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Are You Experienced - Reprise

A few short hours after I posted the last entry in this journal, I came across a Squidoo lens about learning to be an illustrator. Squidoo is a unique idea from the mind of marketing genius Seth Godin.

Seth is the writer of numerous books on marketing, particularly for businesses on the Internet. He also gives away numerous free ebooks that are typically little gems of marketing wisdom. Of the few I’ve finished reading so far, all of them leave me with a good feeling, brimming with ideas that must be implemented. If you plan to do business on the Internet, his website is a must-read, as are his books and e-books.

His latest brainchild is Squidoo. On Squidoo, you don’t set up web pages; you set up lenses - essentially a view of a topic.  Anyone who sets up one or more lenses becomes a lensmaster. The purpose of a Squidoo lense is multi-fold. (You should read the free PDF ebook, Everyone’s an Expert, available at the previous link. If for some reason it’s not available, Seth has asked people to pass it on. At that point, come back here, drop me a comment, and I’ll post the book here.) I’m summarizing the information on Squidoo’s FAQ:

1. Share your expertise and knowledge of a topic.
2. Increase your profile.
3. Increase your web traffic.
4. Generate revenue.

As the publisher of a large set of websites, and as a writer, I’m always looking for ways to promote myself. I also keep my eyes open for opportunities for clients doing business on the Internet, as well as friends sharing their knowledge online.

Since I’m still learning the ins and outs of Squidoo, I’ve been exploring some of the lenses, including the lenses of the day. The one I came across that is the subject of this entry is the Learn to be an Illustrator lense.

What caught my eye about this lense is the first sentence of the first article: The Myth of Talent:

Studies show it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything.
That means 5 to 10 years for most people, depending on the level of
immersion in the new skill to be acquired…

This resonates with me because when I first decided that I’d like to explore the idea of some day becoming a monk, many years in the future, my master told me that to become a Buddhist monk (or nun), a person had to complete 10,000 hours of meditation, in temple, amongst those already ordained. And snatch pebbles from his hand. No, just kidding. Wrong notes.

I long ago completed my 10,000 hours, except that only a tiny fraction of my meditation was in a temple or in the presence of my master. (Hence why I called myself the Punk Monk for so long.)

But what’s more important to me, considering that I really don’t want to be a monk just yet, is that by this measure, I’m an expert in a few things, and a near expert in several more.

Consider how long it takes to gain 10,000 hours of expertise in anything. The average person who puts in a 40-hour week at work does 2000 hrs per year. If you’ve been at your job for 5 years, you’re probably an expert at it. Whether that’s good or bad is up to you to decide.

On the other hand, if you have a side passion that you’ve put in an hour at every single day, it’ll take you 27.4 years to become an expert at it. That’s a very long time to wait. Most people would have given up before then. However, 10 years to become an expert at something is more palatable. That requires 1,000 hrs per year, or roughly 20 hrs per week - less than 3 hrs per day, 7 days a week, year in and year out (assuming you take at least two weeks per year for vacation time).

If you’re patient enough to spend 15 years, that’s less than 2 hrs per day to become an expert at something. I know people who’ve done something they enjoy on this kind of basis, for decades, without even realizing how much they know about the subject.

Sit down with a notebook or at a computer, and write down, in bullet form, all you know about one of your favourite topics. Are you experienced? You just might be surprised.

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