Good morning Launch Key 🚀 community!

Does it take 10,000 hours of practice to become expert at something?

Because you’ve been gaining expertise for decades.

This month’s Subscriber Story is the perfect example. Misha Ghosh helped create billions of dollars of value for his employers throughout his career.

Now he’s creating his own products.

Comment below and let me know if we’re on the right track.

Table of Contents

• Pull to Eject

  • Talent and efficient learning

  • Secret sauce

• Subscriber Stories: Misha Ghosh

• Modern Tools

• Old School Wisdom

• Free Knowledge

• Recommendations

• Visual Crapshoot

Pull to Eject

Does it really take 10,000 hours of practice to be an expert?

Because it sure seems like ‘experts’ pop up overnight spouting off on the latest ‘thing.’

Malcolm Gladwell got a lot of pushback from the chattering class when he released his book Outliers.

10,000 hours was provocative oversimplification for sure.

His book added to a 1973 article published in American Scientist. Herbert Simon and William Chase concluded that there were in fact no instant experts and instead at least a decade and “thousands of hours of practice” were needed to become a chess master.

What if you practiced the wrong way? What if you only had mundane talent?

What if social media allowed you to amplify complete fabrications about which you had no expertise?

I digress.

10,000 hours might not be nearly enough.

I repeated it many times as my 3 teenage sons were learning to drive. They needed a decade and 10,000 hours behind the wheel for the over-confidence they exuded.

Good luck slowing down teenage testosterone.

We lost a few cars, but thankfully – the boys all survived.

Talent and efficient learning

Gladwell responded to criticisms with insight about the need for practice and talent.

“In cognitively demanding fields, there are no naturals. Nobody walks into an operating room, straight out of a surgical rotation, and does world-class neurosurgery.”

Even the most talented invariably have access to lucky breaks or conditions that make all those years of practice possible.

As Gladwell pointed out, Bill Gates and Bill Joy had truckloads of talent, but also got access to computers in the 1970’s.

And the quality of practice has been exponentially improved with the internet.

For example, online learning is so efficient that future chess prodigies may need far less than 10,000 hours.

But there are only so many shortcuts.

Practice is still under-appreciated.

Maybe you are genius at something.

More likely, you’ve been good enough and kept stacking to build your reputation. You have had unique learning and opportunities as a result.

You’ve spent way more than 10,000 hours by this point.

Secret sauce

Late-career entrepreneurs all have ideas about creating the perfect gig.

Some very important cornerstones are ‘soft.’

The first is fit.

What do you really enjoy doing? What parts of the job fit your work habits, expertise and personal characteristics?

It sounds counter-intuitive, but emotions are a very good place to start.

A second soft skill is visualization.

Athletes do it. Surgeons do it. Are you tapping the potential of mental practice?

Do you want to acquire a new skill? Do you want to perform at the highest level? Do you want to start a new business?

The most important part of the dream is specificity.

Whether you’re learning and practicing a new skill, preparing for a performance, or launching a business, studies have found mental practice can drastically improve outcomes. Even motor skills.

Quiet – I’m imagining my improved golf game.

You need to have a specific goal in mind.

Can you see the product? And the outcomes?

Not just the freedom you want from your 9-5.

• Can you visualize the business?

• What does your product look like?

• Have you read the satisfied customer reviews?

• Do you see the monthly recurring revenue spreadsheet?

Engage as many of your senses as possible. Make this visualization as strong and vibrant and accurate as you can.

Finally, you need to execute.

There is a lot to be gained by just showing up. On good days and bad.

Motivation is the secret sauce.

So, what are the things you love to work on?

Where are you aiming?

What have you practiced to the point of expertise?

I’ll give you a hint: its not the meetings.

Now go launch something 🚀 

Subscriber Stories: Misha Ghosh

Misha Ghosh: Inventor | Board Member | Entrepreneur

Some of us might feel like we’ve been inventive in our work. If we differentiate, we may even file a patent or two.

Misha Ghosh holds 89 patents.

His work has taken him from banking to credit card to payroll data and along the way he has transformed Fortune 500 data into billion dollar solutions.

But he’s not done.

He founded IDiyas highlighting inventors and patent holders and has quickly amassed a newsletter audience of 20,000+ of the best and brightest.

Each Tuesday he publishes the latest USPTO patent data along with Inventor highlights, trivia, patent history, statistics and trends.

Do you want to know what the best and brightest are working on?

Modern Tools

Do you need help with data visualization?

Part of the Canva family, Flourish was created to enable everyone to tell stories with data. This tool is used by a huge community of creators to inform tens of millions of viewers every day.

Free to start … of course.

Old School Wisdom

Malcolm Gladwell asked the question: what makes high-achievers different?

The book that encoded the 10,000 hour standard is worth re-reading.

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.

Free Knowledge

Why Work Smart, Not Hard is wrong.

Mike Rowe’s insight on a balanced work force is spot on.

You do you. And help your kids do the same.

Recommendations

Visual Crapshoot