Hey there! Today's video is going to be a
little bit different because it's not
the usual thing of tips for a problem or
a goal that professional people have on
this journey of success with emotional
resilience. It's more of an 'insight' video,
an insight into a psychological Bias, a
cognitive Bias that can really mess with
our motivation, and therefore our
performance! And that thing is called
SURVIVOR BIAS or SURVIVORSHIP BIAS as
some people call it. Now, Survivor Bias is
really easy to fall for and when you do,
you get 'over thinking demotivation' and
performance drop. Now, by the end of this
video you'll be able to recognize WHEN
you're falling for Survivor Bias, you
will be able to recognize WHY you're
falling for Survivor Bias, and most
importantly of all you'll know what to
DO to snap out of it. And do stay right
to the very end, because in addition to
this I also want to give you a free,
downloadable, easy 5 step guide to master
stress in pressure and conflict. It's
something that I found transformational
and I want to give it to you.
[Music]
Now my name's Steve and I'm a
professional coach and trainer. I coach
professional people just like you to
combine your personal brilliance with
unshakable emotional wellness, so that
you can create a happier and more
successful experience of your life and
work. So for the best ideas and practices
in that theme, then please subscribe to
my channel, and don't forget to click the
notifications bell so that you'll know
when new content arrives.
Now, I originally had some resistance to
doing this video precisely because it
wasn't a clear 'how to' video addressing a
specific problem or goal, but I was
really touched to do this when I shared
this information in a group and it
proved to be POWERFUL! And I always find
that it proves to be really helpful
whenever I talk about this with my
clients, so let's go! Now the most obvious
place to start is, "What is Survivor Bias?"
Well, Survivor Bias, or Survivorship Bias
if you prefer to call it that way, is a
logical error where our perceptions and
understanding of success is distorted by
concentrating too much on what we can
learn from successful people, and failing
to consider what we should learn from
those who didn't succeed. Put more simply
and by example, imagine there are
1000 investors and they're going to
go into the world, and they're going to
invest money, and they're competing with
each other to make profits on that money.
Now let's say that of those 1000
investors, let's say that 100 make
profits let's say 900 don't make profits,
and of the hundred that did make profits,
10 of them make huge profits, like
millions. Now, the tendency is to think
that those 10 must have done something
special, something different to the
others that is worth learning, that they
are the ones who
learning from. However, for all we
actually know, all 1000 may have been
doing the same thing, it may be that
simply those 10 hit upon the 'right'
investments, and there was no real system
to how they did that, so in that case,
it's kind of pointing us to learn from
people who might not actually have
anything special to tell us. We need to
investigate what the people who didn't
make profits did just as much as those
who did make profits to really
understand where the difference might be.
In other words, it's not sufficient to
speak to only those who succeeded to
understand how success works. But that's
only one way that Survivor Bias shows up.
There's another way it shows up, which is
actually more relevant to this
particular video, in this particular
context, and that is that Survivor Bias
can kid us into thinking that
everybody else apart from us is having
the same experience as the top 1%. If
you're a job seeker, for example, in an
online job seeking community, it's very
easy to assume that all the other job
seekers are doing better than you,
because it's the successful people who
are most visible. If you're a freelance
writer, as another example, in an online
community of freelance writers, it's very
easy to assume that all the other
freelance writers are doing better than
you because again, it's the successful
people who are the most visible, and when
you get into that, when you get into
thinking, "Everybody's doing better than
me," because they're the most visible, you
will overthink on that! It will get
demotivational. it's Survivor Bias demotivation!
It's a Survivor Bias
demotivation strategy, and it totally
affects your performance, because you
lose that zip! You lose that enthusiasm.
Emotionally resilient professionals need
to get over cognitive biases like these
in their decision-making. Now can you
think of where you have fallen for
Survivor Bias in your life or work? Can
you think of where you might even
be falling for it now? If you have a story
on this, please tell me in the comments.
I love to read all of your comments and
I'll reply to as many comments as I can.
Also leave me a comment to tell me how
that made you feel to fall for it, and
what you did about it.
Now the next obvious place to go is "How
do you recognize you are falling for it?"
Well this one is really, really dead
simple! You're falling for it when you
think everybody else is doing better
than you! Because of what you see in the
information environment. Remember the
information environment is distorted
when it's the successful people who are
the most visible, and it's the
unsuccessful people who are not being so
visible, you are probably falling for
Survivor Bias. If you think that means
you are not doing as well as most of the
people. So what do you do about it? Well,
you remember! You remember that it's
Survivor Bias that's playing with your
head. You remember that it's Survivor
Bias over thinking that you're doing. You
remember that it's Survivor Bias
demotivation that's going on. Sometimes
it's not a 'doing', sometimes it's a 'seeing'.
Sometimes it's just seeing what's going
on. That when you know that that's what's
happening, you don't have to do anything
to be free of it. You know, to remind
yourself that you're seeing one percent
speaking and not 99 percent speaking. To
remember that you don't really know what
the experience of the majority is,
because the majority is not visible.
Seeing how things work like this, and
remembering how things work like this, is
all you need to know to be free. So
anytime you find yourself feeling,
Everybody else does doing better than me,
because of the information group you're
part of, remember that's like an echo
chamber. It's a bubble. Simply remember
what Survivor Bias is. You are not aware
of what's happening with the majority,
you're only seeing the minority and
you're blowing that out. It's Survivor
Bias. Recognize it. See it. That's how you
get free of it.
[Music]
Now if you'd like to explore how we can
create transformational results together
in your life and work, then I would
certainly love to hear from you. Message
me! My contact details are in the pinned
comment below this video. And also please
'like' this video. Give it a thumbs up if
you did like it, because that helps YouTube
recognize that it's worth showing to
other people. That will help other people
see it. Please share it with your friends
if you think it will serve them. Share it
on Facebook. Share it on Twitter. And most
of all, don't forget to subscribe to the
channel, because there's lots more great
stuff like this coming! Now, right at the
top of the video I mentioned a
downloadable free guide with five simple,
actionable steps for you to master
stress when you're facing conflict and
pressure. I found this
transformational when I did it, and
that's why I share it. It's easily
actionable! It's absolutely free, so
please go ahead and download it. I
promise you you will find it useful.
Again it's in the pinned comment below this
video. And other than that I'll see you
next week.