I’m reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers” and I’m really enjoying it. In this book Gladwell discusses what the magical ingredients of success are. Contrary to popular belief, it takes more than just individual merit to achieve success. And we’re talking about success on a grand scale here, as in that of Bill Gates, for example.

Opportunity And Cumulative Advantage

Certain individuals are presented with opportunities not available to everyone. Taking advantage of those opportunites and working extremely hard generates more opportunities for them. The advantages gained accumulate. Gladwell describes Bill Joy‘s story. He was given access to computers in the early 1970s at a time when they were a rarity. He lived, breathed and dreamt programming and usually worked into the night. This was when he was a student. At that point it was just an interest. But when the personal computer market exploded a few years later, he was well placed to take advantage of it because of all the experience he had gained. He went on to co-found Sun Microsystems. Opportunity + hard work = success, simplistically.

However, taking advantage of even the most widely available opportunities that are open to everyone will give rise to more opportunities and more success.

Lucky Students

For example, consider a person who becomes interested in martial arts whilst at University. All that free time, it just makes you drool doesn’t it? A typical student has masses of spare time that they can use in any way they wish. They could easily train for 2 hours a day and ist still would not impact on VDT (valuable drinking time).

Now look at the favourable consequences of training so hard. Skill develops more quickly in the dedicated practitioner than in the lazy one, and so he or she is invited to attend courses that the others are not yet ready for. Access to more training! And so it snowballs. That extra training gives an advantage over those that don’t receive it. The dedicated student who trains more than their peers gets invited to seminars, demonstrations and eventually becomes their sifu’s chief instructor. Of course this privileged position leads to even more opportunities. And this all starts with one opportunity – the opportunity to train hard – that is available to most of us. OK, time constraints are a big issue for most of us, but are there some opportunities that you are not taking advantage of?

Training Is Like Being Given Money

Malcom Gladwell’s book and my recent focus on increasing my training hours has shaped my current thinking on training. I don’t want to miss an opportunity! I can see training as being like picking up money from the floor. Imagine the floor being covered in dollar bills. You can pick up as many as you want and stuff your pockets full of them. However, some people limit themselves to just picking up 2. A little time goes by and then they pick up another 2. Meanwhile, their friend is busy filling his pockets. This is how I see training. The hours you put in are the dollar bills on the floor. You wouldn’t just pick up a few bills and stop while there were more on the floor, would you? Similarly, why would I do only a little training when I could do more. With the bills, the more you pick up the richer you get. With training, the more you do the greater your skill becomes.

I used to do minimal training. A mere 15 minutes a day. I’ve easily changed my routine so that I now do one hour a day. The extra time was always there, I just didn’t take advantage of it. The more you train, the better you get. It’s so simple, and yet incontrovertably true. There is no way around it and there is no substitute for the hard work you put into your training.

Talent and natural ability? Give me someone who has “natural ability” and I guarantee that if I train three times as hard as them, I will get better than them. Maybe not by a factor of 3, but I will get better than them.

Wing Chun Opportunities

Wing Chun Residential Course

This morning I paid for my place on the upcoming Wing Chun residential course. It costs a lot of money but I can afford it and I would be a fool to miss the chance to train so intensely. I’m told that the formal training goes on between 10:00 and 18:00 but then attendees often chi sau until midnight, so that’s a big opportunity for improvement! Also, we’ll be covering Baat Jam Dao, the Wooden Pole, the Wooden Dummy and all three forms. These are things that are not covered in our regular classes. I’m kicking myself for missing these residentials in the past. I foolishly convinced myself that “slow and steady” was the way to go – i.e. attending only the weekly classes, but doing so consistently. Duh!

Chi Sau Before Class

One of the guys I train with can get to class nearly an hour before it starts, and I can too. We’ve arranged to meet up early and chi sau. That’s an hour extra! I can’t contain myself, I’m going to have to break something!

There Are 3 Classes Per Week

I used to play stupid mind games with myself. I’d say to myself, “Well, you’ve been to class on Monday, so you don’t really need to go on Wednesady too”. Duh! With that attitude, making 3 classes a week was near impossible. The classes are there for the taking. Why only pick up one dollar bill when there are two more on the floor?! Obviously, things will come up and there will always be unexpected events that mean we can’t train when we want. But barring exceptional circumstances: train, train, train!

I feel better for getting that out of my system. Thanks for listening!