Earlier this year, i accidentally picked up Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘Outliers’.
I didn’t intend to read it. Not really. At least not thoroughly. My book list already chalked full with a cannon of life-changing-you-can-do-it-here-are-fancy-statistics-to-prove-it books.
But Outliers sucked me in. It had one concept, really, that grabbed my attention: the 10,000 hours rule.
The idea Gladwell offers is this: All great people (the ‘outliers’ of each generation) have more than great genes and a dose of luck. They consistently have loads of logged hours working at their craft. 10,000 logged hours, to be specific, applied directly to the said function, job, or sport those individuals later become recognized for.
Now, it might seem ludicrous for someone to pee-their-pants with excitement hearing that they can work for tens of thousands of hours before gaining possibility of being great.
I peed my pants.
Why? Because I want to be great at what I do. I want my work, my colleagues and friends, my company, and all our projects to be absolutely awe-inspiringly awesome! And, of course (…says the ‘don’t be so silly’ voice inside most of us) we are not awesome. We are average; above average if we allow ourselves some gratitude.
10,000 hours is something physically attainable! It’s a standardized goal, beyond the unattainable ‘be the greatest revolution of my industry’, which affords a much needed “keep going” mentality.
It is, simply, a goal procurable by anyone willing to apply themselves.; and even more so for persons with the flexibility to focus their efforts.
And as much as I like complaining to my wife about business woes, I can’t complain about 4200 hours logged designing or developing websites. That doesn’t include pitches, calls, emails, traveling, reporting, ideation, or any of the other work in the last 5 years all in the name of building websites.
All artists have cold spells. I do. I ask myself “can i really ever be great at this?” “Would my life be better doing XYZ random other job?” The XYZ, of course, changes depending upon the last cool guy I had a drink with, or latest fancy new life-changing book I accidentally read.
We’ll never be great at a job, no matter how much amazing fortune we get, or talent we force into it, if we don’t log hours.
Find a talent, start using the talent, and pray for blessing as you keep doing it. That is, very likely, the oldest and simplest of work ethics. And that is what Gladwell’s book reminded me.
Are you ready to bail? How many hours have you logged at your craft?