“The 10,000 Hour Rule” – Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Outliers’ (Author of Bestsellers such as Blink, and Staff Writer for The New Yorker)

Just recently I read a book called Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell. The book is about stories of success. There’s much more to it than what you will read in this blog. That being said, I suggest you read the book yourself and I guarantee that it will change your perspective about success. He analyses beyond intelligence, wits and ambitions. He argues that it matters what year you were born, where you grew up, who your parents are, and the opportunities that surrounds you. Strange right? But it’s very true. From what I understood opportunity is the main factor for the equation of success. The opportunity to be good at what one does.

“The 10,000 Hour Rule” is the name of the second part (or chapter) of the book. He argues that the rule refers to the average Xperience time needed to reach mastery within a specific skill or trade. Practice makes it perfect? Sure, why not. That seems reasonable. This is where Media Xperiments comes into effect. What made people such as Bill Gates (Microsoft), Bill Joy (UNIX), The Beatles (Yes! The Beatles), Steve Jobs (Apple), and Mozart (Oh yes!) so successful was the fact that they had the opportunity to put in countless hours at a time doing what they do/did best. By the way apparently Mozart started composing when he was six. But of course students have busy schedules with school and extracurricular activities.

So how can we offer the current and upcoming generations the opportunity to put in those hours? You bring those activities to the class. Yeah, yeah, there are complications with that. Funds for certain trade classes (like computer labs with appropriate machines or automotive facilities or whatnot) are scarce. And yeah, they already got some of that going on already. What I mean though is that we need to take it to the next level. Revamping the educational system is a extremely hard task. What better way to get support for a small revamp than through providing an example of how it works?

The example? Media Xperiments! “But it’s still in a phase of Xperimentation…” Well we gotta start somewhere. This is where we will know what works best and what doesn’t. I’m not much of the statistical type but the numbers show that our educational system as a whole sucks. I mean look at the numbers! Look at the economy! Who runs the economy for the most part? The people! At least I seem to perceive it that way. The consumers and the producers are people, humans. Where are the majority of these people? I don’t know for sure, but definitely a lot of them are not getting the opportunity to learn and succeed like everyone should. And if they aren’t getting those opportunities, their kids sure as hell are likely not to. Think about that for a second. Can you guess? It’s a Vicious Cycle that will affect… that IS, affecting society for years to come.

Think about the homelessness issue in Austin: Isn’t that enough to say to help express how such a large number of people are excluded from the workforce or other work opportunities due to lack of better learning foundations when they’re young? *deeeep breath*

That’s why I believe in Media Xperiments. I feel that Media Xperiments will not only help instigate the development of opportunities for the present and upcoming generations, but also help lower the average number of the “Rule” (the number is an estimation). Thus Xponential Mentoring. Imagine having kids coming out of Middle School with the skill and knowledge necessary to have more control of their success in High School. Then imagine the damage they’ll do when they get out of High School!!! Hahahaha yeah, damage!!! I laugh because I’ve seen it, and it’s awesome. Some kids are so lucky that they’ll have parents, teachers and mentors that cultivate those skills from such an early age. I would love to see a youngster half my age do better than I did a few years ago, which is very possible.

To attack the issue of the Vicious Cycle we must kill it at the root. In a sense of time the root of a person’s life is their youth. If we can accomplish that we will reach a tipping point and turn the Vicious Cycle into a Virtuous Cycle. Wouldn’t that be awesome? I really believe that it would make this world a little bit better. When I say a little I’m being sarcastic, very sarcastic. When we reach that point it will be a matter of who’s better, not who figures all this out the earliest. Nor will it be as much of a matter of who’s born privileged or who’s not. I don’t know about you but personally, I rather be challenged to be better at what I do instead of being challenged to deal with the hardships of society.

Well I’m tired. I could go on forever (some of you might know all about that…). I hope the best for this Xperiment and the pilot already resulted in some amazing, talented and determined proteges. Each one with their own set of strengths and skills. Christian Nelson (he funny as hell), Peter Jiang (the dragon slayer slash hero slash tech wiz slash…), even John Luke (who came a long way and doesn’t cease to surprise me), and of course yours truly (talk about conceded… lol). We’re the main ones now but i know there’s more out there and more to come. We’re a small team, but we’re a dang good one. I’m out of high school and I’m glad most of these guys are still in there. May their senior year be a BANGER with much success. I’m sure they will inspire their peers just as they inspired me many times. Can’t forget about Carl Settles (The whole reason why MX exists), David Conover (Keep spreading the love mang), and last but not least Humberto Perez (The whole reason why I graduated High School).

Ya’ll doin’ a great job. The least I can do is try my hardest.

“I don’t know much, just what I perceive.” – Yours Truly