We often do not know about what made it possible but we spot talent and mastery in individuals only when it suddenly erupts forth on the global stage.
Infinite research has been carried out and countless tomes have been written, trying to answer the question, "what is it that makes people so incredibly talented and achieve mastery?"
While DNA and upbringing is important, the most important are belief, passion, and hard work.
Called the '10 years Rule', by Herbert Simon the Nobel Prize winner in Economics provides us an answer.
A study by 'High performance Anthropologist' Rasmus Ankerson corroborates this 10 year rule with the 10,000 hours, and the 10,000 cycles rule.
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Mastery comes from repeatedly practicing something and learning from each session and every hour of practice.
Let's look at some examples.
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| Nadia Comăneci |
Nadia the hyper active child was enrolled by her mother into gymnastics class while in Kindergarten and practiced rigorously an average of 8 hours per day for nearly a decade before the whole world saw her amazing mastery. She is also listed as #9 in "The Top 100 Olympic Athletes" list.
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| Rift Valley in Kenya |
The mountainous terrain at 2,500 mtrs. altitude is difficult even to walk particularly with the very thin air. Schools are located between 5 to 10 kms from villages. From age 5 young children run to school and back each day, logging in about 1500 kms each year. They build up optimal technique, stamina and endurance capability without even trying.
Youngsters elsewhere in the world start at 10 or 12 practicing 2 hours per day achieve only 500 to 700 hours of running and training practice per year.
Where as the time the children have reached the age of 15, Kenyans in the Rift valley would have have already clocked 10,000 to 15,000 kms, easily and consistently zoom ahead, outclassing all competition.
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| Runners training at Iten in Kenya |
Practicing, even in a state of the art sports infrastructure without the requisite hours and passion often results in athletes being outclassed by more practiced competitor.
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| Michael Phelps |
Michael Phelps is the worlds greatest swimming legend ever. He has won 28 Olympic medals. According to his coach and trainer Bob Bowman Phelps practised every day for 8 hours a day without a break for 5 years, even on Christmas, and his birthday.
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| Albert Einstein |
While examples in competitive sport are more prominent, the 10 year, 10,000 hours rule applies to all aspects of life.
Take the case of the famed scientist Albert Einstein. He started thinking about Physics and relativity and several associated theories while still a student. Working as a clerk in the Patents office in Bern he produced his theories after 10 years of sustained effort.
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| Motzart |
Another example is Mozart the great music composer. He studied and practised for a decade before the world suddenly noticed the great composer and musician.
Even political families evolve into political dynasties because members are groomed from childhood to be political leaders. Same applies to some professions, military leaders, business families and even criminal gangs.
If one looks at the case of businesses and industries.
Business families normally expose their children to the activities of the business at a very early age.
I can share with you my own experience. Brought up within a family of industrialists we brothers got the opportunity to accompany our father and uncle to spend many weekends and holidays either at the office, factory or some assigned tasks. It was fun and without realisation a great learning. Undertaking little errands and tasks, listening and observing passively and without conscious realisation I received an education and training about industry, business and most importantly life.
I had a fairly clear idea about how I wanted to evolve our industry and live my life early in life. By the time I completed my formal engineering studies, I had acquired practice not only in 'know how' but also 'know why' from all sorts of teachers, parents, workmen, engineers, managers, customers, competitors etc. I had worked in a significant manner on all aspects of our industry, the the processes, the people, the philosophy and the challenges. Already a deep knowledgable about motivating and leading people, design, production, quality, marketing, purchase, finance etc. without much effort.
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What are the lessons? I submit that,
1. Success is very rarely an accident. Talents gifted by nature, have to be developed or else they will never achieve their true potential.
2. That practice makes perfect, because with each practice comes a new learning and the opportunity to improve.
3. The typical time required to achieve mastery is 10,000 hours, cycles and usually a minimum of 10 years of time with constant effort.
4. Catching talented people young and exposing them to the opportunities to discover their talents is even more essential.
5. Passion to succeed is also key, but notes on that will have to emerge in a separate article.
Evidence shows that, when people are exposed to real life situations in various walks of life early as in childhood and adolescence, evolve with a greater understanding of life and themselves.
When children are molly coddled, disconnected from real life situations until they are mature adults actually puts them at a great disadvantage compared to more 'worldly wise' peers.
Call it what you may, EQ, IQ, TQ etc. is lower amongst delayed learners than others who receive earlier and greater exposure.
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the following persons for their valuable insights.
1. Pavit Singh, Director of Hotfut Sports
2. Loknath Char - Swimming champion
3. George Makasare, CEO of Tarang Sports and Education Foundation
Evolving better ways for individuals, communities and organisations to Work, Live and Play.
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