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Hi Karen
Do you have a teenager at home? Or do you work with teens in education or at work? Are exams imminent?!
Then my brand new book may be helpful...
"How To Be Sick At School" (strange title for adults - helpful book for teens!) is a simple and down-earth book that helps teens put first things first in their education...
Here's a sample chapter...
Get Good
"A few years ago I was asked to do an assembly in a Leeds school, but as I walked into the hall there were postcards and flyers all over the place and a real buzz in the air. It turns out that Jay Sean the R&B star had just been in to do a gig at the school and I’d missed him by 5 minutes.
He’d been in the school with his manager and he was only there for 20 minutes; he did a quick gig at lunchtime and then left. Even worse I was up next – how was I gonna follow him?! Then a year ago I read an article about Jay Sean and I found out how he had become such a success…he’d done 2,000 free gigs before anyone knew him.
So before he had a major record contract he’d done 2,000 free gigs – maybe in your school.
But why? Because whatever it is we want to succeed at, we have got to get good at it.
One of my favourite moments on TV ever was the Britain’s Got Talent episode when Susan Boyle auditioned. It was jaw-dropping TV. She spoke to the camera about her cat Pebbles and then to Ant and Dec about how nervous she was, then as she walked out onto the stage looking cheerful (but slightly confused) she answered a few of Simon Cowell’s questions. The interview was awkward and a bit embarrassing to be honest, the whole nation expected to see ‘train wreck TV’. Everything was stacked against her – she’s a middle aged single woman from a small village in Scotland. She had a dress made out of curtains and a mono-brow…everyone thought this isn’t going to go well…
…but then she started to sing… “I dreamed a dream in time gone byyyyyyyy”
And we were all blown away, even Simon Cowell. She was amazing.
I love Susan Boyle – she was fantastic in that audition. What I love about her the most is that she’s changed Simon Cowell forever! The unchangeable, high waist-banded man has been changed at last! Simon Cowell said after that ‘I will never treat someone with such disrespect as I did with Susan Boyle. It’s changed the way I think about auditions’, and I reckon that Simon Cowell is a lot nicer now than he was previously all because of a lovely shy lady from a village in Scotland. Someone we all wrote off.
The papers the next day said “SUSAN BOYLE, OVERNIGHT SUCCESS!”
But she wasn’t.
Why?
‘Cos she’d been singing since she was 12 – since the age of 12 she’d been singing in her bedroom, her bathroom, her kitchen, in the church choir, in the village hall – that’s 35 years of practice! Then at 47 she managed to get her break. There are no shortcuts. Sometimes you just have to get good at stuff over time.
Practice doesn’t make perfect but it is essential to success.
When you hand in an assignment or you take an exam and it comes back and it’s a ‘D’ – you’ve got 2 choices – you’ve got the ‘Whatever’ choice – “it’s a ‘D’ ‘Whatever!”.
Or you can choose ‘Do you know what – I’m gonna redo that, and I’m gonna get a ‘B’ – I’m gonna get good – then you re-do it and get a ‘B’.
It’s a choice that you have to make.
No-one can make that choice for you. You decide. You have mock exams/assessments for a reason – ‘I didn’t get quite the results I needed this time but you know what I’m gonna work hard and I’m gonna do it better next time, I’m gonna work smart and I’m gonna make it happen.’
Susan Boyle and Jay Sean weren’t overnight successes and neither will you be. But if you GET GOOD – just think what you can achieve."
For more information about my book Karen or to order it via paypal/credit card just click here
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