Maybe...just maybe, what we need is 10,000 hours.
Maybe...just maybe, what we need is 10,000 hours.
On how success is not only a product of natural talents, but a combination of many factors.
Hello guyss! It feels great to write to you again. My week has been… wild? hectic? yeah something like that. I hope yours wasn’t as hectic as mine.
In my current read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (supposedly my read for the month but… okay there’s no but), the author explained that success, unlike it is mostly narrated, is not only a product of innate talents, but a combination of many factors.
Factors like opportunities, 10,000 hours of hard work, and the kind of immediate environment a person finds himself, contributes greatly to the success of the individual. Now let’s take a close look at each of these factors, shall we?
Opportunities
Taking a close look at the lives of successful people, one thing that was an edge for them was the opportunities they took advantage of. Bill Gates (the founder of Microsoft), for example, was obviously a very smart kid. But that wasn’t just it. He got to do real-time programming as early as eight grade in 1968! Programming before then meant writing out programs on a card and giving it out to a computer engineer to run it. You will most likely not get the result of your code the same day because there are a couple of people waiting to run their codes too. And if your code has an error (as little as omission of a semi colon), you would take your card back to write the whole thing all over again more carefully this time. So it was a HUGE deal to get to code real-time. As early as eight grade, Gates was able to lay his hands on that huge, unusual opportunity. He was lucky enough to attend Lakeside, one of the few high schools in the world that had access to real-time programming (at that time).
Another opportunity he got was, the mother of Lakeside had enough money to pay for the hours of usage of the computer which was really expensive even for a wealthy institution as Lakeside.
And when the money $3,000 put by the Mother’s Club ran out, a group of programmers named C-Cubed needed someone to check its code on weekends. Another opportunity for Gates to use the computer!
Unfortunately, C-Cubed went bankrupt, but they — Gates and his friends— were lucky to find out about ISI (Information Sciences Inc.) which offered to give them free computer time in exchange for working on a payroll system. Another opportunity to use the computer. He used the computer for about 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. It was his obsession!
Paul, Gates friend, soon found a computer that was free in the University of Washington and was running 24/7. Gates would walk to the university from his house at night to use the computer between 3 and 6 in the morning because that was the only time the university did not schedule anything. The luck/opportunity he had this time, was that he happened to live close enough to the University of Washington.
Also, one of the founders of ISI, Pembroke, got a call from a company which needed programmers to set up the computer system at the power station. Pembroke knew the right people for the job were the high school kids from Lakeside who used up thousands of hours of computer time in ISI. Gates and his friend, which were now in senior year, were able to convince their teachers to spend their spring term miles away, writing code. You guessed right, another rare opportunity to use the computer.
Gates came across opportunities upon opportunities, which he used really effectively. In an interview with him, he says “If there were fifty in the world (with those kind of opportunities), I’d be stunned. I had a better exposure to software development at a young age than I think anyone did in that period of time”.
10,000 hours rule
All those opportunities Gates had points to one thing. He had extra time to work with the computer compared to his mates at that time. When Gates dropped out of Harvard to start his own company, Microsoft—which is the story we all know lmaoo— he had already been programming nonstop for seven years!
**Research conducted by Anders Ericsson, a psychologist, shows that the minimum hours it took violinists in Academy of Music in Berlin, to become an expert is 10,000 hours. This was also proven by studying the lives of great musicians, guitarist, hockey players,etc.
At the time Gates dropped out, he had gone wayyy past 10,000 hours. 10,000 hours? How long is that? Let’s do a quick math. There are 24 hours in a day right? say you sleep for 8 hours, you are left with 16 hours. Out of 16 h0urs, if you choose to work/practise for 8 hours (like Gates did), it would take you 1250 days which is approximately 3 years to attain mastery. If it’s 6 hours, it will take 1667 days which is a little over 4 and half years. 4 hours a day? 2500 days or approximately 7 years. 2 hours? 5000 days or approximately 14 years. An hour daily? 27 years and few months.
Environment
Annete Lareau, a sociologist, conducted a study on a group of third graders. She picked children from different background, color and race. Lareau and her team visited their families at least 20 times, four hours in a stretch. They told their subjects to treat them like the family dog following them everywhere, with a tape recorder and notepads in their hands taking down their observations.
It was observed that children whose parents empowered them to do things as little as speak up for themselves (for example, during doctors appointments etc) instead of doing the talking for them, are likely to become successful. Teaching kids how to interact effectively with authority figures (the doctor, as in the subject’s case) will equip them with the necessary skill to become successful.
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To reiterate, Malcolm Gladwell emphasized that real successful people are not only a product of natural talents, but a combination of opportunities, (10,000) hours practise and hardwork, and the environment you find/put yourself in.
**Although, some people have challenged the 10,000 hours rule, claiming you can spend lesser to attain mastery, some people still find it relevant and hold on to it till date.
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See you around!
Yosola.
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