In his latest book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell examines the forces behind successful people. He brings up several key factors such as mental and social competence, cultural upbringing, and pure luck.
Probably the most disappointing and intriguing ingredient to success Gladwell cites is that they just work harder than others.
He even goes on to identify 10,000 hours as the magic minimum number required to reach world class expertise at any one particular subject or skill. He references everyone from Bill Gates to the Beetles - there's no shortcuts around pure hard work.
10,000 hours works out to roughly 10 years. While there are many other factors that lead to 'tipping points' of success, this one is at least somewhat quantifiable. What if we as church leaders looked at our investment in others and ourselves in at least 10 year increments?
Rather than turning back after giving something a try for a year, and assuming "God's just not in it", maybe we really haven't put our dues in yet?
10 years really isn't all that much. Reality is most of us can attempt working at dreams with ten-year plans several times over within our lifespans.
What are you waiting for?
Lon Wong, http://solarcrash.com
I was a big fan of The Tipping Point and enjoyed Blink as well. I appreciated that Gladwell brings a dose of reality to the whole success genre and takes on the myth that a positive attitude and goals on a piece of paper is all one needs to achieving great things.
But that being said, it was hardly the groundbreaking look at success it claims to be. Yea, you work hard...really hard...and have a few circumstances line up in your favor.
Posted by: jeff | Dec 18, 2008 at 03:26 PM