10000 Hours Till Success And Mastery

2 Comments

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  KylePhoenix 6/9/2009

  Hi,

  I read the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell that has created this buzz based upon a number. I can tell you as someone who’s been teaching for over 15 years to children through university level and adult learners that this is true. What teachers don’t or can’t tell students is that it is generally apparent who the superstars are not by just academic ability but the capacity to harness ones’ focus and direct it.

  It does take time to learn a subject or skill—say about 1000 hours and you pretty much understand it. It then takes say another 4000 to 6000 hours to be good at it but what occurs in the third stage of learning which would be the last component of time—is evolution/creativity. Barbra Streisand has her voice as a finely honed instrument because she’s literally spent years singing and practicing singing and studying music and studying singers and so on. An interesting fact about Madonna creating songs that will be hits? She studies famous Broadway shows for what songs have lyrical hooks and how a lyrical hook is created. Oprah? Started public speaking at 4 in churches and in her teens and early 20’s would do ANY speaking engagement in her spare time while attending schoola nd working full time to hone her speaking/communication skills. John D. Rockefellar—-owned a business for 7 years simply learning how to do, manage and create business while also studying railroad construction, oil refinery, etc..
  So how do we all then measure our skills—it isn’t always by fianncial success or fame immediately.

  First it’s generally by teachers/professors conferring that you’re playing in the major leagues that they are. In vernacular—real recognizes real (which goes into Malcolm Gladwell’s other book Blink which purpose sthat experts can recognize ability/skill in their field in the blink of an eye).

  Second you have to enjoy doing it—the passion from interest and curiousity garners the seeds of imagination which blossom into creativty and courage to alter the form—think John Coltrane or John Cage or Bjork.

  Third is generally comparison which comes in the simple piint—writers read—if you want to know who is at what “jedi” level of writing—ask them whom they are reading. In classrooms across the world—it is the secret way teachers test you. If you say Joyce, Morrison, Dreiser and Beckett your professor or writing coach will suspect true talent than if you say Bushnell, King, Zane and Koontz. Ability yes—master level—no. But if you were to ask the last list of writers who they liked and inspired them you would hear Poe and Shakespeare and Dickinson and Bronte and Baldwin and Shange.

  I write and I teach. I’ve got my 10,000+ hours of teachign and here’s a secret I can teach anything. I’ve taken jobs and the curriculum, home the same night and come in ready to teach for weeks on end because teachers know how to synthesize information, draw out people, do a ittle performance in front of a group and tweak, push, pull, coddle, kick, curse, cajhole and eventually consummate students because of the hours upon hours upon hours upon hours of teaching that bring one to 10000 hours enabling a level of mastery.

  PS Yup, I’ve got 10000+ hours of writing too. 🙂
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  Alan Yu 6/10/2009

  Never read the book myself. I always see these types of “rule” books as just a way to help steer you on the right track as oppose to the way it must be done.

  Apparently there is something about labeling people based on their birthdays and ethnic origins that stirred a lot of controversy with that book.

  Let’s see, if it takes 10,000 hours to master something…..I write like a blog post a day which takes about an hour or so. Err….does that mean I have like over 2 decades to go until I become a master blogger? lol