While on vacation, I picked up 2 books (actually three but the third book is personal finance, something we will tackle in the future).
Blink made me realize a few things other than the main subject.
Blink to me seemed like a natural progression that lead to Outliers. It mainly discusses snap judgement applied on very complex subjects. One very interesting topic was a psychologist who could watch a couple interacts for a few seconds and will be able to predict if you are going to stay together in the next 15 years. It also treats the subjects of expert that instantly saw that a Kouros statue and thought it was a fake, even when panels of experts analysed the statue itself and had loads of proofs of authenticity. The statue proved to be a fake.
But to get to that point of expertise, you have to pay the bills. You have to spend the 10,000 hours working, improving and exploring.
It made me realize that there are other skills that are necessary to be able to stand as the reference is one subject. Here is a short list;
1) Selling: Selling, even though most of us do no want to be called a salesman, it is a necessary skill. You have to learn how to sell yourself, no matter how great you are. You have to learn how to sell your skills/knowledge, no matter how good they are.
2) Communicating: People, eventually, do have to understand very quickly what you are trying to say.
3) Leadership: Unless your 10K is a lonely one, you will have people around you. You will have to learn how to keep them motivated and learn how to transfer your passion onto others.
These 3 skills are crucial to any 10Ker. They defined the good from the great. Even Warren Buffett took public speaking courses in order to improve. Do you need to be a great speaker in order to be a very good at investing? No. But he did because he knew that it was needed and he lacked the skills. The same example can be found in many over-achievers.
So…the question is today is; what do you need to learn other than what you chose to do?
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