We've heard and read stories of successful people and usually, their successes are attributable to hard work, perseverance, right timing, etc. But in "Outliers", Gladwell looks into other things like their family, birthplace, birthdate, among others.
One emerging result from studies of successful people who perform complex tasks is that mastery requires a critical minimum level of practice. The magic figure that surfaces is 10,000 hours to achieve the level of mastery associated with being world-class expert in anything according to neurologist Daniel Levitin. This has shown in studies on composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players and even master criminals. In short, 10,000 hours of practice means a loooooonnnnggg time.
Mozart for instance started writing music at age 6. But his masterworks were not composed until he was 21.
Before the Beatles got its first burst of success in 1964, they had performed live a total of 1,200 times.
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| Steve Jobs at 17 (Source) |
Gladwell also emphasizes that practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing that you do that makes you good. And what's more, he says, is that people at the very top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder. :)
