15000 hours and success in life!

Everyone wants to know the formula for success, whatever way you may define success. Latest among the several people who have tried to come up with the answer is Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the book Outliers. Gladwell is author of other popular books Blink and the Tipping Point. The title of his latest book ‘outlier’ comes from language of statistics. In simple terms outlier would mean someone outside the normal range of distribution therefore, someone who has been more successful than others. Bill Gates in getting rich, Beatles in music, Pele in football and Sachin Tendulkar in cricket are outliers in their respective fields. What makes these people so successful? Gladwell argues that most of us could be successful if we worked hard, avail the opportunities that come our way and be well networked mentally and socially. Gladwell’s thumb rule on hard work is 15,000 hours. By illustrating through lives of Bil Gates, Beatles, Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) and many others it is argued that most of these people put in roughly about 15,000 hours of hard work in their field of work be it programming, music, sports or writing to achieve the level of proficiency that sets the scene for launching into successful journey..but the argument also assumes that you have bit of luck, social skills and connections as Gladwell shows beautifully. I think 15,000 hours (read hard work) is a plausible and useful idea. It may not be sufficient but it definitely is necessary. There is no short cut to success as they say. Try it out and see the results. I think most authors, athletes, business people, communication experts or sales people or teachers and others would be receptive to this thumb rule.

Now if you were to pursue a new hobby or career or activity that you wish to excel in and you are struggling to find time for it what do you do? Let’s say you want to learn to be very good keyboard player and don’t find time to practice it. Is there a way out for you? If you have patience to read I promise to help you find secret to spare nearly double the thumb rule time of 15,000 hours assuming you are healthy and not very old.

I found this secret in one of the most curious books I have ever read. Published in 1890 the book is called Enquire Within Upon Everything, a strange title you would agree. The edition I have got is a 2003 edition printed in India while the original one was printed and published in London. The book does not have any specific author because it is collection of various entries listing good practices that people were encouraged to adopt to lead a good life in Victorian Britain. In late 19th century England industrial revolution had helped with increasing wealth of common people and there was increasing desire to find about new things and so on. But there was no TV or internet. So the book Enquire Within.. was a best seller. It has sold more than one million copies. The book contains 2,775 short pieces on topics ranging from child care to food to home economy to good business practices. There are entries like how to train parrot, how to save money (‘one way to increase your wealth is to reduce your desires’ is one the quotations although there are genuinely smart non-renouncing type tips too), how to make Indian curry powder and so on. Any way before digressig more, here is the secret to find time found in the entry titled Early Rising and in my view one way of how you can find time to become great keyboard player or whatever else you wish to do:

The difference between rising every morning at six and eight, in the course of forty years, amounts to 29,200 hours, or three years 121 days and 16 hours, which are equal to 8 hours a day for exactly 10 years. So that rising at six will be same as if 10 years of life (a weighty consideration) were added, wherein we may command eight hours for the cultivation of our minds and the despatch of business.

Let’s end by noting another entry from Enquire Within.. which contains many hints on Home Comfort but I have chosen only following three:

· Eat slowly and you will not over eat.
· Between husband and wife little attentions beget much love.
· Whatever you choose to give away, always be sure to keep your temper.