Time, not talent, seems to be the true indicator of expertise.
What I am about to discuss comes to me via a very circuitous route that one can only find on the internet. Lifehacker.com did a write up of Penelope Trunk’s article regarding an article she is attached to from the July/August 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review. Got all that?
I don’t think there is a neat way to boil all this down to any one essential point but I will focus on one element that I’ve been struggling with for quite some time and it seems to be the same thing with which Penelope Trunk struggles. I haven’t devoted a lot of intense coached time on any one thing. I’m a dabbler. I jump about as my attention is drawn to new shiny things and I play with those new shiny things long enough to understand them but not long enough to be an expert.
In recent history I have devoted more time to ‘creation’, the producing, directing, and delivering of content. I have many friends who look over my project lists and tell me to just pick on and do it. I want to do it all. In my mind I know each one of these projects really represent a part-time job level of commitment, but I can’t bear to see any one of them not accomplished.
The article seems a bit disheartening because it pretty much tells me that no matter what my natural talent is, the things I’ve spent the most time on are the things I’m most likely to be an expert at and those things happen to be in a field I feel is a dead end. I’ve always known this though and that is why I’ve become obsessed with second chances. It is never too late to devote oneself to a passion, a career, a path in life. I can look at that lost time as truly lost or I can cherry pick the elements from it to salvage what I can.
Helping people with their technical issues for eleven years has given me great insight in how people use technology and how they use technology wrong. People constantly are trying to use the wrong tool, the wrong application to accomplish a task. I’ve seen too many pictured edited in Powerpoint… oh the humanity! My dabbling with podcasting, video production, and writing has given me a keen insight into the whole content creation process.
I’m sorry this is sounding a bit too personal but I am trying to demonstrate that while a person may not have spent a lot of time with the professional focus does not mean that time is lost when the decision to apply the focus comes along. I know I can’t do all my projects on my list and I know that if I would focus on master any one of them I will be a much better person.
All we needs is time to be an expert, not talent. Talent can be learned when the time is properly invested. The clock starts today.
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