A Harsh Truth: The Difference Between The Elites And The Rest Of Us
In a fictional land, strip away MJ’s superpower and he is pretty similar to the average human being.
“Michael, they are ready for you”
A dark silhouette rises from its dressing table, all 6 foot 4 of a human.
The stillness and darkness of a dressing room slowly transition to a raucous melting pot of anticipation, commotion, and a smattering of lights. The world stands on its feet for Michael Jordan’s return to the podium, “I’m back”.
My journey to the truth
At least that’s how I imagine the story was before those famous words. The point is, that we adore the “elites”. We support them, follow them (sometimes literally…), we aspire to be them. Who are these individuals?
I’m talking about the likes of Michael Jordan, Taylor Swift, Elon Musk, Rihanna, the list goes on.
Over the past five years, I have studied the world’s best athletes and famous figures in search of the answers. Maybe you do too? Countless books and podcasts on ‘maximizing performance’, anything, in search of what it takes to reach that level.
Here are my top 5 around this subject:
- Steve Jobs — by Issac Newton
- Mastery — by Robert Green
- The Last Dance — on Netflix
- Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy — on Netflix
- Rihanna: Turning Beauty into Billions — Big, Bad Billionaire podcast
I looked for ‘the answer’ and believe I found it.
Would you believe if I told you it’s quite simple and probably our own doing?
The harsh truth
It starts with our childhood. The very best unsurprisingly (most of the time) pick up their craft at a young age.
Novak Djokovic first picked up his tennis racket at the age of 4 and passed it on to his Ski instructor father (more info).
Jennifer Aniston, iconic from “Friends” developed her passion for art and acting at 11 years old at the Rudolf Steiner School’s drama club (more info).
The starting age for a craft leads to the second point — the amount of hours we spend on a craft. The 10,000-hour rule is a concept widely known thanks to the contemporary words of Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers (2008), and Robert Green in Mastery (2012).
Both, in their respective books, share about ‘The Beatles’ knocking up over 10,000 hours in Hamburg, Germany from 1960–1964 via live performances and practice time locked in a rehearsal room.
Now, 10,000 is an average hour and there is a train of thought that doesn’t believe in the 10,000 hours exactly. I’m nearer to that group, but understand there is no coincidence the longer you’ve been doing something the better you are.
When you think of it, that is the difference. It still terrifies me how quickly AI is progressing. A power they have innovated and evolved over years of practice and application.
In a fictional land, strip away MJ’s superpower and he is pretty similar to the average human being.
Sounds familiar?
I mentioned earlier that this void between ‘elites’ and the rest is actually our doing. Allow me to explain.
Why it’s our fault
I, like, probably you, love to keep myself busy. Perhaps it’s the metropolis lifestyle (writing to you from my apartment in London) with the accelerated speed of life and tsunami of things to do. I pay my monthly wages on my accommodation to only spend most of my time outdoors taking part in activities or events every day. Sounds silly on paper.
What about you? How many hobbies or activities do you have right now?
I bet it’s a few.
The data shows me this as well. It shows that on average, people today can have around 2 to 3 hobbies at a time (more info) which has increased over the past decade. It also shows that there is greater diversity in our personal interests due to easier access to information and online communities to discover and engage with new activities (more info).
We also have more time on our hands now because of the hybrid working arrangements — about 3.17 hours per week due to less time spent on commuting (more info). That alone is about 30–45 minutes more free time per day!
Our focus and attention levels are constantly in this new ‘attention economy’ and are constantly under threat by the likes of TikTok, fast fashion sales, Netflix, and the run-and-meet ad that shows on your timeline. How can we focus on one thing at a time?
This means we are all pretty decent at many different things.
I see it like this in my mind.
We are all walking embodiments of ‘jack of all trades, master of none’, working wider than the elites but not as deeply.
What we can do
It should be obvious by now what we can do to bridge the gap to the elites. Well, more, what we shouldn’t do.
I’ll keep this short.
Do less.
Pick a few activities you absolutely love and get as deep as you can in them. Appreciate the journey not the short-term spark of novelty.
I’m fairly new to Medium and looking to build a genuine, unfiltered community to exchange teachings and ideas and hear different stories and perspectives. Let’s connect and leave a comment to start a discussion :)
