I am interested in the factors of success. How does one go from idea to vision to implementation?

Today my focus is on becoming successful by working at it. Why does one person work so very hard – and want success so very badly – and still fail?

It takes 10,000 hours to become an expert. So they say. That is about 16 years if you focused 2 ½ hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year on the area of interest. You could, of course, accelerate that with more focus – say 5 hours a day. That is still 8 years. Then you could be an expert. But, what is an expert? And can you truly be exceptional if you have only focused on one narrow band of knowledge or enterprise? Do the numbers change if you want to become expert in say cross-stitch versus brain chemistry? Is an expert chess player the same as a world champion chess player? Wouldn’t it take longer to become an expert in tax than an expert in checkers? My young friend is a wicked Checkers player but he can’t be an expert – he hasn’t lived long enough. Is there more for him to know? Should he care?

Squidoo explains this in more detail than I have interest. And while it clarifies the concept I am still confused. On the post the author notes that it takes about five years of full time employment to become proficient in your field. But surely proficient isn’t synonymous with expert.

It is all very interesting –but – I think, rather useless. I think we all agree – expertise comes with time, practice, attention and talent. The last item is too often overlooked.

But that may be the point. Expert does not equal successful.