3205: There's No Speed Limit by Derek Sivers on Personal Development & Self Improvement

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[00:01:31] This is Optimal Living Daily episode 3205

[00:01:35] There's No Speed Limit by Derek Sivers of Sivers. That's S-I-V-E dot R-S

[00:01:41] And I'm your narrator Justin Mollick, reading you articles every single day of the year, the best ones

[00:01:46] I can find and get permission from, all to help us both get a little bit more positivity,

[00:01:52] inspiration, and motivation into our day. We're going to get right to today's post as we optimize your life.

[00:01:59] There's No Speed Limit by Derek Sivers of Sivers. That's S-I-V-E dot R-S

[00:02:10] Whether you're a student, a teacher, or a parent,

[00:02:15] I think you'll appreciate this story of how one teacher can completely and permanently

[00:02:21] change someone's life in only a few lessons.

[00:02:25] I was 17 and about to start my first year at Berkeley College of Music.

[00:02:28] I called a local recording studio with a random question about music typesetting.

[00:02:34] When the studio owner heard I was going to Berkeley, he said,

[00:02:38] I graduated from Berkeley and taught there too.

[00:02:40] I'll bet I can teach you two years of theory and arranging in only a few lessons.

[00:02:47] I suspect you can graduate in two years if you understand there's no speed limit.

[00:02:52] Come by my studio at 9 o'clock tomorrow for your first lesson if you're interested. No charge.

[00:02:58] Graduate college in two years? Awesome. I liked his style. That was Kimo Williams.

[00:03:05] I showed up at his studio at 840 the next morning, super excited,

[00:03:09] though I waited outside before ringing his bell at 859.

[00:03:14] He opened the door.

[00:03:15] Tall man in a Hawaiian shirt and a big hat with a square scar on his nose,

[00:03:20] a laid-back demeanor and a huge smile sizing me up, nodding.

[00:03:26] Recently, I heard him tell the story from his perspective.

[00:03:28] He said, My doorbell rang at 859 one morning and I had no idea why.

[00:03:34] I run across kids all the time who say they want to be a great musician.

[00:03:38] I tell them I can help and tell them to show up at my studio at 9 o'clock if they're serious.

[00:03:44] Nobody ever does. It's how I weed out the really serious ones from the kids who just talk.

[00:03:50] But there was Derek, ready to go.

[00:03:53] After a one-minute welcome, we were sitting at the piano

[00:03:57] analyzing the sheet music for a jazz standard.

[00:04:00] He was quickly explaining the chords based on the diatonic scale,

[00:04:04] how the dissonance of the tritone in the V chord with a b7 is what makes it want to resolve to the I.

[00:04:12] Within a minute, he started quizzing me.

[00:04:15] Well, if the V chord with the b7 has that tritone, then so does another b7 chord. Which one?

[00:04:23] Uh, the b2 chord?

[00:04:26] Right, so that's a substitute chord.

[00:04:28] Any b7 chord can be substituted with the other b7 that shares the same tritone.

[00:04:34] So reharmonize all the chords you can in this chart. Go!

[00:04:40] The pace was intense and I loved it.

[00:04:43] Finally, someone was challenging me, keeping me in over my head, encouraging and expecting me to pull myself up quickly.

[00:04:51] I was learning so fast, it felt like the adrenaline rush you get while playing a video game.

[00:04:57] He tossed every fact at me and made me prove that I got it.

[00:05:03] In our three-hour lesson that morning, he taught me a full semester of Berkeley's harmony courses.

[00:05:09] In our next four lessons, he taught me the next four semesters of harmony and ranging classes.

[00:05:16] When I got to college and took my entrance exams, I tested out of those six semesters of requirements.

[00:05:23] Then as Kimo suggested, I bought the course materials for other required classes and taught myself

[00:05:29] doing the homework in my own time.

[00:05:32] Then I went to the department head and took the final exam, getting full credit for those courses.

[00:05:38] By doing this, in addition to completing my full course load, I graduated college in two and a half years.

[00:05:44] I got my bachelor's degree when I was 20.

[00:05:48] Kimo's high expectations set a new pace for me.

[00:05:52] He taught me that the standard pace is for chumps, that the system is designed so anyone can keep up.

[00:05:59] If you're more driven than most people, you can do way more than anyone expects and this principle applies to all of life,

[00:06:08] not just school.

[00:06:10] Before I met Kimo, I was just a kid who wanted to be a musician doing it casually.

[00:06:16] Ever since our five lessons, I've had no speed limit.

[00:06:20] I owe every great thing that's happened in my life to Kimo's raised expectations.

[00:06:27] A random meeting and five music lessons showed me that I can do way more than the norm.

[00:06:34] 20 years later, Berkeley invited me to give the opening keynote speech to incoming first-year students.

[00:06:40] You can go to Sivers slash Berkeley to see it.

[00:06:44] Kimo knows how much he means to me and we're friends to this day.

[00:06:49] You just listened to the post titled,

[00:06:54] There's No Speed Limit by Derek Sivers of Sivers. That's S-I-V-E dot R-S.

[00:07:00] And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:07:03] Thank you to Derek.

[00:07:04] The timing of this one is impeccable for me because just the other day,

[00:07:09] my family was having a discussion around my nephew's decision of which university to attend.

[00:07:16] And really it's coming down to which major because one of the schools doesn't offer business administration as a major.

[00:07:23] The closest would be business economics.

[00:07:26] But the advice that seemed to come up the most was really revolving around the teachers and subject matter.

[00:07:33] My brother, the host of Optimal Health Daily,

[00:07:36] happens to be a university professor and I was a business major myself who happened to change majors like four or five times.

[00:07:45] And we both were on the same page.

[00:07:47] We think what really matters most in college is

[00:07:51] getting as many classes you can that are the most interesting to you.

[00:07:56] The ones that actually have a chance that you'd read the course material for fun.

[00:08:01] That's not always the case, but often it is.

[00:08:05] Not the school that's in a better location or more well-known necessarily,

[00:08:10] but the one where the classes aren't painful to get through because if you can do that,

[00:08:15] the teachers will notice and the more the teachers notice, the more you'll enjoy school.

[00:08:20] And we think the more you'll succeed in whatever it is you choose to do next.

[00:08:25] Now you might not be able to find a chemo like Derek did,

[00:08:30] but you'll be much closer if you love the subject matter.

[00:08:34] Just my two cents on that. Thank you for listening and hopefully you enjoyed this one from Derek as much as I did.

[00:08:39] I hope you have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.