Four flashes of insight: a catalyst for my teaching work

Have you ever seen greatness up close? Sure you have. It doesn’t need to be a rock star or athlete. It could be someone in your line of work, your boss, a colleague, a peer. But the gap between you can feel unassailable - a yawning chasm. It can feel overwhelming.

The first project I worked on after I moved to NYC was designing and leading an accelerator program for diverse media & entertainment founders, backed by NYC Mayor's Office. 65 companies went through it, and I’m still in touch with a bunch of them today.

Looking back, I was decent at the work… but far from great.

During the first cohort, we got a bunch of guest speakers to come in as a favour. One of them was this guy from Detroit.

Honestly, I’m sometimes skeptical of ‘keynote speaker’ types - I feel quite a few lack substance (did I just say that? Oh. I did).

But this person? Quite the opposite.

It wasn’t just his material, though: 30 minutes watching him taught me a ton about content design, teaching, and stage craft. It was amazing.

About halfway through I had one of those moments where four things seem to flash before you all at once:

seeing what great looks like;
the reality of where you really are in your craft;
the gaping chasm between;
the spark that maybe - just maybe - you can cross it.

Here’s the real insight.

You see the first of these things? It’s exciting, but fizzles away over time
The first two? It’s clarifying, but scary
Three? There’s a possible path, steps starting to emerge from the haze
Four: That’s the confidence game.

(There’s a fifth: Having the right structure and guidance to stay on the path. That’s for another post…)

Perhaps you’ve experienced that same four-part feeling?

P.S. I meant to tell him this months ago. Years ago. Never did. Until I emailed him yesterday. It’s never too late. So, thank you, Marcus Collins.