Why doing new things is so hard
[Applause]
hello everyone
my name is alex wolfe and today i want
to talk to you about how you can do
things
no one around you is doing before i
continue with this talk
i want to acknowledge how large and
maybe strange a topic this is
what does it mean what even is there
that you don’t already have access to
and why should you try to pursue it the
answer is
there are an infinite number of things
to discover and no one has ever changed
the world without looking for them
that’s not to say that there aren’t
tremendously successful people
that just became good at something that
was naturally present in their lives
because of course those people exist i’m
simply saying
that every founder of every large
company every person to ever do
something innovative
one day decided that what is around them
wasn’t working and they changed it
today i’m here to tell you how you can
become one of those people
before that i’ll briefly tell you a
little bit about myself i was born in
town called sudbury in ontario
which is about five and a half hours
west of ottawa depending on how fast you
drive
i don’t have much else to tell you about
sudbury other than that it’s a pretty
small town
and like most small towns oftentimes
there’s not a lot going on there
i lived in sudbury for 16 years and for
most of that time
i was a really happy person i went to a
very safe and comfortable
elementary school where there was a
number of things that made my life easy
basically i didn’t worry about anything
like most people
i had things i wanted to accomplish but
i thought i could get there by just
staying on the path i was on this is
what i like to call
having your life tracked it’s where your
life is so simple
and relatively worry-free that you never
feel the need to ask questions or look
for new things
this is a really dangerous situation for
people that are capable and willing to
venture outside of what’s normal
for this reason i encourage everyone
listening today to take a few minutes
every day
and think about what you’re doing why
you’re doing it and if i’m describing
you right now
when i finally started high school i
kind of realized how big the world is
and how small a part of it i was i
decided that
the path i was on in life the best path
i had available to me
simply wasn’t working i didn’t want to
spend the remainder of my life in
suffrage
or even the next few years so i had to
figure out a way to break out of that
this idea has ultimately led me to ashby
this year and through this process
i’ve been able to develop a way of
thinking it’s helped me to do things
that no one around me is doing
i’ve condensed my process into a few
steps for you today
step one always be actively looking for
new things talk to different people
make more connections do everything you
can
and then look even further this is the
only way to discover make discoveries
and break out of your respective bubble
you need to realize that something
exists before you can make an effort to
become a part of it
and if you keep this up for long enough
one day you’ll discover something that
you really want to pursue
that you’re really passionate about and
suddenly it won’t matter what everyone
else is doing
for me the thing that led me to my big
breakthrough was joining my previous
school’s robotics club
it was seen as a really nerdy thing to
do at that school and it was frowned
upon
by a lot of the people i was associated
with it seems like such a simple thing
to do
but it was one of the most difficult
things i’d done because it was so
different from what my friends were
doing
and what i was doing up until that point
it was there though that i discovered
some of my greatest passions
and it ultimately changed my entire life
i didn’t listen to the people around me
and as a result i opened a whole new
world for myself
step two learn what it means to be
driven and learn how to learn
now that you’ve discovered something you
need to have the strength and the will
to pursue it
the more outside of what’s normal it is
the harder it will be and the less help
you will get from the people around you
in this case i wanted to learn computer
programming but i didn’t know
anyone who could help me and my school
had no way of helping me
it was a goal i had that was slightly
outside of what was normal in my life
and common for people in my situation
but i did have a tangible goal
i bought books i watched videos i took
courses i did everything in my power to
learn
and i was able to regress far further
than i had initially set out to
this small example shows that there’s
always a way to achieve a goal
even if it seems outside of what’s
possible for you always be thinking in
terms of
what can i do to make this happen and
make manageable progress every day don’t
compare yourself
to people living very different lives
from yours because there will
always be people in situations more
conducive to success
you have to keep this in perspective as
you move forward
step 3 always be thinking and
questioning and connect with new people
in your area of interest
once you’ve found something you want to
pursue and you’ve made some progress
you need to source up people you can
learn from if there’s no one around you
that does what you do
look elsewhere look anywhere in the
world expand your network of people
and gradually build your knowledge base
so that you’re always ready for that
next opportunity
that next piece of information that’s
going to change the way you think about
things
and open doors for example
this summer i was browsing through
linkedin when i saw a summer science
program that was going to run virtually
because of the coronavirus
the applications were due the next day
so i rushed to my computer and i worked
all day
on my essays and i submitted my
application
a bit later i was accepted and i agreed
to participate in the program
through this program i learned things
about data science artificial
intelligence
machine learning things so far outside
of what was happening
in my high school or anywhere around me
it was an exposure point
that allowed me to take what i was doing
in a totally different direction
and it opened doors that i hadn’t known
previously existed
so this is the mindset you need to be in
to do new things
it’s this funneling process of first
exploring finding
and then pursuing a goal that no one
around you shares
you need to be in a position to make
this goal possible
it will be difficult but with time you
can make any path available to yourself
a lot of experiences i’ve had and the
reason i’m a boarding student this year
a result of me overcoming my fear and
joining this club at my school
all it takes is one leap of faith one
step outside your comfort zone
to put yourself on the path to bigger
and better things
you don’t always need the people around
you to understand you you just need to
know
that stepping into uncharted waters is
hard but that with time
you can make anything available to
yourself thank you
you