Richard St. John

Brainstormer, Educator/Teacher, Explorer, Foodie, Idea generator, Journalist, Marketer, Photographer, Producer, Writer/Editor

Richard St. John’s first career was at Nortel Networks Research and Development labs where he spent ten years as a member of scientific staff doing Design, Research, Writing, Photography, Advertising, Videos, and Marketing for innovative telecom products. He couldn’t decide which title to put on his business card so he just left it off. An appropriate title would have been “de-mystic.” Because he loved to research and analyze the complex technology products scientists were inventing and then communicate them in ways that everyone could understand. In his second career as an entrepreneur he started a successful marketing company and won top awards, including best corporate video in the world and an IABC Gold Quill, the most prestigious award in business communications. He stumbled into his third career as a Success Analyst by accident. He had been going to TED for years and was on a plane looking forward to it again. In the seat next to him was a teenage girl and she asked him a question that changed the course of his life: “What really leads to success?” Even though he had achieved some success he couldn’t tell her how he did it. So to answer her question he started interviewing a few successful people. Then every year a few more, and the little project he thought would take a month turned into a 15-year passion and obsession. His research grew to over 1,000 face-to-face interviews with extraordinarily successful people, including Bill Gates, Martha Stewart, Richard Branson, the Google founders, Rupert Murdoch, Jane Goodall, Nobel Prize winners, and the list goes on... He analyzed every word they said and built one of the largest, most organized databases on success. And from that he wrote a bestseller "The 8 Traits Successful People Have in Common: 8 to Be Great." He was very shy and had no intention of ever going on stage to speak about his work. Then in 2005 Chris Anderson asked if anyone would like to give a short TED talk. Richard saw it as a way to communicate his findings. So with butterflies in his stomach he pushed himself on stage to give the first 3-minute TED talk, “8 Secrets of Success.” And much to his surprise, his nervous little talk has become one of the “Most Viewed” TED videos with millions of hits. Richard maintains it has nothing to do with him, He’s just the messenger. It’s all about the wisdom from the great people he interviewed. And now he gets to share the stage with them. When the largest bank in Norway held a private VIP event for top CEOs and highest-level government ministers, they chose two Richards to speak - Richard Branson and Richard St. John. On the personal side, he and his wife Baiba have run marathons on all seven continents, including Antarctica. Richard has now done 100 Marathons and counting, with a best time of 2 hours and 43 minutes to run the 26 miles (42 km.) Since 1975 he has run more than 85,000 miles (137,000 km), equal to running 3.5 times around the world, or 28 times across the United States. He and Baiba have also climbed two of the world’s Seven Summits: Kilimanjaro in Africa, and Aconcagua in South America. Baiba got him into running and climbing and he is still trying to keep up with her. 2018 is Richard's 21st TED

Researching success, Inspiring young people, Staying healthy, Running marathons, Working hard, Having fun.

Balance, Not Losing Stuff, Success

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listening, seeing patterns, writing stuff down, speaking to youth, not losing stuff