Right now thousands of people are out of work, wondering what to do with their time as they mull over their life choices. Go back to school? Apply for another one hundred jobs?
I recently finished a non fiction book written by Malcolm Gladwell entitled "Outliers", an examination of the factors that contribute to great success. He repeatedly proves his theory of the "10,000 hour rule" as a way to achieve high level success in any particular field, also highlighting factors such as opportunity and cultural environmental factors.
Climbing up the charts onto the New York Times bestseller list it has been well received by critics, and considered a more personal piece than his previous bestseller, The Tipping Point.
Doesn't talent factor in? Of course it does, but perhaps the definitive point is that achievement is won by perseverance rather than anything else. Many of the most acclaimed successes have tasted the bitterness of defeat during their most formative years, Beethoven, Thomas Edison, Steven Spielberg, Henry Ford, Soichiro Honda, and Winston Churchill to name a few.
