Why Is This Blog Called Fifty Thousand Hours?

Many of you will know the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell but, for those of you who don’t, this is how GoodReads explains it:

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers” — the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

In this fascinating study of “genius” he talks about how you only become really good at something after spending 10,000 hours on it. That something could be practising the violin, kicking a football, programming computers or learning the fine art of entrepreneurship.

So, why Fifty Thousand Hours?

I set up my first business in 1991, at the tender age of 19, after dropping out of Birmingham University (School of Art & Design). I attended said university a grand total of 3 months. It just wasn’t for me — I was fed up of the education system and needed to venture out in to the real world and make some money.

My first business was called Funky Slug Promotions (yes, really) and it was a joint venture with two of my best friends Pete and Nick, who were also university dropouts. We promoted gigs and club nights in our home town of Durham. We were in a band together so it made sense to try and make a few quid from the local music scene, and provide a platform for our own band of course.

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