Malcolm Gladwell popularised the 10,000 hour rule to master a skill. I loved it! However, I have never tracked any of my work, passion, hobbies against that number. Maybe I never chased mastery. I get it though and I respect the philosophy a lot. However, if one puts 10,000 hours of mediocre practice, the output will still be mediocre. Quality of practice, deep practice matters and not just the hours put in.

Assuming you sleep for about 6 hours, spend at least 3-4 hours with your family, a few more with friends, detoxing, relaxing, travelling, food/ freshening up, workout… you'll do an average of 8-hours of productive work per day. Now, this is the best case scenario! If you do it straight, without a break.. it'll take you about 4 years.

We struggle to keep a 30-day habit going! It's not practical, simple!

Practice makes it perfect, yes. But how much do we need to practice? Are we gunning for perfection? Can you realistically achieve it? Do you need to?

Brian Chesky & Joe Gebbia (Airbnb) (I'm a big fan!) didn’t spend 10,000 hours learning how to build a hospitality business. They used their experience in design and entrepreneurship to create a disruptive platform. They iterated based on feedback and market need… they were learning by doing!

Elon Musk (I've read both the books and recommend) did not spend 10,000 hours learning how to build cars before taking over Tesla in 2008. His expertise, interest across physics, engineering, and entrepreneurship along with risk-taking, bold decision-making, allowed him to apply principles from different industries.

Sara Blakely’s didn’t follow the 10,000-hour rule. (I first learned about her on Masterclass.com). She had no formal training in fashion or apparel design but understood what women wanted—comfortable and flattering shapewear.

There are many such stories all around us. Some we see but ignore. Some we read in books.

Note: I don't want to perfect drumming however, I need to get back to the 15-minutes of practice every day. Soon!