While reading chapter one, <The Matthew Effect>, I got quite bored. I got the idea that a huge relation exists between one's birth month and the success rate in the field of hockey. I also learned that one's environmental condition and luck act hugely on one's success. But! it was boring because I could guess easily where Gladwell is leading the readers to focus on. So, I decided to skip a few pages and move on to the next chapter, <The 10000-Hour Rule>.
This chapter was certainly more fun to read. Although it was mostly about the geniuses in computer science, computer programming, and IT industry which I do not know much about, I was satisfied. The style, how Gladwell organized his ideas, was quite interesting. By combining the classical ideas and some unique findings about the 10000-hour rule, Gladwell succeeded in telling his point that one's success is never a result of one's individual talent. He approached to the topic in somewhat different way.
10000-hour rule is actually quite well known. (Headmaster in my school likes to talk about it in the weekly morning ceremonies if he gets the chance to make a speech.) Basically, what the rule is telling is that one's possibility of success is directly proportional to the amount of practice one makes. If Gladwell only talked about this, I would not have made any effort to read more. However, while agreeing to the idea that one's individual effort is important, Gladwell kept on emphasizing how much luck the successful people had got. Yes. It is true that they had a little bit of inborn talents. They were smart, had good start, and were certainly talented. But! Imagine them having no time to practice what they are good at because of poor family income. The fact that they were able to have 10000 hours to practice is itself a very fortunate luck they had in the first place.
Even more, imagine that Bill Joy or Bill Gates had no enough facilities to practice their field of interest. It was quite possible to happen because there weren't many computers in the past. However, luckily both of them ended up having having enough chances to use computers and other highly technological facilities. Fortuna, the goddess of luck was with them.
One more thing. Imagine that they are born in 1800s or 2100s. If they were born in 1800s, they would have ended up doing different works and discovering different fields because the computer industry was not ready to come out in to the world yet. If they were born in 2100s, they would not have got the opportunity to be the first real generation of IT world. Because they were born around 1955, they could make changes.
Thinking about all these, I was little bit depressed. Okay. Without individual efforts, success will never come. But, what if I do enough practice and fail at catching my luck? Without luck, without appropriate time, and without a fitting environment, success would never come. Then should I really make an effort to succeed? What if I have no luck? These questions kept on following me last week.
Having a depressed mind, I went to a wedding ceremony last Sunday. It was a wedding of one of my cousins whose father is now a billionaire. (Actually I did not know that I had such a wealthy cousin before going to the wedding...) There, I heard how he became a billionaire. According to my grand father, he was only a normal taxi driver before. He was so poor that he frequently came to my grand parents and asked for money. When this hardworking taxi driver became 43, he decided to start a new transportation company. Because what he knew the most was taxi, he started with taxi. Later he expanded his business into general transportation company and became successful.
Yes. He did not invent or create anything special. He was a normal guy. However, he knew what he was good at. After driving a taxi for more than 10 years, so maybe more than 10000 hours, he had naturally got the idea of the taxi industry. And, when he was first starting the business, there weren't many ways of transportation in Korea. He was at the right place at the right time to get the opportunity.
After hearing the story about his success, I decided to become optimistic. My uncle started his business when he was 43 and he succeeded. 43! That is like about 2 times much as my own age right now. It means that I still have plenty of time to find my own interest and practice it for 10000 hours, get the opportunity of time and place, and become a successful person! Yes! This is it!
So, now it is time to go and find my interests. But before that, I need some Fruit Ninza. I know it will make me able to think more creatively :)
Good post, and fun read as always. I like that you admit you skipped a few pages. I'd rather you do that than give up on the book. Later, when he talks about wall street lawyers, you might find yourself doing the same thing.
답글삭제However, the 10,000 hour rule is hard to argue against. Sometimes we end up spending 10,000 hours on something intentionally, sometimes it is a product of circumstance, as was the case with your taxi driving uncle. How many people have a passion for that kind of thing? Not so many. But your uncle made the most out of his situation, and obviously recognized he was at the right place at the right time to do something. I think we can all think about this and maybe develop a sense of when and where we should do something extraordinary that we normally wouldn't do. It might be useful when choosing a major in university or it might be something more simple - like developing a fashion trend. I like your uncle's story. It makes me wonder about my 10,000 hours. Maybe teaching at KMLA? What can I do with that? I often wonder this, but like you I try to think about it positively. And you are right - time is on your side as a highschool student.
Two future reading journals you should prepare for are: 1) You pick someone famous you admire not in the book and illustrate how they qualify as an outlier (you sort of do with with your uncle) 2) You take a look at yourself and illustrate how you perhaps fall into this outlier category (or hope to in the future).