Tag: Malcolm Gladwell

Be obsessed or be average

“Be obsessed or be average.” ⁃ Grant Cardone

Have you ever met someone who was head and shoulders better at what they did compared to others in their field? Chances are, this didn’t happen by accident. Natural ability can give you a leg up when you’re starting out, but to stand out amongst the standouts, you have to be obsessed with improving your craft.

Malcolm Gladwell touches on this with his 10,000 hour rule, where he states it takes approximately 10,000 hours of doing something to master it. You have to put in the practice and gain the experience to master something.

But it’s not just about going through the motions. You have to intentionally plan out what you’re going to do. You have to look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You have to keep up with market trends and know the market so well that you can predict future trends. You have to eat, sleep, and breathe whatever it is you’re trying to be the best at in order to make it work. You need to read about it, talk about it, listen about it, connect with others who are experts, and go experience it for yourself. In short, you need to be obsessed or else you’ll end up “average.”

Reading vs doing and the 10,000 hour rule

I love the idea of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours. Basically, if you want to “master” anything, you have to put in the work and deliberately practice for roughly 10,000 hours.

One way to accelerate that timeline without experiencing all of the setbacks is by reading where others have tried and failed, what they learned, what their best practices are, things to keep in mind, etc. That’s why reading is so important. Even though it’s not the same as doing (and you typically don’t retain as much reading about something versus doing it), you can still add to your skill set by learning as much through books when you are unable to learn by doing.

Whenever you have the means to do something though (whether that is not having time, money, or energy constraints), then do it. Make a plan and intentionally follow through with that plan. There is no substitute for doing. You can have a good understanding of a subject by reading about it, but if you never do it (and preferably teach it too), then you will never truly master it.