“Practice? We’re talking about practice, man.” If you are a sports fan, you probably know that the quote is from former NBA star Allen Iverson. Iverson was questioned about his practice habits by a reporter during the 2001 season, in which he was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player. Iverson was questioned about his work habits during his team’s practices.
He added, “We’re talking about practice. We ain’t talking about the game. We’re talking about practice, man. When you come to the arena, and you see me play, you see me play don’t you? You’ve seen me give everything I’ve got, right? But we’re talking about practice right now.”
But Allen Iverson knew that practice was important, even if he was not a fan of it. He later said, “When you are not practicing, someone else is getting better.” And practice is important, and not just in sports.
It has been said that it takes 10 years or 10,000 hours of practice, training and work in a certain area in order to become proficient in that field. That area could be your job, sports, the arts, a hobby or other activities, like personal and spiritual growth. It’s going to take time and effort to become proficient, and, let’s face it, most of us don’t want to spend the time or make the effort that it takes.
For example, probably the best rock ‘n’ roll band of all time, The Beatles. The band had talent and was at the right place at the right time in order to be in a position to succeed. But they were not the “overnight sensation” in 1964 that many thought. In his excellent book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell profiles The Beatles, among others, who succeeded because of determination and practice. Lots of practice.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon had been playing music together since 1957. In 1960, they were invited to Hamburg, Germany, to play in clubs in the seedy part of that city. They became so popular that they often ended up playing eight hours a day, seven days a week. The band made five trips to Hamburg between 1960 and 1962, for more than 270 days, most always playing in clubs for more than five hours a night. Overall, it is estimated that The Beatles performed more than 1,200 times by the time they landed in New York City on Feb. 7, 1964. That’s a lot of practice and hard work before becoming the “overnight sensation” I saw on The Ed Sullivan Show that Sunday night as a kid.
In his book, Gladwell also profiles computer giants Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems and Bill Gates of Microsoft. In both cases, while in high school, these technology pioneers spent hours and hours in computer labs learning systems and code. In Outliers, Gladwell quotes Gates concerning his early high school years. Gates states, “It was my obsession. I skipped athletics. I went up there at night. We were programming on weekends. It would be a rare week that we wouldn’t get 20 or 30 hours in.” That’s while he was in high school!
Were John, Paul, George and Ringo more musically talented than you and me? Were Bill Joy and Bill Gates that much smarter than you or me? Maybe, but maybe not. When we see others gain success, we are often tempted to give credit to their natural talents. When we fail to be successful, it’s easy for us to say that we just weren’t born with the ability and talent to do so.
But maybe we have just as much natural talent as they do. We may be just as naturally intelligent as they are. We just didn’t make the effort it took to achieve. Maybe we just didn’t put in the hours, and we just didn’t practice enough. And, yes, Allen Iverson, we are talking about practice.