In his brilliant book "Outliers", Malcolm Gladwell tells numerous stories about successful people in life. His make one very important discovery in his research: that it seems that almost every success story has a lot of very hard work, and long hours, behind it. To be specific, Gladwell found that at least 10'000 hours are spent working at something specific, in order to become a success. 10'00 hours. That is 8 straight hours a day, five days a week, for 5 years... a lot of practice in any book.Gladwell found that the exceptions are so few and far between that it really is exceptions to this rule of 10'000 hours.
But, contrary to how some people interpret this, Gladwell never once claims that this 10'000 hours replace the value and importance of natural talent. On the contrary! Someone with no talent within a specific area, will simply run out of energy and 'fuel' long before the 10'000 hours is reached. Or, they might spent 20'000 hours for that matter, and never be recognized at all.
Talent cannot replace hard work, in the same way that you cannot fill up a car with fuel, and then expect it to go anywhere without starting it, and driving it. The key to fulfillment and success lies in the balance between the two. Working hard at developing your talent. Turning it into a strength. Perfecting it....if 'perfect' exists at all.
Aligning the effort and hours you invest in any activity with your continuous pattern of thought, behaviour and action (talent), is exactly what is proven by most people over history as the recipe for how they built not only success, but real fulfillment.
As you invest in this precious day, be sure to try and push towards your natural abilities. Be sure to do what comes naturally to you, most of the time. Be sure to work hard at it. Invest. This way, the most important thing of all will happen: you will find that today will have meaning and fulfillment beyond expectation. And that is already the achievement of success.
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One take away from this excellent book is the importance of finding what a young person has natural talent and love for and then creating the environment that allows them to hit the 10,000 hour mark at a young enough age to greatly benefit from the world class performance that follows.
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