Learning, like any
life activity, can be a passive or dynamic experience: what you do affects
everyone in the classroom. It means the difference between leaving the class:
- ready to kill
yourself or
- (better):
with a natural high and an eagerness to learn
- key point:
waiting for your professor or other classmates to provide this kind of energy
is like waiting for wood to set itself on fire. You are there, it's up to
you. Get an ego!
Students leave Jim's
keynote speech empowered, ready to tear the campus apart. Fully in contact with
their primal energy, they will never settle for second best again. Funny thing
happens: professors often catch the student's enthusiasm, and begin to teach
like their life was in the balance.
One or two professors
in your department may already be at this level. Support them with hard listening.
Encourage them to be even better.
Everyone takes
this a renewed dialogue to the edge!
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Half-Day
Program (1-6 hours each):
"Delivery: How
to Sell Your Points Winningly, both on and off Campus"
In the classroom,
it's all about proving you are the smartest person; in real life, it's about
something entirely different: getting people to cooperatively accomplish
tasks on schedule. Jim will show you how to get control of the classroom
situation as a metaphor for gaining the upper hand in your future work
place.
- How to control
your image from "day one," determine how both your professor and
your classmates will see you--be compelling
- Getting out
of your head and into your animal: slam your key points home
- Using body
language: emphasizing, editorializing, declaring your triumphs to the
world
- Thinking
funny: why opposites are equivalent
- Talk
like a prize fighter, using those short shots that make it much easier
to hear your thoughts
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Half-Day
Program (1-6 hours):
"Improvisation:
thinking on your feet--
Create your own college-within-a-college"
We all know people
who were straight-A students in high school but either flunk out or drop out
of college before the end of their sophomore year.
Why?
They just got burned out.
Falling mindlessly into the current teaching structure can lead to the maddening
pursuit of a grade via insane professor assignments known as "make work". Don't
be fooled: some of this school work is actually an unpaid job, doing
the professor's research. This is illegal except in graduate school when
done for pay by contract. But such criminal behavior is now practiced on undergraduates.
Often, students are admonished that doing such "extra credit work" is the only
way you can get an "A". Only the childish student falls for such a dopey con.
Instead, you need to look objectively at the proffered curriculum, and decide
what you want from the class schedule.
Luckily, Jim remembered a couple of tricks from his days at San Francisco State
University that helped him extract an Ivy League-level education out of a public
school attended by 24,000 students.
How?
By cutting the wheat-from-the-chaff every semester.
Number one trick: always enroll in twice as many courses than you intend
to take:
- always take
the professor, never the subject
- the first week
of school, please understand: you are not going to classes. Rather,
you are generously attending a series of auditions, looking for professors
who both know their beans and who won't nod you out.
- At the end of
this "professor audition" period, make a trade-off between anticipated time
required and the actual information you need to get under your belt by semester's
end--
- known time:
attending lectures
- unknown
time: homework, term papers, exams--estimate here
- Total Time/week:
how much time will it take to comfortably do all the reading
and weekly assignments indicated on the course syllabus
- Think of
yourself as an employer looking for the best help your money can buy.
Go with your initial impressions.
Drop the weaker professors by 10 am Monday of week 2!
Remember: you must not attend 2nd classes of suspect courses.
Make your decisions ruthlessly, and stick to your self-selected program
throughout the current semester.
- Once you have
your own program so defined, the real fun begins. Jim's half-day program
will show you 7 other tricks for getting a genuine education.
For instance:
- Toward the
end of each semester, audit a lecture by 2-3 professors who have gotten
rave reviews from several of your fellow students
- No matter
their raves, make up your own mind
Goal-driven, you
will learn to ride over every obstacle conventional institutions put in
your path. Victory will be yours for the taking!
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FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions):
Q: "This
advice is nice for college students. Do you have any information for high
school students?"
A: Jim wrote this web page in Spring 1998, targeting college students.
From September 1999-June 2000, Jim conducted an experiment —bringing
local area high school parents instant access to their children's grades online
and emailing parent's regarding their children's behavioral problems same-day
(several student's academic lives were instantly saved!); then half a decade
later, on April 14, 2003, Apple Computers announced a comprehensive K-12 application
which incorporates these features: http://www.apple.com/education/powerschool/
Q: "How
do I speak up in class without taking a bullet?"
A: Only you know if you've done your homework; but everyone
in class knows who scores the most points during class discussion.
Little known fact: if you score heavily and often in class, many times
the professor will throw out lousy test scores, assuming you just "had
a bad day".
So, it pays to cover your assets by risking humiliation every day
in class.
Besides, if you aren't doing something that makes you sweat under your armpits,
you've stopped living.
First up: every question any professor asks any time is a trap:
You are the animal he wants to trap.
How else can he prove that he is smarter than you?
Now that you know his little game, why not WIN BIG?
After all, if your sitting in his classroom, you can't be that busy.
Neither is the professor, or he would be seeking honest employment elsewhere.
So, begin by confronting yourself:
Do you know the answer cold?
Can you defend all aspects of the answer?
Or would you just be guessing?
If you don't know what the hell the prof is talking about, will it endear
you to him to point that out?
Conclusion: pick your field of battle, and aim for a quick assault
that will guarantee victory.
Q: "If
I make jokes, will anyone take me seriously?"
A: Those who are not funny will cower before you. Those who
are funny and did not think of your witticism before you uttered it will be
jealous. Both parties will respect you for having accomplished that
which they dare not even attempt.
Q: "I
have a professor who is really funny. I'd like to make him laugh. But I don't
want to open myself up to becoming the butt of his jokes for the rest of the
semester."
A: The average college professor who gets the reputation for
being a "funny guy" gets about one laugh/hour. Stand-up comics get
4-5 laughs/minute.
When I first began teaching comedy on campus, some interested psychology professors
dropped by to try their hand. But when these shrinks saw that students were
getting a laugh pattern that was 300 times more intense than
anything they had ever experienced, they literally did an about face and ran
down the hall. Never saw them again.
Solution: don't go into a battle of wits unarmed. Have at least 20-30
jokes you can tell, and which you have already told successfully outside the
classroom 20 times each. Then, target your professor for the kill.
Q: "Gee,
Jim: I don't know, all this sounds so violent."
A: Your timid question reminds me: I once had this great gym
teacher.
One day, he set the high jump bar higher and higher.
Finally, one student ran up to the bar and stopped.
This greatest of deadpan teach's said: "Gentlemen, this is a vigorous activity."
This student made the jump on his next attempt.
As did we all.
Q: "OK,
OK, OK; enough already. Jim, please tell us honestly: say we have you speak
at our campus, just what can we expect?"
A: As you can see from this web document, I will probably:
- Beat you up
a little bit to shatter your preconceptions (no physical pain involved)
- Then do a change-up,
and sweet-talk you enough to assure you that my recent experiences "as
student" have put me solidly in touch with your point of view, what
you are really up against.
But more important, I will fill you with confidence.
The goals are achievable.
And you can chose to immediately accomplish some of these goals.
When?
At the very next class you attend.
- Whatever happens,
I promise you will not be bored.
Actively becoming yourself is an experience well remembered.
You get empowered.
My words and images
will burn.
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What programmers
say
"Jim Richardson
is a powerful speaker and humorist, a remarkable world-class lecturer. He
combines essential information with keen enthusiasm and tasteful humor. Jim
demonstrates how to use the sound bite in daily and academic work. How to
get back in the ring and fight-the-good-fight. Short, positive arguments that
WIN! I strongly and unequivocally recommend Mr. Richardson!"
Dr. Gunter Seefeldt, Director, International Education Program, FOOTHILL
COLLEGE, Los Altos Hills, California; every year, Dr. Seefeldt networks
with many colleges and universities to send over 400 students abroad on work
assignments
Please click
logo for link to Program Request Form
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Audio Clips
from Jim's Talks
Jim will be updating
this section constantly from his current speeches, beginning
Thursday, 23-May-2013 00:52:05 PDT
.
If you would like to listen to Jim's newest audio clips right here on this web
page, just as soon as they are available, then please get on Jim's e-mail list
at:
jim@jimrichardson.com
Jim's brochure,
audio and video demo tape are available upon request.
These two audio
clips are from Jim's talk to the Menlo Park Rotary Club in Menlo Park, California.
Jim adds some notes to supplement each audio clip to help the reader better
follow Jim's argument:
- Jim how to use
humor to:
- Keep your
job
- Survive bad
dates
- Get children
to automatically agree with your point-of-view
"Bosses, Dates
and New Moms"
Are you starting
to feel the pressures of college life, starting to get burned out?
Stress is often caused when we are pulled in too many directions at once.
Like trying to hold back a team of wild horses who are all going off in different
directions.
Jim's techniques help you regain control, get those horses pulling
in the same direction.
Thinking metaphorically, you can use all the techniques Jim talks about
on this audio clip; today, begin to compel both
- your fellow
students
- your professors
to agree with you;
do it right, and they will have no choice.
Now, that's power!
(Please use this information responsibly.)
Thinking
humorously to convince everyone you are right!
(audio 422 K ".wave" file, playing time: 1 minutes, 46 seconds)
- Audio clip begins
in mid-discussion, Jim proving to the audience that the number one complaint
about doctors: "Doctors don't listen!"
"How Better
Listening Cures Patients Faster"
The first step in
getting folks to come around to your way of thinking is getting them to trust
you as much as they trust their family doctor.
(Assuming your family doctor is trustworthy.)
How
patients see the doctor during their examination
is the same way students and professors initially see you
(audio 488 K ".wave" file, playing time: 1 minutes, 52 seconds)
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