• Blog
  • Archives
  • Bio
  • Awards
  • Speaking
  • Book
  • Contact

How in(credible) are you?

Published: Wednesday, 18 February 2009

In order to be incredible, you first have to credible - to have people who trust you and your ability.

 

The winner of the 2007 TED Prize was awarded $100 000 for his wish of creating a world-class health system in Rwanda. He wrote the following to TED:

 

I wish you to help create a better future for Rwanda by assisting my foundation, in partnership with the Rwandan Government, to build a sustainable, high quality rural health system for the whole country.

 

Sounds incredible, doesn’t it?

 

But what if I told you the winner was Bill Clinton, ex-Commander in Chief of the United States of America? That’s credible.

 

When Richard Branson was in talks to sell Student Magazine to IPC Magazine, he shared his ideas for extending Student into a travel agency, bank, nightclub, hotel, train service, and airline with the board of directors. They thought his dreams were incredible and immediately backed out of the deal to buy his magazine. They didn’t want a loony guy running one of their magazine subsidiaries!

 

Now, over forty-years and eight billion-dollar companies built from scratch in eight different industries later, when Richard Branson speaks and outlines his plans for the future, people sit up and listen. Richard Branson is credible.

 

How credible are you to achieve your incredible goals? Work on your credibility, and you will achieve the incredible.

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • Eating through mosquito nets

    The recurring problem with malaria is that mosquitoes have evolved to be immune to every vaccination ever invented against them.   Humans too are...

  • Ruby Payne-Scott

    Ruby Payne-Scott was a pioneer radio physicist.  I was asked to go in and narrate her story for the ABC’s Fierce Girls series.  Listen to it here!...

  • No one puts Baby in the corner

    I was at West End watching “Dirty Dancing” the other night. In the foyer, there were t-shirts embossed with, “I carried a watermelon”, and “No one...

  • Over-exposure

    Telling people your plans too early doesn't make you less likely to achieve them.  I know when I tell people what I plan to do the response I get...

  • Success is in the doing

    Even if I know my chances of success are slim because I've been disorganised, have missed deadlines, have generally not followed my own rules for...

  • The worst that can happen

    When I was growing up, my mum earned about $20,000 a year to support herself, my brother and I.  By living very frugally and only spending money on...

  • Happiness

    What I say is important in my life = how I actually live my life

  • How I manage

    For one of the projects I’ve been leading for over the past 2.5 years, I manage a team of 20 people remotely. I meet with all of my direct reports...

  • One meeting can change your life

    Go out and make those connections, meet people, have conversations. It may land you a dream job.  My friend got an engineering internship in China by...

  • Press for Teleport Brain Control

    Our brain control Teleport got some great press!  It was covered by the Brisbane Times, New Atlas, Mashable, BBC and NowThis. Brisbane Times:  Robot...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top