Watch

Steve Aguirre is a leadership consultant working closely with leaders in financial services, professional services, industrials, automotive, and retail. Steve has 10+ years of experience in a variety of sales and account management roles. He began his career at PIMCO in Newport Beach, CA before moving to Sydney, Australia where he served as Vice President, Account Manager, managing some of PIMCO’s largest Australian relationships. Steve also interned at Google where he worked in the Large Client Sales group focused on technology clients. During his time working as a leadership consultant he has had the opportunity to work with leaders on change management, developing corporate culture, and leadership development. Steve has helped professionals in various areas including communication, influence, emotional intelligence, sales, and mental toughness. He is experienced at making highly technical information digestible as well as developing rapport with his audience in order to drive high quality discussion. Steve Aguirre is a leadership consultant working closely with leaders in financial services, professional services, industrials, automotive, and retail. Steve has 10+ years of experience in a variety of sales and account management roles. He began his career at PIMCO in Newport Beach, CA before moving to Sydney, Australia where he served as Vice President, Account Manager, managing some of PIMCO’s largest Australian relationships. Steve also interned at Google where he worked in the Large Client Sales group focused on technology clients. During his time working as a leadership consultant he has had the opportunity to work with leaders on change management, developing corporate culture, and leadership development. Steve has helped professionals in various areas including communication, influence, emotional intelligence, sales, and mental toughness. He is experienced at making highly technical information digestible as well as developing rapport with his audience in order to drive high quality discussion. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Asking for help is tough. But to get through life, you have to do it all the time. So how do you get comfortable asking? In this actionable talk, social psychologist Heidi Grant shares four simple rules for asking for help and getting it -- while making the process more rewarding for your helper, too. Get TED Talks recommended just for you! Learn more at https://www.ted.com/signup. The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request here: https://media-requests.ted.com/ Follow TED on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TEDTalks Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/TED

Tim Ferriss: Asking Dumb Questions Is a Smart Move Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In a world afraid of embarrassment, asking dumb questions is a super power, says Tim Ferriss. It takes a secure intellect to risk looking silly, but the rewards are there for the taking.Chris Sacca is very good at asking dumb questions, says Tim Ferriss – and Ferriss means it as a compliment. Years ago, Sacca got an entry-level job at Google and invited himself along to executive meetings where, once people got used to his strange presence, he started asking dumb questions, chiming in with the obvious things that no one was bringing up. "He's created some incredible breakthroughs in investing as a result of that," says Ferriss. In a world where everyone is afraid of looking stupid, a lot of basic improvements and ideas get missed for fear of embarrassment. Through several anecdotes amassed during the writing of his new book Tools of Titans, Ferriss makes a case for being more intellectually secure in yourself so that you can raise your hand without fear, ask a dumb question, and actually become smarter. And in Sacca's case, wealthier. Tim Ferriss is the author of Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers. Tim Ferriss' most recent book is Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TIM FERRISS : Tim Ferriss has been listed as one of Fast Company's “Most Innovative Business People," one of Forbes's “Names You Need to Know," and one of Fortune's “40 under 40." He is an early-stage technology investor/advisor (Uber, Facebook, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ others) and the author of three #1New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef. The Observer and other media have called Tim “the Oprah of audio" due to the influence of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, which has exceeded 90 million downloads and was selected for "Best of iTunes" in 2015. His latest book is Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT : Tim Ferriss: I think as humans we all have a preoccupation with looking dumb. We are social creatures, hierarchical creatures and we don't want to shame ourselves, humiliate ourselves. But recognizing that by zigging when everyone else is zagging with that particular context you can actually develop a super power. And that is asking dumb questions. And this came up repeatedly when I was interviewing incredible performers, world class of performers, meaning investors, entrepreneurs, writers, you name it for Tools of Titans the new book. And asking dumb questions can take many forms. I'll give you a few examples. Malcolm Gladwell is very good at asking so called dumb questions. And he learned that from his father who was a mathematician had no intellectual insecurities whatsoever, just did not care about looking stupid. And he would constantly ask or he would first say I don't understand. Please explain that. I don't understand. Can you explain that? I don't understand. Can you explain that? And he literally might ask that ten times in a row and Malcolm mentioned that he imagined sometimes what the conversation would it look like between his dad and Bernie Madoff because his dad never would have invested, he just would've said I don't understand that at all. Explain that to me over and over again until Madoff left or his dad got so frustrated he had to leave. But if we look at another sphere, say investing, Chris Sacca, a close friend of mine, billionaire, incredible tech investor, just immaculate track record, is very good at asking dumb questions. And this applies to in the very early days where he did something very clever, which was at Google when he was just an entry level guy really compared certainly to say the Wonder Twins, the founders and others, he would go to as many high level meetings as possible, most of which he was not invited to. And so he would show up at a meeting with say Surgie [ph] or whatever and he would walk in and he'd sit down and they'd kind of look at each other and ask him what he was doing there and he go, "Oh I'll just take notes." And they're like oh okay. So he got to sit in on all these high level meetings.And eventually at some point let's say he got through five or ten of those and people started to just expect him to be around, he would then ask these dumb questions. Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/tim-ferriss-on-the-importance-of-asking-dumb-questions