Not just about the outcome. About the process as well

THE ILLUSIONS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP : The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By makes no bones about it. Launching a business is hard work and it doesn’t happen overnight.  Businesses, like oak trees and flower gardens, take a long time to grow._

Want to know how long?

10,000 hours.

Yep, that’s what it takes.

More than talent and more than luck, although those certainly help, it takes a lot of nose to the grindstone, seat of the pants to the seat of the chair, actually improving your skills every hour.

Malcolm Gladwell‘s new book Outliers makes this point, among others:

Becoming a superstar takes about 10,000 hours of hard work.

As marketing guru, author and blogger extraordinaire, Seth Godin sagely points out : Bill Gates, the Beatles, Beethoven, Bill Joy, Tiger Woods–do the math, 10,000 hours of work.

Seth Godin also mentions this is somewhat  a restatement of  his concept and book, the Dip. It’s not easy to get there.

“What really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you’ll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.

Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip-they get to the moment of truth and then give up-or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.

Whether you’re a graphic designer, a sales rep, an athlete, or an aspiring CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you’re in a Dip that’s worthy of your time, effort, and talents. If you are, The Dip will inspire you to hang tough. If not, it will help you find the courage to quit-so you can be number one at something else.”

Someone has said that every success is a transformation of an earlier failure.  So, if you don’t succeed, it’s because you quit too soon. ( I would put that right up there with another immutable tenet of success never run out of cash.  Do those two, and you will succeed.)

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