrity, energy, and intelligence, with integrity being the most important.

What does the speaker suggest as a tool to maximize intelligence?

The speaker suggests writing things down as a tool to maximize intelligence, as it helps accumulate ideas and experiences over time.

What is the strategy high-performance athletes use to maintain their energy according to the speaker?

High-performance athletes maintain their energy by focusing on short-term goals, such as running for 15 minutes at a time or concentrating on the next stroke while swimming.

How does the speaker define integrity in the context of the speech?

In the context of the speech, integrity is defined as the alignment between what one's calendar shows they do and what they say they do, often involving saying 'no' to most things to stay true to one's values.

What is the significance of the marshmallow in the script's final analogy?

The marshmallow in the final analogy represents the small, daily decisions and temptations one faces. The speaker suggests not to focus on them individually but to make consistent good decisions over time.

What is the speaker's final advice for achieving success?

The speaker's final advice for achieving success is to make sure one's diary aligns with their values, to be fully present in every moment, and to consistently make good decisions and habits.

How does the speaker relate the Marshmallow Test to adult life and decision-making?

The speaker relates the Marshmallow Test to adult life by emphasizing the importance of making repeated, consistent good decisions and habits, as opposed to focusing on a single instance of willpower or self-control.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 The Bet on a Person's Future Success

The speaker begins by posing a hypothetical scenario where attendees must choose one person from the 200 they know best to invest in for life, receiving 10% of that person's earnings. The example of Warren Buffett is used to illustrate the importance of betting on people wisely. Buffett's success is attributed to his daily decision-making process on whom to invest in. The speaker then leads the audience to consider what criteria they would use to make such a choice, questioning the relevance of academic grades and friendships as indicators of future success.

05:02

🍭 The Marshmallow Test and Predicting Success

The speaker introduces the Marshmallow Test, a psychological experiment that has been found to predict future success in various aspects of life, including wealth and happiness. The test involves children choosing between eating one marshmallow immediately or waiting to receive two marshmallows later. The speaker explains that those who resist the temptation tend to have better outcomes in life. However, the Marshmallow Test is not suggested as a method for choosing whom to invest in, as it is more applicable to children. Instead, the speaker transitions to Warren Buffett's three criteria for evaluating people.

10:03

🔋 Energy, Intelligence, and the Importance of Integrity

Warren Buffett's criteria for investing in people are discussed, starting with 'Energy,' which encompasses health and a propensity for action. 'Intelligence' follows, but it is specified as 'adaptive intelligence,' the ability to respond effectively to immediate challenges. The third and most critical criterion is 'Integrity,' which is the foundation upon which the other two rest. Without integrity, energy and intelligence can be detrimental. Integrity is defined as the practice of saying 'no' to most things to align one's actions with one's values. The speaker emphasizes that these three traits have served Buffett well in his investments.

15:04

✍️ Documenting Life and Maximizing Personal Potential

The speaker suggests practical tools for enhancing one's intelligence, energy, and integrity. For intelligence, the advice is to write down daily experiences and ideas to accumulate knowledge over time. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about the impact of writing daily since the age of 14. For energy, the speaker highlights strategies used by high-performance athletes to maintain focus and endurance by concentrating on short-term goals. Lastly, for integrity, the speaker recommends aligning one's diary or schedule with personal values to ensure that time is spent on what truly matters.

20:05

⏳ The Power of Consistent Decisions and Living Fully

The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of making consistent, good decisions over time, as opposed to relying on a single momentous choice. The Marshmallow Test is revisited to illustrate that life is a series of small decisions that add up to define success or failure. The speaker encourages the audience to make small, actionable changes in their lives to align with their values and goals. The message is to live fully present and engaged in one's life journey, with the hope that when asked in the future, the audience will have bet on themselves and maximized their potential.

Keywords

💡Integrity

Integrity, in the context of the video, refers to the alignment between what you say and what you do. It is highlighted as Warren Buffett's top criterion for success, emphasizing the importance of saying 'no' to most things to stay true to one's values. An example from the script is the emphasis on integrity being crucial to avoid becoming a danger to oneself and society.

💡Energy

Energy is described as a combination of health and a bias towards action. It is one of Warren Buffett's criteria for selecting successful individuals. The script illustrates energy through examples of people who recover quickly from illness and have a tendency to take action rather than overthinking. It signifies vitality and proactive behavior.

💡Intelligence

Intelligence in the video is not traditional academic intelligence but adaptive intelligence. This type of intelligence involves the ability to see patterns and make quick, effective adjustments. The example given is of someone avoiding a lamppost while running by making a small course correction, thus illustrating adaptive intelligence.

💡Marshmallow Test

The Marshmallow Test is a psychological experiment that predicts future success based on a child's ability to delay gratification. The script explains how children who resist eating a marshmallow for a promised reward tend to lead more successful lives. This test is used to illustrate the importance of self-control and delayed gratification.

💡Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett is a renowned investor known for his successful decision-making processes. In the script, he serves as a model for evaluating people based on integrity, energy, and intelligence. His approach to investing in people rather than ideas is a central theme, demonstrating how these criteria can lead to substantial success.

💡Bias to Action

Bias to Action refers to the preference for taking immediate action rather than prolonged deliberation. It is part of the energy criterion in Warren Buffett's framework. The script illustrates this with the example of people who take quick, decisive actions in their daily lives, reflecting a proactive approach.

💡Grades

Grades are mentioned as an inadequate measure of future success. The script argues that academic performance does not necessarily correlate with real-world achievements. This challenges the conventional wisdom that high grades are the primary indicator of potential, emphasizing instead personal traits like integrity, energy, and intelligence.

💡Writing Down

Writing down ideas and experiences is suggested as a tool to enhance intelligence. The script advises documenting daily thoughts and events to build accumulated knowledge over time. This practice is shown to significantly boost long-term intelligence and reflective thinking, as exemplified by the speaker's personal habit of writing daily since age 14.

💡High-Performance Athletes

High-Performance Athletes are used to exemplify the concept of energy and focus. The script references athletes like Josef Ajram and Kilian Jornet, who achieve extraordinary feats by breaking down their goals into manageable parts, such as focusing on the next 15 minutes or the next stroke. Their strategies highlight the importance of sustained energy and concentration.

💡T-I-M-E

T-I-M-E is how children spell 'love,' indicating that true commitment and priorities are reflected in how we allocate our time. The script uses this to emphasize the importance of aligning one's schedule with one's values, demonstrating integrity. The coherence between diary entries and personal values is crucial for genuine success and fulfillment.

Highlights

The concept of betting on a person's future success by investing in their potential.

Warren Buffett's approach to investing in people based on his daily decision-making process.

The Marshmallow Test as a predictor of future success in various life aspects.

The importance of self-control and delayed gratification as demonstrated by the Marshmallow Test.

Warren Buffett's three criteria for choosing whom to invest in: Integrity, Energy, and Intelligence.

Integrity as the most critical criterion, defining one's alignment with their values and commitments.

Energy as a combination of health and a bias towards action, contributing to success.

Adaptive intelligence as the ability to respond effectively to immediate challenges.

The significance of writing down ideas and experiences to accumulate intelligence over time.

High-performance athletes' strategies for maintaining focus and energy during endurance events.

The metaphor of dealing with life's challenges one 'marshmallow' at a time, emphasizing small, manageable steps.

Integrity in action through aligning one's diary with their values to ensure time is spent on what truly matters.

The accumulation of small decisions and habits over time as the determinants of success or failure.

The underestimation of what can be achieved in a year and the overestimation of what can be done in a day.

The importance of being fully present and experiencing every moment as a key to success and fulfillment.

Practical tools for maximizing one's intelligence, energy, and integrity in daily life.

The final call to action: to bet on oneself and to live a life of integrity, energy, and intelligence.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Rahul MS Reviewer: Alina Siluyanova

Who would you bet on?

Imagine you had the 200 people you know best in the world

sat in this room

and I gave you this deal:

you come, today, come up here to me,

you give me a 1,000 Euros and you give me a name,

and for the rest of that person's life

I will pay you 10% of everything they make, every month,

month after month, month after month.

Ten percent.

Who would you choose?

Imagine that; here in the room,

if you look around the faces you see in this room -

some good faces to bet on in this room -

but if you put the 200 people you know best from school,

from university, through family connections,

who of all the people you know,

would be the one person

that you would put on that paper and bring to me?

Who would you bet on?

I was asked this question 7 years ago.

The man in the picture is Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett at time is the richest man in the world.

Warren Buffett doesn't invent things;

Warren Buffett doesn't sell things;

Warren Buffett doesn't manage a company.

Warren Buffet takes one decision every day:

Would I bet on this person?

And the results would seem that he does this quite well.

But 7 years ago, when he asked this question to a 150 MBAs,

in my mind, 3 or 4 faces came to my mind.

Three or four faces.

And I hope as you're thinking about this now -

who would you bet on? - some faces come to your mind.

Some faces come to mind: people, that you know,

that if you had this bet to make, you choose them.

So, let's work a little bit on this.

If we're going to do this properly, we should put together a process.

The question:

What criteria would you use in making this decision?

What criteria is your mind already using

when it puts up a couple of faces in your mind's eye?

What are you looking for when you see in someone the capacity

to have a massive impact in the world?

I'm assuming you want to do this bet well,

because if you do it well,

you can use that money for a lot of good causes.

What criteria would you use?

Let's go through some ideas.

One idea: let's get the 200 people present in the room

to bring their grades from school and university,

and we put them in order from the best to the worst grade,

and we choose number one.

Good idea?

The really scary thing is if I asked a group of twelve-year-olds,

they would laugh at the idea.

Twelve-year-olds already see the grades in school is not the criteria.

What are the criteria we're using?

How about best friends?

Patchi, I'll choose you if you choose me.

Best friends! (Laughter)

Wonderful for friendship but a very dumb way to take this decision.

What criteria would you use?

What criteria is your mind already using

when it starts to put some ideas in your mind?

Who would you bet on?

So, if grades from school isn't it,

best friend isn't it,

what would you use?

Now, Warren Buffett takes this decision every day,

and Warren Buffett has 3 criteria.

But before I get into the 3 criteria of Warren Buffett,

I want to move to the world of psychology - I studied psychology -

and to this day, from the beginning of psychology,

there's one test that above any other tests in life

predicts future success on every measure:

wealth, quality of relationships, grades in school, length of relationships,

happiness measured on every scale whether qualitative or quantitative.

And the test is called the Marshmallow Test.

This here is a marshmallow.

The marshmallow test

can be conducted on children 3-4 years old.

The psychologist brings the child into the room and says,

"This is yours. This is yours to eat.

I need to leave the room for a couple of minutes.

When I come back, if it's still there, you'll get two."

And the psychologist leaves the room.

And the kid looks at the marshmallow.

It's his marshmallow!

You can do anything you want to it.

You can use it in any way you want.

So, 50% eat the marshmallow,

50%t don't eat the marshmallow.

And the 50% that don't eat the marshmallow

go on to lead lives that are qualitatively and quantitatively better

than the kids' that do eat the marshmallow.

But you can go and look at this on Youtube.

You can go and see

this experiment being carried out.

And what is most illustrative

is what the children do that don't eat the marshmallow.

The kids that eat the marshmallow,

do something similar:

they stare at the marshmallow,

they look at it.

The kids that don't eat the marshmallow -

and you can imagine 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds;

they are kind of obvious -

the kids that don't eat the marshmallow, they put their head in their hands,

they get up and they stare at the wall,

they look at their shoes.

Because at the age of 3,

they've already realized

how little power they have over themselves,

over their own nature.

And the lesson:

the diet fails in the supermarket,

not at home.

If I go to the supermarket and I buy a chocolate,

and that chocolate gets to my house,

my willpower might get me through one day,

it might get me through the end of the week,

it might get me to the end of the month,

I might last a year,

but one day something bad will happen:

I'll come home tired,

my willpower will not be there,

and I will eat that chocolate.

The marshmallow test -

the most powerful tool,

onto 3 and 4 year-old children

to determine the quality of their lives,

the rest of their life.

Now, marshmallows don't work on grown adults,

so I wouldn't recommend we use the marshmallow test

to make your decision of who you'd bet on.

Let's go back to Warren Buffett

and his 3 criteria,

the 3 criteria of Warren Buffett.

And Warren Buffett makes this decision pretty damn well:

60 billion dollars of net worth through deciding,

"Would I bet on this person or not?".

And if you look at the structure of a lot of his deals,

he takes 10% of all the future income of this person,

of this team, of this company.

And he has 3 criteria.

The second criteria of Warren Buffett:

Energy.

Energy is health and a bias to action.

Healthy people, people who don't get ill often,

people who, when they get a cold, they're back to work tomorrow

because they recover quick, they sleep well.

Bias to action:

people who have a tendency to take action over thinking about action.

Energy is about vitality and a bias to action.

The third criteria of Warren Buffett:

Intelligence.

But not chess intelligence,

not business school intelligence,

not sitting in a room for 4 years designing a strategy intelligence.

He's talking about adaptive intelligence.

When you're running down the street

and a lamppost is coming towards you,

adaptive intelligence is the intelligence to see the pattern,

see the lamppost coming and change your course just enough

that instead of taking it in the forehead

you take the blow in the shoulder and you keep moving.

So, number two: Energy.

Number three: Intelligence.

But without number one,

Warren Buffett and I would rather you were dumb and lazy.

Without number one you'll be a danger to yourself.

Without number one you'll be a danger to your family and to society.

Number one,

Warren Buffet's number one criteria.

Number two is Energy,

number three - Intelligence.

But without this those two are dangerous.

Number one is Integrity.

But integrity is that you say "no" to most things.

Integrity is really about an alignment

between what your calendar says you do and what you say you do.

And if you say yes to most requests,

if you can't think of the time you've said no in the last day, in the last week,

your life has been divided into thousands of little pieces

and spread amongst the priorities of other people.

So, to live an integral life,

to live a life true to your own values means that you say no very often.

Integrity, energy and intelligence.

Do they seem like good criteria?

Do they seem like good criteria?

They worked for Warren Buffett.

They seem like good criteria?

Would you use these criteria

in taking this decision,

in choosing the one person

to own 10% of all their future income?

These three seem like good criteria to me.

I'd use them,

I often use them.

They seem like good criteria.

Now, there's a person in this room

that without paying me a 1,000 Euro,

without doing anything different,

without raising your hand, without moving,

you own more than 10% -

you own 100%.

The person in this room that you don't have to pay money,

you don't have to go to me, you don't have to speak to anyone,

and you will own 100% of everything, month after month, after month.

So, I very much hope

that you each day work very hard

to maximize integrity, maximize energy

maximize intelligence.

Because if you'd bet on someone else for 10%,

I damn well hope you put everything you can

into maximizing these three in your own life.

And given that we got a few minutes,

how about some tools?

I'll leave you with some tools.

One tool to maximize your intelligence,

one tool to maximize your energy,

one tool to maximize your integrity.

And you can put these into action right now.

Intelligence: write stuff down.

If you write down ideas you've had today,

if you write down people you've met,

describe things that are going on,

6 months from now you won't be the intelligence of one moment,

you'll be the accumulated intelligence of 6 months of ideas,

6 months of things written down, 6 months of people's quotes.

When I was 14 years old my biology teacher made us write down

5 minutes everyday, whatever we wanted.

I remember day one, pen touched paper:

"This is stupid. What are we doing?"

Day two, again: "This is stupid. What are we doing?"

Day three: "He's still doing this!"

Day four:

"Strange thing happened to me on the way to school today..."

Day five:

"My brother said something to me this morning..."

I've written everyday of my life since I was 14 years old.

I know where I was every day of my life since I was 14.

I know what I was thinking,

I know what it felt like, I know who I was with.

Start writing down your life.

It's the most valuable resource you have - your own life.

But so few people take the time to document it.

Write your life down, describe the marshmallow.

Energy: high-performance athletes.

I've spent a lot of time over the last 5 years

interviewing the high-performance athletes of Spain:

Josef Ajram, Kilian Jornet, Miquel Suner.

Josef Ajram: 10 times he's competed in the Marathon des Sables.

Two marathons a day, 6 days across the Sahara.

And Josef tells me,

he finishes because he never thinks about more than 15 minutes ahead.

He runs for 15 minutes, he stops, has a drink,

another 15 minutes, another 15 minutes;

his mind never goes beyond 15 minutes.

He says, "Anybody can run for 15 minutes."

He's run the Marathon des Sables because he's never, ever, let his mind

see more than the next 15 minutes.

Miquel Suner swims

open water, without a wetsuit,

across the English Channel.

No wetsuit!

42 thousand strokes to leave the English coast over to France.

14-15 degree water; the cold seeping in with every stroke.

How does he do it?

Because his mind is never further than stroke, stroke, breath;

stroke, stroke, breath.

Hour after hour, swimming, but he's never allowing his mind

to go anywhere beyond "stroke, stroke, breath".

With the marshmallow:

deal with one marshmallow at a time,

one marshmallow at a time.

What's the next step?

Do not let your mind jump forward

and see the biggest thing.

Alpine climbers see the next inch.

Ranulph Fiennes - oldest man from Europe to climb Everest, failed 3 times.

On his last attempt his wife said to him:

"Ranulph, climb it like the horses."

He looked at her: "What do you mean like the horses?"

She's an animal trainer:

"Because a horse has no concept of the finish,

a horse runs until it collapses.

Climb Everest one step at a time.

Ask yourself one question: "Can I take one more step?"

"Yes!" - take it. "No!" - pause.

"Yes!" - take it, "Yes!" - take it."

And on one of those steps he stood on the summit.

Energy: deal with the next unit,

one marshmallow at a time, one marshmallow at a time.

Integrity.

Do you know how a child spells "love"?

How does a child spell "love"?

T-I-M-E.

This world is full of good intention,

but the way you see if an executive

really is behind an initiative,

you open their diary and you count the hours.

If you say your parents are important to you,

open the diary and show me the hours.

The coherence between a diary and your values

is where integrity begins.

And it's kind of horrific when you start to count,

when you start to look and start to become aware of where your time goes.

So little of my time really goes

to the things that I know and I mean to do.

So often I slip off into Facebook

and what was supposed to be a minute, is an hour, and then lunch comes.

But those minutes -

once you've started to get the minutes

dedicate to the things that matter -

And the trully important thing to remember

about the marshmallow test

is that there're hundreds, and thousands, and millions of marshmallows in your life:

hundreds of little decisions, minute after minute,

day after day that all sum up.

And success in life is not one massive good decision,

not one marshmallow not eaten;

and failure is not one marshmallow eaten,

or one poor decision.

Failure - is repeated bad decisions;

success - is repeated, consistent, good habits.

We so underestimate what we can achieve in a year

and so overestimate what we can achieve in a day.

A page a day - and you have a book in a year.

You'll never write a book in one day.

But this time, once you've started to dedicate the time right -

I had the privilege of spending a day with Kilian Jornet,

probably, Spain's top athlete, ultraman.

When I'd met him he'd just finished running the Lake Tahoe Rim Run:

288 kilometers,

and he ran it in 36 hours.

What the hell goes through a man's mind as he runs for 36 hours?

But when he runs,

do you know what the other competitors say about Killian?

"He looks like he's enjoying it."

The other runners are suffering and they're looking down -

Killian is running touching the leaves as he runs past,

smelling the smell of the forest,

feeling the feel of the track beneath his feet.

He runs for 36 hours because he's absolutely there,

his mind is nowhere else

but in the run, on the path, in the forests, feeling completely alive.

So, when you do get your diary to match up to your values,

getting your life 100% present

and experiencing every little piece,

is what took Killian to be number one in the world

in the hardest sport in the world.

So the lesson,

rule one for success -

and I brought a few for all of you to see if you can achieve it -

the rule for success:

when you have a marshmallow, don't stare at it.

The diet doesn't fail because of weakness of will,

the diet fails because the chocolate is there.

If you want to stop watching television,

take the batteries out of the remote.

If you want to do more exercise, put your running shoes next to the door.

It's small, small changes.

And when I come back, 5 years from now,

and I ask, "Who did you bet on?",

the answer that I want: [Spanish] myself.

When I come back 10 years from now,

the answer that I want is [Spanish] myself.

And 20 years from now, I want you to have written stuff down;

I want you to have dealt with one step at a time;

I want you to have made sure your diary aligns completely,

you say no to the things don't fit with what's important to you.

And 25 years, when I come back here, I will look out

on the most successful group of people,

because they've lived their lives fully.

Who would you bet on?

(Applause)