Comments on: Even a Brand Manager needs their 10,000 hours of practice to be great

By: College Students should start on their 10,000 hours of practice to get ahead | Hard Knox Life: Dave Knox's Brand Management blog

Mon, 18 May 2009 13:01:05 +0000

[...] written before about Malcolm Gladwell’s theory that being great at something takes around 10,000 hours of practice. The same holds true for anyone that hopes to get a job in marketing or brand management. They [...]

By: Alex P.

Alex P. — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:54:03 +0000

Great post, thanks. I have a lot of your points already in mind as I start my career. There is still a lot I can learn and you give some great tips.

By: DKnoxMU

DKnoxMU — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:37:04 +0000

Thank you Mr. Ile (I still cant call you just by your first name). You deserve much of the credit for this blog even being here for that very reason. If it wasn't for you pushing me on the papers and re-writes in 8th Grade, I would have never developed my love of writing. And without that love of writing, I sure wouldn't be here sharing my thoughts on a blog for all the world to see. So thank you for pushing us students to get our 10,000 hours of practice at an early age!

But of course, now that I know you are reading, I am really going to have to watch my grammar and spelling.

By: Matt Ile

Matt Ile — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:53 +0000

Hey Dave… I really appreciated reading this post. I am thankful that at least one of my students got it. All those papers and endless re-writes in 8th grade English weren't for mastery of the English language at the time. It was my hope that the students would see that effort and work ethic development was really the main goal of every writing assignment. It takes time to become excellent in anything even with God given talent.

By: Seth Godin asks what is school for « TechWag

Seth Godin asks what is school for « TechWag — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 23:23:31 +0000

[...] Even a Brand Manager needs their 10,000 hours of practice to be great (hardknoxlife.com) [...]

By: Did Mitch Joel Miss the Mark On His 10 Twitter Users That Marketers Should Follow? | Hard Knox Life

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:41:58 +0000

[...] about being a better digital marketer. After all, Twitter and other tools are a way to get in your 10,000 hours of practice in order to be great at what we do. And marketers have a lot more on their plate than just Social [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:48:13 +0000

Great post. Unfortunately, I think the a high percentage of the young talent that possesses an innate ability too often fail to practice to truly become great. The music industry you note is a great example of this, just think of the brilliant work we'd be getting from Brittany or Jessica Simpson if only they had to spend a little more time in the trenches . The same holds true in sports…how many top prospects can you name that just never panned out? I'd bet that if we could dig a little deeper, we'd learn that many of them just couldn't get over the hump of hard work.

Fantastic advice, and I think that once people hit their 10,000 hours and write their masterpiece, they should find the next thing to become a master at.

In the end, hard work and practice will alays win.

By: DKnoxMU

DKnoxMU — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:31:04 +0000

Kara – Glad to hear you found Hard Knox Life through Twitter. I rarely link to my blog posts on there but this was getting enough comments that I thought the broader audience might enjoy it.

In addition to my five points, what other ways do you think a marketer / business person can start their 10K hours of work?

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By: Kara

Kara — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:24:52 +0000

Great post. I think that sometimes innate talent can create short lived success, but hard work is the only way to sustain success and create work you are proud of. Agree with @kdoohan's comment that the only difference between ordinary and extraordinary is doing the hard work, gaining experience, and constantly questioning what you already know. Completely agree with your 5 points of starting on your 10,000 hours of practice. I actually learned about your post through twitter. Thanks for starting the debate.

By: @kdoohan

@kdoohan — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:44:09 +0000

Dave, I just finished reading the book "talent is overrated" last month and Geoff Colvin, the author, proposes something similar. His premise is that talent is most certainly not enough. Colvin proposes that a very high amount of *deliberate practice* is what makes all the difference. Quantity and quality of practice is what makes the difference between average and extraordinary performers.