Practice Makes Perfect in a Small Business

How does someone become successful at something?  It’s not what you think.  I’m reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. (He’s the author of Blink and The Tipping Point).  Among other points, Gladwell believes that people who become successful didn’t just come upon success by chance or luck; they worked at it.  For a long time. They practiced many long, hard hours.  Gladwell says the magic number seems to be 10,000 hours.  That’s a LOT!

Two cases in point: Gladwell chooses several examples to make his point:

• Before they became famous, the Beatles spent many years playing in Germany.  They played in Hamburg, Germany, 7 nights a week, five or more hours a night, for years.  They topped 10,000 hours easily.
• Bill Gates started programming when he was in grade school, at a time when computer programming was in its infancy.  He became obsessed and spent hours every day learning about programming, all through high school.  To get programming time, he would go to the University of Washington campus from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. when no one was there.  Did he log in his 10,000 hours? Absolutely.

In both cases, the Beatles and Gates had some breaks and they were talented, but they got good at what they were doing by working hard and practicing their craft.  It’s the same in every endeavor, including small business.

Becoming a small business success. Small business ownership is no different than any other endeavor.  You have to know what you are doing, and the only way to do that is by practicing.  You can’t start a small business with no knowledge of what it takes to run a business and expect to get it right the first time.  But how do you get practice?

• Shadow a business owner. Choose the kind of business you want to start.  Offer to work for nothing or very little to learn what’s going on.
• Read about the business. My brother-in-law bought a restaurant many years ago.  He knew nothing about running restaurants, but he read and read and read, everything he could get his hands on, about how to run a restaurant. Reading isn’t actually doing, but it fills your mind with the technical aspects of
• Go to trade shows. Talk to people who sell to business owners, go to workshops.
• Start slowly. Start your business out of your home or in a small location.  Learn as you go.  You will be able to make your mistakes early before you get too big.

The 10,000-hour-rule sounds like a winner to me.  It means that anyone can do whatever they want with a few breaks and a lot of time and effort.  If you are willing to work hard and learn about how to run a business, you can be successful.  Life gives no guarantees, but this idea give you (and me) hope for success.  What do you think?

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