Yes, that’s right. A portion to success in anything is to clock 10,000 hours, 417 full days into whatever you do. Or so claims Malcolm Gladwell, author of “Blink“, in his latest book “Outliers“. After interviewing many extraordinary people like Bill Gates and the Beatles, he comes to the conclusion that one important component of success is to have 10,000 hours of experience. Bill Gates started programming in 1969 as a 13 year old. And continued to spend all his free time programing - all the way until he set up Microsoft. The Beatles were forced to play 19 hours everyday for years in Germany before they had their big break. And by time they made it big in the US, they had already performed 1,000 gigs.

It’s simple and blatantly obvious, if you think about it. A person with the opportunity and dedication to sing for 10,000 hours or geek out for 10,000 is obviously going to be more skilled than someone (of equal talent) who only sings in the shower or geek out only when s/he majors in Computer Science.

With that said, Gladwell isn’t saying that 10,000 hours guarantees that you will become the next Bill Gates. It’s just that Bill Gates was rich and fortunate enough to clock 10,000 hours of programming in an era where computers were not easily accessible to the public. So social status, cultural background, era of birth, innate talent and the magic 10,000 hours all played critical roles in his success. In short, Bill lead a life of luck, while never forgetting hard work.

However, Gladwell does point out that 10,000 hours is the magic number that gets you good at something - good enough to be the best in your country, or in some cases, the world.

Have I clocked 10,000 hours for anything? Probably.

Surfing the Internet: 20,000 hours
I started surfing at age 9. In 1995, my dad brought home a modem to connect to the Internet. I can still remember the excitement in his eyes. From there I owned a Hotmail account, logged onto mIRC, and regularly scoured Yahoo!. Then at age 11, I stumbled upon a Backstreet Boys fansite hosted on Geocities. It was too pretty for words - then. And that’s how started learning HTML.

Over the past 12 years, I’ve clocked in 20,000 hours in email, chat, surfing and web design. Not sure how many hours I’ve spent with web design, but it’s safe to say somewhere close to 3,000 hours.

Watching Anime: 1,800 hours
I’m sure I’ve spent more time doing other things in my life, but anime deserves an honorable mention. Here’s why: I started watching anime in 2006. According to my anime list, I’ve watched about 75 days worth of anime. That means I’ve clocked 1,800 hours within 2 years. It’s a scary thought, but I now enjoy an interesting byproduct.

Language Mastery at 10,000 hours?

So it struck me. Watching 1,800 hours of anime is probably why I can easily understand colloquial Japanese. It means that I’ve spent 1,800 hours listening to spoken Japanese (while reading subtitles). For the record, I’ve never tried to study Japanese beyond the alphabet system. I can barely read, write or even speak Japanese.

And this also explains certain strengths and weaknesses I have with other foreign languages. I’ve read a lot of French in my life. I’d read up literary works, news and even blogs. But I’ve never had the opportunity to speak. So I couldn’t ever have a decent French conversation without interjecting with “ummm…” after every 5 words. As for Chinese, I’ve always understood it well. That’s ’cause my mom would scold and lecture me in Chinese. But I’d always retort in English, and staunchly refused to read anything with Chinese characters on it. So my strength lies with understanding Chinese but not speaking, reading or writing.

So the key to master a second language is to clock 10,000 hours and divide it equally amongst reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Moral of the story: Get off your lazy butt and start clocking 10,000 hours if you want to be the best. And if you’re learning a second language, spend 2,500 hours watching movies, 2,500 hours reading the newspaper, 2,500 hours skyping with foreigners, and 2,500 writing a blog. When you finally reach 10,000 hours, your second language will have probably become as easy as your first.

In the meantime, I will attempt to get off my lazy butt and clock another 8,000 hours in web design, read more books in Chinese, and practice strumming the guitar.

Have you spent 10,000 hours in an activity? (Please don’t say school, work or sleep. That’s the same for everyone.) What do you think the keys to success are?

Warning! Long entry of which Part 2 involves psychoanalysis. If delving into your unconscious doesn’t interest you, feel free to skip it.

Part 1: Self-searching and Job-searching

Wow. It’s really been a while since I last blogged. As most of you know, it’s because I’m still in my transition period. Two weeks for transitioning was a serious understatement. Adapting to cultures has never been a problem, so two weeks would’ve been just around right. But of course, this time, it’s not only about adapting to a hot climate, a strange pidgin accent and a fusion culture. It’s a transition from childhood to adulthood, education to career.

Truth be told, I spent the last month and a half being a hermit, enclosing myself in the room watching anime after anime or idly thinking, in hopes that I could find my Self. Looking for a starting point in my career is a lot more stressful that I had previously imagined. It’s not like I’ve not worked before, but part-time jobs are solely done for money. It really doesn’t matter if I was a part-time barista, janitor or tutor as long as I was earning something. But just thinking about a career is implicitly posing serious life questions: What I want to accomplish with my life? What or who am I useful to? What can I dedicate my life to?

While searching through the plethora of job portals, I realized my problem wasn’t with the resume or cover letter, but was with my lack of understanding of myself. I began to admire those who had aspirations, as well as those who have a particular skill set to specialize, since I have always been the jack of all trades and master of none. At the same time, as a morally-rigid person, I couldn’t work just for money. Things like commissions may or may not make me work any harder.

After being a hermit for a month, I’ve only learnt one thing about myself: I need a goal, a mission. Something great enough so that I will spend all my effort, time and soul in.  Something that is gratifying at the end of the day. Something that will bring smiles to others. Something that will benefit this world in some way. And after all that searching, the Civil Service seems to be the best choice of all. It makes me wonder why I had to go through this process just to return to square one. I had originally chosen my major, Political Science to prepare me for the Civil Service.

How did you decide on your career? If you haven’t started on it, do you have any aspirations?

Part 2: Shadow-searching, Animus-searching and Self-searching

But all is not wasted, it seems. I have realized that I have so little understanding of myself. As a result, I have discovered the Carl Gustav Jung and his theory of the unconcious. According to Jung, the key to a life of a sort of Enlightenment, if you wish, is to understand your unconscious Self - the essence of your being. To do so, you must first acknowledge your Shadow (the part of you that you are afraid or ashamed of), and search for for your Animus (if you’re female) and Anima (if you’re male). The Anima/Animus serve as a messenger between your Unconscious Self and your Conscious Self.

Since I haven’t finished reading Jung’s collection of books, I haven’t been able to start searching my Self, but at least I’ve become aware of figures inside me. My Shadow is a Princess. As I was growing up, I often witnessed kind people bullied by stronger and less morally-bound people. So I felt that my softer, more emotional side would be a hindrance to my life, and decidedly chose to hide it under the guise of independence and reason. My true Shadow is a Princess, who is too kind and extremely emotional. I absolutely hate crying in front of others. I absolutely hate being soft. I absolutely hate being seen as a little useless girl.

I haven’t gone far enough to confirm my Animus. Though, I suspect that my Animus is the Eastern Dragon, which I have mistaken for my Shadow or Self for most of my life. Dragon in Chinese mythology represents the Emperor, hence Male in gender. For me the Dragon/Emperor represents power, independence, justice and courage, when positive, and tyranny, rage and desire, when negative. Since I tend a repress my feminine side, the Princess, I have allowed the Dragon to take over my Conscious persona at times. Yet the Dragon has always been a figure I’ve been afraid of facing because it is beyond my abilities to ‘tame’, so to speak. I become an Evil King that seek to bring destruction to Earth, when the Dragon is angry. And then return into a Righteous King that seeks to bring peace on Earth, when the Dragon is stable. What a fearsome character!

Lastly, the Self is still far beyond my reach. Having been unable to fully accept my Shadow, the Princess and unable to fully control my Animus, the Dragon/Emperor, I’m still very far away from realizing my Self. The one day when I can fully accept being an Emperor/Princess who can accept his/her emotions, I will not have the ability to see and accept my true Self.

Have you recognized your Shadow/Animus/Self? If no, any guesses?

Part 3: Site and Radio Updates!

Just uploaded a song I’m currently obsessed with. It’s a Japanese song called ‘This Night’ sung by CHEMISTRY; it is the ending song to an awesome anime called 地球へ… (Toward the Terra…) . It’s filed under ‘Anime’. Also updated my About page with a new picture.

Edit: Thank you Mixx users, who submitted this entry and voted it 40 times!