<p>The problem is when people start making claims like ‘it is all genetics’ or it is ‘all hard work’ or ‘environment’, all have factors to play and emphasizing any one of them is going to be a misstatement and also lead to false conclusions. Gladwell doesn’t say that genetics doesn’t matter, he simply says that it isn’t the only thing towards success, that a combination of factors apply and that work is still needed and so forth.</p>
<p>People are misstating when they say Gladwell is saying all it takes is hard work and so forth, that isn’t true. Gladwlell was trying to figure out what made the upper echelons tick, and the 10,000 hour figure often cited was part of it…he also talks about other factors:</p>
<p>-passion for what you are doing, if someone isn’t interested in what they are doing, don’t feel a connection to it, they aren’t going to succeed. If you are a writer at heart, you might be able to grind through a Phd in Chemistry, but will you ever succeed at it? If Gates and people like Bill Joy of Sun computing fame not been fascinated by computers, would they have done it?</p>
<p>-Support and environment. The brightest kid without support isn’t going to achieve much, and Gladwell talks about that. I believe it was in Gladwells book that he profiled two gifted kids, one from upper middle income parents, the other one from a more blue collar background, and what they found was the upper middle income kid achieved a lot more, because she had support, her parents were actively involved, encouraged her to do things and so forth, whereas the blue collar parents tended to be more of the mind “if she is good, others will make sure she does things”, the support wasn’t there (and yes, finances play a role in this as well, but there is also a mentality there that I have observed first hand as well). </p>
<p>Bill Gates and Joy both were from well off backgrounds, and Gates in particular went to a private school in the 1960’s that had timeshare access, plus he later had access to high tech companies in the area…and Joy similarly had access to computers at a time when they weren’t common. If Gates didn’t go to that expensive private school and had access to computers,he might very well have not gone on to found microsoft and such. </p>
<p>-Luck, specifically in things like being in the right time and place. If Gates or Joy were born several years earlier or later, it is likely neither one of them would have been involved in the computer revolution, or if Gates had been born lets say in the farm belt, rather then in a hub of big business and such, things would have been different.</p>
<p>Put it this way, read up on gifted kids and you see a lot of kids who never achieve much, Mensa is full of people who haven’t really done all that much with their lives versus potential, and likewise there are people who if you checked their IQ’s would be found to be relatively average, yet because they had support/mentoring, because they found something they had passion for, they were able to work towards what they wished to.</p>
<p>Likewise, the 10,000 hour thing is not a prescription to success, it is that without that it is more a prescription to not making it. McCartney and Lennon were gifted songwriters and musicians, but if you look at their story, you see something. The fact that they went to Hamburg itself was irrelevant, the fact that they went their and played their tales off was, it allowed them to develop their sound in a place where they could experiment and master their craft, and it also positioned them where they had the experience to be in place when the wave broke, to use a surfing analogy. They came from Hamburg at a time when record companies in the UK were looking for new talent with a new sound and likewise the beatles came along at a time when rock music was shifting from the 1950’s style whatever you call it music, to a different form and the Beatles hit what people were looking to listen to, and they did so because they had worked out their sound to be able to take advantage of that. They also had a passion for music, both Lennon and McCartney were incredibly musical people (which is an inate talent/passion), which led them to choose George Martin as producer, which was different (George Martin was a classical music producer, and it gave the Beatles a very unique sound). Other groups could have done what the Beatles did (many did) in terms of the hard slog, and wouldn’t make it, and that is where things like inate talent, passions and so forth come from.</p>
<p>And music is a really good example of where hard work alone won’t do it. In classical music for example, you aren’t going to see someone with ‘natural ability’ make it as a performer </p>
<p>On the other hand, hard work alone, practicing 5 hours a day from the time they are little, doesn’t make for a musician either. By hard, rote work alone, you can achieve pretty stunning technical levels on an instrument, there is no doubt, but that isn’t all it takes to become a musician. Many of these kids stun music teachers with their technical prowess, win competitions but then fizzle out, because there is a lot more to music then just playing notes with precision. Things like musicality (which IMO is inate, you can’t teach this), stage presence, the ability to connect with an audience, musical expression and interpretation and passion all play roles in it, and all the practice in the world isn’t going to be able to get someone to do those, they come from within. A lot of the kids I am referring to basically copy what their teacher shows them and as a result they come off as boring and uninspired (and especially with soloists, or small groups like Chamber, it can’t be faked).</p>
<p>I think people do have things they are better at, and more importantly, that they feel a connection to, and my answer is to have kids try a lot of different things and find out what attracts them and support them in that. Whether it is as an athlete or as a scientist, passion plays a big role in things. Going into something that isn’t a passion doesn’t work; I recommend highly people read Michael Crichton’s book “Travels” when he describes his time at Harvard Med School and why he never became a practicing doctor, and it says a lot I think</p>