People like the idea that if we work hard, we can become anyone and achieve anything. Each of us has the chance to become the world's best programmer, athlete, scientist, writer, if you keep on going towards your goal, and don't give up. This philosophy gives a hope, that even being born without the talent, we can at least come closer to the geniuses of our world. Does it really work? We all have a genius within us, or our options are limited from birth, and the way to the top is a talent?
10.000 Hours of practice
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In 1985, psychologist Anders Ericsson put forward the theory that to become a world-class expert in any field, you need to spend 10.000 hours of practices (417 days of round-the-clock practices, or 5 years at 8 hours per day, or 10 years at 4 hours a day). This time will allow you to become a leader in your profession, one of the best of the best, you will be successful and accepted in society, you will become the elite in your sphere.
Ericsson conducted a research on the students-violinists, who had begun studying music at approximately in the same age (5-6 years old). The results were interesting:
The best students (winners of various international competitions and potential world-class star) had more hours of practice, about 10,000, than Intermediate level students- 8000 hours, and the weakest about 4000 hours.
Later the similar researches were conduct among athletes, artists, writers, etc. and 10,000 hours were everywhere. It turned out that the "lucky-guys" have spent not less than 10.000 hours before they gained some fame and glory. This theory was confirmed by the example of The Beatles, Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, and even Mozart. (Malcolm Gladwell: Outliers (book)
It is difficult to assess were these people are brilliant from birth or hard work made them geniuses. They drew attention of science to themselves only when they had already became famous. And all these stories about hard work and success confirmed by nothing, except words of family and friends.
Really, 10.000 hours it's a very beautiful story: not sparing ourselves we can be on the same step near famous people, to leave your mark in history, even as an ordinary but hard-working person.
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One moment: the world is full of people who work in the same profession for 10 years and even more. But they didn't do anything particularly even within their own life, not to mention about changing in industry and world. And if you look at their level of professionalism, it is not much different from their colleagues who work 5 years or even 3 years. Obviously, it is not enough just to repeat actions 10,000 hours in a row, you must to improve, to move forward, to rise above yourself. Otherwise you will be like a robot, which works automatically and repeats the same actions, with the same mistakes, he just stands in one place. What do they lack? Can it be a bit of genius?
Born to be genius
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Thanks to the SMPY (Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth) experiment, which lasts for 45 years, we can partially answer on this question. Using the mathematical SAT test scientists have picked the most brilliant children in America and began to track their progress at different stages of life, school-university-career.
Today, when the first group of gifted children have reached the peak of their careers, it became obvious how much they exceed the achievements of ordinary people. The guys who are in the top 1% on SAT test, tend to become an outstanding scientists and academics, heads of major corporations, Federal judges, senators and billionaires. Today, these people have a great influence on our society. Among those children who entered the top 1%, proved to be an outstanding mathematics Terence Tao and Leonard Eun, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Lady Gaga. They went through the Hopkins center for gifted children.
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Undoubtedly, these people have spent a lot of time and effort to achieve the results that we see, but they had an innate advantage. According to scientists the natural ability is much more important than hard work and training. This also applies to sports, and scientific activities.
But what does spoils the objectivity of these research? Ironically, the research itself. After all, there are many geniuses in a world, who remain no one, because they don't have the goal and will power. Or maybe they don't have the capacity to grow their talent? Being a brilliant you may not bring anything into this world without having faith in yourself and support from others.
All of these children (in the research) and their parents, and people around knew that their kids have an innate advantage. With these knowledge, society do everything possible to develop talents of children, thereby giving them the opportunity to reach 10.000 hours of practices. And children know that they are unique. Belief in uniqueness is constantly maintained, it gives a good moral support too.
Conclusion
Even with high intelligence, it is impossible to succeed and develop the talent not having the will power to work hard and don't give up. The main advantage that gives genius is support from the society, which this genius was recognized, this recognition facilitates the way to the top. And allows don't spend your resources for something unwanted.
The scientists found one interesting detail among these 1%. The best achievements in real life belong to children who show good results on the spatial visualization ability test. Maybe the presence of this ability, which is common to all children up to 6 years, allows to geniuses deal with all the adversity, remaining in a sense children in any age, who believe in miracles and success, without looking at the everyday difficulties and continuing to believe that the world is not a place for the impossible.
I think, that if you want to change the world or at least your life, you must not to be the smartest of the smartest. You should work tirelessly to develop and grow in relation to yourself and prepare for the long journey. But the main thing - do not lose your inner child who believes in miracles. Of course, the way to the top will be more difficult for you, than for people who are superior to you in a natural talent, but maybe you have more tenacity and faith in yourself than they have, and these qualities are formed throughout life, not by birth. @natord