The Secret to Student Success: Arel Moodie (Transcript)

All of us. So being smart, that can’t be what it is.

Oh, good news. You know what else you don’t need to be?

Talented. Talent- Completely overrated. We talk about talent. ‘Oh, you, you’re going to go so far. You have so many natural abilities. You’re so gifted.’ It doesn’t mean anything. And I’ll prove it to you at the same question I just asked you a few moments ago.

How many of you know someone, I want you to really think who is really, really talented. Maybe they’re amazing poet or musician or artist or whatever it is, but they’re not doing anything to the level they should with the natural talent that they have. Does anyone know someone like that?

So when somebody says, wait a minute, so we all know someone who is smart. We all know someone who’s talented that’s not doing anything.

So it can’t be smart, intelligence, talent, gifts. And by the way, it’s also not being born into the right family, being born rich or any of those things. It’s one thing that nobody can give to you. It’s the only thing you can give to yourself that makes the biggest difference. And that word is effort.

Effort is everything.

Whatever you’re not good at, with the right amount of effort, you become good at it.

Now, this whole concept was very fascinating to me because when I grew up in the projects in Brooklyn, New York, I was in the smart class in elementary school. I was in the top class and you know what, we all knew we were in the top class.

Oh and to make it even better, does anyone remember the days when you didn’t even have to study for a test and you got good grades?

I loved it and everyone kept telling me, “Arel, you’re so smart.” And I was like, ‘I am smart’ until I hit junior high. And then all of a sudden I became really dumb. The craziest thing happened.

I would be in class and the teachers will be talking and I’ll be like, you ever had that face where on the outside you look like you’re 100% paying attention, but on the inside you have no idea what’s been happening? I mastered that, but I couldn’t ask for help because I was the smart kid.

Because if I asked for help it would prove I didn’t grasp things quickly. So therefore I’m not smart.

Dr. John Medina and his work of brain rules, and Brain Rules for Baby talks about when we connect our concept of who we are to innate abilities, we have no control over; we don’t become successful. But when we attach them to things like hard work and effort, we control those. But I didn’t know that then.

So I did like what I thought was the right thing to do and I just shut my mouth. And then went on into high school and I just got way worse. I started failing and I was not a science person. Where my people, science, chemistry, biology, it’s just natural thing like I look at it and you just might as well be speaking a different language. Where people math, you just suck at math, like it’s just not going to be a good experience. Right. I got you. I was with that. Okay.

So for me, science was my hard subject and I failed. And I was told I wouldn’t be able to graduate on my science class. So now, I’m facing not being able to graduate, having no skills or talents that I could know of.

In fact, I played three sports in high school and sat on the bench on all three of them. So my professional athlete goals were out the window. I was in a tough environment. I witnessed people get murdered. I’ve been robbed, beat up, made fun of.  And I thought I have no future. What’s the point?

So when I was 16, I thought it’d be better to be dead than to be alive because what was the point?

So when I was 16 I went through the roof of my building, I stood on the roof and I looked down and I imagine what it feels like to not have to deal with the pain that I had inside of me. Because what was the point? Not smart, not talented.

Luckily I stepped back from the ledge that day because I heard this still voice inside of me and all they said was not yet. And this voice had to come from a being much greater than me because again, I’m not smart enough to think this on my own.

So with that thought of not yet, I went back into my room and was just depressed. And I am lucky to have people care about me. I have an amazing mother, awesome brother, fantastic father. And my father saw him and he said, get up, “we got to go for a ride.” I was like, ‘alright’. I jump in his car. He starts driving and he takes me to this beautiful neighborhood that I’d never seen before. It was only 15-20 minutes from our house.

And he says, “You see this house, you see these cars?” He said, “one day if you want it, you can have these things.” You know, because as a teenager we see success is the big house and the big car, right?

And I was like, there’s no way I’m going to be able to have these things. And then he said something to me that changed the course of my life.

What he said was, “We were all given the problems we were supposed to be given, so that we can face them, overcome them. And that’s where we become the person we were meant to be.”

He said, what most people do is they face their problems and then they go, ‘Oh, this is proof I don’t deserve it.’  ‘This is proof I’m not supposed to have it. Look at these problems in my life.’ So they quit.

He said, “When you put an effort, you get to the other side. And on the other side is where the magic happens. That’s where success comes from.”

So I started getting excited. I said, “Well, how could I apply this to my life?” And I was like, “what better place to apply it than then with science?”

So I went to my chemistry teacher. I said, “Look, I like to graduate. I’m not going to graduate, came past this class. I’ll make a deal with you. If I can pass the final exam, you give me a passing grade in the class with the final grade.” Final exam was cumulative. She said, deal.

So I started doing some strange things. During lunch, I would go to tutoring and I would work with my tutor, understand concepts. Before I went home, before I left school, I would do the more; I would do more tutoring.

Then on my way to school and from school I would get practice problems and I would go over the practice problems every single day to and from school. The craziest thing happened after I did that for a few months, I passed the class, I passed the test, and I graduated.

So from there I decided to sneak into college. I like to say I snuck into college because I went to the college that my brother got accepted to because he’s smart. I got in and I said, listen, “I’m not going to be the smartest student by no means. I’m not going to be the most talented student. It’s impossible. So how am I going to succeed here? “

I made a decision early on that I was just going to outwork everyone. Because I’m not smart. I’m not smart, I’m not talented. So if I was in class and I didn’t understand something, I would raise my hand until I got it.

I would go to office hours and meet with the professor to make sure I understood the concepts, not just when the tests were coming out. I would meet with the teacher’s assistants to go over the course curriculum to make sure I understood it from that particular professor’s perspective.

I never handed in a paper without a second set of eyes looking at it. I met up with all the smart kids in class and by the way, you want to find the smart kids, they sit in the front, they got highlighters, make friends with them. Okay.

I made friends with them and I studied in groups with them. And the funniest thing happened: Out of 16,000 students, I was named one of the top five exemplary students.

This is me back in the day when I had hair, I like to call it the glory days, right? I was an educational opportunity program student (EOP student) at Binghamton University. Yes, yes. I was named the most outstanding graduating senior in my class, president of four student organizations.

When I graduated, I applied the same concepts to my entrepreneurship endeavors and my businesses. So if I ever dealt with a problem like ‘I don’t know how to manage people, I’m not good at it’, I would change it to, ‘I just need to put more effort into managing people’. And I would get good at it.

And it’s amazing because I started traveling to high schools and colleges and sharing this idea of effort and effort is everything. And an amazing thing happened.

Now we have a shared language. The students have a language they can communicate to the teachers and the teachers have a language that can communicate to the students, so no longer is it, “Oh, I’m just dumb in math. Look, I got a bad grade.” It becomes, “Oh, I got a bad grade. I guess I need to put in more effort in math.”

Teachers, instead of saying, “Hey, better luck next time” they can say, “Hey, you didn’t get a good grade. We just need to do more effort. Let’s figure it out.” The language became created and it’s a mindset that moves away from this natural innate ability and move it to something we can control.

Carol Dweck has a great book on mindset, which talks about growth mindset and fixed mindset.

Growth mindset says, ‘I can learn and do anything.’ Fixed mindset says, ‘everything I got, I already got. It’s not going to get better.’

I believe and many educators do that the growth mindset is the way to success and I believe the pathway to the growth mindset is effort. Effort is everything. And you’ve experienced this.

How many people remember what it was like to learn how to tie your shoes? Does anybody remember this? Have you ever seen a little kid trying to tie their shoes?

It’s the most frustrating process in the world. Your fingers won’t do it. Your mind is telling it to do. You can’t get the bunny ears just right and then you take your shoe, you throw it out the window. I’m like, I just want Velcro and he’d just be done with it, right?  Just me and Tom’s shoes for the rest of my life. Right?

But the funny thing happens, you don’t give up. You believe it’s possible one day and you keep doing it and then something happens. Your brain clicks and now I’m confident. Most of you can tie your shoelaces in the dark because of effort.

No one’s born naturally gifted at tying your shoes. Do you get that? No one is born naturally smart at the ways of tying shoes. You put an effort, you learn, you get it. That neuroplasticity of the brain does not go away, barring a healthy functioning brain, of course.

You have to move from this idea that you have to be naturally good at something to succeed at it. You don’t. You have to put an effort. Effort is everything.

Effort is more important than where you’re born. It’s more important than the money you have in your bank account. So I have full confidence that if I ever lost it and God, we leave, we got don’t what I have, my effort will see me through.

You’re not good at math, start putting effort towards math. You’re not good at science, start putting effort towards science. You want to start a business, put an effort into starting a business. You want a great marriage, put in the effort to have a great marriage.

People think, “Well, if it’s supposed to be, it’s just going to happen.” No. If it’s supposed to be, you’re going to put in an effort to make it be.

There’s a great quote that I love from Thomas Edison that says:

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it’s dressed in overalls and it looks like work.”

With effort, you’ll take advantage of every opportunity that’s in front of you. Effort is everything.

And when you put an effort, not only will you take advantage of the opportunities that’s in front of you, you’ll take advantage and create opportunities you didn’t even know existed.

Thank you.

Want a summary of this talk? Here it is.

SUMMARY:

Arel Moodie’s talk titled “The Secret to Student Success” emphasizes the importance of effort over innate ability, intelligence, or talent in achieving success. Arel Moodie shares personal experiences and insights to illustrate the transformative power of effort. The central message is that putting in effort and hard work can overcome challenges and lead to success in various areas of life, from academics to personal endeavors.

The talk emphasizes the following key points:

1. Effort Over Innate Ability: The speaker challenges the common belief that success is determined by being naturally smart or talented. Instead, he argues that effort is the critical factor in achieving success. He provides examples of people who are smart or talented but not successful due to a lack of effort.

2. Challenging Obstacles: The speaker discusses how facing obstacles and challenges is an opportunity for growth. He shares his personal experience of struggling in school and how he turned things around by applying effort and hard work.

3. Mindset Shift: The talk highlights the importance of adopting a growth mindset, as described by Carol Dweck. A growth mindset is the belief that skills and abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. This mindset shift moves away from fixed innate abilities and focuses on the potential for improvement through effort.

4. Examples of Effort: The speaker provides examples of how effort can lead to success in various areas, such as academics, sports, entrepreneurship, and personal relationships. He emphasizes that effort can be applied to anything a person wants to excel in.

5. Taking Advantage of Opportunities: The talk stresses that opportunities often require hard work and effort to seize. Many opportunities may appear as challenges at first, but by putting in the effort, individuals can turn them into opportunities for growth and success.

6. Creating Opportunities: Effort doesn’t just help individuals take advantage of existing opportunities; it can also lead to the creation of new opportunities that weren’t initially visible.

7. Overcoming Setbacks: The speaker shares personal setbacks and challenges he faced, including struggles in school and difficult life circumstances. However, by applying effort and changing his mindset, he was able to overcome these challenges and achieve success.

Overall, the talk encourages the audience to recognize the power of effort and hard work in achieving their goals and aspirations. It suggests that by focusing on effort and adopting a growth mindset, individuals can overcome obstacles, maximize their potential, and create their own paths to success.

Resources for Further Reading:

Douglas Barton: What Do Top Students Do Differently? at TEDxYouth@Tallinn (Transcript)

Joe Ruhl: Teaching Methods for Inspiring the Students of the Future (Transcript)

The Secrets of People Who Love Their Jobs: Shane Lopez (Transcript)

Reimagining Classrooms: Teachers as Learners and Students as Leaders by Kayla Delzer (Transcript)

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