I don’t believe the 10,000 hours theory. You don’t need to log in for that many hours. It’s probably closer to 20,000 or more, and no, there aren’t any shortcuts.
Now that’s out of the way, I would still encourage you to say on your path to mastery because the pursuit will teach you many life skills that are hard to come by once you’ve accomplished your goal.
Yes, it’s a grind. And there’s a high likelihood that you’re not going to make it, especially if your focus is on getting to it faster. Even if your intentions are noble, you might fail, but that’s alright. Because on your journey towards mastery, you might discover something even more remarkable — your immense potential. For most people on the planet, that’s enough to make a living and leave a legacy.
Attaining mastery takes time and patience. So, it’s imperative to make the journey a bit easier by focusing on days, weeks, and months at a time. The measure of success ought to be simple. Something in lines or — am I better than who I was last month? Your response to that question is a starting point for your apprenticeship, where you learn from yourself.
And while you’re at it, don’t forget to experiment often, try new things, improvise to make things even better, connect old ideas with newer ones, and solve real-world problems. That’s how you put your knowledge and experience to the test.
If you shy away from that, you will essentially be living off of your assumptions that might even be baseless. So, challenge your assumptions, push yourself to take risks, and take pride in failing faster because the lessons will help you learn much faster than merely accumulating knowledge.
That’s where all the fun lies—in experimenting, deconstructing concepts, trying out new ideas, smashing your assumptions, and asserting new ideas based on your findings. Like a research scholar. Life-long learning. Because that’s the hallmark of a true master.