What He Says: Golemen, well known for his 1995 book Emotional Intelligence, debunks the 10,000 hour myth made popular by Malcolm Gladwell. Goleman cites the original psychologist who came up with the concept as stating that 10,000 hours alone is not enough to make you an expert.
The way in which you approach the 10,000 hours is what makes the difference.
If you practice something mindlessly for 10,000 hours, continually repeating your mistakes, you will not become better. You must apply your full focus to the effort.
What This Means For You: All human beings must continually fight our natural instinct to become "good enough" in exchange for becoming great. We see this frequently in the small business space. Entrepreneurs start out with a lot of energy and fire, but it seems like once they reach a certain level of achievement, they level off and stay at relative equilibrium.
Here are some concepts from this book to help you overcome this natural instinct and become great:
Push Beyond Your Comfort Zone: The best athletes, entrepreneurs, and executives continually recognize their limits and then overcome them through focused training.
Practice Deliberately: It's not enough to show up every day for work and just do your best. You must deliberately practice whatever it is you want to be great at doing. That means repeating difficult tasks on a consistent basis even when you don't want to do it.
Concentrate Fully: Put your full energy into the activity at which you want to excel. How many times have you seen people putting in 10,000 hours jogging on a treadmill who never achieve any new fitness accomplishments because they are distracted by the latest magazine? They are putting in the time, but without concentrated effort, they will never progress.
Get Feedback: It's very hard to become truly great without an external adviser to help you see your weaknesses and improve your strengths. You would never expect someone to get to the Olympics without coaching, but many entrepreneurs try to reach the top without any.
Rest & Recover: The greatest athletes never push their bodies beyond its limits. They recognize that they must balance their energy throughout the days, weeks and months. If you are truly concentrating on your goal, you will need to take time to balance that concentration with rest and recovery.
Virginia Ginsburg is founder and chief consultant at Swell Strategies. She is passionate about supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs in starting and running successful enterprises. An avid reader, in this blog she reviews books and articles and relates specific learning points back to entrepreneurial businesses.
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