117: Tim Urban – Using Procrastination to Perform A Ted Talk & Befriend Elon Musk

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Ryan Hawk

Careers, Business, Management

4.9 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2016

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Episode 117: Tim Urban – Using Procrastination to Perform A Ted Talk & Befriend Elon Musk

Listen carefully to both the beginning and the end of this conversation. Tim Urban is one of the most thoughtful leaders that I have ever met. As a listener I found Tim to be patient and thoughtful in his responses to my questions, sometimes taking a minute or so before his point came across. Genuinely, I loved that about him. Be prepared for an incredibly funny, yet insightful conversation on The Learning Leader Show.

Tim Urban has become one of the Internet’s most popular writers. With wry stick-figure illustrations and occasionally epic prose on everything from procrastination to artificial intelligence, Urban's blog, Wait But Why, has garnered millions of unique page views, thousands of patrons and famous fans like Elon Musk. (Bio from Ted.com)

Episode 117: Tim Urban – Using Procrastination to Perform A Ted Talk & Befriend Elon Musk

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The Learning Leader Show

“Life is like a white canvas. Most people paint in white. White paint on white canvas. You don’t even notice them. The people who paint in different colors make things happen. They lead. You notice them.”

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

Doing something that makes a splash… Changing what others do, continuing to reinvent yourself leads to sustained excellence
Seth Godin has a great knack for constantly reinventing himself because he’s always searching and noticing
How writing about a number of different topics helps you learn
7 Ways to be insufferable on Facebook
The secret (not really) to getting 4,000 people to pay you for your blog content
Getting invited to the main TED conference
The pain of coming up with a topic for his TED speech
The imposter syndrome… Feeling like he didn’t belong with the other TED speakers
The process for writing and delivering a world class TED talk
How Elon Musk became a fan of Tim’s work
Getting a phone call from Elon and discussing how they could work together
Humility and confidence are the qualities of great learning leaders
The opposite of arrogance… Having an open mind and being humble is the definition of a learning leader

“One of the few things I feel like an expert on is procrastination.” – Tim Urban

Continue Learning:

Go To: WaitButWhy.com
See Why Over 70,000 People Follow Tim on Twitter: @waitbutwhy
Read: The Elon Musk Blog Series
To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12

You may also like these episodes:

Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector W/ Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks

Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon

Episode 082: Dan Pink – The Science of Motivation, Legendary Writer & Ted Talk

Episode 086: Seth Godin – How To Become Indispensable & Build Your Tribe

Episode 107: Simon Sinek – Leadership: It Starts With Why

Did you enjoy the podcast?

If you enjoyed hearing Tim Urban on the show, please don’t hesitate to send me a note on Twitter or email me.

Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell

Bio From Ted.com

What others say:

With “Wait But Why,” Tim Urban demonstrates that complex and long-form writing can stand out in an online wilderness choked with listicles and clickbait.

“Wait But Why has captured a level of reader engagement that even the new-media giants would be envious of.” — FastCompany, 2015

Transcript

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0:14.4	Everyone feels like a fraud. No one is actually that awesome at anything. I mean it's like you know and and so I'm there with all these people who are much more experienced speakers a lot of them or just ratter people like the founder of Airbnb or the guy who discovered the largest known dinosaur or someone who's you know done you know 2,000 talks and I
0:19.2	and you find out that they are just as nervous because they're just people too and they're all insecure also and it's just nice to be able to remind yourself of that so that you don't get in your own head about being insecure when it really doesn't it's not actually based on reality
0:33.5	to be you know to feel that way.
0:35.8	Our leaders born or are they made.
0:38.2	Our host Ryan Hawk believes that leaders can be made through determined
0:42.1	focused work on learning the art and science
0:44.7	behind the makeup of other successful leaders.
0:47.7	Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success.
0:51.0	You're listening to the Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Hey everyone it's Ryan wanted to make a quick announcement a number of you had
1:06.5	sent me emails in regards to asking for a place to further this dialogue with
1:11.9	like-minded people, other listeners, fans and
1:14.9	friends of the Learning Leaders Show. So I set up a group on Facebook it's
1:19.1	Facebook.com slash groups slash learning leader. it's a closed group but if you'd like an invite
1:26.0	simply shoot me a quick note and I'd be happy to bring you into the group this is a
1:30.1	place where we can freely communicate and discuss leadership, learning, creative
1:35.2	ideas, podcasting, and new and innovative ways of thinking a place where we could potentially
1:40.0	argue a little bit, have an open mind, and have constructive dialogue.
1:44.6	I've loved the early response from the people who are already in the group, but simply
1:49.4	send me a note.
1:50.4	I'll add you to it.
1:51.6	I look forward to talking with more of you very soon.
1:54.0	Hey and welcome to the Learning Leader Show I am Ryan Hawk.
	...

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