Dr. Robert Cooper, a neuroscientist, shares three things entrepreneurs miss: taking deliberate pauses before important moments to avoid brain traps, designing a personalized system to protect your peak energy hours, and creating instant visual value through simple handwritten cards that show what makes you different in seconds.
Chapters
Sometimes when you make a small adjustment, that action can create and make a big difference. And Robert Kupert Chinot. As a neuroscientist and strategic advisor to CEOs, he sold over 4 million of his books and taught at the leading business school. So listen as he focuses on the three biggest opportunities entrepreneurs miss. Give it up for the very awesome Robert Cooper. Thank you, sir. Hey, thank you.
Good afternoon. We must become what we can become. My grandfather said to me when I was a young boy. And today the neuroscience has never been clearer. We have untapped capacity that we've never seen before. One big opportunity that entrepreneurs and leaders miss is what we call pre. For pre engagement. In the Art of War, Sun Tzu wrote, every battle is won or lost before it starts. That's pre. What you do before you start changes everything. But pre depends on recognizing that habits eat good intentions for breakfast. And your brain is not your friend. By hardwired nature, the brain misses pre because it compares itself to the best of what's common, not the best of what's possible. It forgets to aim it mistakes being busy for making progress. It gets endlessly distracted and then it goes on autopilot and just wings it. We call these hardwired tendencies brain traps. You can learn to work around them and learn how to manage the brain so it won't manage you. For example, you can insert a small but very powerful split second pause ahead of every action and every interaction that matters. Your busy day. And you can use that split second pause to stop doing and get your bearings to ask what's coming up? Where does it fit? Where does it lead? Am I truly ready? And then you will be. That's a glimpse into pre. Another big opportunity that entrepreneurs miss is, is what we call an Apex operating system. So entrepreneurs and leaders intend to be at their best. But they don't have an APEX operating system. So their energy and focus and effectiveness is all over the map. We have a saying in our research. Almost always human beings are magnificently ineffective. Right? By hardwired nature, the brain uses the hope method, hoping for the best. And it's so rare when anyone's energy and focus and effectiveness is anywhere near its peak level. One way to start working around this is with a question. If you had to design. So if you had to design your own one of a kind blueprint for being at your unlimited best, your unique unlimited best in energy and focus and effectiveness every minute of the day, what would that blueprint be? We call that your Apex Operating system, or aos. For short, yours will be unique to you. One place you might start designing your own APEX operating system is with what we call your primetime. Primetime is your natural best time of day. If you had no caffeine, tension, rushing, anger or deadlines, imagine that, right? So this is your best natural time of day. What is your prime time? Early in the morning, middle of the day. Your best natural time of day? In the evening. We don't talk about this very often, do we? By one estimate, every minute inside your prime time is 2 to 100 times more valuable than every minute outside your prime time. So you have to know and protect in every way you can, your prime time to make the most progress there. Every way, in every way you can. That's a very small but powerful starting point to designing your own APEX operating system. Another big opportunity that entrepreneurs and leaders miss is they fail to create what we call immediate, compelling value today. One question rules for every one of us. Is this. This idea or interaction worth a piece of my life? By one estimate, the other person's brain and interaction within three seconds is deciding, do I trust you? Now? This is a wordless felt sense of at least for now, I like you and I feel like I could trust you. You have three brains at work here and the brain in your heart and the brain in your gut are endlessly wondering, why me? This now you must attract, engage and amaze way sooner than ever before. Another interesting finding is that people care mostly not about your why. So it's really important to have a super compelling why. Most people don't care about your why. What they care about is how you uniquely do what you do that might be most valuable to them. You have on your desk in front of you some blank business cards and blank 4x6 cards. Reach out and take one blank business card and there are two 4 by 6 cards for each of you. And take out a pen. So one blank business card, two blank four by six cards and a pen. Scientists say that the brain can hold an active working memory, the equivalent of one post it note of information. Here's the insight again. Scientists say the brain can hold an active working memory. So this is what you can walk around with, the equivalent of one post it note of information. So you might write small. That's not a lot of information. And the brain is primarily visual. Words came as a result of pictures and picturing, not the other way around. If you had to convey a visual glimpse, if you had to, into how you uniquely do what you do, that might matter, might be the most valuable to me or the person next to you, what would that visual glimpse be? Would it be a word? Would it be a drawing? Would it be a cartoon? Would it be just jotting a few notes? What would this visual glimpse be for you? Research suggests we each need a repertoire of these simple visual glimpses because they act like small bridges into the actual total value you create or deliver. And we don't have them. Only. Only the most exceptional leaders and entrepreneurs in the world create these visual images and keep creating. Now an application exercise. Look across the table or around the table as someone you've interacted with today. Take one of these blank cards right now and write your email address in the corner. Go ahead, write your email address in the corner of the card you pick if you're dazzling. The small business card is awesome, right? Better than a printed card. If you're actually trying to deeply connect with another person, the 4x6 card is fine. Now I want you to think about if you had to convey visually give them a glimpse into how you uniquely do what you do and you've been with them today, that might be most valuable to them. So it's through their eyes. What would this glimpse be for you? Jotting a note alone is meaningful, isn't it? On a card, conveying a visual glimpse can be the most powerful connection tool of all for the brain and for the emotions, for the heart and for the gut. And we miss it. Final Story it was the last conversation I ever had with my grandfather Cooper, one of the most important mentors in my life, who died of his fifth heart attack when I was 17 years old. Every summer, he and my grandmother would drive several states away to spend time in a small cabin on a lake. The nearest telephone was a quarter of a mile away through the woods. I walked in at home one evening after one of my summer jobs and the phone rang. It was late at night and it was my grandfather. I remember thinking, why are you calling? It's dark outside, it's late at night. He said, robert, I have a question for you. I was used to his tough questions. And I remember standing there thinking, I've been reading the news. I've been trying to keep up on world events. He always wanted me to have a reasoned opinion, so I thought I was ready, but I wasn't ready. He said, if you knew you only had one hour to live, who would you call and what would you say? I thought, okay, that's a deep question. And I said, grandfather, I would call you. And he said, and I am calling you. He said, I'm not sure if I only have an hour to live, but my heart doesn't feel right. And. And I asked your grandmother to help me make it to the telephone so I could call you. I want you to take notes. The entire conversation lasted less than 10 minutes. Out of it came some rare and powerful Build more, run less, care more, carry less, grow more, react less, win more, work less, live more, regret less and greatest significance in the least time. My grandfather said my whole life I thought it took a lot of time to create significance, to show how much we care. He said I was wrong. He said the right word of encouragement at the right time. Kind eyes, the right insight or question at the right time. A helping hand, an open door can change everything, he said. He said, make it your goal to create the greatest significance in the least time, in everything you do. The world needs you was the last thing he said to me. Just as the world needs each of you. We must become what we can become. Thank you very much. Thank you.
