10,000 hours of dedication and work and practice to become a master of your chosen craft has become a cultural norm, or perhaps a scientific breakthrough, depending on who you ask.
There are countless studies and inquiries that suggest, no matter what field your in, that it generally takes 10,000 hours of apprenticeship to become fully realized, or really really good at what you have chosen to do with your life’s work.
Master, expert, guru, those words won’t be used here, although many have attributed them to this concept of grinding it out over 10,000 hours, or about ten years - to give it another perspective, that is needed to sweat it out, hunkering down and committing yourself to the unsexy task of paying your dues toward the road to preeminence.
This is a livestream video that was wholly inspired by the amazingly poetic, richly vibrant, fresh, and unique approach to mastery from Mr. David Lee Roth, who was recently interviewed by Joe Rogan on his podcast. I highly recommend this interview. The link is located in the description of the video below.
Roth was the frontman for one of the most popular and culturally defining rock bands to come out of the eighties, Van Halen, and his insights and delivery on this topic are mesmerizing, to put it mildly.
Roth discusses his background as a classically trained musician and how Van Halen, in their early days, played five, 45 minute sets a day in dive bars and clubs around the country for years before their jump into the mainstream of American pop culture.
In between deliciously quintessential rock star tales of turning late 14th century hotels in France into rock climbing extravaganzas and proudly calling himself a “Combat Hippie", “Peace, Love and Heavy Weaponry” - Roth dives deep into the cornerstones of what’s behind the 10,000 hour mastery model and how himself and others, such as Bruce Springsteen, Miyamoto Musashi and more, embody this.
Let me know what you think in the comments below. Do you think it takes that long to become good at something? I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!
