“It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish!” – so the song goes.
An impoverished childhood needn’t prevent people from becoming successful adults.
Not going to Uni doesn’t mean you won’t achieve your ambitions. Wealth and privilege can provide advantages, but lacking them needn’t hold anyone back, if they’re prepared to work hard and put in the hours to learn or develop their skills.
Are you familiar with the ‘10,000 hours’ theory which was popularised by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outlies, based on research by Anders Ericsson?
Some people believe Gladwell suggested it takes 10,000 hours to achieve expertise in any field. But he’s been accused of oversimplifying the research, by Ericsson himself.
Ericsson points out that, while it takes a number of hours to acquire expertise, the quantity of the hours you devote to practicing a skill, developing a talent or simply ‘becoming really good at something’ isn’t as important as a deliberate type of practice, in contrast to casual or repetitive practice.
In other words, the 10,000 hours concept isn’t about the specific number of hours, but that the hours you put in, whether 10,000, 5,000 or 1,000, are focused, perhaps under the guidance of someone who already possesses those skills and talents.
But those hours must be put in, if anything is to be achieved.
A writer friend was asked for tips by an acquaintance who had a 9 to 5 job and ‘fancied writing a book’.
My friend said “Do what I had to do when I had a proper job. Write every night when you come home and put in the hours”.
For the next year, every time they met, his friend’s excuse for not putting pen to paper was “By the time we’ve had dinner, it’s nearly 10. Too late to start writing. Anyway, the ideas are all here in my head”.
Yes, 20 years later, the book’s never been started.
Even though he’s one of the world’s greatest guitarists. Eric Clapton is said to practice six to eight hours every day.
See what’s possible if you’re prepared to put in the hours?