The (below) Average American & 10,000 Hours of Television

Researchers Ernest O'Boyle Jr., of Longwood University's College of Business and Economics, and Herman Aguinis at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business published the findings of their studies on the normality of human performance this week. The conclusion of their study is that most Americans, contrary to belief, aren't average. The premise of their studies, in which they looked at performances in the fields of entertainment, politics, and athletics, was that there are a few "superstars" in each of these fields who contribute most of the output...enough output that, if mapped out on a bell curve, the "average" would be skewed higher than it should. 


Now, in statistical terms, we know these numbers as "outliers," figures that are either significantly higher or lower than what shows up most frequently. However, if, say, 75% of the output in one field was being done by a select few, does this really mean that because the other 25% of output is being done by the majority of people, that is the average? Well, if we're talking in terms of number of people, then yes...but in terms of actual productivity, the answer is a big fat NO!


It's tough to swallow, because most of us don't want to admit that we may be below average; nobody really even wants to be average. If I was an average baseball player I'd hit somewhere around .250 with10 home runs a year- in other words, nobody would even remember my name 5 years after I'd retired. If I was an average musician, I'd have at best one album out and make enough money to pay the gas for the van I was using driving across the country. If I was an average husband in my age range I'd have about a 50/50 chance at seeing my marriage last. None of the above scenarios are appealing to anyone. Nobody wants to be average...let alone below average. 

Malcom Gladwell

Malcom Gladwell, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of several influential books popularized the rule of 10,000 hours in his book Outliers: The Story of Success. This idea is built around the principle of dedicating 10,000 hours to a specific task or practice. Gladwell theorizes that in doing so, one can become an expert in their field of focus. His book famously cites Bill Gates, The Beatles, and his own career as real-life illustrations of this rule in action. What is shocking about this claim is that it leaves the power to succeed up to the individual. Sure, the sociologists and cultural anthropologists might chime in that we're neglecting environment and emotional impacts, and to an extent these arguments are valid. But, largely, circumstance aside, ANYONE can devote 10,000 hours to something, in fact we all do already! The majority of us have spent 10,000 hours watching television over the course of our lives. Most of us have spent 10,000 listening to music. Many of us have spent 10,000 hours reading various magazines, books, and newspaper articles. Nowadays, most of us have spent 10,000 hours online!

There are 8,765.81277 hours in a year. It would take 1.14 years of doing nothing but devoting one's self to their task to become a so-called 'expert.' Obviously, completely unrealistic. But let's take this down to 2 hours a day. At this rate, it would take 13.69 years of dedicating 2 hours a day to achieve this classification. A long time, no doubt, but also something that is completely manageable for almost all of us. And if we encourage our children to start doing this towards things they love, we can set up a generation for true success. 

A few years back I decided I wanted to learn to play guitar (for the 10th time). I dusted off my old acoustic guitar that I'd received for Christmas one year and decided I was going to really learn it. After about a month of (very) infrequent practice, the guitar was back to collecting dust in the corner of my apartment. Probably no more than 30 hours into my endeavor, I'd given up. I'm now back to being a painfully below-average guitarist. 

Maybe it's time I devote my time more seriously to the things I want to actually succeed at. Maybe it's time we all do. Maybe we'll become average again or even above average!  Maybe I'll actually excel at playing guitar by the time I'm 45. We can become the outliers...or we can stay below average... 

...but at least we'll have watched our 10,000 hours of television.

What would you like to excel at? What do you make of this research? What could you cut out of your life to create more time for the things you want to succeed at?