Greatness happens in the dark
Fridge Philosophy: Find your passion and stoke that internal fire
Note: Since 2018, I have placed these short quotes on our refrigerator at home to provide subtle hints for successful, thoughtful, and purposeful practices in hopes my teens would internalize them. Along the way, I found them helpful in my own life.
A few months ago, I viewed a Netflix documentary on the “Redeem Team,” the USA 2008 men’s basketball squad of all-stars built to reclaim the Gold Medal. Kobe Bryant was a key member of that squad. The bit I remember the most about that documentary was a story of how the team went out together for a late night. The night turned into an early morning, and as they returned to their hotel at around 4 a.m. Kobe Bryant, who didn’t go out, was heading to the gym for a workout.
There were flaws to Kobe Bryant, but that story is the image that comes up in my head when I read this quote from Joshua Medcalf. For all of Bryant’s exploits on the court, we don’t see the 4 a.m. workouts, the 10 a.m. shootaround, on his own before practice even begins. When we read a transformative novel, we don’t see the hours of contemplation and writing and rewriting to make it great. We don’t see the work that goes into managing a team effectively. We just see the ease in which people are great.
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell wrote that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in anything. Experts have shared that it’s a little more complicated than that, but the takeaway is that someone doesn’t become an overnight success. The Beatles didn’t run out a drum, a bass, and a couple of guitars and create classics. We didn’t see the work put into the lyrics and chord progressions that made the Beatles great. We just hear the album and love it.
For all of us, whether it’s remodeling a garage by yourself, or mastering a home farm, or cycling, one doesn’t create perfection, or even adequate, at the beginning. It takes learning the right methods, practicing those methods, perfecting those methods to fit your style and taking pride in that process.
Becoming good or great at something also takes enormous passion and dedication. Otherwise, why would you spend 10,000 hours in the dark to master anything. Falling in love with the process is what’s important. The journey is the goal. Fall in love with the 10,000 hours, not the end of that time. That’s when mastery becomes a part of you.
When I began writing my first novel Friends In Low Places, I read somewhere that if you tell anyone you’re writing a book, you’re highly likely not to finish that book. As a result, I didn’t tell anyone about that first book until the first draft was done. Heck, I didn’t even tell my wife I was writing a book until I was halfway done.
Working in the dark, I found that I was writing for myself. And when I was done, I felt a letdown. I realized that writing wasn’t about the finished product. It was about pulling creativity out of my mind and onto the page. I learned that I loved the work and the process. This love helps sustain me through the ups and downs.
Sure, this Substack sheds some light on the process, but the big idea is putting in work within us to cultivate our passion. This is the work that only we can do. We alone can make the most out of our passions. And even if we have identified our passion, what can we do to make the most of our opportunity?
What are your passions? What work have you done when no one is looking to cultivate and embrace that passion?