Every now and then a book comes along that changes the way your outlook on liffe. Sometimes you are fortunate enough to read two books in a row that reinforce the lessons of each other. I recently did that. First I read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell which is a book about success. Gladwell conducts research on a wide variety of topics. Among the many subjects explored, he explains why Asians are so much better at math than everyone else and why Jewish attorneys are so successful. The next book I read was When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi by Pulitzer Prize winning author David Maraniss.
The central theme from Outliers was that there are outside factors that contribute to success, very rarely does someone make it to the top all on their own. Rather, throughout ones life they are constantly preparing for greatness while reaping outside benefits not readily available to others that they are competing with. Without trying to give too much away I will give one example that Gladwell uses: Bill Gates. We all know the generic Bill Gates story – nerd who dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft. But history shows us that Gates’ entire life led to him dropping out of Harvard to start Microsoft rather than him doing it on a whim like we all thought. Long story short; Gates was born to a wealthy family in Seattle and had virtually unlimited access to one of the only computers on the western seaboard at the University of Washington while he was in high school. Gates spent virtually all of his free time on the computer learning, tweaking, and experimenting – nearly 10,000 hours (a number Gladwell says is the average amount of time someone has to practice something in order to be great). Ad that to Gates’ already above average IQ and private schooling and bam, 30 years later I am writing this blog on Microsoft office software. This is just one example that Gladwell gives, if you want to learn others I suggest you pick up a copy.
Enter Lombardi, after reading Outliers I was much keener to realizing everything in Lombardi’s life that led to his success. I am not going to go into the paths he took or the mentors he had along the way, you can just as easily Wikipedia that. I will say that you could not have scripted a more precise path to glory, it was like Lombardi read a book titled “how to be the best football coach in the world: the 40 year plan” when he was 15 years old and followed it verbatim.
If you take the lessons from these two books and apply them to your own life you will probably live it differently. It is only after you devote yourself to something and believe you can do it that it will start to happen. I know we here this again and again, but make sure you love whatever you are doing. If you don’t perceive it as work, it will come much easier to you. Lombardi loved being a teacher. Gates loved computers. Do you love what you do? Whatever you grand aspirations may be, (and we all have them) make sure that they include something you love to spend your time on. The journey is just as important as the destination.
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