Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times Best selling author of Outliers, discusses how inaccurate we are when it comes down to what makes people successful over others.
Gladwell suggests that success does not come down to innate talent alone
But that hard work, culture, patience, and other variables play a pivotal role.
The likes of J.K. Rowling, Bill Gates, the Beatles, and Michael Jordan, worked extraordinarily hard to perfect their craft and were ready for opportunities when they came their way.
Gates, for example, used to sneak out after bedtime to the physics department of the University of Washington so he could practice coding.
The Beatles played 1200 live shows in 4 years perfecting their music.
Beyonce used to run 3 miles singing to give her the fitness to perform on stage.
Gladwell sums up the amount of work needed to reach excellents is upwards of 10,000 hours of concentrated work.
While the exact number of hours isn’t the main point, it’s that talent is not the common denominator of elite success.
It is those who practice, work on their strengths and iron out weaknesses over and over while being very patient who are typically the ones who succeed.
10,000 hours is not a magical number but committing with intention and patience while working hard that brings these people success over time.
So how can you apply this in your life? Can you work on something for just 1 more hour this week? Bringing you closer to what you are trying to achieve?
