010: Shane Snow – How To Accelerate Success Using Smart Cuts

Episode 010: Shane Snow – How To Accelerate Success Using Smart Cuts

When I created this podcast, I made a list of the 125 people I would reach out to first to be a guest on the show… Shane Snow was the very first name on that list. (Adam Grant was next). Shane’s book Smartcuts is one of the best books I’ve ever read. In this episode, we took a deep dive and Shane gives us the entire blueprint to accelerate success. Shane is not about just achieving success, he’s about accelerating it. When you listen to this episode, you’ll see why.

“The next Malcolm Gladwell.” That's what fans and critics from Forbes to The L.A. Times are calling innovation expert and keynote speaker Shane Snow, the bestselling author of SMARTCUTS: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success. An award-winning entrepreneur and journalist, Snow has been declared a “Wunderkind" by The New York Times, a “Digital Maverick” by Details Magazine, and his work “Insanely addicting” by GQ.

We go over everything from Jimmy Fallon’s quest to get on SNL to understanding how lateral thinking will change your life.

Welcome to Episode 010 with the next Malcolm Gladwell, Shane Snow

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher Radio.

The Learning Leader Show

"If you truly love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made of." - Bruce Lee

Some Questions I Ask:

• What does accelerating success mean to you?
• What is lateral thinking? How can it change your life?
• What type of mentorship is best?
• How do we implement these ideas into our careers? Specific ways… What actions can we take?
• Why do we celebrate failure?
• What is the difference between a Smartcut and a short cut?
• What is your definition of a Learning Leader?

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• How to accelerate your own success
• Interesting Riddles
• How Jimmy Fallon, a nobody from upstate New York became who he is today (love this part)
• Why informal mentors are the best
• Specific exercises to implement into your life TODAY to accelerate success
• Shane’s thoughts on others calling him the next Malcolm Gladwell
• The time when Shane actually met Malcolm in person for the first time
• Shane’s definition of a Learning Leader

“If you’re landing on an aircraft carrier, it’s not okay to fail…” – Shane Snow

Continue Learning

• Go to Contently's Website
• Read Smartcuts by Shane Snow
• Follow Shane on Twitter @shanesnow

You may also like these episodes:

Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector With Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks

Episode 002: How To Take Over And Set Bigger Goals With Chris Brogan

Episode 004: How Todd Wagner (and Mark Cuban) Sold Broadcast.com To Yahoo! For $5.7 Billion

Did you enjoy the podcast?

I love discussing how we can all accelerate success. It’s a fascinating topic and Shane is a genius! I loved this episode. I’m proud to say that Shane has become a friend! Who do you know that needs to hear this? Send them to The Learning Leader Show!

Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell

Shane Snow Bio From Amazon.com

Entrepreneur and journalist Shane Snow (Wired, Fast Company, The New Yorker, and cofounder of Contently) analyzes the lives of people and companies that do incredible things in implausibly short time.

How do some startups go from zero to billions in mere months? How did Alexander the Great, YouTube tycoon Michelle Phan, and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon climb to the top in less time than it takes most of us to get a promotion? What do high-growth businesses, world-class heart surgeons, and underdog marketers do in common to beat the norm?

One way or another, they do it like computer hackers. They employ what psychologists call "lateral thinking" to rethink convention and break "rules" that aren't rules.

In Smartcuts, Snow shatters common wisdom about success, revealing how conventions like "paying dues" prevent progress, why kids shouldn't learn times tables, and how, paradoxically, it's easier to build a huge business than a small one.

From SpaceX to The Cuban Revolution, from Ferrari to Skrillex, Smartcuts is a narrative adventure that busts old myths about success and shows how innovators and icons do the incredible by working smarter--and how perhaps the rest of us can, too.