Waiting for talent: 10,000 hours

The neurologist Daniel Levitin said it takes 10,000 hours of practice in order to become a master of something. I think by this he meant things like computer programming, brain surgery, medicine and law etc. It suggests that what we identify as top talent really comes from the privilege of being able to practice the ‘thing’ you’re talented at for a long time rather than being naturally gifted in a specific talent.

Modern society grows inpatient in a world of relentless innovation and technological growth, it looks for immediate talent coming out of university dorm rooms and talent show competitions, turning kids in to instant real world overnight stars. Often left behind are the older applicants that seem almost arrogant in their talent, or are they just confident in their abilities as they’ve already put in their 10,000 hours, but don’t have the same marketing appeal as younger stars.

As bootstrapper’s, in our business its important we don’t get carried away in the same impatience. Building our businesses takes time, we have to constantly get better at what we do each day, always striving to improve our businesses and ourselves. Just for reference Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers equates 10,000 hours on average to 10 years!