By Andrew Forbes/ reporter
An American journalist and nonfiction author spoke to NE students via webcast March 21 about the correlation between success and productivity and the three main keys to becoming productive.
Charles Duhigg said when he was a college student, he had always obsessed over the future in hopes he would be successful. Although Duhigg admits being successful isn’t as great as he had hoped, he became successful because of the amount of work and productivity he has put in on a daily basis.
“The most productive people train themselves to become that way,” he said.
A large factor of productivity comes from innovation, Duhigg said. One example of innovation Duhigg shared was from the movie West Side Story. The film’s original screenplay was so unique the writers made up a completely different language, but in fear of being too original, they wanted to make cliched characters display the choreography of ballet dancers. This, along with the dialogue, led to one of the most memorable films of all time, he said.
Besides being innovative, Duhigg believed staying focused and challenging oneself would also lead to great success. He used Qantas Flight 32 from 2010 as an example.
“Qantas Flight 32 was a flight from Singapore to Sydney, Australia, that had a burnout in one of the fan blades leading to a hazardous situation,” he said.
Because the pilot stayed focused and challenged himself, nobody was injured, Duhigg said. The pilot, Richard Decrepney, pretended he was flying one of the first planes he had ever learned on and treated the Qantas plane just like that plane. By doing so, he took the plane in for a safe landing.
Duhigg said the best part about productivity is that anybody can do it.
