I Am Possible/10,000 Hours to Genius

Last Friday I had the honor of a one-on-one breakfast meeting with the co-founder and Vice Chairman/Executive Director of Techtronic Industries, Dr. Roy Chung. While Dr. Chung’s profession is with TTI (a world-class leader in power equipment products and construction tools), he is very active in the public sector. For instance, he is a Council Member of The Better Hong Kong Foundation – an organization, which to quote their website, was “formed by influential Hong Kong business and community leaders in 1995 to build greater international understanding between East and West by facilitating communications between Hong Kong, China and the global community.” The BHKF sponsored a lunch for all of the Chinese Fulbright Scholars during our visit to the island last month, which is where I first had the opportunity to introduce myself to Dr. Chung. The reason I’m giving this background is I’d like to develop some context around which to share some of what I learned from him the other day.

Building an international company with annual sales nearing HK$25 billion (that’s a number from TTI’s 2007 Financial Report) seems like an impossible task to most people. During our meeting, at my broaching of this point, Dr. Chung asked me to spell the word impossible. I began with a bit of hesitation:

“I….M….”
“POSSIBLE!” he interjected loudly. “I am possible,” he reiterated for clarity.
I chuckled at the play on words, but I saw that he was serious. “All you have is ‘possible’ and ‘I. am. possible.’ As I see it, there are no other options.”

While Dr. Chung is surely of above-average intelligence, he admits that his success is actually found in a mix of diligence and the ability to seize opportunities when they present themselves. His modest stance rests in harmony with the theory put forth by Malcolm Gladwell in his recent book Outliers: The Story of Success: A person needs to invest about 10,000 hours of concentrated and reflective practice to achieve mastery; something that many people mistakenly confuse as natural genius. We need to “fill out the picture” of what genius is, Gladwell argues, by giving due not only to an individual’s inherent abilities, but the effects of generation, lucky breaks, culture, etc. Watch a short video of him speaking here. Gladwell finds support in his argument by looking at the histories and backgrounds of The Beatles, Bill Gates, Mozart, Rockefeller, and the list goes on. Click here for more. Perhaps I might not classify Dr. Chung as a genius, but he is clearly a global leader in his industry. What’s important to note then is Dr. Chung’s 30 years of solid experience in the electric appliances and electronics industries.

While it might be hard to stop dreaming about the possibility of overnight success, or having that “Eureka moment,” it’s important to realize that triumph, victory, and accomplishment, way more often than not, is the product of what John Newport (Wall Street Journal online columnist), in his article concerning Gladwell’s theory, calls “hard, hard, hard work.”

The Chinese have a proverb that reads “只要有恒心, 铁杵磨成针,” which literally translates into ‘with only perseverance, an iron column can be worn into a needle.’ You better believe this coming from a people who built The Great Wall not through engineering genius, but rather simply lots and lots of man hours. Thanks Adidas for your modern adaptation: Impossible Is Nothing.