If there's one man who was able to tap into a lot of models of achieving success and who's had a deep understanding of what it is to be successful, it's the late Sir Ken Robinson!

Today's podcast is a tribute to him. To the amazing life he has lived, and the wonderful work he has done, especially in education.

Obviously Sir Ken had done a lot for education in the UK before 2006 (they don't hand around those 'Sir' titles to everyone!) but for me, I'd never heard of him. For me, he bloomed into notoriety with his amazing off the cuff TED address entitled "Do schools kill creativity?" Sir Ken posited that creativity is as important as literacy, and explained a lot about the hierarchy of education and about it coming from the industrial era—something I constantly cited in my own academic work.

His work perfectly explained how schools are a microcosm of society's broader power structures, reflects the way industrial paradigm schools have not changed and operate in this old industrial mentality while the rest of us have moved on. Governments have failed to make the transition but Sir Ken was someone who just 'got it'. He fully understood what needs to happen, what the education revolution should be about and he articulated it in a succinct way that inspired millions.

Sir Ken also was able to capture and describe the essence of living a full life - what he called 'The Element. As a coach this resonates so strongly with me and I love how he brings these 2 ideas together - living a rich, fulfilled life AND education as the training ground for it. That's EXACTLY what we're all about here at the Blueprint.

After listening to this podcast and his work, you'll recognise that we don't have to stay in the old industrial paradigm and an outdated social script. There are better ways to do things!

Identity, designing your own maximise life, the essence of success, empowering our creative spirits, having purpose and impact, and scaling that to create a better society using education. Sir Ken was just able to sum a lot of these deep foundational principles and talk about those in the context of education - something that everyone recognises is important.

Sir Ken was a hero of mine, a kindred spirit, someone I look forward to meeting in heaven and having the opportunity to sit down and talk with someday.

To Sir Ken:

Thank you for what you have done for the way we think about ourselves and humanity. You're an amazing man! It's such a blessing that we now have the opportunity to listen to the great resources you have left behind.

Over the past 15 years since that initial TEDtalk, Sir Ken has written amazing books, including my favourite, The Element, and produced invaluable resources for educators and parents.

I've put together a free downloadable list of these resources to share with you his best work. That's My Tribute to Sir Ken Robinson available along with this podcast.

Let's listen to it...