YouSaid · the spoken record

Frank Stephenson

lines on the record: 101
first: 2020-02-18
most recent: 2020-02-18
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And it tends to be right. You can measure things and the measurements can be exact and still it looks off. But if you're... Gut instinct tells you that it's right. Most often it is, but that's another subject because gut instinct was thinking about it earlier was people rely a lot of times on gut instinct, but they rely on it too soon in their careers. And that is probably a mistake. I think when you feel that something is right, that is a reliable guide when you've got pretty much the experience that what your gut instinct is telling you is valid. You don't want to rely on something that hasn't been proven before, but if you tend to be successful with your gut instinct, that is pretty much a good”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Allow us to do our job, but they're lacking the emotional side of it. So I think it's good to use computers, obviously, but I would never, ever believe in using a computer as a tool for creativity at the beginning. You can use it later, like I said, to give you variations and options and things like that and maybe to speed up the development process. But design from a design point of view where you're probably trying to make something, even if it's, you know, we all strive for perfection, but a lot of times great design backs off from perfection because there's something perfect about not being perfect, if that makes any sense. What we try to do with designers as designers is try to make something not look right so much, but as feel right. If it feels right.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just explore that for a little bit. Yeah, yeah. And at the risk of sounding like I'm old school, not that computers are a bad thing. They are not. They actually help us obviously help us in terms of turning out to work a lot quicker and giving us more options to consider. But when we're talking specifically about something that, I mean, design is pretty much a combination of art and science. It's not pure art. It's not pure science, but you have to blend the two together. When you let a computer do a lot of the work, you're losing the essence of design, which is design is a, like I said, it's an emotional product and you can oftentimes get closer to success when you add in that human touch, as we call it. Computers roll that out. They kind of cold tools that”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ideas come together and start bouncing off of each other. And what you do is you create this force of innovation, of being able to put different ideas together that you never would have had in the first place. You can apply that obviously in different ways. People say, how do you get curious or how do you become creative? It's pretty much basically just putting different thoughts, different ideas together that start bouncing off of each other in the more you learn, the more you apply it, the wider the ideas become the energy grows and you start coming out with products that you probably never would have thought about on your own in the first place.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's important that when we think about how to apply curiosity, you have to understand that if you're not relevant with the times and up to date with things that are being developed, I wouldn't even say discovered because things are everything exists. You just have to find it pretty much dig into it. A lot of it comes from research, obviously. But that process of basically being able to apply your curiosity kind of is what we call cross, I was speaking recently at a summit about cross-industry innovation where basically you put teams together of people who don't really have much in common, but they all, I mean, they're all passionate, obviously, about what they do, but their interests are pretty varied. And what you do is you create this force or this energy where all these different”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If you're not curious, if you're not wired to act on it, then you're pretty much looking at a dim or not optimized solution, I would call it. You have to be sort of relevant in the way you think.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's true. I mean, any time we stop that curiosity factor, it's going to be frustrating, obviously, from the designer side. It's going to stop that connection that many times when we're talking about curiosity, what we're doing is we're putting together what I think are bits of knowledge together. You're connecting bits of knowledge that probably don't have much to do with each other. And when you connect those bits of knowledge, it allows you to think of new ideas. It allows you to be more creative, obviously. And the more creative you are, the more solutions you can generate from becoming more knowledgeable about different things. That sort of sucks you in into being even more curious. So it's a kind of a spiral.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They pretty much put blocks in your way, I guess, as a designer to be in curious state. Like I said, they tried to make sure that what you're doing is playing it safe. The problem with playing it safe again is you're being, you could risk being stagnant, you could risk going backwards even. don't encourage it enough. Basically, it plays on the fact that if you're not curious, you're basically stifling the all-important innovation factor. I'd say that all companies would need, or at least a part of the company needs to be thinking about innovation.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Being curious, that will lead to the imagination, which then will lead to the creativity that you need to generate. And that also leads to being a visionary. And then you actually have to execute it. But yeah, I would say curiosity is the most important thing. When you speak about innovation, it's basically it makes you smarter. sometimes considered even more important than the knowledge. So yeah, it's critical.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no, no. I mean, you have to take things slowly when you're designing new products, obviously. But curiosity is that grand spark, that big bang that kicks everything off, you know, because without that, we don't innovate. I wouldn't say the main ingredient, but it's the first ingredient that you need for everything else to succeed along the process. I love speaking about curiosity. It's probably my favorite absolute favorite subject to talk about. Curiosity, basically, I think we're all pretty much, we start life being very curious about things. It's sort of a factor of life that kids are always asking why, you know, or how does this work or whatever. But like I said, it is absolutely the thing that makes us visionaries. Basically, if you can start out.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and that's everything there. Curiosity is key, basically the driving factor for innovation. It's the key to everything in the whole process.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, design is all about emotion. So what you're counting on is that the design will be a main factor, one of the main factors to buy in that product. So, you know, if you're in the market for a budget car or everyday car, so many cars cover that well enough today, that design tends to be the deciding factor when it comes to making that decision of what car I want. What does the brand represent and what does the car look like? I'm going to be driving this thing and my neighbors will be seeing me in it and they'll judge me my taste on this. So design is a very, very important factor when it does come to designing the selling the product. So companies are starting now, I think, to put a huge value on basically the design of the vehicle. So yeah, so.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“around the world eventually obviously it came to the US but in Europe it had to it had to pretty much in the brief save the company because they weren't selling much and of course you know if you want to do a car that sort of has that kind of impact to society you have to reach for the emotional factor that makes people want the car without really needing the car that emotional factor in design is is vital it's extremely important that you you create a product that somebody necessarily doesn't need it but wants it if you hit that you've pretty much hit the magic you know you found the golden chalice”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it did, Shane. It did absolutely. But again, the brief there was a little bit different. The brief there was, I mean, Fiat, they're a wealthy company no matter what people think. You know, you think of fiat as not an expensive product, but they're massive. I mean, in terms of what they were selling in the earlier days, I wouldn't say in the time when the 500 came around, but the Cinque Cento, as they call it. But in those days, they were, as I call it, in the dire straits because they weren't able to sell very many products on the world stage. They were sort of, they'd missed a step or two steps and they were stumbling along. And suddenly they found themselves in a position where they needed instantly a solution that would generate profits. And so the design solution was, how can we create something quickly that will have a world, just a huge impact?”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“job in the world would be a car designer, you're always going to find them answering, well, I'd love to work for a high-end exotic car company because they'll let me or challenge me or allow me to do my best work. And that excitement of doing your best work rubs off throughout their organization. And you get much happier people in these organizations working as teams. You get a lot of momentum, excitement builds up when you're allowed to express your creativity and things go smoother and basically you're”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's the problem with a lot of companies they're in it for the profit. They're not in it for the actual excitement of bringing something exceptionally new to the market. So they're playing it safe. The whole thing with the designer is designers aren't wired to play it safe. They're wired to take risks and companies are at risk adverse. So a designer is happy, obviously, when he gets a position to be able to be a designer within a company, you're basically able to create your babies. You know, you have a thought, which is that sort of initial phase of ideation phase of creating a new product. But at the end of the day, if that product is not the best that you could have made it or shot down along Guy in different ways by other people, then you're not really going to be ultimately satisfied. So if you ask most designers what their favorite...”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a lot funner, obviously, to work in that end for a designer, whereas designers have to basically, you're told to do a job or a brief, you have to adhere to. But when the brief lets you stretch the limits, then that's where you have a blast. Problem is it doesn't reach everybody at that end of the market. A lot of people in the higher end mark volumes at the higher end markets will just tend to sell very few cars.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With a higher end company where you're expected to do something innovative, these, like I said, the higher end exotic companies need to stand out. They need to do something that's better than whatever else the competition is doing. And it's fierce. I mean, at that top end, you're getting companies, obviously the budgets are bigger, like I said, but the only thing that can make a difference is basically what your calling card or what the company's calling card represents. So the concept cars that we produce at that end for a motor show, auto show, pretty much are the ones going into production. So what that requires is an engineer who's as excited and as visionary and as crazy or believing that the impossible is possible as the designer.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And finance, they're all in there to make a buck. Pretty much it's the way big corporations run. And so they'll put the binders or obstacles in your way in order for you basically just to calm yourself down and turn out pretty much the standard solution. So you're working and you're excited because you're doing things that start as a spark in your brain. One day you'll see them on the roads. But it could be so much more. And that's why I think a lot of times these companies will do concept cars to show that they are forward thinking. They'll show that their design team is innovative and that, but the concept cars aren't the real cars. They're oftentimes just to get the public excited about what could be coming. But at the end of the day, so many of these concept cars that we see at the motor shows never turn out to be real. And they're so watered down when they go to production that you don't oftentimes don't see a resemblance between.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“rely on past solutions and the current status quo to turn out work that they're guaranteed that will not fail, that its quality and they know what it's going to cost. The moment a designer gets all excited and starts envisioning the future and coming out with ideas that haven't been proven or developed, that puts him at risk that he's not going to be able to deliver. I mean, budget's a budget, whether you're budgets, whether you're working with a small company or a bigger company, you still have to stick to the budget. But the designers and the engineer relationship with say a standard company is difficult, can be difficult at times. I've had many, many experiences where my dreams and wishes and visions weren't able to be realized because of the negative pressure from, and not only from the engineers, but also from the other departments.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not the smaller companies, but the ones that work well or look to be in volume sellers, they've got to please everybody all the time, or that at least is their goal. Whereas the more limited in the, call them the exotic companies aren't, I mean, of course, they want to sell everything they make, but they can afford to sell less in the end run. The result set a designer is basically the crazy guy in the organization. He's the one that comes up with these ideas that pretty much, you know, scare everybody at the beginning because they're five years out from production and the designer gets paid the bucks to basically come up with these ideas that are innovative. And engineers don't like, typically don't like to be pushed in this innovative direction because it puts them at, you know, at ease with trying to have to figure out something very quickly that hasn't been done before.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It goes both ways, Shane. You can have, I'll tell you what it is, the bread and butter companies have an awful relationship between the designers and the engineers, whereas the high flying, the exotics have a great relationship between the engineers and the designers. The reason being is...”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We've got a few openings that we could push around and have you take one of them in the European studios in Cologne, in Germany.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Take a lot of the weight off of it, and the main thing is to get my foot in the door on graduation, so what better way than to know that door is already cracked open. So, yeah, I accepted, obviously, and got through the next two years pretty, I wouldn't say easily, but had that, like I said, the weight off my shoulders of how to get the financial packages in place. And I went to Ford straight out of graduation. And they had a position open for me in Detroit at the main headquarters, design headquarters in Detroit. But I'd grown up in Europe and I had no desire to work and live in Detroit. And I knew that Ford was an international company and had their European design headquarters in Germany. And I thought, well, I'd much rather work for you guys in Germany if that's possible. And they looked into it and said,”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did. Yeah, yeah. I did what happened is halfway through the big three at the time the Chrysler, General Motors and Ford would come and check out who has the potential to become a good employee or somebody they'd look forward to on graduation. So what they'll do is they'll sift them out around halfway through. They'll come to the college and look through the middle ranks of the classes and see who's up and coming and has talent or whatever or the mindset. And so Ford, I guess they took a shine to me and said, look, if you sign with us now, we'll help you get through the rest of the way on the cost side of it. And we'll be happy to give you a starting position with us on graduation. So that obviously for me, when they said that was a no-brainer, I had to, you know, I thought that.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Used whatever it takes, I'll do it. How bad do you want it? I wanted it very badly and I didn't, none of that seemed like it was going to stop me in my tracks or make me rethink what I wanted. I had this vision right from the beginning that I'm going to make it through and I'm going to become happy because I'll be able to do what I always wanted to do. So it wasn't in any way a negative experience. It was a difficult, hard experience. It's like taxing your body and your mind to the limit. But when anybody, I think anybody who does that or who has done that probably will recount that with a positive spin to it. They don't see it as negative. Anything that's difficult to achieve when you look back at it, you don't criticize it. You sort of think, you know, it's kind of like Green Bridge training or, you know.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I guess most people would see it as a grind or difficult. I thrived there. I relished. It's kind of like a person who loves pain in that kind of situation because I loved the challenge of proving yourself there. It kills a lot of people. I mean, not literally, but it does make a lot of people finally give up or, you know, at some stage along the way. It's kind of like running a marathon and you take a break, you're never going to get back up to speed again. But like I said, I really was, I didn't see it as a grind or anything like that. I just saw it as the path I needed to the logistics I needed to get through to get to the end. For me, the end goal was to get a job and become a great designer one day. But the process of getting there was just the path I had to accept or the obstacles, I guess you could say that I needed to overcome to get there. It was a logistical approach thing.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Enough, how difficult they make it to get through with reason, because like I said, there aren't that many car designers out there. There isn't a need for that many car designers out there. So they make sure that the ones that do get through the four-year program are the ones that are competitive enough or good enough to actually start on the ground running, basically. It's a real boot camp. And the guys who make it through are pretty much prepared right away.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Very small percentage are allowed to even start. So I remember our first day of class when I finally did get the approval to start there. We were 30 students in the class and they told us that ratio of people who applied to people who actually get accepted to start. And it's scary. It's, I think it was about 3% when they tell that to us we were pretty proud of the fact that you're there. But then they cut us down the size when they said that we never have more than 10 students of the 30 that start finish. So it's pretty tough to get through that curriculum. And in fact, when we finished, there was only six of us from that starting class of 30 had started originally. So it's grueling. It's a mad. I can't tell you”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no, no. It was tough. I guess it's a dream profession and a lot of kids nowadays kind of look up to the guys who are doing it and thinking, wow, you know, these are the pros. And they've made it. The thing is, car design is not a big profession. There are not a lot of car designers in the world because simply car companies don't need a lot of designers. Even the big ones, they try to keep their teams pretty small. So there aren't a lot of opportunities out there to become a car designer. I remember when I applied for Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, they said, well, you can't just apply and expect to come. You have to go through a selection process where we'll determine your portfolio if your portfolio is good enough for you to be here with us. And the starting level there is extremely high. They have a huge amount of people that apply.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That my father suggested moving out of the motocross direction, and I couldn't believe that this college was basically the place to go for card designers who wanted to make that their profession. It was an awakening moment for me.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That hope that I could actually turn drawing into a profession. And I had this love of cars since I was about 10 and I spent many years, I guess, those years drawing cars, not even knowing that it was actually a profession or something that you could do for earn money doing or anything like that. I just thought car design was something that people did at home kind of thing. But I did develop this talent or furthered this talent of being able to be creative drawing in the drawing of products. And it was real serendipity when I found out that there was actually a university, a college in the US in Los Angeles that was dedicated to training young people to become car designers and it was right at that time.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Away from school, working in the body shop, which is what I loved to paint, I love to modify the cars and do a lot of the bodywork and things like that. That was the artistic side, obviously. But when he said you have to start thinking, you should start thinking about something else to do in life. I reverted back to that.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“PlayStations or whatever, but it was a great time to be able to develop myself in that artistic way. So what I'm trying to say is that I basically developed and never stopped drawing. I was always interested in creating things like that and drawing things. When my father said that you better start thinking or you should start thinking about something else, my options were pretty wide. I obviously had that dealership, his dealership that I could go back to. But for some reason, even though that was fun for me because I remember a lot of summers having to spend, you know,”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But the idea that if I mean, I started out obviously loving. The industrial side of things, I guess you could say, the machines and the sounds and what makes horsepower and everything like that. But also there was, like I said, the artistic side where I started from a very young age of drawing. And if I was at home, my mother many times had to kick me out of the house to get me out and get some fresh air because all I ever wanted to do at that youngish age when you're still preschool and around that age, I was just drawing hours and hours on end. I loved colors. I loved shapes and I would just draw. And I think she might have been a bit worried that this guy is, you know, he's going to be a little bit of a one-off because he doesn't like to get out and play with the other kids. I would spend an unreal amount of time just in my room drawing. And kids nowadays, regretfully they don't do that so much. They might be on the...”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of measured, you'd have to be able to put a number to it, and that included everything about being precise about absolutely everything and very detail-oriented. Whereas my mother was very much on the other side of the spectrum where she was all about the artistic value of things and being very creative and that went from everything from the art to music to culture and everything. So there's a bit of blending in that. But the artistic side stuck, you know, I guess you inherit quite a few genes from both, but it seemed rather split in my side, whereas I mean, I did love what my father had about that technical side of what he was always teaching me. But for my mother, I learned the appreciation for the arts. And that kind of sort of combined and I guess shaped my way of seeing things from a very young age.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's kind of interesting because they seem like two completely different. Things in life. I mean, one, you have to be pretty bulky and the other one you have to have pretty lith fingers, I would imagine. And now I'd always been very physically active since I was a very active, physically active young kid and also very competitive from very early age on. I just love being competitive. But I also had this artistic wiring in me, which I was never really able to understand, but it was just everything for me was from the very beginning. I would see everything from an artistic point of view, as well as obviously a technical point of view, because my parents were very different, my father being basically a northerner. He was very, I don't know, very, very analytical and very technical about everything and everything had to be, you know.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah, you're right. The thing is you sometimes don't see it. Other people see it. And that's a fact about a lot of things in life. You can kid yourself quite a bit if you're not really self-analytical about the truth. I'm lucky to have a parent who was who was able to tell me what, you know, he loved me as much as any parent can love a child. And at the same time, he wanted the best for me. And he wanted me to be happy. But he could see from the outside that pretty much you're good, but you're not good enough and good isn't good enough, kind of that approach.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Six or whatever. It was just a time of my life where I could get on a motorcycle, mentally think that I have to be relentless in that pursuit of being the first guy to the finish line and do what it takes morally correct, of course. You don't want to do anything that's out of line, but a lot of people find ways to get around those rules. Finishing at the very top was always that goal I had. And like I said, my father saw that at some point when I was sort of four years into the professional career, that it wasn't going to happen because I guess you can reach your limit. I hate thinking about that.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Top writers, and obviously at that first instant, you're not looking to be a world-class writer, you're just trying to be the regional champ or the national champ, and then you go on from there. But yeah, I put a lot of energy into it because I just loved it. It's that typical thing that if you're doing something that you love, you're going to put that much more effort into it and the rewards from doing well are sort of a catalyst to do even better. And so I spiraled into that train of thought where the more successful I became, the more I wanted to do it and the more effort I put into it. And the happier I became, the more satisfied and fulfilled I became. So it was a great time in my life. I'm so happy I had that time in my life and didn't just wander off and get stuck in a nine to five job or with nine.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Although a lot of people just go straight to college, I finished pretty well in my graduating class, but I had no intentions to go into the university to study or anything like that. finished university in Madrid, Spain, and that was pretty much it. And I thought I'll just see if I can become something in racing. And my father was all for it. So I went for it. But the idea of going through it and becoming an elite racer was never on my mind. It was just push and see how far I can go. And that mental approach allowed me, I think, that if I can dedicate myself 100% to this, I don't have any distractions, other distractions in life or anything else that I wanted to do instead, then that allowed me the time and the energy and the dedication to try to be one of the.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, like anybody, I guess, first of all, I saw it as a passion for me to be able to do that. I didn't start thinking I'm just going to do it for a year or anything like that. I just thought my father said, you know, sure, have a go and let's see how you mature through it. And we'll take it as a go. You don't have to start working right away because he had a dealership, a car dealership in southern Spain since the early 60s and was kind of expected that when I graduate from high school, I would go there to work. So I wasn't really needing to have to go look for a job. That's a kind of enviable position, I guess, for a lot of people to be in.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“or stimulates you to become more than what you think you are. And there's a lot ups and downs along the way. Obviously, it's just like life. You crash and burn a lot of times. But at the same time, it's a great learning experience. You learn a lot of things in racing that you would never learn in school and not just about the speed factor or anything like that. It's a mind game, like everything in the world where you want to be the best. It doesn't come down so much or 100% to talent. It comes down to the extra 10% or the 1% that makes you a little bit better than the other guy, which is how you approach it mentally. And if you're not mentally prepared, it doesn't matter how much talent you have. You probably won't do that well in the end.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He loved racing. I mean, part of the reason why I was able to get into it was because he loved it himself. His philosophy is exactly that. You have to always try to excel, always try to push yourself to another level. And racing for him or anything in life was pretty much that kind of competition, that mental approach to life. So he saw racing as a good, as a great character builder for me, I think. And because I went for it or actually tried to seek it out as a thing to do after I'd graduated from high school or just as I was graduating from high school, he was all for it. It's a great direction for a child or a young daughter or son to put themselves into a competitive atmosphere, competitive environment. where it allows you to”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Make sure that that level you're pushing to or that limit is not just average. Nobody cares in racing about who's average. It's always about who's the winner. And so it does train you, I guess, for the rest of your life in a pretty awesome way of not being satisfied ever with anything unless you're at the very top or putting out your absolute best performance. So I think, you know. Looking back, I'm kind of glad that that was one of the ways I started out when I obviously left school and was able to do something that I was personally involved with the effort needed to be good or to excel. That was a bit of formation for me, I guess, for the rest of everything else has come after that.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't say depression, but pretty low because I knew that if I got out, it was going to be 100% out. And that experience of racing where you're traveling quite a bit and you're sort of getting exposed to an international outlook on life at a very young age. That's wonderful. I mean, you learn so much just by being around people who have so many different experiences in life and basically you're doing something that you love to do and you're getting paid to do it. And there's a lot of exposure at that level. So it's a rewarding thing to do when you're young. And it does keep you towing the line, I guess you could say, in terms of health and a mental approach to life, a mental outlook. You're always pushing yourself to the limit or what you think is your own limit, but then you have to, you know.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That you crave. So it was tough for me at that point to sort of try to see his reasoning for it. I always thought I could keep on improving, which you probably can do. I mean, they say that if you do something enough for 10,000 hours, 10,000 times, you're going to be pretty good at it. But I'd already done those 10,000 hours, I think. And I still wasn't getting any better. So I'm glad that he said that, although at that time of my life, I was pretty upset that I was agreeing to change my direction, I guess, to get out and do something a little bit different from that direction. So looking back, you know, hindsight is 100%. So I'm glad I did it. And I got on to something else that was probably more fulfilling in the long run for me.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“that reason that I was pretty much never finishing in the top three. He didn't tell me to do it, but he advised me that you're probably going to be better off if you start looking for a different direction in life, something where you can be or could be the best at what you do. And it wasn't just doing something else. It was always coming from him that what you do, you want to be the best at it. So before you get stuck in a rut or a dead end or something, then you probably should start thinking about getting out of this and doing something else with your life. And luckily enough, I listened to him. I didn't want to obviously listen to him because I was having the time of my life. I mean, at that age, your hormones are raging, your testosterone is raging, and racing is one of the biggest ways you can satisfy that craving for that kind of excitement.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The problem was, and it wasn't a problem for me, when you're racing, it's just fun to do it, that I'd reached a level where I probably wasn't going to go any higher. I mean, being a professional is pretty high in anybody's book, but the problem was I wasn't up at the very, very top where I was on the podium every weekend or finishing up in the top three. I was basically your into ten range of writing on that world-class level. That could be seen as pretty good and a pretty high level, but at the same time, from my father's point of view, it wasn't ever going to make a huge difference to my life or to my career. He was always pushing that even third would have been enough or second. For him, it was always, you know, you either look at being at the very top or try something else.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nothing much happened. That's probably the problem I had. I was doing well. I mean, it's all relative, I guess. I'd done really well from when I'd started right off the bat. I'd been pretty successful and came up through the ranks that you have to go through to get to that level, that professional level. I came through those pretty successfully and pretty quickly. And so it wasn't a struggle on my side to go through years of fighting and really trying hard to get to the top. It felt almost pretty natural. And so I wasn't really super, super inspired or super happy to be at that level in the way that when you reach that level, it almost seemed like a natural thing for me to arrive to.”
2020-02-18 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #76 Frank Stephenson: Pushing the Limits of Innovation · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT