The ten thousand hour rule

When I was growing up, we were continually being told that success was 90 % perspiration and 10 % inspiration. Nobody told us how much perspiration. Till now. Now we know -- it is ten thousand hours worth.

According to a new book, Outliers, Malcom Gladwell argues that raw talent without hours of practice and preparation is not going to lead to success. In fact researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours. " Ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world class expert- in anything". He adduces examples of this ranging from the Beetles to Bill Gates. Lennon and McCartney of the Beatles started playing together in 1957 but their greatest hit came ten years later. And the real reason for their success- preparation and practice. The Beatles spent years playing at Indra, a strip club in Hamburg eight hours a day seven days a week. By the time they had their first burst of success, they had performed alive an estimated twelve hundred times. Bill Gates started doing real time programming as an eighth grader in 1968 because the Mothers Club at his school had started a computer club. For the next five years, Bill Gates spent a great deal of time on computers- sometimes eight hours a day for seven days a week for months on end. By the time he dropped out of Harvard, he had been programming practically non stop for seven consecutive years-- way beyond the ten thousand hours mark. Even Mozart ( whose father made him practice and whose best work came after the age of twenty one, had been composing for ten years).

What about our own Mozart of Madras- the Oscar winner A R Rehman? Rehman's father was a composer and musician who inspired Rehman to learn music from the early age of four. But he died when Rehman was only 9 making him the breadwinner of the family. For the next 8-9 years Rehman worked as an assistant to a number of music directors in the south while selling musical instruments as the family business. In 1987 he turned his hand to advertising, writing over 300 jingles over the five year period from 1987. " Working in ads", he now says, " contributed to the precision in my music. In jingles, you only have a few seconds to create a mood, or convey a message or emotion. Jingles taught me discipline". Rehman finally got his breakthrough in Mani Ratnam's Roja at the age of 25. Yes, by that time he had put in his ten thousand hours of practice and hard work to complement his innate genius!

What about another icon- Sachin Tendulkar widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. Tendulkar began his cricketing career under the guidance of his coach and mentor, Ramakant Achrekar . When he was young, Tendulkar would practice for hours on end in the nets. If he became exhausted, Achrekar would put a one rupee coin the top of the stumps the bowler who dismissed Tendulkar would get the coin. If Tendulkar passed the whole session without getting dismissed, the coach would give him the coin. Tendulkar contributes this technique in being instrumental for enhancing his concentration. He still treasures the 13 coins earned by him during the practice sessions. On December 11, 1988, aged just 15 years and 232 days, Tendulkar scored 100 not-out in his debut first-class match him the youngest cricketer to score a century on his first-class debut. By that time he had been playing and practising for - yes- ten years.

But according to Gladwell, there are other elements too besides inborn talent that lead to the creation of what we call genius which we often ignore-- the family they are born into, the cultural environment of the day, even the structure of society. He argues that the outliers in a particular field reach their lofty status not only base on their innate talent but through a combination of ability, opportunity and utterly arbitrary advantage. Intellect and achievement are far from perfectly correlated. Thus higher IQ does not correlate with success. With intelligence you also need practical intelligence. And you need others- parent, mentors- when you are young and averse to harsh discipline of practice. Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard over a long period of time. But still no one it seems clear ever makes it alone. Gladwell concludes that the outliers are "products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy..their success is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritance..all critical to making them who they are."

In a recent newspaper article, David Brooks points out the modern view of genius which takes a somewhat similar and yet different tack. According to him " the key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark. It’s not I.Q. .. Instead, it’s deliberate practice...and the ability to focus for long periods of time and a father ( or mentor) intent on improving his skills."

Based on the latest research, he tries gamely to design a genius thus " take a girl who possessed a slightly above average verbal ability". Let her meet a famous author when young to "to create a sense of affinity" and would give her a vision of her future self. "It would also help if one of her parents died when she was 12, infusing her with a profound sense of insecurity and fueling a desperate need for success." Then she would practice writing under a mentor who would provide a constant stream of feedback, viewing her performance from the outside, correcting the smallest errors, pushing her to take on tougher challenges. And our genius is on the way!

A common refrain emerges from all of these studies. Innate ability is fine but true genius requires hard work and practice of your craft for almost two to three hours a day for ten years. Yes ten thousand hours worth !