RICHARD ST. JOHN'S BLOG

Running Rio and into The 7-Continents Club

richard — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:41:43 +0000

Yesterday my wife Baiba and I ran the Rio de Janeiro marathon (26 miles/42 kilometers) and we are now officially in the 7-Continents Marathon Club. Interestingly, fewer people (338) have run marathons on all seven continents than have gone into space (499), or reached the top of Mt. Everest (2,249). I’m not sure which of these three groups is crazier. Here’s my story and it’s all about PUSH.

The Rio marathon was a beautiful course along the ocean, but very tough due to heat, humidity, and hills. The important thing was to finish and get into the 7-Continents Club, not to run a fast time, so I just cruised along.

Then at the halfway mark a quick calculation told me I might be able to finish in just under 4 hours (a lot slower than my best time of 2 hours, 43 minutes, but those days are over). Suddenly I had a new goal, but it could only be achieved by maintaining my current pace. Even a second slower per mile and I’d finish in over 4 hours.

No sooner had I set the goal, when along came big hills and windy sections and I was losing 15 to 30 seconds a mile. To make up for it, I had to run faster on the downhills, with the risk of pulling a leg muscle and blowing any chance of making it to the finish line and into the Club.

I just kept pushing and with 6 miles (10km) to go, it looked like an under 4-hour finish was still possible, but not easy, because at that point in a marathon all your energy reserves are gone and you “hit the wall.” It’s why cycling champion Lance Armstrong said running a marathon was “the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

It became a fight between mind and body. My legs kept saying, “This is agony. Slow down you idiot. Who cares if you finish in 3:59 or 4:01?” My mind countered with, “You’ll regret it if your finishing time is 4-something, and if you’d just pushed harder it could have been 3-something.”

My mind won the argument, I threw caution to the wind, pushed as hard as I could, passed hundreds of other runners who were limping or walking, and crossed the finish line in 3:59:56 – 4 seconds under 4 hours. Whew! Then I puked.

Apparently, running coaches used to have a bucket handy during practice and they would tell the runners, “If you don’t puke in the bucket, you haven’t pushed yourself hard enough.” Push is a big key to success at anything in life, including running all seven continents, and I guess I pushed hard enough yesterday.

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Info on 7-Continents Marathon Clubs. (May take a few weeks for my name to be added.)
sevencontinentsclub.com
icemarathon.com

It’s Nice to be Successful, and to be Successful be Nice

richard — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:19:49 +0000

To be successful, be “nice.” At least, that’s what I’ve found while interviewing many of the world’s most successful people. In my book, there are many examples of how the big names, like Quincy Jones and Martha Stewart, were very nice to me. Yes, even Martha. It’s almost like; the bigger the name, the nicer the person – and it happened again recently.

I was honored to be the only other business speaker chosen by the largest bank in Norway to give a talk along with Richard Branson, at a private VIP event for top CEOs and highest-level government ministers. I was staying in a nice, small boutique hotel in Oslo, and the night before the event I was on my way down to the lobby, in the tiny elevator, when the door opened at another floor. Thinking it was the lobby, I started to rush out – and bumped face-to-face into Richard Branson.

Stepping back, startled, I blurted out “Oh…Hi!” Also surprised, he repeated “Oh, hi!” and laughed. We chatted a bit, I thanked him for the interview he had given me a couple of years ago, and then I said, “I’ll be the speaker before you at the bank event tomorrow.” Now, with the thousands of people he encounters, I’m sure he didn’t remember me, but he quickly replied, “Well, if I’m speaking after you, I hope I don’t disappoint the audience.” I searched for a hint of irony or humor in his face, but there was none. He was very sincere.

I replied, “You’re very kind, but people are coming to hear you, not me,” and as we said goodbye, I suggested that, since we’re both named Richard, the event should have been called, “Two Dicks Speak.” He laughed, and as he was whisked away to a TV interview, I thought about his comment and how it was another example of a big name being “nice.” Are they nice all the time? Probably not. They’re human. But, being nice is all about serving others. And “Serve” is one of the eight traits that lead to their extraordinary success.

Life is an ongoing experiment

richard — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:17:30 +0000

Life is more fun if we look at it as an ongoing experiment. We try a lot of stuff. We succeed sometimes. We fail sometimes. One thing leads to another and we just keep learning and moving forward. Then, just when we get it right, we die. But doing the experiment has been a hell of a lot of fun.

If you don’t want life to be boring…

richard — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:05:12 +0000

If you don’t want life to be boring, it helps to have too much to do. I want my gravestone to read: “He never finished his ‘To Do’ list!”

According to my wife, my gravestone should read: “My research says I’m dead.”

Be UN-privileged

richard — Mon, 24 May 2010 17:23:07 +0000

These days, some people are under-privileged while others are over-privileged. But if you want to succeed, it’s better to be UN-privileged. In other words, don’t rely on privilege for your success.

If you were born into an over-privileged life, don’t think, “I’ve got it made.” There are too many examples of people who led a privileged life and had everything given to them, but never achieved anything. They sat back in their comfort zones and didn’t learn the 8 traits that really would help them succeed.

On the other hand, if you find yourself in under-privileged circumstances don’t sit back thinking, “I’ll never be able to get anywhere, so there’s no sense even trying.” There are too many examples of successful people who started out under-privileged, with absolutely nothing. But they didn’t let it stop them and they developed the eight traits that took them to the top.

Reaching success is all about doing what will really take you there – and being privileged, whether it’s under-privileged or over-privileged, just gets in the way. So be UN-privileged.

The First Class Seat From Hell

richard — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:23:56 +0000

I’ll be giving a talk in England next week and flew over yesterday. The back of the plane arrives at the same time as the front, so I usually book economy class (being frugal is one thing that makes millionaires). However, to my surprise, the airline gave me a free upgrade to first class. Then the dilemma became, how do I explain this one to my wife Baiba? We usually fly economy, and she kids me that I probably go first class when I fly alone. So here’s the email I sent her:

Dear Baiba

A terrible thing has happened. As I boarded the plane, I heard my name being called and they informed me that I was being upgraded to first class. Yes, I tried to fight it, but they insisted.

It’s been horrible. I mean, I’ve wasted so much time with all the gadgets in this private seat pod. It took me half an hour just to figure out how to make the seat recline into a bed, let alone get the back massage function working. Whoops, excuse me, “Yes, more champagne, please. And more exotic nuts!”

They just keep nagging me to eat, eat, eat. First, a hot baguette, herb omelette, and fresh fruit breakfast. Then non-stop bowls of mixed nuts. Then I had to choose between black cod, butter chicken, steak, or wild mushroom lasagna. All these decisions distracting me from work! And I’ve eaten so much I feel totally bloated. I yearn to be back in economy with stale sandwiches and a snarly flight attendant yelling, “No we don’t have peanuts!”

And this damn seat pod has so much room that my stuff is all over the place and I can’t find anything. Wait, I just have to adjust the personal reading light on the wall beside me. There that’s better. With all these interruptions for technology and food, it’s just sooo difficult to work. I’m going to complain about this involuntary upgrading and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Especially if you’re with me. I mean, you would be stuck in your own little seat pod by yourself, playing with all these gadgets, and totally heartbroken that you’re not beside me.

At last the plane is landing! Now I can get out of this hell hole. And to add insult to injury, because I’m a premium passenger I have to go quickly through fast-track customs clearance in seconds, rather than standing in a long lineup and being able to chat for hours with the nice, real people from economy class.

Will it never end!

Love
Richard hic…burp!

Congratulations Helen Upperton!

richard — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:26:00 +0000

Last night I was glued to the Olympic women’s bobsleigh races as Upperton and Brown won silver, and Humphries and Moyse won gold. The two teams made history as the first Canadian women to win Olympic medals in women’s bobsleigh. I cheered for them all as they stood on the podium, and especially Helen Upperton.

Helen’s sister Louise used to work for us, and one day she brought her “little sister” into the office to help out for a few weeks. Helen typed some of my research and interviews about success and we discussed them as she did office chores. She loved athletics, but was still trying to figure out what to do with her life. After she left, Louise kept telling us what she was up to, and one day exclaimed, “Helen is going to try bobsled racing.” She had stumbled into it when a friend suggested it, not even realizing that women participated in the sport. She discovered she loved it, but it has been a long haul with many disappointments. In the last Olympics she came fourth and missed getting a medal by 5 one-hundredths of a second. Imagine! Here’s part of an email Helen sent out at the time, four years ago:

“Helen Upperton”
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006
Subject: Sigh!!!! It’s over…

Hi everyone,

Well, It’s done. It came and went in a whirlwind of emotion, adrenaline, excitement, fear, disappointment, joy…basically everything you could imagine. At first I was so happy. We just came 4th at the Olympic games. This is so amazing. And then it started to dawn on me…I missed a medal by 5 one-hundredths of a second…I couldn’t believe it. I was so sad. I stood and watched the other teams get their flowers and stand on the podium, and thought that it was almost me. So close… Sigh.

Hels

Well, Hels, now it is you. You persisted through the downtimes, worked hard, practiced like crazy, stood on the podium and made history. Wow! A big congratulations!

Updated – 8 To Be Great Wallpaper Series – Free Downloads

elliot — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:04:55 +0000

I’d like to thank Tony Donnes for an idea. He sent me an email saying he’s a lecturer at a community college in Hawaii and he shows my TED talk video to his students. He also said, “I took the last slide of your TED lecture, turned it into a JPG image, and made it the wallpaper of my iPod touch, which I use as my ‘external brain.’”

That got us thinking, why should people have to go to all the trouble of putting together wallpaper images themselves. Let’s just provide free wallpaper downloads of the top 8 factors that lead to success. (Sound of trumpets) Da dum! And here they are. Now you can easily put the 8 To Be Great on your mobile device or computer – little reminders to help guide you on your own journey to success. Thanks again, Tony!

We have designed and formatted our 8 To Be Great graphics into four popular sizes for your computer and/or mobile devices. Select the one that’s most suitable. We also have posted two designs of the 8 To Be Great poster for you to print out. Use the share button to forward them to your friends. Send us photos of your device with 8 To Be Great wallpaper on the screen, or the poster on a wall, and we’ll post some of them on this blog.

WALLPAPER

iPod Touch/iPhone

BlackBerry Bold 9700/Tour/Curve 8900

POSTER

DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS:

A) For iPod Touch/iPhone

1) Download and right click on the image and select “Save Image As.”

2) Go to iTunes and sync the image to your device in the Photos section.

3) On your device, go to “Settings” > “Wallpaper” and save as wallpaper.

B) For BlackBerry Bold 9700/Tour/Curve 8900

1) Download and right click on the image and select “Save Image As.”

2) Connect your BlackBerry to your computer, go to “My Computer” and save the image to the memory card.

3) On your BlackBerry, go to “Media” > “Pictures” > “Set As Wallpaper.”

C) For HTC Touch Pro2/HD2

1) Download the image on your smartphone.

2) Go to "Settings" > "Home" > "Use this file as the background" > Select the image.

D) For Mac/PC

1) Download wallpaper of your choice: (A) 1280 x 800 (MacBook/MacBook Pro 13″) screen size or (B) 1024 x 768 screen size.

2) Right click and select “Set As Desktop Background.”

E) For Twitter

1) Download wallpaper. Right click and select “Save Image As.”

2) Go to your Twitter profile and then select “Settings” > “Design” > “Change Background Image.”

F) Posters

1) Download poster of your choice: (A) Poster with white background in JPEG or PDF format or (B) Poster with black background in JPEG or PDF format. For JPEG, right click and select “Save Image As.”

2) Select "File" > "Print" and print to your colour printer.

If Pigs Could Fly

richard — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:19:48 +0000

Every once in awhile a bad pun pops into my head. Here’s the latest:

There’s an old saying: “If pigs could fly.”
Well, it has finally happened. A swine flu.

I Passed the Audit

richard — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:30:30 +0000

I’d like to thank the Institute of Internal Auditors for their warm reception last week when I gave the opening keynote speech at their All-Star Conference “The Best of the Best,” at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

Last year, I spoke at one of their IIA regional conferences in Atlanta, and even though the audience was terrific, I was very nervous. I mean, an auditor’s job is to analyze and evaluate, so I felt like everything I said was being scrutinized and judged by a room full of experts.

When the evaluations came back, I was relieved to see that I not only passed the audit, they rated my presentation 3.93 out of 4 – one of the highest rankings of all the talks at their conferences. And they invited me back to give an encore presentation at last week’s “Best of the Best” event. Thank you again IIA, for the opportunity, the high marks, and the nice comments afterwards.

I usually do a crossword puzzle during the opening speeches, but not this time. Richard St. John’s talk was the best I’ve ever heard.
Robert M. Abisla, VP, Director of Internal Audit, Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston

The debate in the book signing line was whether Richard’s talk should be first or last. I said first, because he woke me up. It was really great. I wouldn’t want to be the speaker following him.
Joseph P. Lynch, Director of Internal Audit, Tetra Technologies