10,000 hours to mastery !!!

Harvey Mackay - Dec. 7, 2008 12:00 AM

For years, I have preached the importance of hard work, determination, persistence and practice - make that perfect practice - as key ingredients of success. A nifty new book seems to support my theory.

Malcolm Gladwell has written a fascinating study, "Outliers: The Story of Success" which should make a lot of people feel much better about not achieving instant success. In fact, he says it takes about 10 years, or 10,000 hours, of practice to attain true expertise.

"The people at the very top don't just work harder or even much harder than everyone else," Gladwell writes. "They work much, much harder." Achievement, he says, is talent plus preparation. Preparation seems to play a bigger role.

For example, he describes the Beatles: They had been together seven years before their famous arrival in America. They spent a lot of time playing in strip clubs in Hamburg, Germany, sometimes for as long as eight hours a night. Overnight sensation? Not exactly. Estimates are the band performed 1,200 times before their big success in 1964. By comparison, most bands don't perform 1,200 times in their careers.

Neurologist Daniel Levitin has studied the formula for success extensively and shares this finding: "The emerging picture from such studies is that 10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert in anything. In study after study of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals and what have you, the number comes up again and again. Of course, this doesn't address why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others do. But no one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery."

Two computer giants, Bill Joy, who co-founded Sun Microsystems, and Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, also were proof of the 10,000-hour theory.

As Gladwell puts it, "Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good."

Consider these thoughts from successful folks in all walks of life:

• "No one can arrive from being talented alone. God gives talent; work transforms talent into genius." - Anna Pavlova, ballerina.

• "I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen." - Frank Lloyd Wright, architect.

• "The way to learn to do things is to do things. The way to learn a trade is to work at it. Success teaches how to succeed. Begin with the determination to succeed, and the work is half done already." - Mark Twain, writer and humorist.

Do you detect a theme here?

The abilities these people possessed were far-ranging, yet the formula for success was the same: hard work and lots of it. I don't know anyone who has succeeded any other way. Some people just make it look easy. Of course, you probably didn't see the first 9,999 hours of hard work. And you don't just have to work hard; you have to work smart, too.

[Thanks Vivek sharing this wonderful article]

An easy to refer example for us - [in fact most of us would have remembered this name everytime we see numbers in the range of 10,000]. SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR it is.

Sachin attributes the hours he practiced [and still practices] as a huge factor for his consistency. 

With Practice comes Perfection leading to Genius.

Genius is not only about doing things we have mastered. Its also about not doing things we are well versed to do.

Otherwise how else Sachin could have scored that historic, famous, BIG HUNDRED in Australia without scoring a single run on the off-side until he scored most of his 241* runs.

Aspire Vs Inspire

As received by my dear friend Madhu Madhan as part of his The Wisdom Times [TWIST] Series.
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Even when you can't get what you 'want'
You still can cherish that which you 'have'
Continuing to dream and high on 'hope'
Till the day your hope leads to have

TWIST Comment: Inspired by observing little children. The tantrums at new attractions are merely momentary till her mom diverts her attention to the beautiful things she's got in her toy box. Then the child goes on happily playing yet dreaming in secrecy for the things she always wanted. One day she gets what she wanted yet without having missed enjoying what she had in hand till then. Reflecting on troubled news we get to read of the economic turmoil and the distress people are going through losing jobs, homes or merely their luxuries, won't it be wonderful if we can all pause for a while to cherish the things we still have despite the ones we aspire for aren't reachable yet?
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Simple and powerful thought. Thank you Madhu!

Complaining about your job?

Thanks to Rohit for the email-forward

Are we professionals?

Thank you Kaushik, for sharing this wonderful article.
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This is an excerpt from Mr. Bagchi's book 'The Professional'.

I want to introduce the idea of who a professional is through a man whose life is dealing with dead bodies. Unclaimed dead bodies. This is not someone who is conventionally associated with the term ‘professional’. His name is Mahadeva. He came to Bangalore as a child when one day his mother simply walked out on her entire village and her own family in a huff. Mother and son lived on the streets; she worked to support him. Until the day she became very unwell. She brought herself and her son to the government-run Victoria Hospital. There she was admitted in a state of delirium and her little son, Mahadeva, made the streets outside the hospital his home.

He found many playmates among the urchins there and soon that world engulfed him. It was the first time he had had anyone to play with. For little Mahadeva, it was his first experience of kinship and he lost himself completely in this new world. It was pure happenstance that one day someone told him his mother had died. Where had he been when that happened? Died? What was that? The hospital had been unable to wait for him and had disposed of the body. Now Mahadeva had nowhere to go. No family.

A few people in the hospital ward where his mother had been admitted raised some money to help him go back to his village. He refused. Instead, he grew up running errands in the hospital. The hanger-on who had helped with his mother’s admission process and made a living by running errands for patients asked him to move in with him. He was an old man who had no one either.Mahadeva grew up under his tutelage; the hospital became his universe. And then, one day, the cops asked him to bury an unclaimed dead body and paid him Rs 200 for the job. This was when Mahadeva entered his profession and eventually became the go-to guy for burying the city’s unclaimed corpses.

Every time the police picked up a dead body that had no claimants, Mahadeva was summoned. He had to do a turnkey job: Pull the stiff body from the morgue, hire a horse-drawn carriage, put the body in it and take it to a burial ground, dig the ground to bury the dead—all by himself, and for only Rs 200. After doing the job, he would hang INTEGRITY 5 around in the hospital to be summoned to dispose of the next unclaimed body. Mahadeva did his work with such dedication, focus, care and concern that soon he was very much in demand. His work grew and he bought his own horse-drawn carriage, and between his horse and himself he was the undertaker to the abandoned.

One day, the horse died. People who had watched Mahadeva all these years came together and bought him an auto-rickshaw. The white auto-rickshaw, his hearse, carries the picture of the horse in memory of the animal who helped him take thousands of people to be laid to rest. It became the logo of his business and appears on his business card today.

Mahadeva has buried more than 42,000 corpses in his lifetime and his dedication has earned him phenomenal public recognition. Local petrol pumps do not charge him when his hearse is topped up and the chief minister of Karnataka felicitated him for his selfless service to the abandoned citizens of Bangalore. Mahadeva is proud of his work and business, and today his son has joined him. Mahadeva: the high performer, and a true professional.

What are the two qualities that Mahadeva has which differentiate a professional from someone who is simply professionally qualified? One is the ability to work unsupervised and, two, the ability to certify the completion of one’s work. Whenever Mahadeva got a call to reach the morgue, day or night, hail or high water, he arrived. Most of the time, it was a gruesome experience dealing with a dead body; there was no telling what had been the cause of death or state of decomposition.

In his business, Mahadeva does not choose his clients. He accepts them in whatever size, shape or state they come. He treats them with respect and care, with due dignity, covering them with a white sheet and placing a garland around their necks before burying them. The day he buried the man who had taken him home after his mother died, he had cried. He was special and Mahadeva had bought a garland as a mark of his respect. That day, it occurred to him that he should be garlanding all the bodies he buried, not just his benefactor’s. Everyone deserves respect and no one should feel ‘unwanted’ in death, even if life had treated them that way.The cops do not supervise Mahadeva. He is not an employee of the hospital; he is the outsourcing agency the hospital has engaged for the disposal of all unwanted cadavers. He does not have a boss who writes his appraisal, giving him constructive feedback for continuous improvement. In most work environments, people who produce anything of economic value usually need supervision. A person who needs supervision is no professional. He is an amateur, maybe even an apprentice. Whenever Mahadeva picks up a corpse, it goes straight to the burial ground—no place else. He completes the task with the immediacy it demands. And he certifies his own completion of the task: between the dead and the living, there is no one to question him.

Are we professionals? Answer is for us than for others.

Peace of Thoughts

[Thanks to Vivek Iyer for sharing this wonderful piece about peace]

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with few of his followers. While they were traveling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there.” The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!” So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink.” After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that the lake had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha. Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be….. and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water.

Your mind is also like that! When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.”

What did Buddha emphasize here? He said, “It is effortless.” Having ‘Peace of Mind’ is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process! Also remember that you could be in very peaceful surroundings, where everything is wonderfully beautiful, but if you’re inside is disturbed, then that beauty is of no use to you. It does not mean anything to you. For you to be peaceful, peace has to be generated from deep within you - from your being to the mind, and from the mind to the environment.

When there is peace inside you, that peace permeates to the outside. It spreads around you and in the environment, such that people around start feeling that peace and grace ....!

Those Untold Thanks

Everyone would be thankful to everyone by a very simple change in attitude.

Here is an interesting incident to highlight this. I was travelling on a train from Hyderabad to Bangalore. I had a lower berth seat reserved for me. As it happened in all earlier occasions when i had a lower berth seat, this time too i need to exchange that with one of the co-passengers. A young guy had come with his old-age dad and he requested if i could swap my seat for his dad which i obliged.

After a while three ladies boarded the train two of them having young children [around a year old] and one elder lady. One of their seats was in a different coupe [section of 8 seats in a compartment coach] but in the same coach. Later one mid-aged man came in looking for his seat in our coupe. One of the ladies requested if he could take up the seat reserved for them which is few coupes away. He obliged and moved on. As the train started moving he came and informed this lady that the seat he moved to, happened to be a ladies quota coupe and all 8 seats are supposed to be for ladies. He neither demanded his original seat back but waited for an option. Ticket examiner came and he understood the situation and he said he can't violate the rule by making this man sit in a ladies quota coupe. TTE even offered to move this man to a different coach if he is willing for which he said YES. As this was happening another lady in the adjacent coupe stood up and said to TTE that she can go to ladies quota seat and swap her seat with this man. TTE appreciated both of them and moved on. As this guy moved to the adjacent coupe he realized its a side-lower seat and he was definitely over 6ft tall. It will be difficult to sleep in that seat for taller guys. He did not complain though and sat there. As he was sitting another mid-aged man offered his upper berth seat stating that he has no problem in travelling in side berth as he is not that tall. This help too came out voluntarily.

There was a big smile in everyone's face as this sequence of events unfolded. Imagine how chaotic it could have been even if one of these people had been not that flexible. The best part is everyone deserved a basket of thanks and felt thankful to someone at the sametime. Another interesting part is none of them know each other's names but still offered to help to the extent they could and made other person's journey more comfortable.
That is the power of flexible life. Imagine how this world, our life would be if this is adapted by everyone in all walks of life.

Its a wonderful world to be in!

Its an empty vessel

For a change a nice lil story. Came across this from a book i am all into now. You will get the worth of your few minutes as you complete reading this.

There was a young farmer who was covered with sweat as he paddled his boat up the river. He was going upstream to deliver his produce to the village and he was in a hurry. It was a hot day and he wanted to make his delivery and get home before dark. As he looked ahead, he spotted another vessel, heading rapidly downstream toward his boat. It is coming at a good pace too. This farmer rowed furiously to get out of the way, but it did not seem to help.

He yelled at the other vessel, “Change direction, you idiot! You are going to hit me. The river is wide. Change your course". His screaming was of no use. The other vessel hit his boat with a big loud thud. He was enraged as he stood up and cried out to the other vessel. “You stupid! How could you manage to hit my boat in the middle of this wide river? What is wrong with you? "

And as he looked at the other vessel he realized that there was no one in the other boat. He was screaming at an empty vessel that had broken free of its moorings and was going downstream with the current.

The lesson is very simple.

There is never anyone in the other boat.
When we are angry we are screaming at an empty vessel.

All of us have people who drive us crazy, whom we hate to the core with passion. We may have spent countless hours reliving the moments when this person was unfair, unappreciative or inconsiderate to us. Even remembering this person bumps up our blood pressure.

The best way for dealing with people like this is to not let them make us angry. Getting angry doesn’t help in improving the situation and life is too short to waste on feeling bad or staying with grudges.

Next time when there is a surge of anger just remember this.
There is never anyone in the other boat. It’s an empty vessel always.

Dhoni Mantra

So much has been written about emerging TEAM INDIA and the man behind the laurels - MS Dhoni. Many more would come mostly on the positive side. Here is a nice little perspective on team-work and team management which we can take back with us.

Clarity of thought is the Dhoni mantra. It reflected in the use of slow bowlers during the middle overs between the Powerplays. "If you can rotate your arm, you should be ready to bowl," Dhoni said. He has options everywhere - nine men can bowl in this team and its a no joke.

The same thought percolates in the batting as well. Dhoni promoted himself to No. 3 in the fourth game and pushed Raina at that spot in the last match. "If a person is batting at the No. 3 all the time, he doesn't know what a No. 5 to 7 player goes through," said Dhoni. "He has to know how tough it is come in and immediately start scoring. When he bats at that position himself, he will know how vital it is to carry on batting and finish the game once you are set." And vice versa. In a team, awareness of what the other individual goes through increases your own responsibility.

How well said that one is. A team will be stronger and stronger and even more stronger when everyone rally around each other; play their roles to their potential; Understand others capabilities and help to improve on it by the execution of individual's duties.

As interesting perspective as a move Dhoni would make on the field!

Take a Bow NRN Sir

How many business man would turn down opportunities of crushing his competitors and more importantly increase the market share by a significant % and take back more $s to his shareholders?
NRN Sir can do it.

Read this below interview by one of the most respected and professional Market Analyst, Udayan Mukerjhee . It has stunning revelations on Infosys is built on.
Value. Genuine Value.

Don't miss out to re-read those in green color.

Q: The first question which a lot of people ask after the episode is can we get Mr Murthy involved in some capacity to solve the mess. Newspaper articles were written about it. Did you consider, at any point, involving yourself since you are no longer involved in an executive capacity with Infosys?

A: I did tell the Prime Minister that I am a conflicted body even though I am the Non-Executive Chairman, I am in charge of making sure that the governance mechanism at Infosys is alright, making sure that its strategy is well in making sure that things are alright. We are the largest shareholders of Infosys so we are already conflicted. So I said I would not be the right person.

Q: But you did get a request to involve yourself in some way or the other?

A: There were lot of discussion and that’s what I told both the Prime Minister and Mr. PC Gupta.

Q: Seven days have passed now and you spoke on day one, what is your assessment on day seven, day eight of this situation and what kind of collateral damage, if any, it can have on the sector or the impression of Indian IT because now you would have got direct feedback from some of your large clients as well?

A: I don’t deal with our clients directly but Gopal Krishnan deals with them and I have had discussions with him. The feeling that we get is that the clients understand that these things have happened in the US, in Europe, they have happened now in India so they just want to get on with life, they just want to make sure they are de-risked. They just want to make sure that things are alright with them.

So, in some cases they will sit down with Satyam and make sure that there is higher level of governance mechanism, higher level of customer focus. In some cases, they may want to go to an alternate vendor, it all depends on individuals. However, I do think there is no panic; there is no feeling that the entire Indian industry is bad; there is no such thing.

Q: You said you would not involve yourself directly in the matters of Satyam now because the board is there in place but do you think you could do something to address the concerns which global clients or outsourcers have on the IT sector if any because on day one or day two you did a conference call with a large number of investors which was hosted by CLSA. Do you think you could do similar things with NASSCOM and you fronting it so that the image of Indian IT or vendors do not get dented even to the slightest extent?

A: Certainly whatever little value I can add to ensure that the Indian software industry continues its march towards higher and higher revenues, towards greater and greater glory – absolutely.

Q: It is a difficult environment right now as Kris was just detailing today. Do you think this puts more pressure on Indian outsourcing or do you think it will work the other way and some of the other clients might actually benefit because of Satyam’s failure?


A: We have all sat down and discussed and we said, we should nothing that will damage Satyam. After all there are 53,000 innocent employees. They are smart. They are competent. They have satisfied clients, so other companies should not take a vulture like attitude. So we said we will not proactively go to any client. However if a client decides to do that then we will go through our due diligence and we will ensure that we will do whatever is required by the client in the most ethical manner. But we will not approach any client proactively – that is for certain.

Q: It is competitive industry and if you don’t do it then the other top two vendors might actually solicit business and wean it away at a difficult time. Would that weigh on your mind?

A: No. Value system is all about you’re ability to pay a certain price. Pay a certain cost for your beliefs and convictions. If I see a Rs 500 note on the road and I pick it and put it in my pocket – on the other hand if you see a Rs 500 note and you go and give it to the policeman – you’re value system is better in my book. So I think there is inherently a cost you have to pay for your value system and we at Infosys will pay – definitely.


Q: Having watched this industry for so many years, I know you don’t talk to clients directly anymore, but you did for several years and decades before that – what do you think would be their reaction? Would their first impulse be let me run to the Infosys and TCS of the world because I know them from longer and I think their clean companies therefore my business is better served by them? Would that be the natural reaction of a CTO today whether you solicit that business or not?

A: Let us remember one thing that nobody expected in their wildest dreams that what has happened would happen. So in that sense they must all be very confused. The need of the day is to ensure that their comfort level is enhanced, to ensure that their projects have continuity, to ensure that the business continuity of Satyam is strong and to ensure that the Indian software industry does not suffer. All of us certainly will make an effort – certainly within Infosys, Nandan, Gopalakrishnan, Shibulal, me, Mohan etc – we will all take up this effort. We will make sure that the Indian software story remains intact and at the same time obviously we will enhance their comfort level with Infosys. We will provide them with whatever extra data they want – all of that we will do.

Q: Let me ask you about the Infosys board engagement with its independent directors, because the role of independent directors generally has come under scrutiny after this episode. What is your level of engagement? Do they really concern themselves very closely, ask tough questions of you or is it more of a social gathering at the board meeting?

A: We have been very lucky that we have an extraordinary set of people. People who are extremely tough, people for whom there are no heroes, people who are courteous but firm, people who will not mind asking any unpleasant questions.

Q: But are you saying that if you or Nandan or Kris put out a set of data, your independent directors – credible that they are – would they ever question it saying, show me the money or I don’t think what you are doing is right. Will they take it to that extent?

A: Of course. Forget about independent directors, my youngsters in Infosys will question me. When we sit down and finalise the next quarter guidance, when we sit down and look at the past quarter’s data, there are about 20 fellows in that meeting. It is completely transparent. Of course all of these people will have signed the non-disclosure stuff that they are debarred from trading in shares, all of that. So, these people are very tough.

In fact the beauty of Infosys is, in every project they know the net income margin. That is the beauty. I am a great believer in democracy. Infosys is an enlightened democracy. As Amartya Sen once pointed out, any democracy will not have any disaster, no famine. You know why? There is always an opposition, there is always discussion, debates, there is pluralism with the result that you a disaster.

So the lesson that we can all learn is create an informed and enlightened democracy in your company, make sure that there are discussions and debates, make sure that there is transparency on a need to know basis obviously, make sure that all of them have signed the required documentation in terms of not trading in shares, in terms of not disclosing, all of that. And once you create such an environment, I can assure you that you will be safe because somebody will stand up and say, where did this million dollar revenue come from, who is that customer?

Q: Do you think more disclosures are required to investors in the light of what happened last week in terms of what companies own in terms of cash, where they own it so that everybody knows. Nobody knew what bank Satyam was keeping its money in. Do you disclose such things that our accounts are now with X, Y, Z banks and you are free to go and check it out?

A: Yes, in fact in all our statements it is there, what balances we have in what banks. But that is at the end of the quarter. Then what happens is you produce the quarterly statements, probably it takes about seven-eight days. So, subject to that caveat of course it is there, absolutely.

Q: What is the biggest takeaway from this episode for you? If you were to list two things which companies may not be doing correctly today which they can do after this episode – what would those two things be?

A: First is very clearly a belief that honestly is the best policy and following the adage – when in doubt, disclose. Second I would say is that create an environment of openness, pluralism, discussion and debate. Involve as many youngsters as possible. Involve as many intelligent people as possible and then you’re safe, the company is safe and in the long run, you will be a winner. In the long run you will accumulate lot more wealth than any shortcut.

Q: There has been some talk though that the Sebi as a regulator might want to wet the audited books of the top companies in India. Do you think it is practical and do you support such a move?

A: I support any move that enhances the confidence of investors in these companies. After all what Sebi is saying is that whether it’s the Sensex or the Nifty 50, these are important companies. These contribute to the index. So the trust of investors in these companies is extremely important for the country. So I support that – definitely.

Q: You would not have any apprehensions in opening up all your books and sensitive information to a third party regulator?

A: No questions absolutely. After all why are they doing it? They are doing it because they want to make sure that the investor community in India is more comfortable and let’s remember we are a listed company. We have 300,000 plus investors. Our responsibility is to this community of investors. If they are not happy then there is no point in running this company.

Q: Would you describe the current environment that you are seeing today as your famous fog on the windscreen statement or not such a lot of fog from what you hear from Kris and the executive board members?


A: No, I would say there is a lot more fog today than what I saw in 2001.

Q: Even frost on the screen?

A: I think so. You are right. You put it even better, absolutely.

Q: What is different between then and now?

A: At that time it affected only the tech industry. It was really the tech bubble bursting. Today that has spread to mainstream, all sectors of the economy, spread to most countries in the world. So, this is a much bigger problem than what we saw in 2001-2002. So, this is really frost on the windscreen.

Q: How long could it take to mend in your eyes from the feedback that you get? Do you think it is a long-term problem from what you understand?

A: Given that we are going to have a new President in the US, given that he is committed to making sure that the economy improves, given that President Bush has also said that in whatever remaining number of days that he will fully cooperate with the incoming President, I do think that we will see some solution to this in the next probably eight to nine months.

Q: Do you think Indian IT will survive this rough phase globally?

A: It will definitely survive. There is no doubt at all. I do think that it will flourish and prosper.

courtesy: CNBC-TV18/moneycontrol.com