I read a stat years ago that talked about airplane pilots and the time they spent flying. It said that if you spent 1,500 hours doing the task of flying a plane and you became good at it, then if you spent 3,000 hours at the task of flying a plane, you became great at it. And if you spent over 5,000 hours flying a plane, you were considered an expert pilot.
As I thought about that stat today, I thought about a phrase: “Just keep at it.” Everything doesn’t go your way every day. Some days are better than others, some weeks are better than others, some months are better than others. But if you have a commitment to yourself and you have a mindset that you’re never going to quit, that you’re just going to keep at it, then at some point you’re going to become great at what you do. At some point, you’re going to become an expert. And then at the final point, you’re going to become a master.
I thought about that today as a parallel to my career. I don’t think I’m a master at anything. I really just think I’m a lucky son of a bitch who’s found a lot of good people to work around for a really long time.
But what I think it reminds me is this: you just have to keep at it. This isn’t a never give up, never quit, never die type of post. It’s about getting your mindset tuned to being consistent. Always trying to go beyond. Always trying to do better. Always trying to improve what you do and how you do it every day. And I think if you do that – whether it’s 1,500 hours in the cockpit of an airplane, 3,000 hours behind a desk in an office, or 5,000 hours out in front of clients – then at some point you’re going to master the art of all the things you get to accomplish in life.
I think being a master at something is going to give anyone a great sense of accomplishment.