10,000 Hours. Or My Commitment to Doing Good Work.
on Jan 28, 2013
“That’s what separates the wheat from the chaff. That’s what makes a CEO a CEO.” - Gillian Muessig, SEOmoz
You would think Gillian Muessig, SEOmom – who was on a cycling and business tour to India and spent time in our office for the better part of a fortnight – would be talking about some esoteric and vague values such as vision, leadership. NO.
She was talking about: blogging. She was referring to her son Rand Fishkin (@randfish), CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz who has been blogging every single day since the inception of the blog. No matter what happened during the day, a blog would be up at night. He blogs about what he knows best: "inbound marketing, SEO, startups & entrepreneurship". He shares all that he knows about his business and discusses all. He’s social in a true sense.
Sceptics questioned his policy of talking about business secrets out in the open which could lead to people siphoning off work. But he wasn’t worried. The response invariably was: “If they are going to do it themselves, they were never our customers; if they are our customers, they will come to us when they are going to see our expertise.”
Yes, this approach backfired sometimes. But this paid off more than it backfired. SEOmoz is one of the first, biggest and most successful online marketing communities in the world. The blog is visited by millions of viewers. If you can get published in their blog, you can coolly double the price of your services and people will be willing to pay.
And after a very public battle, they received a funding of $18 million last year.
This reminds me of my favourite blogger and a fellow libertarian Amit Varma (@amitvarma) who, unfortunately, doesn’t blog enough now and is on to bigger and better things such as writing novels and winning Poker championships. He wrote a column on 10,000 hours in 2010. He writes:
Natural talent alone isn’t enough to make you good. You have to work damn hard, and practice damn hard. Some researchers have even put a number to how many hours of practice you need to achieve excellence: 10,000 hours.
[…]
The part of the study that I find astonishing is that not only did all the top performers have over 10,000 hours of practice to their credit, but everyone who put in 10,000 hours was a top performer. The key to excellence was not natural talent, but hard work. (Caveat: this is not to say that talent doesn’t matter at all. Firstly, as the researchers pointed out, there was a minimum level of talent required to get into the Academy. Secondly, a completely untalented musician would probably not get the positive feedback for his work that would motivate him to put in 10,000 hours in the first place.)
This all leads me to conclude that, since I am in the business of communication, practice I must; specifically because, as Gillian put it: “you owe it not just to yourself but to your company to work hard and give it everything you can. Sometimes, just showing up is important.”
I promise to myself and to my company to start blogging at least once a week and increase the frequency gradually.
And since this is a meta-blog (a blog about blogging), it seems befitting to end with another blogger quote, Girish Shahane:
Film used to be a precious resource in India, to be used with care. This bred discipline among cinematographers. Once video became widely available, discipline often went out of the window. [...] I have this example before me as I inaugurate a blog -- which is free to publish and in which I can stuff endless random thoughts. I aim to bring some of [the] discipline into the inevitably looser, less formal structure of the blog.
Wish me luck. :)
Nimit Kathuria
Team OMLogic
Post a comment
4817 comments
Recent Post
.png)
.png)
More Stories
.jpg)
Copyright © 2024 - OMLogic Blog. All rights reserved.
JulianNut
The media is in meltdown over Caitlin Clark <a href=https://kraken23at.net>кракен 16</a> The male-dominated sports media apparatus is stumbling over Caitlin Clark. It is trying to pretend that it hasn’t ignored the WNBA for decades until the superstar rookie came along. But rather than admitting its blind spots, several male commentators are parachuting themselves into a league they barely understand and dismissing anyone who suggests they could do better. https://kraken-21at.net кракен 12 In the flurry of hot takes that followed Chennedy Carter’s foul against Clark over the weekend, ESPN host Pat McAfee went on his show Monday to argue that Clark — whom he casually called the “White b*tch for the Indiana team” — was singularly responsible for the sudden surge of WNBA popularity and therefore she should be given more respect. He later apologized for using the slur, emphasizing that his broader thesis was that Clark’s star power created a halo around a league that’s been languishing in obscurity. “I was talking about how I hoped that the WNBA and sports media, ex-WNBA players, would show a little bit more respect to Caitlin Clark for what she has brought to the WNBA,” McAfee said on his show Tuesday. Of course, it’s not that the league was dormant before Clark got there, it’s that most of the mainstream press weren’t paying attention. The impact of Clark’s arrival is undeniable. But McAfee and the four men flanking him in his Indiana studio are not the best people to lead that conversation on one of the most influential sports networks in America. https://kraken-21at.net 2krn.nl McAfee’s right that the ground is shifting for women’s basketball — it’s one of those pivotal moments when journalists and analysts would normally call up an expert or two and try to absorb some of the complexities of the situation. Instead, the male commentariat have done too much talking and not enough listening. Clark, a White, straight phenom, has become male sportscasters’ proxy in a league built primarily by Black and LGBTQ athletes whom the mainstream felt fine skimming over in the past. And in covering the league, they’re relying on outdated tropes about how women are supposed to behave. Charles Barkley recently called women “petty” for being rough on Clark.
Sandrarep
Welcome to our <a href=https://lecastella.info/>Gay Blog</a>, where we celebrate the diversity and beauty of the <a href="https://lecastella.info/">LGBTQ+ community.</a> Explore articles, stories, and resources that embrace love, equality, and pride. Join us in fostering understanding, acceptance, and empowerment for all.https://lecastella.info/
MalcolmArous
have a peek at this site https://pq.hosting/en/vps-vds-romania-craiova-bucuresti
Michaeljex
As Mike Johnson tries to pass billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, he’s having to put his own job on the line <a href=https://bs-gl.org>blacksprut</a> Johnson moving ahead with Ukraine aid bill despite pressure from hardliners US Senate kills articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Ex-Trump attorney asked if he thinks Trump should testify. Hear reply 1:29 https://bs-gl.org Analysis Some House Republicans need this reminder that Russia is not their friend Viewers called in with Trump trial questions. Maggie Haberman answered 1:50 If Trump testifies at NY criminal trial, prosecutors want to use his past legal run-ins to discredit him to jury Fact check: Donald Trump attacks Jimmy Kimmel for something Al Pacino did blacksprut https://bs-gl.org
StuartJep
Источник https://pq.hosting/vps-vds-bulgaria-sofia