Beyond 10,000 hours, coaching and can you handle the truth?
How often have you looked at someone in your circle, or someone famous you admire and think, "damn, if only I could have what they have. Then I'd make it?"
Or insert whatever excuse the buffet serves up to satiate your lizard brain, whether it's time, money or a new hard drive for your brain. I know I've made the excuses. I've envied the success of others. But as I talked about last week, their success is not yours. Even if you did exactly what they did.
Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about the 10,000 hour myth, feedback, coaching. And end with a talk by Rodney Smith, one of my all-time favorite photographers.
What's your 10,000 hour strategy?
Malcolm Gladwell made the 10,000 hour 'rule' famous in his book Outliers.
"10,000 hours is the magic number of greatness." he wrote.
This is a concept he derived from Psychologist Anders Ericsson. It makes for a good story and Malcolm has an amazing talent for telling compelling stories and inspiring us to think different. He makes concepts approachable and memorable. Completely true or not, it gets us thinking. And it elevates the pursuit of truth. What's missing from the tidy story are the shades of gray. Nothing in life is black and white. Most of all, your pursuit of happiness and success.
Rather, you need more than a helluva lot of practice to get great at something. If you spend those hours doing the same thing poorly and expecting to improve, you're insane.
There are some things you're just never going to get good at. Either through physical limitations (i.e., I don't have the flexibility or body of a gymnast) or through desire. If you don't want to do it, you're not going to get good. That's where you need to know your superpowers and play to those.
Daniel Goleman, originator of Emotional Intelligence, a concept I'm keen on, distills what you need besides the hours to get good. Which is you need to learn from your practice. You need to be intentional. He writes in his book, Focus:
"Paying full attention seems to boost the mind's processing speed, strengthen synaptic connections, and expand or create neural networks for what we are practicing."
This is where doing rote practice while daydreaming doesn't work. As a consummate daydreamer myself, I've learned to schedule the daydreaming to get things done. Think about your time on social media as daydreaming time. Mindless breaks during the day. We all know overuse creates many adverse side effects.
Maybe there should be fine print on social apps: "please consult your doctor before consuming social media."
Consider old fashioned daydreaming in analog mode.
The trick to practice is to get to the point where the thing you're doing becomes automatic. Like transitioning from learning to drive a car, which sucked all your brainpower, to hopping in and driving. Which is something you no longer need to think about. Unless it's snowing and you're focused on keeping your car on the road.
"Paying full attention seems to boost the mind’s processing speed, strengthen synaptic connections, and expand or create neural networks for what we are practicing."
Yet pros don't stop at automation. They never stop growing.
"Amateurs are content at some point to let their efforts become bottom-up operations. After about fifty hours of training - whether in skiing or driving -people get to that 'good-enough' performance level, where they can go through the motions more or less effortlessly."
Good enough is where mediocrity lives. And that's a very, very crowded space in any walk of life. If you're not constantly learning, you're falling behind. The world will pass you by. Nothing is static. There is no constant. Except change and uncertainty. Good enough is also a boring place to be.
Those at the top never stop learning: if at any point they start coasting and stop such smart practice, too much of their game becomes bottom-up and their skills plateau."
Do I need to mention that this isn't a mandate that you need excel at every single thing you do in life? I didn't think so. Obviously this pertains to the things that matter to you and your goals. The things that tap your superpowers.
Growth requires truth
Everyone needs a coach to reach their pinnacle of success. It sounds gratuitous. If you can't afford a coach, then the interwebs offer a lot of great information to fill in. But there is little substitute for a great coach.
Last year I read "The Trillion Dollar Coach" about Bill Campbell who coached Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt among others. This last week I was listening to an interview with Eric Schmidt where he initially scoffed at the idea he needed a coach but realized he did. And benefited greatly from Bill. It's obvious that top sports stars and teams all have coaches. And so do most high performers in business.
The thing about coaches is they're there to hold you accountable and tell you things you don't want to hear. The things your colleagues, friends or family members don't want to tell you because they don't want to hurt your feelings. Most of us are conflict avoidant after all. If you don't have a coach, then seek a mastermind group. I've said before how grateful I am for the two I have. Such groups are pure gold.
If you're not getting honest feedback, you're not able to grow. You need to hear the truth. And that's rare.
How many times have you asked someone, "how'd I do?"
and their response was "you rocked it."?
Kind of useless, no?
Giving honest feedback takes work. Not only does one need to be emotionally intelligent and confident enough to tell you truth. But they also need to have paid attention and thought about how you could improve next time. That takes effort. It takes listening. And a desire to be helpful. Most want to say "great job" and get on with their regularly scheduled programming. They want to continue passively skating through life. Yet everyone has an opinion.
We spend so much time on autopilot that we don't notice it.
Giving honest feedback is like actually saying something meaningful when asked "how's your day going?" Few askers really WANT to know your truth there. Many of us are scared to know the truth.
This next week, pay attention to when people ask you for feedback. Ask them if they actually want feedback. Or just want validation. If they do want unvarnished feedback, then try providing something useful. See what they do with it. Conversely, pay attention to when you seek feedback and what you're looking for. Be honest. And don't get your knickers in a wad if you don't like what you hear. It's a growth opportunity.
Truth telling requires trust. Trust takes time to build up and a moment to shatter. Imagine what we could do as a society if we told the truth in politics. Imagine what that could do for solving the most intractable problems we face like climate change. File that in the back your mind and imagine what truth and trust can do for you personally. That's one way to leapfrog your competition.
Don't take competition at face value
You might know what you're good at, or want to get good at. You might have even identified a few problems you could solve. What do you do if the market for your greatness is saturated? Look deeper. Maybe it appears saturated but is really highly fragmented.
Maybe no one company or person commands a core segment. Perhaps a niche is underserved. In that case, you can go a mile deep. Stay an inch wide. Be that person. That company. Or maybe the experience stinks and you can transform the experience with the product or service. Create wow and delight where there is none.
I was listening again to the origin story of Instagram as Kevin System talked about creating a me too check-in app because that was all the rage. He realized they were failing and assessed what gaps there were that could be filled from the features they had. Turns out it was helping people take and share photos of what they were doing.
This was just as the smart phone was taking off and no one else made this easy. Seems obvious now. But not then. They went simple and deep. Timing played a role too as it does in many success stories.
We overcomplicate most things in life because we think it's necessary to look smart. Because we think we have to. And because the tools of complexity are readily available. What's hard are the tools of simplicity. Ruthless simplicity. That, too, is an opportunity in a crowded market.
Solve a problem people will pay for more simply and elegantly than anyone else. Go simple. Go deep. Don't take competition at face value. But do know whether you're solving a real problem by opening yourself up to the truth.
Rodney Smith: Art, wit and work
I want to end this letter with a talk I watched in 2016 by Rodney Smith, one of my all-time favorite photographers. You may not be as into art and photography as I am, but I share because I think there are lessons for all.
"Clients don't care about how hard you worked. Or what you had to do. They only care about the results."
That applies to every business. People care about what you do for them. They just want the finished product. And it needs make their lives better.
The other thing I love about Rodney's work is his wit and style. He is timeless, elegant and infused his images with humor that makes you smile. He passed away shortly after this talk far too early. Enjoy.