Letters to my grandson
It
was my daughter Shibani who planted the seed of this book in my mind. “Dad”,
she argued, “ it would really be nice if you wrote about your life and your
lessons from life for the younger generation. After all you wont live for ever
(very practical, my daughter), and I want to make sure that all the wisdom you
imparted to us while we were growing up is not lost.”
So I
started work on this book collecting old photographs, anecdotes, and the
various lessons life had taught me.
From
time to time I will be publishing excerpts from this book since it may be
sometime before I actually complete the book.
The keys to
success – the 10000 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. "
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.
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.
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 !
(excerpted from “Letters to my grandson”)
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