In this talk, Michael Strong, founder of expanseonline.co, presents the "bliss" framework—what you love, what you’re good at, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs—as the cornerstone for secondary education and talent development. He connects the framework to Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000‑hour deliberate‑practice principle, arguing that passion and competence are prerequisites for world‑class performance. Strong emphasizes the importance of aligning skills with market demand and societal contribution, noting that achieving three of the four bliss elements already sets a person on a path to an extraordinary life. He outlines expanseonline.co’s personalized program, which begins around ages 10‑11 and cultivates a wide range of competencies: reading, writing, critical thinking, communication, listening, interpersonal interaction, collaboration, leadership, teamwork, emotional intelligence, and quantitative reasoning. The program is designed to fit each learner rather than forcing them into a one‑size‑fits‑all school curriculum, thereby providing the structure needed for sustained deliberate practice. He concludes with an invitation to join the platform to develop talents and pursue a fulfilling, impactful life.
Chapters
Hello, I'm Michael Strong, founder of expanseonline.co, the talent development accelerator for middle school and high school children, young teens. I want to talk a little bit more about bliss and how the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs should be the foundation for your secondary program. First, what you love. You know, Malcolm Gladwell famously talked about 10,000 hours to become world-class at something. It's 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, very deliberately finding out how to improve your performance in something. In order to become world-class, most of the time you have to love what you're doing. You also should be good at it. And so if you love what you're doing and you're good at it, then that's a pretty decent foundation for working towards world-class performance through 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. If you can get paid for it as well, what a win. There are, of course, people who are great musicians and artists and thinkers who cannot necessarily get paid for what they do. Or they can't get paid unless they can design their skill set to fit a market niche. But if they can, then they really are three-quarters of the way to having an incredible life. Finally, most of us also want to contribute something positively to the world, and so the more you understand the various ways in which the world works and how fitting in what you do and how to market what you do really well to what the world needs so that the value that the world needs and the value you can contribute are a match, then you're really on an amazing path. And so at expanseonline.co, we want to work with you to develop your purpose and your bliss. And if you start when you're, say, 10 or 11, You've got a lot of time to try things, to change, to get better, to improve, to make mistakes. Yes, we'll also help you develop world-class reading, writing, thinking, communication skills, listening. We'll also help you develop world-class interpersonal interactions, collaboration, leadership, teamwork, emotional intelligence, and insofar as analytical intelligence, quantitative reasoning is a critical part of your life path, we'll help you develop that as well. But we carve our entire program so that it fits you rather than forcing you into a school program that may or may not be a good fit for you and almost certainly doesn't support you in practicing 10,000 hours to become amazing at something. So if you're interested in developing your talents to be amazing at something, please, uh, check in at expanseonline.co. Love to talk to you and help to see how we can get you on the path of an amazing, wonderful life. We want to offer this to everyone. So bit by bit, we're going to, we're going to help everybody have an amazing life. Thank you.
