Mastery is available to anyone willing to get on the path and stay on it. We must look foolish and persevere through the instincts telling us to stop. Mastery is an impersonal universal process that we can wire with 10,000 hours of deliberate practice.  It is simple in theory but difficult in application, making achieving expertise seemingly unattainable for most. 

The most significant human achievers, such as Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Michael Jordan, Marie Curie, and Charles Darwin, were overlooked when they were young.¹ They were not born into anything; they worked tirelessly in the background, using deliberate practice to tune patterns of greatness within their domain. They did not come into the world as unique; what made them special was that they got on the path and never got off, tuning patterns that achieved extraordinary results. 

Even Mozart was not born predestined for greatness; his success resulted from more than 10,000 hours of practice. From the age of three, he played the piano like someone possessed.² His father, Leopold, was an accomplished musician, composer, and teacher who put all of his energy into making Mozart and his sister master musicians.³ 

Mozart worked tirelessly, and his father helped him use deliberate practice to wire mastery patterns. Although he composed for a decade by age 15, experts call those works curiosities. He was not considered a world-class composer until he was in adolescence.⁴ Mozart was not born with the pattern to do what he did; he tuned it through endless deliberate practice under the guidance of an expert from the age of three. Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters are other examples of those who spent their early life practicing for 10,000 hours under the tutelage of their parents. These individuals were not born into it; they spent their lives strategically tuning the patterns that led to exceptional results.

We often blame the accomplishments of the most successful performers on talent, saying they were just born that way. However, talent is what we have before we start, and skill is what we acquire through deliberate practice, regardless of talent.⁵ Some are born with a genetic headstart or talent, but they still have to tune that pattern to mastery. Not even the most talented person can achieve mastery without spending thousands of hours tuning the skill.⁶ No shortcut to mastery exists, regardless of how much talent we start with. 

 Nothing will happen if we are born with a talent but do not develop the skill through deliberate practice. On the other hand, if you are not born with talent but spend 10,000 hours in deliberate practice, greatness is still available to you.⁷ If your view on talent prevents you from putting in the work, then why have it? It is best to depersonalize mastery as a process, get on the path, and see what happens. People are not born into greatness, nor are they restricted from achieving it.⁸ Every healthy person is born with a learning network with the same potential to tune to mastery regardless of age, sex, class, or race. Mastery is not reserved for the super-talented; anyone can reach it with at least 10,000 hours of deliberate practice.⁹ 

In reality, we would be lucky if it took only 10,000 hours to achieve mastery. Ed Catmull, founder of Pixar, spent twenty years of effort toward the singular goal of making Toy Story.¹⁰ The computer-animated technology for Toy Story did not exist; he had to create it through years of deliberate effort that never quit. Author Napoleon Hill spent 25 years crafting his book Think and Grow Rich.¹¹ To reach mastery, we must change our attitudes toward achieving our goals. There is no shortcut or quick fix to tune the brain to mastery; it cannot happen overnight.¹² It is a slow process available to anyone willing to get on the path and stay on it. It is not personal; the brain is a network that reaches mastery after tuning through deliberate practice, regardless of who you are. 

Ten thousand hours of deliberate practice does not mean that we will become the LeBron James of our Domain.¹³ I am not saying that we will be the best in the world, but we will have a pattern that can perform at an expert level. At forty years old, no amount of practice would get me into the NBA; it is impossible. Even if I started at four years old and put in 10,000 hours, I still might not make it to the NBA. I would have an expert skill level at basketball, but I may not be the best in the world.

The only guarantee on the road to mastery is that it will never happen if we do not tune through deliberate practice. Whoever we may be, we have a learning network that takes at least 10,000 hours to tune to mastery for any skill. It is never too late; we can get on the path and tune in to mastery at any age. Of course, it is best to start when we are children, when the brain is the most plastic, and we have the time.

It is more challenging to reach mastery as an adult because we have more responsibilities, making it difficult to carve out the time for practice. Still, Charles Darwin didn’t release his work On the Origin of Species until he was fifty. Vera Wang entered the fashion world when she was forty, and Julia Child wrote her first cookbook when she was 50. It is never too late to get on the path and take advantage of the full potential of your neural network. At any age, we can start to wire mastery for any skill we desire; just begin the impartial tuning process and do not stop until you get there. 

Endnotes

1. Coyle, Daniel. P.34.The Little Book of Talent
2. Wright, Craig M.. P.50 The Hidden Habits of Genius: Beyond Talent, IQ, and Grit—Unlocking the Secrets of Greatness. Dey Street Books, 2020. Kindle file.
3. Shenk, David. The Genius in All of Us: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ. Anchor, 2010. Kindle file.
4. Gardner, Howard. P.83. Five Minds for the Future
5. Stephens, Ransom. P.70.The Left Brain Speaks, the Right Brain Laughs. Viva Editions, 2016. Kindle file.
6. Colvin, Geoff. P.61. Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. Portfolio, 2008. Kindle file.
7. Fabritius, Friederike, and Hans W. Hagemann.P.254. The Leading Brain
8. Shenk, David. Location 648. The Genius in All of Us.
9. Leonard, George.P.5. Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment. Plume, 1992. Kindle file.
10. Catmull, Ed, and Amy Wallace. Location 993. Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. Random House Canada, 2014. Kindle file.
11. Hill, Napoleon. P.3. Think and Grow Rich: The Original, an Official Publication of The Napoleon Hill Foundation. Sound Wisdom, 2019. Kindle file.
12. Shenk, David. P.832.. The Genius in All of Us
13. Sapolsky, Robert M..P.152. Behave