Have You Got Your 10,000 Hours?

In his latest book, “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell (The author of “Blink” and “The Tipping Point”) takes a look at what makes successful people successful. While there seem to be some factors which we have no control over, that can greatly influence success, there is at least one that we can influence. Gladwell says that highly successful people, in any field, have spent at least 10,000 hours studying and practicing. Want to be a concert violinist? 10,000 hours. Play professional tennis? 10,000 hours. Does this mean that anyone who practices for 10,000 hours will become Serena Williams? Nope. But, to me, it does mean that (If Gladwell is correct) if you want to become an expert in your field it will take 10,000 hours. (If you read the book you'll find the arguments and proofs very compelling)

So how does this affect you? If you're in sales, and want to become an expert, does it mean you need to study and practice selling for 10,000 hours? Perhaps. But in a more day-to-day, useful, way I believe it means that if you want to improve to any degree, you'll have to work at it. (Stop whining, I don't want to work at it either but I do want to constantly improve and there doesn't seem to be any way to do it except work at it. Tony Robbins calls this CANI – Constant And Never- ending Improvement)

When was the last time you picked up a book about your chosen field. (Be it sales or any other) Read a newsletter? Role-played with a partner? Attended a seminar or workshop? When was the last time you went to your manager and said, “Hey boss, I want to improve my negotiating skills. Can you help me? What do you suggest I do?” (You can replace the word “negotiating” with whatever other area you'd like to improve)

The average salesperson invests exactly zero hours each year on their own improvement. No books, no seminars, no workshops. Nothing. Yet, these same salespeople, if asked, would almost definitely say they'd like to see more prospects, put more opportunities in the pipeline, close more business and make more money. Do you see a problem here? They want things to change but don't do anything differently to effect that change. I think, by now, we all know the definition of insanity. (Doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein – a pretty bright fella!)

Are you taking advantage of tools like blogs and Twitter to follow experts in your field? As an example, if you're in sales and you don't read Paul Castain's blog and follow him on Twitter you're missing out. (There are many more wonderful pros out there offering great advice on how you can improve – Mr. Castain just happens to be a sales rock star I highly respect)

Are you taking the time to work “on” your business? A fabulous coach I know taught me that there are two things we have to do to be successful but most of us only do one. The first thing is working “in” our business. Working in your business means you do the daily tasks needed to be successful. If you're in sales that typically means you invest time to develop leads, set appointments, go on sales calls, do paperwork, attend meetings and a million-and-one other activities that salespeople need to participate in to get the job done.

The second thing is working “on” your business and this is the one most of us don't do. Working “on” your business involves taking the time to think. (I know, SCARY THOUGHT!) Think about what we're doing and how we can do it better. Think about what processes we can improve. Think about how we can be more efficient, more effective, more productive. Think about anything we might change that could help bring us more business, more quickly. Most of us never take the time to work “on” our business because we're so darned busy working “in” our business that we don't have the time. If that's the case for you I'll share two thoughts.

1) The President of the United States exercises every day. If Mr. Obama has time to fit exercise into his daily schedule I'm pretty sure you can find time to work “on” your business. Yes, you might get a little less sleep, or watch a little less TV, but when was the last time that Dancing With the Stars put any money in your pocket or food on your table?

2) When I was taught this I committed to investing three hours each week doing nothing other than thinking and strategizing. (working “on” my business) Does three hours sound like a lot to you? It did, and does, to me. But I can tell you that making this investment of time business literally transformed my business from plodding along to highly successful.

I'd like you to take note that I said I “invest” the time to work on my business, not “spend” the time. I invest the time to learn, not spend the time. Investments often pay off and while some don't, one rarely succeeds without making some type of investment. Bill Gates invested lots of time studying and practicing programming as did Bill Joy, the man that wrote much of the software code which allows you and I to be able to access the Internet. The Beatles (my favorite band of all time) played in Hamburg, Germany before they got famous. They sometimes played for 8 hours at a time, 7 nights a week. 8 hours of playing in front of drunk kids. Hundreds and thousands of hours that made them better and better as musicians and performers. Bill Gates became fairly successful. (You may have heard of his little software company, Microsoft) The Beatles? Pretty successful. Bill Joy was one of the founders of Sun Microsystems so he became pretty successful too.

How much time have you invested in your chosen field? More importantly, what are you going to do today, and tomorrow, and the next day to make sure you move closer and closer to the success you're looking for?

As always, call or write if I can help you.

Make It Happen!

Jeff