I want to break a myth.
Success does not come easy for most of us.
It takes hard work–lots of it.
From the outside we can watch someone land a big sale, come up with a new product that people love, and even create partnerships that seems to take off into the stratosphere.
All the while we watch them with stupor and envy over how they seemed to do it all without straining.
I recently picked up a copy of The Talent Code from my local Barnes & Noble. While I plan on doing a pretty thorough review on The Talent Code at a later time, I wanted today to focus on one concept — a key concept — that can unlock the path to your true talent.
I’m completely enthralled with deep practice.
Daniel Coyle’s superb writing and excellent research skills have landed us a rare glimpse into what it is like to develop our talent to a level of sheer mastery.
Deep practice is one of those keys. Sure, we have to have a good teacher. And we have to be passionate about what we’re doing. Consider these as foundations to your motivation.
Once we are motivated and have found a love for our craft, the manner in which we approach practice is a clear delineator between those whose path continues upward and those whose path grows stagnant.
[Tweet “Deep practice sets you free to be the entrepreneur you were created to be. @JasonROwens”]
What Is Deep Practice?
The author provides us with this definition.
…struggling in certain targeted ways–operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes–makes you smarter. Or to put it a slightly different way, experiences where you are forced to slow down, make errors and correct them–as you would if you were walking up an ice covered hill, slipping and stumbling as you go–end up making you swift and graceful without your realizing it (p.18).
It is painful. It comes in fits and starts. For musicians it means playing a few notes and then starting over. Then playing a few more notes, getting further, and then stopping again to go back and look at the music.
For some athletes deep practice also looks like concentrated high speed practice like playing indoor soccer on something as small as a basketball court. The game moves fast. Players learn to improvise which is every bit as important as knowing basic ball handling skills.
Take a look here a this image of a student in the midst of deep practice. She is given a word problem (bottom of image) and tasked with finding the answer. Looks like 3 failed attempts before she gets on the right track.
The student starts, sets up the problem, and then gives it a try. She can tell she’s on the worng track, so she starts over. She sets up the problem again and realizes she’s on a dead end a second time. A third try ends in another wrong answer.
The fourth try is the one that finally produces the right answer.
You can see the teacher’s praise for the student’s effort.
Why is Deep Practice Important to New Entrepreneurs?
This is the part that I think so many people miss.
You are not going to do well on your first venture just like you are going to do well when you are first learning to play a song on an instrument or learning to play your first sport.
These things take time.
Sure, at some level we all know this, but we all think that this applies to someone else.
The problem is that most of us don’t have time.
We don’t have unlimited resources either.We have to make hay while the sun is shining. We have to start making money.
[Tweet “What do I need to remove from my days so that I have more time for deep practice? @JasonROwens”]
Where Do You Need to Use Deep Practice in Your Life?
You must be really good at your core activity–the thing you do, the widget you produce, or the service you perform.
Without displaying some level of proficiency here, nothing else matters because you won’t have a business.
The second answer is that you need deep practice at promoting your business. This doesn’t mean selling your product by going door-to-door. It means that you should be able to find a mix of 2-3 activities that consistently introduce you to people who could be in the market for your product either in the short term or over the long term.
This mix of 2-3 activities should have a track record of producing consistent revenue for you.
This track record does not have to be picture perfect. We aren’t looking for perfection. We are looking for something that has worked at least once and gives you some degree of energy for doing it again.
Once you’ve landed on these 2-3 activities, your path is golden. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Learn more and more from each time you reach out, talk about your sevices, and offer your goods.
Give yourself large blocks of time for both the activity, and then do the most important thing. Take a few minutes to make notes on what worked and what didn’t.
Without this, you won’t get any benefit from practicing. All you are doing is just going out and falling off your bike. You have to understand what worked and what didn’t work. If your instrument sounds off-key, go back and look at the sheet music.
And then try again.
[reminder]In what one or two areas should you begin deep practice to ensure that you build a level of genius into your work?[/reminder]