Have you put in your 10,000 hours?

Malcolm Gladwell made a name for himself by writing three bestselling books “Blink,” “The Tipping Point,” and now “Outliers.” His latest is currently number 5 on the bestseller list. The word outlier refers to “a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from others of the sample.” Gladwell’s focus is on extraordinarily successful people (Bill Gates, the Beatles, NHL players to name a few), and what it is about them, their environment, and the luck that made them what they are today. His subjects share many things in common—high intelligence, but not necessarily the highest, a passion for an area of work, though they were surely not alone, and environments that supported their visions, again not uncommon. Yet, all of these people performed statistically outside of the sample in the area of success. Another factor became evident during the interviews—each individual had put in the time. Not just some, but at least 10,000 hours before they felt competent, ahead of the curve, and positioned to excel. Just this past weekend I listened to Olympic champio Michael Phelps talk about his quest, as a high school student, for Olympic gold. “I practiced 365 days a year for five years.” At six hours a day, you are looking at just over 10,000 hours. Bill Gates would sneak out of his parent’s home in the middle of the night to work on his programming. When asked how much time he had under his belt, unprompted, he said, “I must have put in 10,000 hours before I founded Microsoft.” You and I can think of others not even mentioned in the text—Tiger hitting balls in the dark, Jordan always first on the practice floor still perfecting his free throws when others were relaxing. They all did serious time. My point is we often think things should come quickly and that investing time is a waste of time. The sweat equity factor is frowned upon in our “never let them see you sweat” culture. Yet, the truly successful aren’t solely relying on their talents; or maybe another of their gifts is the ability to focus, persevere, and prevail. Want to take your career to the next level? Become expert in an area? Thinking of making a career change? Ask yourself, “Am I devoting the time necessary?” and “How am I spending the time?” Budget 10,000 hours. Whenever I have taken on a new career challenge, I have always found a commitment to the process essential for success. That’s why for every major move I made I hired a coach. Do you have a coach in your life? >

Copyright 2008, 2009 Jane Cranston and ExecutiveCoachNY.com

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