Episode 18 - Move away from D Town, head for A Town

Hello, this is James Davey, The Exam Coach and Welcome to Episode 8 of Davey Discusses a new podcast series I'm putting together in time for the 2016 Exam Season. This short podcast series is designed to tackle everything to do with exams from preparation to performance whether you're at school, college or Uni there is certainly something of value to be taken away. It's designed to fill that period of down time you may have when walking to school in the morning, in between lectures at Uni or whenever else you have 5 minutes to spare and put it to good use. Let's get stuck into this one then....   What happens to the people who just don't care about exams? I often thought about this and I spent periods on time on both the side that doesn't care and the side that does.... When you're revising putting a shift in - you're thinking do these people know something that I don't, are these exam things something I will look back on to say, 'why did I spend so much time at the desk', I should have been chilling with the chillers, regret, it's one of life's worst inventions because there is nothing you can do to change whatever it is that you regret.   The good news is the D Towners who chill whilst you go hard at it during exam season, really don't know much at all, they don't know anything that you don't. They'll often talk a good game, in fact most of them lack the general self awareness to try and make you believe they have it all sussed out - the answer is they don't, the big answer is no one does, no one has it sussed, remember that. But what about that other question, will you regret all that time you spent at your desk? The short answer is no, you won't remember half of it, the complex answer is you will have some small regrets, that is, only if you fail to balance and prioritise the time spent at your desk with all the other things young people like doing: socialising, nights out, chilling out, sports, musics...whatever suits your fancy. Balance and prioritise - it's The Exam Coach Way. But let's move our attention back to those who would have you believe that being a D Towner -  not caring, not believing in the value of hard work and believing that you are entitled to something without having to put the required effort and work in. Let's take a look at this....What happens to these people? Do they succeed because of their supreme confidence? Did they actually know something that you didn't about how it all pans out down the line in life after education? Are they really up to their eyeballs in contacts and once they're out of school then they'll begin to work hard and you'll look like a fool for working hard and putting the effort in during school, because, they knew that none of that really matters....I'll lay out a few observations I've made so far...again, as with all these podcasts let me offer a caveat with this, I'm only 23, I don't claim this view to be correct or right, its just based on what I have seen and observed and learned from personal experience in my own 23 years.    So what happens to the D Towners...   It doesn't work out, they don't get lucky, things don't just fall into place   The story doesn't end well for the D Towners. In fact life inside education is about as good as it gets for them, they get used to having everything made easy for them, its a safe place where they don't have to put too much effort in order to get by...Everything changes when you're out in the real world. It's those people who have conditioned themselves over the years to work hard, persevere and think independently that really get on in this environment. They don't feel entitled to anything and for that reason they end up getting that job, starting that startup or just doing something that they really like doing for a living - these are the A Towners. The D towners end up settling and looking for reasons why that person, that A Towner is doing what they would like to be doing: they come up with all number of excuses but the one thing they don't realise is this process started 5,10,15 years back with the development of that secret ingredient - hard work. And no, it's not about putting it in every now and then, its about the gradual development of your ability to work hard with efficient and effective action. This is in itself is a skill. It takes time to develop and you should be starting right now.    The game changes entirely    From the age of about 13-18 it's cool to be a chiller, not to be seen as working hard and still get good results, in fact not to be seen working hard and not getting good results is even cooler... I know this to be true and I've got the report cards to prove it as I tried my hardest to get good grades without appearing to try and then just going for the 'rude boy' approach of not trying and not caring in the slightest. Take a look at the video called James story on the Exam Coach Website if you're interested... Now let's move on to a slightly older age category 18-22, University or College... here the game changes slightly, people grow out of that challenging stage between 13-18 and become more independent in the way they think and operate, as a consequence it's pretty cool to work hard and get good results whilst also having the time to party, chill and do all the other stuff the average students would do. Most people have passed a test or exam to gain entry into this higher level of education, therefore there is a certain amount of respect given to academic success as long as its not at the expense of everything else a student enjoys. The job market is also looming on the other side of College and University, this brings into the equation the idea of success. Our society in general is very success orientated, it's cool to be a success, you are respected and often looked to as an example to follow and replicate... it's not cool to be a failure. Whatever success and failure means in this context exactly is an entirely different podcast episode so I wont get into that right now. The key point I'm making here is that the game changes from when you're 13-18 to when you're 22 plus. When you're 22 plus people don't have any time for the people who don't work hard, have a sense of entitlement and think they're a bit too cool for school and as a consequence produce average results. Instead they have a lot of time for the hard worker, the person who is willing and used to going above and beyond what is expected and the person who knows the world owes them nothing and they'll have to work for everything in order to create great results. Having the foresight to know that this is how the game plays out down the line is what I want you to pay some serious attention to. To put it in business terms not knowing that this progression happen between the ages of 13 and 22 and that what is considered to be cool and not cool completely changes is a bit like being a company back in the early 2000s who had no idea about how the iPod and iPhone would revolutionise the mobile technology space. Those who didn't have an understanding of this ended up losing big time, those who did were served up some massive opportunities. Be at the forefront of the change that is about to happen at whatever stage you are currently at in your young life, that way you'll always be ahead of the game, thinking independently and making moves that put you in the best position to succeed. Know how the game is going to change and be prepared for it.    The contacts myth    I always remember when I was at school the following would usually be used to described the average D Towner, let's take the example of Darren the D Towner for instance...here's what others would say about Darren. 'Darren pisses about loads in lessons and doesn't try hard, he literally couldn't care less about his exams...he's sorted though, his old man is minted and has bare contacts' Now, I don't doubt that there is some truth in this, Darren's old man may well be minted and through this know a few very influential people... but here's the thing, if Darren can't prove that he can work hard and achieve results that would benefit an organisation then that makes the whole task for Darren's old man of finding his son a job a lot tougher. He'll have to really dig deep into the grace bank of favours he has developed with his business contacts, if he has developed anything like this is the first place. Furthermore, when Darren goes to that company and does a crap job because he's never lifted a finger or put a shift in before it's going to look pretty bad on his old man, his old man's contact and the situation in general can get pretty sticky. So...as you've seen the whole I've got contacts card really isn't all its made out to be, there are a whole number of barriers and road blocks that can stop anything like this happening and even if you do manage to get a job purely through a contact with no reliance on prior experience, proven track record, academic performance or grades you have it all to do when in you're in the job and one slip up won't be as early forgiven and trust me there will always be slips ups in the real world. I don't think risk is an inherently bad thing, in fact I quite like it as something that can help people to grow, develop and learn. But exposing yourself to unnecessary amounts of risk by not working hard at school and having nothing to show for your time there is a risk not worth taking. Furthermore, you transfer that risk over to that contact your family member has, and to the contact themselves it's totally up to them whether they want to take that on and you won't have to do much wrong from them to start thinking hiring you was a risky decision just not worth taking. Put a shift in, don't rely on the promise of contacts and networking, people to work with people who bring the most value to them both in a business and personal sense, bear this in mind when you think about how much value you could add to someone's life or business.      Ands that's all for this week. Keep developing your ability to work hard. Exams are the perfect training ground for this. Until next time.