TED Community » Bill Matthies

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Helping individuals and companies aggressively pursue change to their benefit and the benefit of those associated with them.

An idea worth spreading

Begin all personal and professional change initiatives by defining What you want to do, How you will do it, What it will cost to do, When you will have it done, Who will do it. Commercial, governmental, political, personal change . . . it doesn't matter. In no more the one page summarize the answers to these 5 questions and you have the basis for a plan. Fail to do so and you won't succeed.

Talk to me about

Change, history, philosophy, music, cars, books, interesting places, you.

People don't know that I'm good at

Color selection even though I'm color blind.

My TED Story

I am most proud of my contribution in raising two boys, both of which have turned into fine young men already contributing significantly to the betterment of themselves and society. A close second is my 3rd place finish in the 1957 Emerson Elementary School Kite Flying Contest, Novelty Division.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +0.80 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Talk: Seth Godin: How to get your ideas to spread

  Feb 1 2013: Doing what you've done with me Daniel; reaching out 1 to 1, although I don't do enough of that for all I want to accomplish.
  
  Like so many, I get too caught up in broad "communication" (in quotes to make the point it's not effective communication) posting to my blogs, quickly perusing but not reaching out enough to others on Linkedin, G+, FB, etc.
  
  I need to do more of the latter, less of the former.

• A comment on Conversation: What are your thoughts on creating a community for mentors/menteers and for adults to make professional connections to encourage growth.

  Dec 10 2012: Bryan, how would what you have in mind differ from other mentor organizations (http://tinyurl.com/aubk7ye)?

• A reply on Conversation: Do humans find it easier to hate than to love?

  Dec 9 2012: If by "Sure we do" you mean everyone knows we all change, at least in imperceptible ways, I assure you there are those who don't. And they are vocal about it as well.
  
  We've come off the original question but I've enjoyed the detour. The subject of change is of great interest to me and a good way for this conversation to end. Thanks Natasha.

• A reply on Conversation: Do humans find it easier to hate than to love?

  Dec 9 2012: Hi Natasha
  
  Sorry for not getting back to you prior to you withdrawing your question. I have much less time for TED than I would like and so there are occasional gaps in my replies.
  
  I think your original question is fair. I didn't take it as part of a discussion to prove to me, you, or anyone else that I am or am not changing; only you asking me if I thought I was. No harm in that.
  
  I've done primary research regarding "change" with a representative sample of adults ages 18 to 70 living in the US. There is a significant minority who do not believe they are changing, and for all you knew I may be one of them. I am not.
  
  I believe we all change every every instant of our lives from the moment we are conceived until the moment we die, and arguably even after in the perceptions others have of us based on how we lived.
  
  Bill

• A reply on Conversation: Do humans find it easier to hate than to love?

  Dec 8 2012: Much to think about here Mitchell, thank you. I assume you believe that most people most times do not use reason and logic as a basis for their decisions to dislike or even hate someone? To what extent do you feel that reason and logic affect what and who we like and love?

• A reply on Conversation: Do humans find it easier to hate than to love?

  Dec 8 2012: Vincenzo, rereading your comment makes me wonder how the threats we represent to each other has affected us over time. When we had a real common enemy did we still find time to war with each other or was the threat so great we had no time for that?
  
  Ironically we can look to fairly recent history to see how new threats create unions where none existed before, the USSR and the Alies in WWII being an obvious example. And when the threat passes often so does the alliance, which, to me, is an indication of change going in many directions as opposed to being linear.

• A reply on Conversation: Do humans find it easier to hate than to love?

  Dec 8 2012: Hi Natasha,
  
  I think we're changing although the rate and direction of change is sometimes questionable. And likewise I think humanity is about gaining although what constitutes "gain" can be open to debate as well.
  
  Similar to the discussion I've had with Mr. Park, I wonder how you living in Ukraine might affect your perspective on change relative to mine living in the US or his living in Korea? Einstein taught us that the appearance of most everything is subject to where we are when we observe the thing or event. It would seem then that our perspective on "gains", "losses", "rates of change", etc., might differ as well for the same reason.
  
  Kind of like the old story about the three blind men each touching a different part of an elephant, coming up with very different descriptions of the animal based on what they touched.

• A reply on Conversation: Do humans find it easier to hate than to love?

  Dec 8 2012: Yes I know Korea well but only a few cities including Seoul. I've done business there a number of times and my family vacationed there along with China and Japan some years ago.
  
  I believe there are more similarities than dissimilarities between populations. Some of your description of where you live could just as easily describe many small midwest towns in the US, in particular, "Fortunately, the region where I lived has passed recent years quietly without any big events. People here are more interested in neighbors, generous than elsewhere and willing to help each other well."
  
  Unfortunately too many people focus on differences overlooking similarities and common values. I wish it were more the other way.

• A reply on Conversation: What one feature would you love to see added to TED.com?

  Dec 7 2012: There's one for iPad, my device, as well, but as near as I can tell it only provides access to talks.

• A reply on Conversation: Do humans find it easier to hate than to love?

  Dec 7 2012: If you don't mind me asking, what country do you live in, and regardless, to what extent if at all do you feel the changes you've observed are the result of changes in your culture? Or we're you referring to changes elsewhere rather than where you grew up?