Home Inspector In Training

A few insights into some of the nagging questions of superiority or natural talent can be found in Malcolm Gladwell's new book "Outliers". It did answer a few questions of mine and in the process made me a believer in scheduling for success. I know from my own Home inspection business experience, things don't get done unless there is a deadline of some sorts. This implies a schedule of success, and with it the fruits of your labor / time.

Not to distill this book too much in this short article, but, the book explains in an entertaining way the complexities of success. Complexities? Yeah, like your birth date, social class, timing, parents/antecedence and time spent engaged in a particular thought pattern or patterns.

If we look at anyone we admire for a trait or natural ability, the level which they attain can be directly linked with the above complexities. As a kid in early grade school, my teachers complained that I was a quite kid, maybe I should be put in a special class. Back in those days schools were allocated more money from the federal government for special education children. Any excuse was good enough to fill those seats and collect the extra funds. Fortunately, or not, my mom disagreed and keep me in regular class.

I knew I was shy and quite at school in those early days but I didn't know why until I read this book. Much of what happens to you and your early mental growth occurs in pre-school up to grade 6. In my case having a birthday just days away from the school year cutoff made me the youngest and smallest of my class. At an early age small differences make a big difference in cognitive ability, not to mention physical ability at recess or gym class. No wonder I was quite, most of my classmates were bigger, smarter and more confident then myself.

Parents today that have knowledge of early age discrepancy, and what it means for child development hold their children back a year. Starting to see how parents and the socio economic class might make a difference?

There is a constant that runs through the book however that is a bit sobering. Hours, yes, hours of time spent living or studying. Some would argue it's the same thing at age 5 or so - but not so during the later years of life. You see, Mr. Gladwell puts the hours of study or active participation in an interest at 4000 for amateur status and 10,000 hours for an expert/master staus. He goes on to give very interesting case studies like, The Beatles, Bill Gates, Bill Joy and a host of other highly recognized names.

Now just think about how many subjects/interests you could be a master of if you replaced all those hours in front of the boob tube in pursuit of mastery. You need to pay careful attention to this fact -- habits form from repeated activity along the same lines or "Patterns of Thought".

Allowing your children to waste away in front of the TV, piling up the hours, presents a bad habit that is quite strong and hard to break. Sound familiar, feel familiar?

So why should it be different for patterns of thought? 10,000 hours may seem like a long time but if you were to start honing a skill or trait at a very young age? Or perhaps started something new like Phase Inspections or Building Science. Let's do the math. If you just thought / studied about something 2 hours a day it would only take 13 years to be come an a master of that subject or trait. The power of a schedule comes to light. Think about your habits, how many lost hours a day? What could you have mastered with that time? Or should I say how many things. Perhaps even speed reading instead of television?

Anyone with a gifted or brilliant child needs to get this book into their hands, in it they'll find out that life, even for the gifted, takes hard work and thousands of hours to become fulfilled. Notice I didn't say successful, find out why, read the book.

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