“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. Practice is the thing you do that makes you good.”
– Malcolm Gladwell, in his game-changing book “Outliers”
Gladwell is a fascinating read, whether in The New Yorker or his books.
By now, most of you have heard of the 10,000-hour connection he makes in Outliers. But what does that look like for a working person?
It looks a lot like the price of admission.
What we’ve always done got us here. What we do next determines where we’ll go next, and how quickly we’ll get there.
Sorry, Allen Iverson, but it really is about practice.
If it’s a thirty-minute drive to the next meeting, we have choices on how to use the time. Music? No one loves music more than I do, and sometimes, I grab the time to test Spotify‘s recommendations for my playlists. But if it’s a conversation that warrants it, I’ll still (even after all these years) rehearse it. Out loud. (The good news is these days, people just think I’m on my phone when they see me talking to myself driving down the street…). “What if they say…?” “What if the problem isn’t what I think it is?” “What if they turn cold?”
If you’ve been in the business for 10 minutes, practice will give you the best chance to survive and thrive. If you’ve been in the business for 10 years, 20 years or more practice will help you be fresh, it will honor your history and learnings and it will help you avoid taking prior experiences for granted.
Roleplay. Grab a partner and roleplay. Talk to a past client and ask them what one thing stood out about your work for them, and what one thing they wish you’d have done better or differently. Then practice those things.
It there’s a thing that makes us good, difference-makers commit to doing it.
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