Learning Curves

Reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success[affiliate link] a few weeks ago the ten-thousand-hour rule of success stuck in my head. I’ve heard this statistic before, so it wasn’t new, but I was curious how it played out in my life in the past and how it would play out in the future.

I quit my job and left behind a very successful career in November 2009. For most of 2009 I was also working toward my dream of working for myself.

Thinking in terms of skill-sets I decided to graph my most current career and my new self-employed life.

Applying the ten-thousand-hour rule along with my career history, it took about seven years for me to master the skills I needed in my previous work life. The last five years were spent applying and refining those skills, as well as, teaching others what I knew.

Fortunately for me that skill set revolved around much of what I enjoy doing and what I am good at.

The “expert” skills I have from my life as a whole and from my previous career are what I am using today to start and build my business.

But, at the same time there is so much more that I want to do and love to do. These are skills I have described as ‘new”. Things I am learning and what one day will be the basis of my business.

The learning curve is always steep in the beginning and can be a little discouraging at times. But, just focusing on one thing at a time, not the whole picture helps.

The graph below shows how my old skill set and emerging skill set are helping my build my business today and in the future.

It was fun to draw and also provided a little clarity.

No matter where I stand today, I have skills to draw on that I am exceptionally good at and exciting new things to learn. Who could ask for more?