Success does not depend on the genius (IQ) or natural talent of individuals, there are no shortcuts or advantages; it's more of a human story of character, discipline, passion, and perseverance. Success does not happen "overnight", it is a story that takes time and depends on keeping your attention focused on a goal, acquiring new skills and constantly developing. In his book "Outliers," Malcolm Gladwell conducts extensive research on success by studying the lives of extremely successful people - from violinists to programmers like Bill Gates, from athletes like Michael Jordan to innovators like Steve Jobs - and concludes that: reasonable level of talent and skills (such as we all possess) and around 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve mastery,success and excellence in a given field.
Practice Makes Perfect - The Beatles' Hamburg Story
Today the Beatles are a legend, however in the early 60's they were a totally unknown band. The lack of work in England led them to go to Hamburg, Germany to play in local clubs.
The band barely received money to support themselves, the acoustics were terrible, and the audience was difficult and unappreciative. The only good thing about the Hamburg experience was that it allowed them to play for hours, without interruptions; their rhythm of practice led them to play 8 hours a night, 7 days a week. By 1962 they had already accumulated more than 1,200 concerts playing together - by way of comparison most of today's bands do not accumulate 1,200 presentations in public in their entire careers. This practice helped them to get better and better and without a doubt "Hamburg" it would have been difficult to revolutionize music as they did.
Do what you love
In addition to the directly proportional statistical relationship between the hours of practice and the superiority in the results; The researchers found another factor of great importance: a deep “love” for the practice, since most of the time these people preferred to practice than to do anything else in the world. The best elite software developers that ever lived practiced in their spare time - even on weekends; in the same way, elite doctors listened to medical audios while on public transport and elite footballers analyzed videos of their practices for long hours while at home. This elite group -which excels in their profession- is distinguished by cultivating their passion and giving themselves to it to the point that it stops feeling like a job.
And your 10,000 hours?
If you want to apply this 10,000 theory (if 8 hours a day are invested for 5 days a week we are talking about 5 years) in your life or profession, the first thing is to think if you are investing your energy in what you really like and if you are in the right place. Once you have defined that part, think about what you need to do as deliberate practice and learning to get better and better in your field. Another way of looking at it would be to analyze where you have already invested those 10,000 hours of practice and what your next step would be. The important thing is that you define your own parameters of success and take the necessary measures to achieve it. As Anna Quindlen says: “If success is not on your own terms. If it looks good to the world, but it doesn't feel good to your heart, then it's not success. "
Source: Outliers: The story of Success by Malcom Gladwell.
