If you’re like me, I get really skeptical when I hear a guru claim they have a silver bullet for lasting success, whether it’s a magic pill, a number, a formula, or a mantra. However, there is a success formula or ‘magic number’, so to speak, that I can wholeheartedly recommend: 10000.
‘10000?’ you ask. Yes, 10,000. 10,000 hours to be exact. That is the magic number for success.
According to Canadian journalist, author, and sociologist Malcolm Gladwell, who has studied the common denominators shared by successful people around the world, you need to spend 10,000 hours practicing your craft to reach a level of professional success.
He goes on to cite examples like Bill Gates, who practiced 10,000 hours of computer programming since high school before becoming a mega-tycoon. Even Gladwell claims that he spent 10,000 practice hours at The American Spectator and the Washington Post, working about 20 hours a week over a 10-year period before becoming a successful author.
I decided to test this theory in my hometown of Toronto by asking Aurora Prize-winning science fiction author Karl Schroeder about Gladwell’s “10,000 Hour Rule” at a storytelling workshop he was hosting. He admitted that yes, that was how long it took him to achieve professional success in his field as a science fiction writer.
If you spent just 2 hours a day practicing your craft (writing, editing, polishing, rewriting), you would reach a professional level of success in your field in about 14 years. Given the fact that (according to Nielsen Media Research) the average American spends 5 hours a day watching television, investing 2 hours a day in his dream calling shouldn’t be that hard to do.
Now if you were to push yourself and just work an extra hour a day (that’s 3 hours a day) look at the difference your minimal effort would make over time. 3 hours a day would get him to his 10,000 hour mark in about 9 years. He subtracted 9 years from 14 years and he would save himself 5 years of wasted time working on things he hated or wasn’t all that passionate about to begin with.
I think you see where I’m going with this. It takes a decade or more to become an overnight success. Put in your 10,000 hours of practice. Start now, thank me later.
