It took more then 6 years to exceed the previous employment peak. However, this recovery took place during a period of declining participation – partially due to demographics – and that made making the milestone harder.
Of course because of population growth, we're still "behind" in terms of total jobs, but at least this is one benchmark that's been cleared.
Many people called it the "Scariest Jobs Chart Ever". Well, it got a lot less scary.
To use an athletic analogy, a normal speech and a TED Talk are totally different events (like a sprint vs the decathlon). It takes a surprisingly different set of skills and type of preparation to perform well.
I've given hundreds of presentations, and don't normally stress about them. I did for this one.
In most of my talks, there is very little "set in stone" to memorize. I tend to have a main topic (or theme), and each slide serves like a module … and I think, talk, interact, and improvise throughout the framework.
This works well for me because I tend to think in anecdotes that branch out from the main theme. That may be a great skill to have, but it's not one that helps you write a good TED Talk.
Why? Because, in contrast, a TED Talk is really about "one idea worth sharing".
In many respects, it's much harder to write and deliver a good 10 minutes about one idea, than it is to prepare to talk about a much broader topic for one hour.
My wife, son, and me at the TEDx Plano event
The TEDx committee created a sense of formality with stringent standards and deadlines. My guess is that, during the planning and rehearsal process, they wanted uncomfortable speakers to provoke better speeches.
As a result, I prepared (and threw away) four separate talks before coming up with something that felt right and flowed properly.
Here are some bullet points that highlight lessons learned.
One of my early listeners coached me that the trick to a good TED Talk is that it is not about what you say, but rather about what they feel. In other words, for a TED Talk, evaluate the story and the particular wording choices based on the emotions they elicit in listeners.
One of the best ways to get a point across emotionally is to tell a story. And, if I couldn't remember it easily, it probably wasn't a story.
The speech committee and several early listeners strongly encouraged me to go with as few slides as possible. I started with 15 … I got it down to six … and I ended up with two (relying, instead, on the performance and connection rather than images and words).
They encouraged me to take almost everything about business (in general) or my business (specifically) out of the talk.
In fact, they kept encouraging me to make it simpler and more basic on almost every level. "Why did you say that?" I would answer; and they would say "Then say that."
I didn't realize how hard it was to make something simple.
TED Talks are pretty well-know for their quality. So, I was understandably excited (nervous, even) about presenting at the TEDx Plano Conference this past weekend.
It was fun (in the way that preparing for a marathon is "fun").
For example, in the days leading up to the event, I would give it to the unsuspecting people who chose to use the StairMaster next to me. It seemed like a good way to practice with my heart rate up.
I also gave it one-on-one to employees. Why? Because it gave me extra practice runs, and I got to experiment with different variations to gauge responses.
How did it go? The speech, itself, went pretty well … Though it is hard to believe how much work goes into something so fleeting. I guess that is why they have video.
They filmed it with a professional multi-camera crew. At this point, I still have no idea how long it takes for them to edit it and then put it online. I will let you know when I get the link.
By the way, my topic was "The Time Value of a Life Worth Living — An entrepreneur's reflections on not letting life get in the way." It is about a year that brought my Dad's death, the forced sale of my company by venture capitalists, and a divorce (in that order). Sometimes, life's darkest days bring the greatest gifts … if you are willing to look for them.
Next week, I'll write about what it is like to prepare for a TED Talk, and what I believe are some of the key differences from traditional presentations.
When it comes to luxury real estate, a million dollars goes a lot further in some places than it does in others.
According to the latest Wealth Report from real estate consulting firm Knight Frank, Monaco has the most expensive luxury real estate in the world, with $1 million buying just 15 square meters (161 square feet) of prime property.
In Cape Town, on the other hand, $1 million will buy more than 14 times that much space.
The chart, below, gives a great visualization of what $1 million buys in various luxury housing markets around the globe.
Here is a different look at the data. At the high end of the spectrum, luxury real estate in Monaco costs $6,800 per square foot. In Cape Town, however, it's just $470 per square foot. See the full range of prices in the table below.
Here are a few things you might not know about it.
1. The Rubik's Cube was invented by Erno Rubik, a Hungarian professor of architecture and design, who wanted a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry to his students.
2. The toy was originally named the Magic Cube. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Rubik admitted that it was strange to refer to his creation as a "Rubik's cube" and says that he calls it "my cube." Rubik introduced the toy as the Magic Cube in Hungary, named for his theory of "magic cubology," but the Ideal Toy Corp. dubbed it the Rubik's cube in 1979.
3. All possible Rubik's cube combinations can be solved in 23 moves. No matter how the cube starts out, its colors can be perfectly rearranged in 23 or fewer steps. See here.
Toys aren't just for Kids.
CubeStormer 3, built from Lego mechanical and robotics parts and powered by a Samsung Galaxy S4, shattered the world record by solving a Rubik’s Cube in only 3.253 seconds – considerabley faster than the fastest human time of 5.55 seconds.
You can watch the robot break the world record yourself below:
The smartphone acts as the brain of the robot. It uses a custom app that uses the camera to make note of what the scrambled cube looks like, then sends instructions to eight Lego Mindstorm EV3 bricks, which then in turn manipulate the arms of the robot to move the cube.
“We knew CubeStormer 3 had the potential to beat the existing record but with the robot performing physical operations quicker than the human eye can see there’s always an element of risk,” Gilday said in a statement, “In the end, the hours we spent perfecting the robot and ensuring its motor and intelligence functions were properly synchronized paid off. Our big challenge now is working out if it’s possible to make it go even faster.”
