The Fuzzy Worm Man and the 10,000 Hour Rule
The fuzzy worm man is good! How long has he practiced doing that trick with a fake worm, for hours a day, every day, every month? Maybe 10,000 hours?
Social psychologist Malcom Gladwell claims that the way to succeed in any field of endeavor is to pay the price of much practice. It takes 10,000 hours of practicing a task to get really, really good at it. It doesn’t matter so much what the task is. This “Rule” separates one person of outstanding skills from all the other want-to-be practitioners who don’t pay that high a price.
Perhaps you’ve seen the artist who creates a sculpture within the eye of a needle or on the end of his own eyelash. It takes a microscope to see them. Unbelievable. And he’s still not content. His greatest work, he says, is yet before him. And it’s much smaller still. Ten thousand hours and counting.
When we observe a great pianist, a fine artist, or a masterful teacher, we wish we ourselves could do that. And perhaps we could, if we had single-mindedly sacrificed at least 10,000 hours toward that endeavor. It takes doing something over and over and…
Fuzzy worm man, maybe we’re a bit like you. Have we yet to find the One Thing that’s worthy of our practice?