Right across the street from the large LED screen at the Robson Square there is a Chapters, and it was empty! People were crowding the street trying to peak at the action on the screen in-between the heads and arms of the people in front of them, while we just went into Chapters, got to the second floor, and pulled up some comfy reading chairs right to the glass to watch the entire hockey game above the crowd! Some people noticed us up there and followed suit, and by the time the game got started that section of Chapters was packed!

I have to thank the Chapters management for not kicking a loud crowd out of their store and for even bringing some ice-cream sandwiches and candy for people to snack on.

So where in your life can you have the crowd follow you instead of the other way around?

Until next time,

V

Gladwell brought some very interesting examples and the book was very well written. The book’s main point was that people do not succeed only because of their talents and abilities, but because they have other things that happen to them in their environment. For example, part of Bill Gates’ success was the fact that the personal computer industry was just emerging and that at no other time in history would he be as successful doing what he did.

Well, d’uh! Of course our environment and people around us can help us succeed (say if you have connections with important and influential people) and not having those advantages makes success more challenging. Maybe I get this point on a very fundamental level and that is why I was not too impressed with the book. That being said, I did find one thing very interesting – the 10,000 hour rule.

The 10,000 hour rule basically says that to become an expert at anything, you need to spend 10,000 hours focusing on that thing. If we are talking about basketball, you need to spend 10,000 hours playing and practicing to become very good. To become an expert in the field of marketing, you need to spend 10,000 hours studying marketing. Gladwell brought this example up when talking about sports and musicians. He said that unless you get noticed at an early age, which in many cases, like in hockey, is a function of when you were born, you will not get enough opportunities to practice enough to get 10,000 hours of experience by the time you have to get noticed (17 – 18 years of age) for the big leagues, like the NHL. To see how becoming an NHL player is a function of the month that you were born in, please read Gladwells book.

If you think about it, 10,000 hours is significant amount of time. It is 5 years worth of full time work – 40 hours per week. And if you cannot commit full time to whatever it is that you want to be an expert in, it is 10 years of 20 hours per week. And that is how long it usually takes to become really good at something – 10 years.

So, if you are not yet considered an expert in your field, ask yourself if you have spent enough time practicing whatever it is that you want to be an expert in. And if you have not, do not despair – spend some more time and you should become the expert!

Until next time,

V