DICTATION

TED TALK _ Readers are Leaders | Phuong Anh Nguyen Ngoc

If I tell you right now that reading is good as you'll probably have

heard from years of growing up from your parents and from your

teachers.

Will you agree with me? Most likely right? Hu ht là ng ý úng không

So most of us know that reading is good for us.

So why is it that we aren't always carrying around a book with us

like we wanted something that's supposed to be good for us.

Well I'm really not here to criticize you for not doing so.

I myself think that not everybody has to do that to prove your love of

reading.

Let me tell you about my experience with reading.

Growing up I've always loved it I used to read magazines, fairy tales,

comic books back when I was a kid

Back in secondary school, I would read novels and science books.

Then came the peak of my so-called reading career in grade 7 where

dinh cao cua...

I was doubling up the quantity of books that I was reading and at the
s lng, quality: cht lng

same time I became extremely selective in what I read.

Actually to tell you the truth, being selective in what I read is just a

fancy way to cover up the real thing that happened back then was

just me wasting a lot of time questioning whether or not I should pick

up a book.

Let me just describe to you exactly what was happening back then.

I.. stood in front of a stack of books like this and I would think well if I

read this book. Is that going to help me solve my homework?

GONNA

No? That I'm not going to read it.

GONNA
And I call that being selective because I thought that was good but

eventually I realized that I was not being productive at all.

FINALLY

And I started asking myself “Why?”

Because I was doing something that was supposed to be good which

l ra

was being selective but then I ended up wasting time instead of

actually getting any reading done.

So after years of observing and you know reflecting on what I did

quan sát phn ánh

back then.

I have come to notice something in teenagers that I would like to call

ch ngha hoài nghi

the skepticism in the power of reading.

So what is skepticism in the power of reading to me?

I would like to define my definition of skepticism in Reading as having

doubts in the process of reading or think of reading as a means to

solve an immediate problem.

So for this type of skepticism of reading or over practical approach to

reading I classify these people into 2 types.

The first type are the people who never really give reading a chance

because they cannot possibly think of how reading and help them in

any way.

The second type of people are those I've actually had fierce beliefs

in the power of books but after not seeing themselves getting instact

result they give up and their belief is shattered into strong disbelief.

For both of these types there are some mindset shifts that they're

going to have to make in order to break free from these limiting beliefs

about books.

Now let us get started with the first type: The over practical,
These people are those who spend time sitting to convince

themselves that reading cannot possibly help them get better in any

way.

They cannot see how reading this book is going to make their lives

immediately better.

For example, if I'm having really difficult math homework and reading

this book is not going to help that I'm not going to do it, that is the

mindset of people in Type 1.

Now if you ask these people if they think reading is good.

They're really like to say yes that they do you think that reading is

good.

But easier said than done

They only look at the short-term benefits of reading which is how it's

going to benefit them today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to

which they did not see any possibility of what they read changing

anything.

Don't get me wrong though.

These people are not lazy.

In fact on the bright side, there maybe someone who is extremely

result-oriented and particular with what they spend their time on

However as they think of reading as a means to solve an immediate

problem or simply consider it as temporary motivation.

They start questioning the process of reading if it doesn't actually

help them for example to solve their homework.

I have been in this position to be honest with you.

And while you may think that well why is it so hard to convince these

people to maybe just give reading a chance.

It's really not that easy

Let me just play it out how a conversation with this type of person

would go.

You would tell them:

- Why is it so hard just to try reading to see if it works for you?”

Then with their super logic would say:

• Would you study Literature to get better at Math?

Obviously, you're not going to study Literature to get better at Math

right?

And that is their logic.

“If it doesn't help me solve my homework help me get better at school

immediately. Why should I waste hours on it?”

So now, moving on to the next type which is the disbelievers.

These people are as interesting as in they used to have strong beliefs

in books.

They used to be the ones like me standing here right now telling you

that reading is good.

But the thing is after reading several times and not seeing themselves

turning into a Geniuses overnight.

They give up.

They lose their motivation.

So for this type of people, the problem really isn't with their

expectations for results because as Leaders we should always

expect an outcome to come out of everything that we do.

The problem is with their degree of expectations that they srt for the

results.

When you read something and you expect results to come overnight.
The reality doesn't turn out that way.

It can be extremely discouraging and even frustrating.

So therefore no matter how strong your initial belief in books were.

You eventually just stop believing in them and then you refuse by

what you consider a package of waste of time and energy along with

a complimentary gift of disappointment ever again.

And that's how we arrived at the second type of people:

Now, for both types there are some realizations that they are going

to have to make in order to break themselves free from these limiting

beliefs.

The problem with type one is that they limit themselves to only what

they think can happen.

For example, if I'm reading this book I need to know exactly how it's

going to benefit me and I need to see that scenario.

But really, among the many things that we can predict.

What happens to us?

Failure and especially opportunity is not one of them.

You should not be overly worried about how what you mean today

will benefit you tomorrow and be overly attached to how exactly that

will play out.

Because we don't know.

I know that right now you have the energy, the time, the curiosity to

learn.

I don't know if that also holds true for the future.

Back when I was having this problem as well.

There was a story that really inspired me to maybe step out of my

comfort zone to test this Theory out.

It's a story about Steve Jobs I came across.

So we know who is Steve Jobs is right?

Hello iPhone users.

He is the CEO and Founder of Apple.

And I mean this guy we all know that he is really good right?

He graduated from Stanford.

He is one of the geniuses that we know.

We know that he runs Apple so basically he does what has to do with

information technology and business.

So we would expect a person like this to be stuffed with knowledge

from business books and books on IT.

But back in University he took a calligraphy class just for fun.

So what is Calligraphy?
Basically to put simply the Art of writing fancy letters that you can see

in cards and birthday cards you know what I was talking about.

He took it just for fun.

and broccoli for me I would never imagine away pillow graffiti you

would help with someone who is doing business and information

technology and maybe he didn't know how that would help either but

eventually his knowledge on calligraphy the knowledge that he took

from that calligraphy class came into you when he was designing the

interface this story really inspired me to maybe try out and stop

doubting so much of whether or not but I am learning now will come

to you in the future and I have now I've come to learn that every single

piece of know is that you are taking in will come back to help you out

at one point your life especially any delays expected that is why you
should stop talking so much about whether or not you should learn

something be selective with your time but don't be so doubtful that

you're wasting your energy on it there's this quotes from the book

The course to be disliked by Ichiro kissing me and let me talk to Cota

that I really love it is about the future as you can see on this light right

here lies the lies ahead of you is a completely blank Peach and there

is no trap has been laid out for you to follow there's no Authority there

I don't want you to be overly obsessed with how the future will play

out that you waste so much of your present time doubting instead of

being productive I want you to be worried about opportunities not

coming to question that I want you to ask yourself is Wendy's

opportunities that you want come are you going to are you going to

be prepared for them now moving on to the second type these people

are those who disbelieve in both just because the fence is not come
overnight and they fail to realize that no I also have my personal story

with this back and grade eight I was kind of bad at math there was

this geometry test where it's going pretty slow I didn't like that at all I

came home I found a Geometry book that I would read and I said to

myself to become two years immediately next week the following

week there was a test I didn't return it was a lot better I came home

and I was like it what you see obviously you getting this book is not

going to help because I wasn't even reading on the topic that was

doing at school back then that's just rude aside and told myself that

you know by 5 if I just don't come to extra reading it doesn't help well

life really love throwing surprises out us write the following semester

at school we did every single thing that I had previously read on now

it took me an entire semester of what I rather be useful and it could

have been any time frame 3 months 6 months even a year don't set
your expectations too high on realistic think of meeting at the process

of layering a knowledge-building layer after layer until you're

incompetent enough that opportunity start coming to you I've heard

the saying oh no I don't exactly remember where I heard it when your

competence and know what you want opportunity the people the net

worth they will all start coming to you your job is not to predict your

job is to get yourself prepared and ready to take those opportunities

when they come to you now you may find yourself in one of these

two times I talked about maybe you are just hesitating a lot to pick up

a book because you cannot convince yourself how it's going to help

you or maybe you have a strong belief in them but eventually you get

disappointed because they didn't give the results as fast as you

expected the solution I would like to propose here for you the first

and hardest thing that you are going to have to do is to shift your
mind says you need to shift your mindset from the mindset of melting

questioning and over worrying about the future the mindset of

learning and focusing on the task at hand which is reading when

you're too busy focusing on doubting and questioning which isn't

really productive you're going to miss out on a lot of knowledge that

you should be a firing from reading now if you're comfortable with the

idea of doing a lot of seemingly irrelevant reading then you can start

small give us all the time frame of maybe three or six months and

then every month include a book that is off the topic that you have

never read on the four start with something that may be relevant to

you may be starting something that is in the field of study you intend

to go for later then every month just trying to step out of your comfort

zone as you go along pick a book of a feel that you've never tried

before I'll something that you've always been interested in but I have
nothing to do with you I want you to think of this as stepping out of

your comfort zone you don't know if what I'm saying is true or not and

I do not encourage anyone to blindly believe the words of someone

until you've actually experienced that yourself but I would like to invite

you to try this and see if it works for you maybe you'll find that reading

is actually great and you regret not having started earlier or maybe

you would just want to confirm that I'm not telling the truth at all and

it doesn't work for you either way you're not going to regret how he

thinks out the answer because this is something out of your comfort

zone to try out something that you've never tried before this is

seeking the quest the answers for the questions that you have and

that is what leaders do they have to seek the answers for the

questions that nobody else has the chorus to go feed for either way

you doing something to test it out into the unknown Let me know if
your comfort zone is really recognizable already but if you're the one

who is holding yourself back from receiving the benefits of reading

that it can bring it to you now is the time for you to step up from these

limiting beliefs and become the leader that you have the potential to

be thank you