I just finished reading Outliers, the latest book from Malcolm Gladwell (the guy who wrote Blink and The Tipping Point). This fascinating book takes a look at successful people in an attempt to break down why and how they got there. I devoured it (at the cost of hours of sleep, as is the case with most good books I pick up).
A lot of what he discussed were things you’ve always known – Asians tend to be better at math, higher income students tend to do better in school, etc. – but he broke down exactly why (the logic and length of Chinese numbers, the use of summer vacation and parent’s views on authority figures). Other things were absolutely surprising – most Canadian hockey players were born in Jan, Feb and March because of the cut off dates, speaking indirectly to captains is the largest cause of plane crashes.
But there were some bigger takeaways that really got me thinking.
As any intelligent person would imagine, a lot of success is based on luck – in being in the right place at the right time, getting an opportunity and taking advantage of it. This one seems so obvious, but I think we often forget about the second part of this – you need to be open and willing to jump at your opportunity and have the sense to recognize it as such.
The other sticking point for me was that every genius/prodigy/expert puts in at least 10,000 hours of practice time – that is how they got as good as they got. We like to think that geniuses don’t have to think or practice or learn – that there is something innate that makes them completely different from the rest of us. That is true, but it’s not what we think, the thing that sets them apart is a ridiculous work ethic and a love for what they do that drives them to do little else but that.
This got me thinking about my own success.
I was lucky enough to have an Apple computer at my disposal from a young age and a father who I saw programmed for fun. He joined the internet bubble and got himself a website. When asked if I wanted to put something online, I jumped at it. Why wouldn’t I?
It was the beginning of the internet boom when I created my first website. I taught myself how to do it. Then I made another one. And another. Each step of the way I figured out different things and learned more, so the next one I made was easier. I’d ask teachers to let me build websites rather than writing papers. I created my own web business because I was frustrated that someone else hadn’t created a site containing the information I wanted. I wrote iTunes asking them for a payment sharing link exchange before Affiliate programs were in common use.
My parents instilled in me an incredible work ethic (passed down through the generations from who-knows-what) and the desire to engage with authority figures to make sensible solutions reality (thanks to my socioeconomic class). And because I started so early and kept at it, I just kept getting better. And because it was something I did for fun, it was a way I wanted to spend my time. And because computers had always been a part of my life, I could easily pick up new software.
Today I make my living building websites, a career that didn’t exist when I was born. I was in the right place at the right time with the right background and have poured myself into this work from the moment it first started up. I’m not sure if I’ve yet put in the 10,000 hours necessary to make me a genius/prodigy/expert, but there’s still plenty of work to be done.
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