The key to greatness. There doesn’t seem to be ONE.
Here’s what we’ve stumbled upon so far.
First, you’ve got to know who you are and what you want. You must build a strong CORE. Nobody achieves greatness generally. The more clearly you “see your shore” the better. Specificity is a good thing. Do you know, clearly, what you want?
Second, you must want and desire the perfecting of the path. Deliberate, Purposeful, and well designed practice is required. REAL, HARD, WORK. Are you willing to invest MORE than the 10,000 hour minimum?
Most of us answer yes to the first and maybe to the second. Let’s assume you have answered yes to both.
What should you expect about this journey and when and where it will get really tough. Good question. Here’s the rub. Most of us give up not at the dip, but at the plateau. The road to greatness is NOT linear. It’s taken in “fits and starts.” In between these bursts of performance gain will be long periods of the plateau. You will work and work and work and see little or NO evidence of gain. Most quit here. On the long straight section of the trail with nothing in front of them but the dry and the dusty.
Lets assume you get through the plateau and experience the next burst and keep working toward your 10,000 hour minimum. There seems to be one more key to greatness. This is the hard one, I believe. This one is really hard because it plays into one of our greatest FEARS.
Great performers, even after they’ve experienced a burst, break their routine before it becomes dry and dusty. They do not simply outwork us and keep going through the plateau. They understand that experimenting and taking risks is paramount to the burst.
They take the risk. They risk looking FOOLISH!
They change their golf swing, right after crushing the field. They introduce clothing products, when they are selling mountain chains exclusively. They introduce an energy bar exclusively for women, when the “experts” tell them that women don’t want one. High performers “do it, anyway.”
Greatness requires a strong CORE. One that you’ve built. That answers unswervingly, who you are and what you want. And, greatness requires deliberate, purposeful, and well designed practice. MORE than 10,000 hours.
AND, greatness requires that you get comfortable looking foolish. Yes, foolish.
U2 risked it all when they made the decision, in the height of popularity, to “cut down the Joshua tree.” They took a chance that could have cost them market share and lost them listeners. The next expression of anything requires that the artist, the athlete, or the associate, embraces the fear of looking the fool.
Do you know who you are and what you want?
Are you willing to look foolish to learn how to build you and your team toward greatness?
Tell me more…
BUILT TO LEAD 
Chet, you’re making a convincing argument for why so few achieve greatness, AND perhaps why that might be a rational choice for most of us who don’t pursue OPUS within our profession. Let’s see, it’s going to take ten years or so, looking foolish, at 3 hours a day to achieve mastery of a subject. Breaking down the typical day, after getting 8 hours of shut-eye and another hour or so for personal hygiene, we’ve got 15 hours left. If one is to give 9 hours to the job, another hour getting to and from the job, we’re down to 5 available hours. If we prioritize ONLY our spouse, our kids, our fitness/health, and our spirit, and give them each 1 measly hour each per day, we have exactly one hour left for anything else Monday through Friday. By the way, this calculation is conservative, since many commutes last longer and we may have more than one child who needs us. Chores? Jam them on the two days we’re not at the office. Friends? Same. Paperwork and financial planning. Ditto. Community involvement? Parents? Siblings? Golf swing? Wow. I’ve just learned why my weekends are so busy. Based on all of this, I wonder if you’ve got any thoughts for our dear readers as to how, reasonably, we might focus on becoming masters of anything beyond our work (“OPUS”) and marriages and families. If each of them will take at least decade to master, how long will it take to be a master of anything else? I’m past 50. Do I have the time to master anything? Or is that your point? That we must focus on exactly WHAT WE WANT in order not to dissipate our energy and time to master a few things? And finally, when am I supposed to fit in watching past episodes of The Family Guy on T.V.??
Jim,
Mastering our work and our relationships is my point. That is my point. That is my focus. I want all our readers to simply get clear about their point, their focus.
Here’s what else I know about me. I have a long way to go. I have no idea how much time I have. I’m simply working toward what I want. Cool.
Watching The Family Guy, if it meant something to me and or those I care about, might very well be on my list. I don’t know that show…sounds like you do. That’s cool.
Hanging out, unproductively often, with those I care about is my point. As you say, that is exactly part of what I WANT. Here’s my most pressing focus.
Do NOT miss this.
I only have 5.5 years to achieve mastery with our last son, Taylor. He’s only “home alone” for 5.5 more years. I may NOT achieve anything that the world notices as greatness. I’m O.K. with that. If in 5.5 years he still refers to me as his “best geneee’s,” that will be enough.
Isn’t clarity a good thing…