Reaching the top

Have you got what it takes?

What is the secret X factor that you need in order to be as successful as Rafael Nadal, Bill Gates or Madonna? And why don't equally talented people make it?

Many social scientists have studied the phenomenon of success. One American study claims that your social network is the key to success. Apparently, every extra friend that you have at school adds two percent to your salary later in life! Perhaps this boosts your self-confidence or perhaps you have more people to support you. Another study links height and success: every extra centimetre is worth another $300 per year. The trouble is that for every person who conforms to these theories, there is an exception.

So is success just down to luck? Napoleon was once thinking about promoting a general in his army. After he had heard about all the general's talents, he said ‘Yes, yes, I realise he's brilliant but is he lucky?' And when you think about it, what use is talent without luck? In 1979, an unknown Australian actor arrived at a film audition looking bruised and exhausted. He had been partying the night before and three drunks had attacked him. The director was looking for a tough, battle-scarred actor to star in his film and immediately offered the actor the part. That actor was Mel Gibson and he went on to become a Hollywood superstar. Talent has kept him famous but it was luck that gave him his first break.

However, in his book Outliers – The Story of Success, author, Malcolm Gladwell, has come up with a theory that he claims is true in every case. He says that the secret of success is simply many hours of hard work. He has calculated exactly how many hours work you need to do in order to become ‘the best' in your field: 10,000 hours apparently or about four hours a day for ten years. Without this kind of determination and hard work you probably won't reach the top, regardless of your talent.

Researchers looked at violin players in a music school to test this theory. Teachers put the players into three groups: average players in group C, good players in group B and outstanding players in group A. It turned out that all the players in group A had done around 10,000 hours of practice in their lifetime. The good players had done around 6,000 hours and the average players only 4,000 hours. However, all the players had entered the school with similar levels of ability.

But surely there are exceptions to this rule? Mozart, for example, is always considered a ‘born genius'. He performed in public at the age of four and by six, he had composed several pieces. Surely his success was down to natural talent, not hard work? In fact, Gladwell argues, Mozart had a very strict father who made him practise for hours each day from an early age. And the music that Mozart composed when he was six wasn't outstanding. Mozart wrote his first real masterpiece when he was twenty-one. By that time, he'd done at least 10,000 hours of practice and had ‘become' a genius.


Talent, argues Gladwell, is nothing without hard work. So next time you dream of scoring the winning goal in the World Cup or winning an Oscar, ask yourself this question: are you really prepared to put in the hours necessary to achieve your goal?