George Silverman, Author, The MindSkills Playbook
I have had several successful careers: teacher, psychologist, marketing researcher, marketing and business consultant, author, speaker, coach, and I founded two successful companies and one large association. New writing The MindSkills Playbook, published as a "live" book which people can watch me write and participate in. I've lived a great life. I was just trying to give back.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
Twitter. More about serious ideas and engagement. LinkedIn with live audio. Friendlier atmosphere.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
I am interested in decoding and documenting the frameworks that I've learned from my mentors and invented myself for conducting a happy, successful life.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
What could be more fascinating than the workings of the human mind?
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Don't try to sell anybody anything. Just help them make the best possible decision. If your thing is it, fine. If not, also fine. I've sold many million-dollar programs that way.
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
The idea is that I'm leaving an important legacy for my grandchildren and the rest of humanity.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
The development of the MindSkills System, the invention of the Telephone Focus Group, Decision Easification, and my Books. Also, my daughter.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
It is on Twitter.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
Insatiable curiosity, the ability to dream big, an independent mind, tolerance of frustration and uncertainty. Thinking in fundamentals/first principles, essentializing, clarity of thought, continually questioning what I think I know. The ability to admit mistakes, creative laziness, and prioritizing skills over content knowledge.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
That intelligence is not important. It's the learned skills that count.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
Independent minds, acting out of self in cooperation with other individualists.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
Writing, magic (professional level), violin/classical music, windsurfing, sous-vide cooking, coffee roasting/blending, voracious reading, new ideas. Also, 58-year marriage to the most wonderful woman in the world, a daughter and four grandchildren.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you managed it?
Very positive effect. It made me focus on my legacy project, the MindSkills Playbook. The rebirth of Social Audio also lets me share the know-how I've gotten from moderating thousands of focus groups of high-level people.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever mentored anyone?
I have had over 50 mentors in my life, about a dozen live, the rest from reading their works and their biographies. Ayn Rand was a personal mentor. So, yes, I have mentored many people.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
Dream big, follow your curiosity, take wild but prudent leaps, acknowledge that the parts that are trying to hold you back are just trying to protect a younger, more vulnerable you, thank them, and ask them to stand aside.
Don't work hard: Find the easier, more creative way. There is no virtue in hard work and expend useless energy. But, again, it comes from the growth, not pathology, model of psychology.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
They don't give up soon enough. Instead, they persist in pursuing what they don't really want. They fail to dream big and set things up so that even partially reaching the goal is a gigantic win. They don't use the principles of deliberate practice but just keep repeating their mistakes. They don't analyze and learn from their mistakes because they are too busy covering them up.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
"Often in error, rarely in doubt." Lee Brown is one of my mentors.
"When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit." - Ayn Rand.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
Tesla, SpaceX, among others. Apple and Twitter for their design, not their censorship.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
Success is living your Big Dream, on your terms, from the moment you embrace it until the day you die.