Hard Work

I just finished the second day of chain saw activity and dragging branches to the front of my yard. My back hurts and my muscles are sore. My face is frozen from the cold. I can't help but think about the the book I finished early this morning before going in to work. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell raises several interesting ideas about success. The central theme seems to be about hard work. In almost every single case the most successful people are the people who were in the right place at the right time to benefit from opportunities that presented themselves. These people then put in a truly significant amount of hard work which allowed them to take advantage of other opportunities that presented themselves.

Gladwell writes about a student who was given a problem in a course on problem solving at Berkely. The student is faced with a math problem. This student instead of giving up after only a short time continues to struggle with the problem for twenty two minutes. It is at that point that they find the solution. As the instructor put it "success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for twenty two minutes to make sense of something that most people would give up on after 30 seconds." Teaching children and adults to continue to struggle with a problem past that initial giving up point makes a world of difference. I see so many people today who don't get past the point of giving up when they are faced with difficult problems.

There is a Chinese saying "No one who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich." Our work ethic is learned from our culture. I think about the number of times have I read about the writer who got up early every morning before working a regular job to write their first novel that was a success. About the athlete who trains and trains for their chance to win a medal. In theatre so many people think you just walk onstage and be a star. They don't want to put in the hours of rehearsal and hard work outside of rehearsal that is required to really become a good actor. There are thousands of actors with ability who never make it because of the time it takes to get there. Gladwell has shown that the number 10,000 hours is seems to be the threshold for success. Bill Gates put in 10,000 as a kid learning on a computer from his grade school and later by sneaking into the University of Washington at night when his parents thought he was asleep. Professional athletes who played in little league, pony league, and the minors before getting there break in the major leagues. George Winston played at the Carson Center in the first year or so after opening. Joe Searcy who is in charge of the stage said that after the performance- Winston practiced for hours into the middle of the night.

Hard work and long hours of meaningful work do indeed pay off. Work that you can actually see a difference in the return from the amount of time you put in. The pile of branches in front of my house is 6 feet tall. I cut and hauled each one of those branches to make that pile. There is a satisfaction that I feel when I look at the pile (along with a lot of sore muscles!)

A study of the school year in different countries shows that America on average has a school year of 180 days. The South Korean school year is 220 days. The Japanese school year is 243 days long. We feel like kids need a summer vacation. Yet studies show that summer vacation actually reduces test scores in students. One of the top achieving schools in the country has school from 7:30 am to 5 pm 5 days a week and 7:30 to noon on Saturdays. The kids also take home 1-2 hours of homework. These kids aren't crammed full of information. They are given more time to work on math, reading, and writing skills. The more time they have to work on these areas the more relaxed and proficient they become. They are given a leg up by having a chance to put in 10,000 hours to be a successful. Those kids will go far in life. The significant statistic is that the kids from lower income homes do as well as the kids from upper income homes when they are given more time during the day to learn. It isn't about how smart you are. It is about how much time you have to learn.

Working for a non profit company has certainly not made me rich financially. I struggle like everyone else these days. I wake up every morning by 6 am and try to get in a little journaling and reading. I devour everything I can find that talks about success and the meaning of life before I head out the door to work. The people who work for me know that I'm always wanting to do just one more thing before I call it a day. When I walk in the door after 10 pm at night from work I read books on marketing or fund raising. Search theatre blogs and magazines for ideas on how to make the theatre a better place to create, how to better connect to audiences, how to make myself better. How to make the plays that I work on more meaningful to my community.

I often feel a twinge of jealousy when I'm working at 10 pm on a Saturday night at the theatre and I see people I know walking by to eat at Max's and having a great time. One night I realized that hard work was my choice. It was up to me if I worked or not. I could find satisfaction in what I was doing or I could end up feeling bitter and angry about the work I was doing. From that time on I continually remind myself that hard work is my choice. No one is asking me to do it.

I realize too there is a balance between work and life. I have a friend who when he sees me always kids me about being the hardest working man in showbiz. Work without friendship or time to recharge the creative juices drains me. Taking time to encourage the talents and the special gifts of the people that I work with, which sometimes puts me behind schedule and makes a longer work day for me, makes me a richer person. Even in the toughest times I generally feel a deep satisfaction with the work I do. I want to teach my daughter to struggle beyond the point of easy defeat. I want her to find a passion that fills her as the theatre has filled me. I want her to find satisfaction in hard work that is meaningful. Even if it's just piling branches in front of the house after a tough 6 days without power. Hard work is good for the soul.