I finished the 10,000 hours experiment. Next month marks 11 years with my favorite inanimate object — my guitar.
Five instruments, four bands, 300+ performances, 2 studio albums, and 1.9m YouTube views later, perhaps I’m burned out. Because when you exploit every opportunity in an industry (except make money), logic tells you to quit. Yesterday.
When I moved to NYC I grew bitter towards music, going several months without bronze strings or ceramic keys or horse hairs. But then I read The Tipping Point and learned how a small change can make a big impact.
From the spread of disease to viral marketing to crime, time and again it is the seemingly minutiae that yield unprecedented significance. So I pulled a guitar out from under my bed and put it on a floor stand beside my bed.
Bingo.
I’ve since written 2 songs, learned another dozen, and am day-dreaming witty limericks like the old days. Thanks, guitar stand. Thanks, Gladwell.
Fit your environment to your goals, not the other way around.